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Netflix shareholders withhold support for executive pay package

In a non-binding vote on Thursday, Netflix Inc. (NFLX.O) shareholders decided not to endorse the company’s CEO pay package in response to a plea by Hollywood writers on strike to reject the proposed 2023 remuneration.

The Writers Guild of America West argued that such a vote would be “inappropriate” during the strike, which is now in its fifth week, and urged investors to vote against the remuneration package proposed to Netflix’s top executives.

Meredith Stiehm, president of the Writers Guild West, wrote: “Investors have long objected to Netflix’s executive pay, but the compensation structure is more egregious in light of the strike.”

Similar correspondence was submitted by the union to Comcast Corp., the parent company of NBCUniversal, which will conduct its annual shareholder meeting on June 7.

Also Read: Crypto exchange Gemini to soon operate in the UAE

According to Stiehm, if Netflix had the money to pay its top executives more than $166 million in salary last year, it could afford to pay authors who are looking for greater pay $68 million annually.

In a non-binding “say on pay” vote, Netflix shareholders declined to accept the CEO remuneration structure for 2023. The voting results, according to the firm, will be disclosed in a regulatory filing. Just 27% of the shareholder votes cast last year supported the company’s executive compensation plan.

Following the vote from the previous year, Netflix claimed to have made adjustments, such as implementing a wage cap for its co-chief executives and a performance-based bonus program. Executive Chairman Reed Hastings will make $500,000 in salary and $2.5 million in stock this year. CEOs Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters will share a $3 million yearly pay.

Sarandos is entitled to a bonus of up to $17 million and an extra $20 million in stock. Peters will receive up to $14.3 million in bonus money in addition to $17.3 million in shares. Executive salary for Hollywood executives is a point of discussion in negotiations, according to the union.

The top 10 pay packages given to CEOs of publicly traded firms in Equilar’s 2022 research included Endeavour CEO Ari Emanuel and Warner Bros Discovery CEO David Zaslav.

In an effort to get the media corporations back to the negotiating table, the union has been exerting pressure on them. The standoff over better pay, residuals, and working conditions caused contract negotiations to cease on May 1st. An additional difficulty is the application of artificial intelligence.

The Directors Guild’s current contract expires on June 30, and negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which is representing streamers like Netflix and the studios in those talks, are presently underway. On June 7, negotiations with the actors’ union SAG-AFTRA will start.

Sandhya Gupta

I am a law graduate from NLU Lucknow. I have a flair for creative writing and hence in my free time work as a freelance content writer.

Crypto exchange Gemini to soon operate in the UAE

The organization has visited stakeholders across the area to find out more about regional regulatory needs, as Gemini would begin the procedure of purchasing a crypto license as soon as possible to begin operations in the (UAE) United Arab Emirates, the digital currency trading platform declared late on Wednesday.

Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, founders of Gemini & identical twins, are pushing for the adoption of cryptocurrency worldwide all through 20 nations.

Also Read: Google quietly ends support for decade-old Chromecast

Its promotion in the United Arab Emirates coincides with the nation’s attempts to create virtual asset regulations to draw in emerging business models as economic rivalry in the Gulf area intensifies.

“By applying for a license, we will be taking another step towards making Gemini a truly global company,” the exchange said in a blog post.
Source: nasdaq.com

When they intend to begin conducting business in the United Arab Emirates is not stated.

Most of the digital currency exchanges are healing from the collapse of Sam Bankman-Fried’s cryptocurrency exchange FTX and other downturns in the field and businesses are aiming to increase their international reach despite increasing conflicts between the US cryptocurrency industry and the regulators.

Gemini also introduced a derivatives service for trading perpetual futures contracts beyond the United States’ legal system previously in May.

The exchange debuted in 2014 and was accessible to users in the US in October 2015. The company began expanding internationally by the middle of 2016, primarily in Canada & the UK.

To serve the rapidly growing number of Asian cryptocurrency aficionados, Gemini quickly branched out in Hong Kong, South Korea, Singapore, and Japan. More than 60 different nations around the world use the exchange.

All current cryptocurrency exchanges now use the daily Bitcoin auctioning system that was first launched by Gemini in September 2016. In July 2017, daily ether bids were started.

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Safety for users is Gemini’s main priority. While ready-to-use money is kept in an authorized hot wallet, the majority of user cryptocurrency is kept in offline cold storage.

Similar to various other digital money exchanges, Gemini lets you purchase and trade a variety of digital assets using fiat money or alternative digital currencies such as using bitcoin for purchasing bitcoin.

Gemini initially gave the impression that it was intended more for traders in institutions than for individual investors. Undoubtedly, it was also largely a Bitcoin exchange. That’s altered. On Gemini, you can buy and sell over 120 different cryptocurrencies, and all kinds of investors, as well as traders, are permitted.

