TeeJay Tech Bro

  Mario and Luigi trace their origins to a 19th-century craftsman shop that produced card decks popular in Yakuza-run gambling dens. Before it became a video game behemoth, Nintendo was a top supplier of traditional hand-painted Japanese playing cards, called Hanafuda, for six decades after its 1889 founding in Kyoto. Gaming the system It wasn’t until after its 1962 IPO that Nintendo began its foray into gaming devices (after a brief stint in instant rice and the taxi business). It moved from electronic toys that included a light beam gun and a device for young people to test how much they love each other, to coin-operated machines. But what made it a global household name was the 1981 release of the arcade classic Donkey Kong , which introduced the world to Mario. Throughout the 1980s, the company prioritized iconic IP, quirky design, and competitive pricing to make its home gaming gadgets into playdate staples: It sold millions of handheld devices and consoles—like Nintendo En...

  The massive $110 billion merger between Paramount and Warner Bros. is back on track after California—and 11 other states that sued to block it on antitrust grounds—agreed yesterday to settle their lawsuit . So, the betrothed companies can continue planning their honeymoon. The states’ legal challenge was the biggest obstacle to the merger after regulators in Europe and the UK approved it this summer. Strings attached To complete its merger, Paramount had to agree to conditions aimed at addressing potential job losses and concerns about political meddling: A board composed entirely of journalists will guarantee the editorial independence of CNN and CBS News. Paramount committed to paying a fine if it fails to widely distribute at least 30 movies in theaters and at least four indie films each year for the first five years. It also agreed to spend $300 million more than it did last year on US-based film production annually. Paramount will remain in California and won’t sell its ico...

  Tomorrow marks the release date of Swan Song: Diana, My Sister , about the late Princess of Wales. The author, Charles Spencer, the 9th Earl Spencer, is Lady Diana’s younger brother. He memorably delivered the eulogy at her funeral in September 1997. He chose the title because he considers this his final public account of his sister’s life and untimely death. Spencer described the new book as “a brother’s simple tribute to an extraordinary sister.” A Spare moment? Swan Song is being published by Penguin Random House (PRH), which released Prince Harry’s memoir, Spare , in 2023: That tome broke the record for the fastest-selling nonfiction book ever, with 1.4 million copies sold on its first day. It went on to sell over 6 million copies. PRH’s revenue jumped 13.2% the year Spare came out compared to the prior year, helped largely by that memoir. Zoom out: There’s been plenty of royal drama leading up to the new release, and advance copies were stolen out of a truck in the Net...

  College football teams are proving you can get a lot more than chump change out of four quarters. Across the sport’s top division, program valuations are up a whopping 46% since last year, with some teams worth more than $1.5 billion, the Wall Street Journal reported. So, why the big gains? Indiana University Columbus professor Ryan Brewer, who conducted the analysis, gave a lot of credit to NCAA rule changes that allowed players to transfer in and out of schools and permitted athletic departments to pay student-athletes up to $20.5 million per year, giving smaller programs some bait to lure talent away from bigger ponds. Brewer contends those changes foment parity, making games more fun to watch, attend, and bet on. Hoosier example: Indiana University’s football team saw its valuation jump nearly 68% from last year, thanks to a stellar couple of seasons culminating in an appearance in tonight’s national championship. Winning strategy? Billionaire Mark Cuban, an Indiana alumnu...

  John Ternus took the stage in Cupertino yesterday for the first time as Apple CEO and delivered what everyone was expecting—nearly 10 uninterrupted minutes of Apple Hands and a new folding iPhone that has the potential to become the leader in a virtually untapped market. The details: The iPhone Duo will be available for preorder on Oct. 16 at a starting price of $2,000, but it can cost as much as $3,000 if you want more storage for cat videos. When unfolded, it acts more like an iPad than two iPhones, and it’s about the same size as a passport when folded. Bringing Apple into the fold Consumer electronics companies shipped a total of ~20 million foldables last year—accounting for ~2% of all smartphone sales, per Counterpoint Research. The Duo is tracking to make a splash instantly: Morgan Stanley expects Apple to ship 6.5 million Duos in its fiscal first quarter, which ends in December. That amounts to ~$14 billion in sales, or about 16% of total iPhone revenue expected in the...

  Amazon has blocked Muse—the Meta AI assistant, not the band with hits like “Starlight” and “Uprising”—from accessing its e-commerce platform, saying that the app never received permission to browse the site, and that it represents privacy and security risks. When Meta released its AI agent designed to help with shopping and booking trips earlier this month, it emphasized safety in a statement: “Muse has no visibility into people’s passwords or payment methods.” Amazon already has a history of not allowing rival agentic apps into its online aisles: Last year, Amazon sued Perplexity, saying that its Comet AI was…accessing the site without permission and posed threats to Amazon’s security systems. While an appeals court overturned Amazon’s ban in August, the underlying case is ongoing because of new questions it surfaced about what AI assistants are allowed to do under existing laws. Bottom line: Amazon likely isn’t losing much money by restricting AI assistants, since consumers...

  The only things reliably taking off at airports this week are flight delay times. Travelers are beginning to feel the effects of the ongoing government shutdown as air traffic controllers—who are being asked to work without pay—use their sick leave instead of coming to work. Staffing shortages have created havoc at more than a dozen airports this week: FlightAware, the flight tracking website you only use if your flight is disrupted, reported more than 6,150 delays of flights involving the US on Monday, more than 3,800 on Tuesday, and thousands more yesterday, although some could be attributed to poor weather. Burbank had zero available air traffic controllers for more than five hours on Monday, while Nashville reported the first full ground stop due to the shutdown on Tuesday. Things are probably going to get worse Unlike many government employees who are furloughed during the shutdown, air traffic controllers are deemed essential workers. That means they’re deemed essential e...