strategic move

AppWizard
July 15, 2025
Google has announced plans to merge its operating systems, ChromeOS and Android, into a single platform. This decision was confirmed by Sameer Samat, President of Google’s Android Ecosystem, during an interview. The merger is seen as a response to Apple's iPad and its iPadOS, as Google has struggled in the high-end tablet market. In 2024, Google began integrating Android technology into ChromeOS, introducing desktop features to Android. The company is reportedly starting a multi-year initiative to integrate ChromeOS functions into Android, with a new Pixel Laptop expected to launch alongside the merged operating system. There are concerns about transitioning existing Chromebooks, which use x86 processors, to an Android-focused system that favors Arm architecture.
Winsage
July 14, 2025
Bob Pony revealed on Twitter/X that Windows 7 can run natively on the Steam Deck. The Windows 7 interface appears in portrait mode due to compatibility issues with the Steam Deck's Van Gogh APU, which requires drivers for Windows 10 and 11. Pony has hinted at testing Temple OS next, and previously showcased Windows 8.1 on the Steam Deck. Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 are considered retro, with Windows 10 expected to join them soon. Valve may launch SteamOS for desktops in 2025, coinciding with the retirement of Windows 10.
AppWizard
July 10, 2025
Krafton has delayed the release of Subnautica 2 to 2026, which reportedly relieves the company of a million bonus payout to the development team, although Krafton denies that financial reasons influenced the postponement. Steve Papoutsis has been appointed to lead the development team at Unknown Worlds, focusing on refining the game based on community feedback from playtests. Krafton emphasizes the importance of this feedback in shaping the game's development and aims to deliver a polished final product that meets fan expectations.
AppWizard
July 10, 2025
Amazon MGM has appointed Charlie Coleman as its head of international marketing, based in London, reporting to Sue Kroll. Coleman previously worked at Disney and Warner Bros., where he became EVP of international marketing and led campaigns for films like “The Batman” and “Dune.” His appointment is part of a trend of former Warner executives joining Amazon MGM, which is preparing for a full theatrical release schedule starting in 2026, including films like “Project Hail Mary” and “Masters of the Universe.”
AppWizard
July 9, 2025
Square Enix has invested in the Danish indie developer BetaDwarf to enhance its production capabilities. The financial details of the investment are undisclosed. BetaDwarf is currently developing a top-down RPG called Vaultdwellers. Square Enix's General Manager of Business Development, Hideaki Uehara, expressed enthusiasm for the investment, highlighting the quality of BetaDwarf's work and the potential for collaboration. BetaDwarf's CEO, Steffen Kabbelgaard, noted the value of Square Enix's support, emphasizing the progress made on Vaultbreakers and the positive impact of the partnership on their production efforts.
Tech Optimizer
July 7, 2025
Atlassian has migrated its database infrastructure to Amazon Web Services’ Aurora, transferring four million Postgres databases that support Jira implementations. The migration involved approximately 3,000 PostgreSQL servers across 13 AWS regions. The move aims to reduce costs, enhance reliability, and improve performance, upgrading the service level agreement from 99.95% uptime on RDS to 99.99% on Aurora. Samsung has postponed the completion of its chip manufacturing plant in Texas due to difficulties in securing customers. Infosys has advised its employees against exceeding nine hours and 15 minutes of work daily to combat burnout. Qantas has acknowledged a cyberattack affecting six million customers and will provide details on the incident's impact. Xerox has acquired Lexmark from Ninestar Corporation for .5 billion. India and Australia are collaborating on a research initiative to improve tracking of submarines and underwater vehicles. JPMorgan Chase has requested to terminate its custom top-level domains, ".CHASE" and ".JPMORGAN." China’s National Space Administration has released images of Earth and the Moon taken by its Tianwen 2 probe.
