Hudson Williams and Connor Storrie in HBO Max’s ‘Heated Rivalry.’ Courtesy: Sabrina Lantos | HBO Max When the holiday season rolled around last year, Margaret Hecox knew exactly what her grandmother would love. The 23-year-old wrote in a card about “Heated Rivalry,” the breakout Canadian TV series following a clandestine love story between two male…
Purchasing concert tickets has long been a high-stakes affair, with popular events often selling out within minutes. Increasingly, however, fans are competing against automated ticket-buying programs, commonly referred to as bots, that can snap up seats in seconds before reselling them at higher prices. This has distorted access not only to concert tickets but also to everyday…
Still from Pixar’s “Toy Story 5.” Disney Disney’s Toy Story franchise still has some buzz. The fifth installment in the Pixar film series tallied $160 million during its opening weekend, the highest in franchise history. Internationally, “Toy Story 5” snared $152 million, bringing its estimated global haul for the three-day period to $312 million. “Toy…
Even if you never plan to wrestle a toddler before bedtime, we could all use a little fun-dad energy. There’s a reason the stereotype exists: Dads spend a lot of time playing with their children, and they tend to enjoy it. In fact, dads report feeling happier when interacting with their kids than during most…
Spend a day at Shanghai Disneyland and you wouldn’t know Chinese consumers are struggling. Wang Jiandong and his girlfriend Yan Xu said they have been skipping meals out and scrimping on day-to-day necessities so they could afford to enjoy the park. “We save in our daily lives so we can spend more on trips,” Wang…
Sports prediction markets are having a gold-rush moment. Enthusiasm around the World Cup and NBA finals led Kalshi to set a new daily record Saturday for trading volume at $1.2 billion. A wave of companies is trying to stake a claim, hoping to follow suit and strike it rich in what JB Mackenzie, Robinhood’s head…
Qualcomm is working on over 40 designs of new AI devices, CEO Cristiano Amon told CNBC, as the chip designer prepares for a wave of “agents” across consumer electronics. In a wide-ranging interview on CNBC’s “The Tech Download” podcast, Amon laid out his views on the changing role of smartphones and apps, why smart glasses…
A sports-themed display in a Beijing mall ahead of the World Cup kickoff on June 11, 2026. CNBC | Yin Hon Chow BEIJING — Long gone are the days when catching World Cup soccer games on the go meant buying a portable mini television set. Instead, consumers in China can just whip out their phones….
The electronic news ticker of Fox News reads headlines at the News Corp. Building in the Midtown Manhattan area of New York City, U.S., July 20, 2025. Eduardo Munoz | Reuters Fox Corp. has reached an agreement to acquire Roku for roughly $22 billion, marking another chapter in media consolidation as the industry grapples with…
Many people think that charisma is an innate trait. As a behavioral researcher who has spent over 10 years studying what makes people magnetic, I’ve found that this isn’t the case. Highly charismatic people have conversation patterns that they use to be more memorable. But anyone can use them to make stronger connections and leave…
