CrunchMoney

There always are new smartphones launched each year, but most of them don't get as much attention that the new iPhone or the Galaxy/Note receives. Sure, there are other successful and reputable smartphone brands such as Huawei, OnePlus, and the Pixel, but Apple and Samsung consistently steal the show. With their premium build and software, the iPhone and Galaxy dominate the smartphone market with advanced features that distinguish them from their competitors, such as Face ID and the Infinity Display. However, that does come at an expensive price as it appears that smartphones are starting to embrace the $1000 selling point, with the iPhone X initiating this new era and the Note 9 being the latest to join that trend. That doesn't hint a desirable future as other smartphone makers may eventually pursue that same route. However, the best way to appeal to the majority is through affordable phones that still house some of the best features of the premium phone. Apple hopes to ac

As Apple's September event is rapidly approaching, technology enthusiasts and Apple fans are anxious to see the new products, particularly the new iPhones, a redesigned iPad Pro, and the Apple Watch Series 4. Leaks have suggested what each new product will look like. There will apparently be three new iPhones, one being the upgraded version of the iPhone X, one being its larger model (or Plus model), and one being the budget-end iPhone X model that will house an LCD display, rather than an OLED display to potentially bring the price down to around $700. Additionally, the iPad Pro will feature a design change with thinner bezels, no home button, rounded corners, and potentially Face ID. Lastly, the Apple Watch Series 4 will also include a redesign as the bezels will similarly reduce to appropriately fit in the modern world of less bezel and more display. So it appears that Apple is going to have some exciting products this year. And then soon enough, consumers will be anxious

Netflix users are angry again, and it's not anything similar to the crisis of separating the DVD and streaming services. Rather, the company is currently testing a feature in which it will place video promos for its original content in between TV episodes. In other words, after you conclude an episode, you will watch a short video about other Netflix TV shows or movies before continuing on to the next episode. Sounds a lot like the commercial break or advertisements you see on your cable TV. On the plus side though, Netflix will allow you to skip the video promos if they don't appeal to you. What is Netflix's reason behind this? How will this raise money for the company? Obviously, Netflix won't earn any money from this, and this feature will annoy its subscribers, which could cost it some revenue. Additionally, Netflix doesn't plan to introduce a more expensive plan in which users can automatically skip the ads (similar to YouTube Red) since the ads are skipp

Things only seem to be getting worse for Moviepass. After a tireless summer of revising its popular subscription service from the introduction of surge pricing to increasing the subscription fee, the company stated last week that with its $10 monthly plan, users will be able to watch 3 movies of their choice, a drastic change from one year ago where the service allowed subscribers to watch a movie per day, which gave the service its "unlimited" brand. But now, the company is experimenting with another revision in which users will only be allowed to watch between two movies. On August 10, subscribers could only choose to watch critically-disdained horror film "Slender Man" or critically-acclaimed "Mission: Impossible Fallout." While "Mission: Impossible" would still be a good alternative, the showtimes were limited, being available only on 2:30PM and 10:45PM, for instance at an AMC in Times Square. Quite the opposite of "unlimited."

Samsung's Unpacked event revealed new technologies and flagships on August 9 that display the company's competence in hardware (but not software). It showcased three new products, some of which were leaked and expected, and some that surprised the audience. Here is a breakdown of what was new: Galaxy Note 9 Through many leaks and reports, the structure of the Galaxy Note 9 was predicted before its official unveiling. It is an upgrade from the Galaxy Note 8, featuring same shape and display, but there are notable improvements from the Note 8. The Note 9 emphasizes productivity, and its upgrades from the previous generation clearly illustrate this ambition. For example, the Note 9 comes with a larger battery of 4000mAh to accommodate the larger display and 512GB of internal storage, which added with a 512GB microSD card, will give the phone an insane storage of 1TB. The already-excellent camera is improved by including AI capabilities. For example, its Scene Optimizer

