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When billionaire Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) swept through government in the first months of 2025, there was one agency that felt the full force of the group’s desire to move fast and break things: the US Agency for International Development (USAID).DOGE’s mandate was to cut contracts and government spending in a futile quest to reduce the federal deficit by $2 trillion. On January 28, 2025, Secretary of State Marco Rubio issued a waiver for “lifesaving humanitarian assistance,” which should have allowed money for critical projects to continue to flow. But according to Nicholas Enrich, who was…
When Apple announced on Monday that John Ternus would succeed Tim Cook as its chief executive in September, the immediate message was one of continuity: a hardware chief taking the reins at a hardware company. But quietly, under Cook, Apple has also become one of the most formidable advertising businesses in the world, generating an estimated $7 billion in related revenues in 2025, per the market research firm Omdia.The vast majority of Apple Ads’ revenue, around 95%, comes from the App Store, where the Cupertino company charges app developers to promote their products in its Search bar. The company also displays…
OpenAI has partnered with Infosys to integrate its artificial intelligence tools, including coding assistant Codex, into the Indian IT giant’s Topaz AI platform. Infosys said the integration will be used to help its clients modernize software development, automate workflows and deploy AI systems at scale, initially focusing software engineering, legacy modernization, and DevOps. India’s IT services firms face mounting pressure from a mix of slowing client spending and rapid advances in generative AI. Shares of Infosys have fallen over 22% this year amid a broader sell-off triggered by weak forecasts, investor concerns that AI tools could automate parts of traditional…
TrackMySubs gives you an overview of your outgoings and lets you organize your expenditure into categories too—entertainment, insurance, utilities, or whatever. It’s easy to see what’s going out and when, and if you want to you can have the app email you alerts whenever a payment is about to go out, which is handy.We also like the feature for keeping track of free trials you’ve signed up for, so you don’t suddenly get charged when you meant to cancel the service. It’s not the most comprehensive tool for this job, but it is straightforward and easy to use—and free for…
PayPal has its sights set on streaming as the next channel to grow its ad business.The payment platform’s advertising arm, PayPal Ads, is rolling out a new product aimed at helping marketers better target and measure streaming and open web ads using its transaction data.Curated Ads uses PayPal’s transaction graph of sales data to create audiences that advertisers can target through direct partnerships with Warner Bros. Discovery, Spectrum Reach, and Tubi. PayPal’s audience data is combined with the publishers’ audience to fine tune an advertisers’ targeting. PayPal then measures how many sales an ad drove by matching ad impressions with…
Snapchat is rolling out a new “Place Loyalty” feature that will show users when they’re among the most frequent visitors to a place on Snap Map over the past year, the company announced on Wednesday. If you’re in the top 25% of users who visit a certain place, you’ll see your ranking on the Snap Map and can choose to share it with others. You’ll receive a gold badge if you’re among the top 1% of visitors, silver if you’re top 10% and bronze if you’re top 25%. For brands and chains, Snapchat aggregates visits across all locations. Of course,…
And so Dinnerly saves on cost not by downgrading its proteins—it’s mostly the same stuff that arrives in a Marley Spoon box—but in large part by keeping flavorings simple, just a spice mix or a single main herb and maybe a citrus fruit, with both zest and juice coming into play. This doubles as good cooking. Dinnerly also saves itself some money by relying on you to have your own garlic and butter in stock and not bulking up meals with quite as many carbs.Last year when I tested Dinnerly, the effect was sometimes a little too simple. The meals…
When it comes to brand anniversaries, there are often two tropes: a slew of vintage photos, or a historical reenactment.Chrysler’s 100th anniversary campaign last year was made up of old videos of cars on the road. In 2023, Disney’s centennial marketing stitched together clips from its classics. For its “Yours for 200 Years” spot in 2024, Cadbury journeyed to 1824 with the help of actors in costume. Budweiser did the same in its 2017 Super Bowl ad, which recreated a teenaged Adolphus Busch’s arrival in America in 1857.But Godiva chocolates, which turns 100 this year, is taking a different approach,…