AppWizard
July 3, 2025
Disney's Lilo & Stitch has surpassed Warner Bros and Legendary's A Minecraft Movie, becoming the highest-grossing MPA film of the year with 7.6 million globally, including 3.9 million from international markets. A Minecraft Movie has earned 4.9 million worldwide, with 0.9 million from abroad. Both films are the only ones to exceed 0 million in 2025. Lilo & Stitch is in its sixth week of release and is projected to be the first Hollywood film to gross over a billion dollars this year. However, A Minecraft Movie remains the highest-grossing film in the U.S. with 3.9 million, compared to Lilo & Stitch's 3.7 million. Lilo & Stitch has performed well in various international markets, with top earnings in Mexico (.1 million), the UK (.1 million), and France (.8 million). It is the highest-grossing film of 2025 in multiple countries, including France, Italy, Spain, Brazil, and Mexico. The film opened domestically with 2.6 million over the four-day Memorial Day weekend, marking the largest opening of its kind in history. The original Lilo & Stitch film has generated over 579 million hours of viewing on Disney+, with more than 306 million hours attributed to the original film. Retail sales for Stitch merchandise have increased significantly, from [openai_gpt model="gpt-4o-mini" prompt="Summarize the content and extract only the fact described in the text bellow. The summary shall NOT include a title, introduction and conclusion. Text: EXCLUSIVE: Disney’s Lilo & Stitch continues to dominate the box office, recently surpassing Warner Bros and Legendary’s pixelated adventure, A Minecraft Movie. With a remarkable 7.6 million in global earnings and 3.9 million from international markets, Lilo & Stitch has secured its position as the highest-grossing MPA film of the year to date. In comparison, A Minecraft Movie has amassed 4.9 million worldwide, with 0.9 million coming from abroad. As of now, these two films are the only ones to have crossed the 0 million threshold in 2025. Currently in its sixth week of release, Lilo & Stitch is on track to become the first Hollywood title to gross over a billion dollars this year. However, it’s worth noting that A Minecraft Movie still holds the title for the highest-grossing film in the United States, with 3.9 million, compared to Lilo & Stitch’s 3.7 million. Both films have successfully crossed the 0 million mark domestically. Industry Insights As the box office rebounds in the post-COVID landscape, studios are gaining renewed confidence in the theatrical experience. A significant trend emerging from this resurgence is the lucrative potential of nostalgic female-centric properties. Films like Lilo & Stitch (62% female audience), How to Train Your Dragon (50% female audience), and the anticipated Moana 2 (71% female audience) highlight this trend. With this in mind, all eyes are now on Disney’s upcoming sequel, Freakier Friday, featuring Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan, set to release on August 8. To date, Lilo & Stitch has performed exceptionally well in various international markets, with top territories including Mexico (.1 million), the UK (.1 million), and France (.8 million). It has already become the highest-grossing film of 2025 in several countries, including France, Italy, Spain, Brazil, and Mexico, as well as across all Latin American markets. In addition to its impressive box office performance, Lilo & Stitch has made its mark in the all-time industry rankings in Brazil and Mexico, along with the broader Latin American region. Notably, it has also become the highest-grossing Disney live-action title of all time in Mexico and several smaller markets. The film opened domestically with a staggering 2.6 million over the four-day Memorial Day weekend, marking the largest opening of its kind in history, surpassing Top Gun: Maverick’s previous record of 0.5 million. Among all four-day holiday weekend openings, Lilo & Stitch ranks second only to Black Panther, which achieved 2 million during the President’s Day weekend in 2018. Disney’s decision to create a live-action adaptation of the beloved 2002 animated classic was a strategic move, especially considering the original film’s 5.7 million domestic and 4.7 million worldwide gross. The Lilo & Stitch franchise has since generated over 579 million hours of viewing on Disney+ globally, with the original film accounting for more than 306 million hours. Retail sales for Stitch merchandise have skyrocketed from [cyberseo_openai model="gpt-4o-mini" prompt="Rewrite a news story for a business publication, in a calm style with creativity and flair based on text below, making sure it reads like human-written text in a natural way. The article shall NOT include a title, introduction and conclusion. The article shall NOT