Suhani Jain

I am a student pursuing my bachelor’s in information technology. I have a interest in writing so, I am working a freelance content writer because I enjoy writing. I also write poetries. I believe in the quote by anne frank “paper has more patience than person

From Teenage Whizkid to Billionaire CEO: Story of Austin Russell

Leave a Comment / Story, Tech Story / By Suhani Jain

The Wall Street Journal reported that Austin Russell, the 28-year-old founder as well as CEO of Luminar, which creates vision-based lidar along with machine perception techniques mainly for autonomous vehicles, is purchasing an 82 per cent stake in an agreement in Forbes Global Media Holdings that places the worth of the business at close to 800 million dollars.

The Wall Street Journal claims that Russell’s share in the business comprises the residual stake held by the firm’s namesake family, who in 2014 sold 95 per cent of the business to the Hong Kong-headquartered investment group Incorporated Whale Media.

Since terminating its acquisition with a SPAC (special-purpose acquisition company) in June of the previous year, when market conditions deteriorated and financiers lost interest in SPACs, Forbes has virtually been on sale.

Also Read: From In-N-Out Heiress to Business Mogul: Lynsi Snyder Story

Luminar Technologies, an automobile sensor business that joined forces with a Special Purpose Acquisition Company and became publicly available in December 2020, was established and is run by a university dropout Austin Russell.

Austin Russell, a physics genius who was pursuing physics at Stanford University when he was 17 years old, developed the idea for Luminar.

Austin decided to leave college in 2012 after receiving the famous hundred thousand dollar Thiel Fellowship, a program run by billionaire Peter Thiel to aid budding entrepreneurs.

Austin’s business, Luminar, competes directly with firms that produce laser lidars, such as Velodyne and Aeva. These businesses focus on creating sophisticated sensors that let autonomous vehicles sense and comprehend what’s going on around them.

Austin Russell created history by achieving the position of the youngest self-made billionaire in the entire world over two years ago. In December 2020, when he was only 25, his business became publicly available in an initial public offering (IPO), making him extremely wealthy and well-known.

Luminar Technologies’ current market worth is nearly 2.1 billion dollars. Luminar has worked for the past ten years creating an advanced both software and hardware platform that serves over fifty industry partners, comprising a vast majority of worldwide automobile original equipment manufacturers (OEMs).

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Throughout the years that followed, Russell has reaped the rewards of his labor. In 2021, he paid the sum of 83 million dollars for a Los Angeles land that was later portrayed in the popular program “Succession.”

For a 13,000-square-foot property in Winter Park, Florida, he allegedly spent an additional 10.6 million dollars close to the Luminar headquarters in Orlando. However, after concentrating on Luminar for his whole career, he might be seeking to change the way he spends his time.

Suhani Jain

WhatsApp to bring screen sharing to Android phones

Leave a Comment / News, Tech News / By Suhani Jain

Throughout the past few years, WhatsApp has progressively added a large number of upgraded as well as new functions.

Being able to enter into the same WhatsApp user account on a maximum of four devices and also, the capability to share WhatsApp data within iOS and Android mobile phones are just a few of the most significant improvements it has lately added.

The business is currently working on new functionality which is screen sharing, a significant intriguing feature.

Based on an article from WABetaInfo, WhatsApp is developing an update that will let people make video calls while simultaneously sharing the screen of their device with other people.

Also Read: Chip giant Nvidia nears trillion-dollar status on AI bet

Those who are using the most recent beta version of WhatsApp which is 2.23.11.19 on their Android phone are able to utilize this function through the Google Play Store.

Through a video call, the functionality makes it simpler for people to demonstrate anything on their smartphones to other people. In addition, it can be utilized to solicit assistance from others while using the phone.

During a video call, a new symbol is displayed at the bottom of your screen. When you tap that symbol, a brand-new display menu notifies you that everyone on the video conversation will be able to see everything on the display of your smartphone and asks for your approval to reveal it.

You have full command over screen sharing as well can halt it at any time throughout the call by using the Stop Sharing option.

This functionality and the Live Sharing functionality of Google Meet, which was introduced a few years back, are extremely similar.

On gadgets using iOS, iPadOS, as well as macOS, Apple offers a comparable capability called SharePlay. Plenty of users, mainly the elderly or kids who may require assistance operating their phones, will find WhatsApp’s newest screen-sharing capability to be very beneficial.

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People may soon be able to add a username to their WhatsApp account. WABetaInfo discovered the updated feature in WhatsApp for the Android beta version which is v2.23.11.15.

A WhatsApp username would function similarly to how it does on other social media sites such as Instagram, Facebook, as well as Snapchat. It will therefore be a distinct name associated with a single profile that you can use for a variety of purposes within the app.

