Top Stories

Nvidia Revenue and Profits Soar on Strength of AI Chip Sales

Demand for artificial intelligence computer chips drove Nvidia income up 769 percent to nearly $12.3 billion for Q4, year-over-year, and 286 percent — to just over $29.7 billion — for the full-year fiscal 2024 frame that ended January 28. Revenue was $22.1 billion (+265 percent) and $60.9 billion (+126 percent) for the respective periods. Data center sales hit record highs of $18.4 billion for the quarter, up 409 percent from the previous year, $47.5 billion for the fiscal year, an increase of 217 percent. Gaming revenue was flat for Q4, at $2.9 billion, and up 115 percent for the year. Read more

Apple Sports App Provides Stats, Real-Time Scores and More

Apple Sports is a new free app for iPhones that delivers real-time scores, stats and more via a GUI designed by Apple. Available to download from the App Store in the U.S., Canada and UK, the app currently tracks Major League Soccer, Premier League soccer, the National Basketball Association, men’s and women’s NCAA basketball, and the National Hockey League, among others. More sports will be added over time, Apple said, mentioning Major League Baseball and the National Football League. The concept is designed to keep fans continuously connected to their favorite teams while driving Apple TV tune-in. Read more

Filmmakers Purchase the Historic Village Theatre in Westwood

A group of filmmakers led by Jason Reitman has purchased the 93-year-old Village Theatre in Westwood, an architectural gem that currently boasts one of the largest screens in Los Angeles. Originally opened as the Fox Westwood Village in 1931 and operated since 2010 by the Regency Theatres group, the structure’s unusual combination of Spanish Mission and Art Deco design earned it a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument designation in 1988. After it was put on the market last year, Reitman gathered more than three dozen backers, including Steven Spielberg, Judd Apatow, J.J. Abrams, Christopher Nolan, Alejandro González Iñárritu and Alexander Payne. Read more

Nielsen: TV Viewership Hits Four-Year High Led by YouTube

The NFL playoffs coupled with heavy streaming and the return of scripted broadcast programming sent January television viewership to a four-year high, according to Nielsen’s The Gauge, which charted a 1.4 percent viewership increase year-over-year — described as noteworthy in a month in which the NFL playoffs typically drive viewership higher. January 2024 included three of the top 10 highest-viewership TV days since The Gauge debuted in May 2021. YouTube continued its streaming dominance for the twelfth consecutive month, with 8.6 percent of January TV streaming viewership, according to The Gauge. Netflix was number two at 7.9 percent. Read more

ElevenLabs Promotes Its Latest Advances in AI Audio Effects

“What if you could describe a sound and generate it with AI?,” asks startup ElevenLabs, which set out to do just that, and says it has succeeded. The two-year-old company explains it “used text prompts like ‘waves crashing,’ ‘metal clanging,’ ‘birds chirping,’ and ‘racing car engine’ to generate audio.” Best known for using machine learning to clone voices, the AI firm founded by Google and Palantir alums has yet to make publicly available its new text-to-sound model but began teasing it by releasing online demos this week. Some see the technology as a natural complement to the latest wave of image generators. Read more

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