Former OpenAI executive Mira Murati’s startup, Thinking Machines Lab, has signed a new multi-billion-dollar agreement to expand its use of Google Cloud’s AI infrastructure, including systems powered by Nvidia’s latest GPUs, TechCrunch has exclusively learned. The deal is valued in the single-digit billions, according to a source familiar with the matter, and includes access to Google’s latest AI systems built atop Nvidia’s new GB300 chips, alongside infrastructure services to support model training and deployment. Google has been actively striking a number of cloud deals with AI developers as it aims to wrap together its cloud offerings with other services like…
I was delighted to see that the Acer Chromebook Plus 516 didn’t skimp on a crappy touchpad. That goes a long way toward improving the experiencing of actually using the laptop on a moment-by-moment basis. I wasn’t annoyed every time I had to click-and-drag or select a bit of text. This one’s biggest weakness is definitely the screen, which is true of just about every cheap Chromebook I’ve tested. The colors are ugly and desaturated, giving the whole thing a sickly green tint. It’s also not the sharpest in the world, as it’s stretching 1920 x 1200 pixels across a…
Zocdoc, founded in 2007 to let people schedule medical appointments online, has picked seasoned tech marketer Brian Irving as its first chief marketing officer (CMO), ADWEEK has learned. He joins the digital healthcare business from Lyft, where he’s been CMO since 2024. Before that, he was CMO at Meta’s Realty Labs, overseeing product marketing for Quest, Portal, and Ray-Ban. Irving was formerly CMO at Eventbrite and led global marketing for Google Play and Airbnb.Reporting to Zocdoc’s founder and CEO, Oliver Kharraz, Irving will lead Zocdoc’s marketing organization, blending brand and performance to build lasting relationships with patients and some 250,000-plus…
A long-running law that has allowed U.S. intelligence agencies to collect and analyze huge amounts of overseas communications without needing search warrants is set to expire April 30, and lawmakers are in a deadlock over whether to allow the Trump administration to extend it without any changes. Known as Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), the law allows the National Security Agency, the CIA, the FBI and other federal intelligence agencies to record overseas communications that flow through the United States without needing individualized search warrants. In sweeping up much of the world’s communications, the agencies also…
Charging is done via the same type of power adapter that the Sora 70 uses: a proprietary, blocklike connector that slides into a hatch on the rear of the device. A hinged port cover opens automatically when you slide the adapter into it and snaps shut when it’s removed. It’s not as convenient as a plugless charging dock, but it’s close, obviating the need for screw-on port covers or other waterproofing systems that have to be manually manipulated.ScreenshotBeatbot app via Chris NullIn the water, the unit offers a scant three operational modes—floor mode, standard mode (which handles floor, wall, and…
Seven months into CEO Cindy Rose’s tenure, WPP is rolling out the first big change outlined in the holding company’s two-year turnaround plan—starting with how its commerce expertise is organized.WPP is launching WPP Commerce, an integrated arm that brings together expertise from across its agencies. Brent Taylor, formerly CEO of WPP’s retail marketing agency Barrows, has been named global CEO of WPP Commerce.Taylor told ADWEEK that the goal of the restructuring is to concentrate commerce expertise in one unit that touches the four main parts of WPP’s business: media, creative, enterprise solutions, and production. The restructure is part of Rose’s…
Einride is adding 75 of its electric heavy duty trucks to Amazon’s Relay freight network as part of a deal that gives the Swedish startup a toehold in the e-commerce giant’s operations. Einride will also provide charging infrastructure across five locations in the United States, under the agreement announced Tuesday. Amazon isn’t buying or operating the electric trucks. Instead, Einride will own and manage (using its own Saga AI software) the trucks, which can be used by drivers in Amazon’s Relay freight network. Relay, launched in 2017, is an app that truck drivers can use to book hauling gigs with…
On Monday, a brand-new Reddit account popped up on the widely read forum r/AmItheAsshole, where users have their personal disputes arbitrated by strangers. This particular user asked if they had crossed a line by “refusing to babysit my stepmother’s kids because I have my own job and responsibilities.” The post itself was succinct, straightforward, and grammatically clean, explaining a situation in which the person’s stepmother and father often expected them to provide childcare on little notice, eventually leading to an argument.“Now there’s tension at home, and I’m starting to wonder if I handled it the wrong way,” the redditor concluded.…