 |
|
|
|||||
Sony is ceding control of its Bravia TV brand to China's TCL as part of a new "strategic partnership," the companies announced in a joint press release. The Japanese electronics giant plans to sell a majority 51 percent stake in its home entertainment arm to TCL, while retaining a 49 percent share. The joint venture is set to start operations in April 2027, pending regulatory and other approvals. The new combined business will sell TVs carrying Sony and Bravia branding while using TCL's display technology. The partnership will also leverage Sony's picture and audio expertise, supply chain management and other areas of expertise. For its part, TCL will contribute its vertical supply chain strength, global market presence and end-to-end cost efficiency. "By combining both companies' expertise, we aim to create new customer value in the home entertainment field," Sony CEO Kimio Maki said in a statement. "We expect to elevate our brand value, achieve greater scale and optimize the supply chain in order to deliver superior products and services to our customers," added TCL Electronics chairperson DU Juan. The news will come as a shock to some, particularly in Japan, as Sony has been strongly associated with high-quality TVs since the Trinitron days. However, it's currently fighting in a low-margin TV business full of formidable competitors including Samsung, LG, Hisense and TCL. The company has already sold off or closed other electronics operations, including PCs and tablets, and is barely hanging in with its smartphone business. Sony effectively stopped making its own LCD and OLED panels some time ago, while TCL has increased its own production having recently purchased LCD Panel patents from Samsung and taken over its plant in China. Other Japanese companies like Toshiba and Hitachi have already exited the TV business, while some including Panasonic have a highly reduced presence. The Bravia brand survived mainly thanks to customers willing to pay extra for high-end picture and sound quality, along with Sony's association to filmmaking and high-end camera gear. As I detailed in a recent explainer, Sony was a pioneer in many key flat panel breakthroughs, having developed LED backlighting, quantum dot technology and the first OLED TVs. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/home/home-theater/sony-is-handing-control-of-its-bravia-tv-business-to-chinas-tcl-120957252.html?src=rss
Category:
Marketing and Advertising
A "youth retirement home" in Malaysia's Gopeng district sparked widespread coverage over the past few weeks, promising burned-out young people a month-long escape for roughly USD 490.The premise was simple: no obligations, just meals, cute dogs, gazing at the blue sky, and permission to opt out of ambition. News outlets and social media accounts around the world picked up the story (it was shared with this writer numerous times), generally in the context of Gen Z and mental health. The only problem? It seems the concept was little more than a notion of expanding the family's existing elder care business for a younger crowd. Earlier social media activity focused on stroke rehabilitation services and TCM treatments, and questions about the youth retirement home's specifics remained unanswered.The concept went viral based on a TikTok with copy that did some sophisticated emotional work: "be a happily useless person for a month," "a place that allows you to lie flat," "disappear from your current life." The clinic wasn't necessarily selling accommodation it was selling permission. Permission to be unproductive without guilt, to be cared for, to suspend identity and ambition temporarily. When interest surged, the venture's Instagram disappeared. A cryptic Facebook post announced the center was no longer taking reservations, but that "True relaxation isn't found in Gopeng. As long as you find peace of mind, anywhere can be a youth retirement home."TREND BITEThe story's viral trajectory underscores how generative AI has made reproducing emotionally resonant stories entirely frictionless, regardless of their truth. Many outlets now function as content relays rather than investigators; they see a viral post, run it through an LLM to "rewrite as news article," and publish without verification. When multiple sources repeat the same AI-processed story, readers infer legitimacy through synthetic corroboration."Malaysia's first youth retirement home" was perfectly shaped for this: a clear novelty hook, moral resonance around burnout and lying flat, images of simple accommodation in a bucolic setting with ducks waddling by. What spread wasn't a business but a psychological product a narrative about a generation that's anxious and exhausted.
Category:
Marketing and Advertising
Pioneering mathematician Dr. Gladys West has passed away at the age of 95. Her name may not be familiar to you, but her contributions certainly are; West's work laid the foundation for the global positioning system. As you likely know from experience, GPS is now an essential component of industries ranging from aviation and emergency response, as well as ensuring that you get to that dinner date or job interview on time. This morning the world lost a pioneer in Dr Gladys West, she passed peacefully alongside her family and friends and is now in heaven with her loved ones. We thank you in advance for all of the love and prayers you have and will continue to provide pic.twitter.com/FJ3aGfEiHP Dr. Gladys B. West (@DrGladysBWest) January 18, 2026 West was born in 1930 in Virginia. Despite the oppression of Jim Crow laws in the south, she was able to pursue higher education at Virginia State College (now named Virginia State University), obtaining bachelor's and master's degrees in mathematics. In 1956, West was hired at what is now called the Naval Surface Warfare Center in Dahlgren, VA. Her focus during the 1970s and 1980s was creating accurate models of the Earth's shape based on satellite data, a complex task requiring the type of mathematical gymnastics that would make the average person dizzy. Those models later became the backbone for GPS. West worked at the Dahlgren center for 42 years, retiring in 1998. As has been the case with so many of the women, particularly those of color, behind tech and science breakthroughs in the US, West's work went largely uncelebrated for decades. After submitting a short biography of her accomplishments to a sorority function in 2018, members of Alpha Kappa Alpha helped West to receive belated recognition for her contributions. She was inducted into the US Air Force Space and Missiles Pioneers Hall of Fame and honored as Female Alumna of the Year by the Historically Black Colleges and Universities Awards in that same year. The Guardian published an interview with West in 2020 that shared some insights on her journey, including a note that when West was out and about, she favored paper maps over the technology she indirectly helped create.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/science/dr-gladys-west-whose-mathematical-models-inspired-gps-dies-at-95-234605023.html?src=rss
Category:
Marketing and Advertising
All news |
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||