Suhani Jain

Is Apple AR/VR headset the future?

Leave a Comment / Story, Tech Story / By Sandhya Gupta

When it comes to new products, Apple prefers to wait and see rather than enter the market first, but the wait will soon be over. Apple’s headset is anticipated to be unveiled during WWDC 2023, the company’s developer conference, in 2023.

Apart from a few statements made by a few of Apple’s senior executives and a consistent stream of rumours, there is not much concrete proof that the headset actually exists despite years of rumours.

Apple has most certainly not confirmed the headset’s existence. Analysts and enthusiasts, on the other hand, have been closely monitoring Apple’s operations and have been able to unearth hints regarding the headset’s specifications.

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The AR/VR gear, which is rumoured to cost around $3,000, will reportedly function with current iPadOS apps like the Camera, FaceTime, Books, Home, Messages, Photos, Safari, and more, according to a recent Bloomberg article.

It is anticipated that the Apple AR/VR headset will prominently emphasise gaming, maybe as a new way to access Apple Arcade, and will include a new Fitness+ experience, similar to the Meta Quest Pro, HTC Vive Cosmos, and Sony Playstation VR.

According to reports, Apple is preparing to introduce fresh collaboration tools via the Apple Freeform app, which will enable users to talk about and collaborate on material together, as well as the ability to utilise the AR/VR headset as a separate display for a connected Mac in the workplace. Users will be able to have lifelike avatars in virtual meeting rooms with immersive videoconferencing in mixed reality.

The article also states that the headgear should be able to operate a wide range of games, reading apps, and health services, as well as hundreds of thousands of other third-party iPad apps, with little modification.

As the possibility of a metaverse is discussed, more businesses are creating AR/VR headsets, and interest in the field is rising. As is customary for Apple, the tech behemoth waited for other businesses to test the waters and for public interest to grow before entering the fray.

Also Read: Is Diablo 4 on Xbox Game Pass?

The Oculus Rift, the first contemporary AR/VR headset, went on sale in March 2016. Since then, Meta—which purchased Oculus in 2014—has continued to create and release VR/AR headsets, culminating in its most recent model, the Meta Quest Pro, which will be available in 2022.

When Apple ultimately made the decision to enter a market in the past, it revolutionised and dominated it, igniting interest and building expectations for the product. When the headset launches, it is reasonable to believe that Apple will have the same impact on the AR/VR space.

Sandhya Gupta

I am a law graduate from NLU Lucknow. I have a flair for creative writing and hence in my free time work as a freelance content writer.

Google quietly ends support for decade-old Chromecast

Leave a Comment / News, Tech News / By Sandhya Gupta

Almost ten years after the $35 streaming stick’s launch in 2013, Google has discontinued support for the original Chromecast.

A support page that lists the firmware versions for each Chromecast model indicates that the end of support occurred at the end of April.

Google support pages noted, “Support for Chromecast (1st gen) has ended. These devices no longer receive software or security updates, and Google does not provide technical support for them. Users may notice a degradation in performance.”

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A little, a surprisingly well-liked gadget the size of a key, the first Chromecast allowed you to stream video from your phone, tablet, or laptop to your TV via an HDMI connector. In an era when many consumers had not yet made the switch to smart TVs, it was an affordable workaround for putting video streaming apps onto your TV, costing only $35.

Although Google has officially stopped supporting the first-generation Chromecast, the gadget hasn’t exactly received regular updates. According to reports, the device’s most recent update, which was also the first to be provided for it in more than three years, was made available last November.

Over the years, Google created a number of other Chromecasts, including a 4K variant in 2016. The 2020 Chromecast with Google TV, however, brought its own controller into the mix. The streaming stick marked a significant change in the Chromecast series because it featured its own UI instead of only receiving video from your smartphone.

The original Chromecast was released in 2013 and offered a simple and affordable way to stream content to a TV. It plugged into the HDMI port of a television and connected to the user’s Wi-Fi network. By using compatible apps on their mobile device or computer, users could cast or mirror content onto the TV screen.

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Over the years, Google has released several iterations of Chromecast, including the Chromecast Ultra, Chromecast with Google TV, and Chromecast (3rd generation). These newer models offered additional features like 4K Ultra HD resolution, a dedicated remote control, and a built-in user interface for navigating content.

Chromecast devices work with a wide range of streaming services and apps, including Netflix, YouTube, Spotify, and many others. They have gained popularity due to their simplicity, affordability, and compatibility with various devices and platforms.

Chromecast was once a popular choice for streaming media content due to its affordability, simplicity, and cross-platform compatibility.

Sandhya Gupta

I am a law graduate from NLU Lucknow. I have a flair for creative writing and hence in my free time work as a freelance content writer.

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