start from a title. Response language English. Generate HTML-formatted content using tag for a sub-heading. You can use only , , , , and HTML tags if necessary. Text: EXCLUSIVE: Disney’s A Lilo & Stitch continues to upend the box office with the duo taking out Warner Bros and Legendary’s pigs and chickens pixelated pic A Minecraft Movie to become the highest grossing MPA movie year-to-date with $957.6 million worldwide and $553.9 million international. A Minecraft Movie stands at $954.9M million worldwide and $530.9M abroad. They are the only two movies to surpass $900M currently in 2025. Lilo & Stich is currently in its sixth week at the box office. Note the Dean Fleischer Camp directed movie is still on track to become the first billion-dollar grossing Hollywood title of 2025. Also, in all fairness to A Minecraft Movie, they’re still the highest grossing movie stateside with $423.9M to Lilo & Stitch‘s $403.7M. They’re also the only two pics to cross the four century mark stateside. Watch on Deadline As the box office in post Covid and strike times provides more confidence to studios about the potency of theatrical, here’s another big takeaway for the industry, and that’s that there’s big business in beloved nostalgic female properties, i.e. Lilo & Stitch (62% women), How to Train Your Dragon (50% women) and Moana 2 (71%). No pressure, Disney, but all eyes are on the sequel Freakier Friday with Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan on Aug. 8. To date, Lilo & Stitch top territories are as follows: Mexico ($66.1M), UK ($47.1M), France ($39.8M), Brazil ($36M), Germany ($30.2M), Spain ($25.9M), China ($25.2M), Italy ($24.5M), Argentina ($19M), Australia ($18.8M), Japan ($16.3M) and Central America ($15.8M). Lilo & Stitch is already the highest grossing film of 2025 in France, Italy, Spain, Brazil and Mexico as well as all the Latin American countries and many other markets. Lilo & Stitch is in the top all-time industry lists of such markets as Brazil and Mexico as well as the Latin America region as a whole. It’s also the highest grossing Disney live-action title of all-time in Mexico as well as several smaller markets. Lilo & Stitch opened domestically to $182.6M 4-day, repping the biggest 4-day Memorial Day weekend opening of all time, ahead of Top Gun Maverick’s $160.5M. Across all 4-day holiday weekend openings, Lilo & Stitch had the second biggest ever, only behind Black Panther‘s $242M (President’s Day Wknd 2018). As we’ve always noted, it was logical that Disney would make a live-action take of the 2002 animated movie (which only made $145.7M domestic, $274.7M worldwide). The Lilo & Stitch franchise in series and the original pic has driven over 579 million hours on Disney+ around the globe. The original Lilo & Stitch has accounted for more than 306M hours of viewing on the OTT service. Disney+ global. Retail sales for Stitch have grown from $0.2B in 2019 to $2.6B in 2024, representing a ten-fold increase. Stitch is one of 11 evergreen franchises for the Walt Disney Company that has surpassed $1B in retail sales last year (Stitch being in the top 10). A live-action sequel was announced last week." temperature="0.3" top_p="1.0" best_of="1" presence_penalty="0.1" ].2 billion in 2019 to an impressive .6 billion in 2024, reflecting a tenfold increase. Stitch remains one of Disney's 11 evergreen franchises that surpassed billion in retail sales last year, placing it firmly within the top 10. A live-action sequel was announced just last week, further solidifying the franchise's enduring appeal." max_tokens="3500" temperature="0.3" top_p="1.0" best_of="1" presence_penalty="0.1" frequency_penalty="frequency_penalty"].2 billion in 2019 to .6 billion in 2024.
Tech Optimizer
July 2, 2025
CompTIA's State of the Tech Workforce 2025 report shows a 1.2% growth in the tech workforce in 2024, totaling 5.9 million professionals, with projections of reaching 6.1 million by 2025. California, Texas, New York, Florida, and Virginia are the leading states in tech employment, while Texas, North Carolina, Florida, New Jersey, and Tennessee have seen the most growth. Major cities with advancements in tech job opportunities include New York City, Orlando, Sacramento, Salt Lake City, and Baltimore. Meta has joined the Kotlin Foundation to promote Kotlin within its development ecosystem and will contribute to a grants program for open-source library authors. Percona has launched an open-source Transparent Data Encryption extension for PostgreSQL, allowing organizations to secure data at rest without licensing fees or vendor lock-in. The extension supports deployment without application changes, multi-tenant environments, control over encryption strategies, and centralized key management.
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