Elon Musk is notorious for his outspoken statements on Twitter regarding announcements of Tesla and just being himself - a funny, ambitious individual. Well, on August 7, he went beyond his typical style and tone when he commented on a possibly eventual change to Tesla, which could greatly impact its business and its quest towards profitability. On that day, he tweeted that he was considering taking the company private, just after reports came out that Saudi Arabia invested $2B in Tesla and just one week later from reporting earnings. Using social media to announce such a large-scale change is unprecedented. His proclamation allowed the stock to rise 7%, which prompted the stock to temporarily cease trading as the SEC became doubtful whether Elon Musk's tweet was legitimate and not used for manipulative tactics to artificially increase the stock price. Additionally, Musk claimed that he had "funding secured" to ensure the action, but the sources for this funding are cu

First, it introduced surge pricing, forcing users to pay an extra price for popular movies such as Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom  and Incredibles 2 . Then, it suffered from a service outage after not having enough cash to fund its "processors" or "merchants," enraging users who were unable to use its card to buy tickets for Mission Impossible: Fallout during the movie's previews. And these issues occurred several times throughout the same week. Then, it planned to increase the price of its service while restricting access to view certain movies. Moviepass is approaching rock bottom. After persistently bleeding cash as it funds for users' tickets, the company is struggling to make fees, and its hopes for profitability have become more distant due to its depressing free cash flow. This has greatly affected its parent company Helios and Matheson Analytics and its stock HMNY as it is currently trading below a dollar, despite performing a 1-for-250 reverse st

Tesla CEO Elon Musk All eyes were on Tesla's 2nd quarter conference call today, and to say the least, this report was a make or break moment for Tesla. In the derivative markets, implied volatility (IV) was at over 7%. This means that the options market predicted that Tesla's stock would either rise over 7%, or fall over 7%. These predictions held true, with the stock soaring 9% in after-hours trading. This earnings report was definitely great for Tesla investors, who have recently witnessed the stock fall from November highs of $380 to the high 200's. But there was a lot of pain involved too, as Tesla is the most shorted stock in the S&P 500. Prominent investors including billionaire David Einhorn and billionaire Jim Chanos are short on Tesla, and short sellers are estimated to have lost over $1 billion just today alone! Major points of contention for the conference call included Model 3 production, raising additional capital, and Elon Musk's tem

You may always correlate Verizon as a carrier that provides Internet and communication to users through 3G and 4G LTE plans. Typically ranked as one of the top telecommunications companies, Verizon has a large, strong customer base that allows it to compete effectively with other carriers, namely AT&T. However, whether you use Verizon or not, you may be unconsciously using one of its other services, namely Oath Inc. Say you want to catch up on the latest news; you go to Yahoo News. Or maybe catch up on your favorite stocks; you go to Yahoo Finance. Or maybe simply wanting to find the definition of a word; you use Yahoo Search. Or even send an email to someone regarding an important event; you use Yahoo Mail. Or catch up on the latest updates in sports; you use Yahoo Sports. All in all, Yahoo has a whole suite of relevant and beneficial tools that can promote productivity and learning. While it is no apparent and clear competitor to Google, wide audiences still utilize the platfor

"What comes up must come down." It appears that the most economic-friendly entertainment service Moviepass is approaching its end... again. The company that is revolutionizing the theater industry is on its ropes as its cash pile is rapidly being depleted. In recent months, Moviepass has attained stunning popularity due to its alluring subscription service that allows users to watch a movie per day in theaters for just $10 a month. In most areas, watching one movie in a month will give more than the subscription's worth since the average ticket price in many places range from $11 to $13. This business model has persistently placed Moviepass's parent company Helios and Matheson Analytics in escalating debt as it funds the full price when purchasing the tickets from merchants and vendors such as AMC and Cinemark. On July 26, the company suffered from a service outage, in which users couldn't use their subscription cards to purchase their tickets. This occurred

Facebook recently reported earnings, and the results were worrisome in all aspects, with regards to the present and future. Not only did the company fail to meet revenue and daily active user (DAU) expectations, it also forecasts considerable decline in revenue growth through the coming quarters, cautioned by CFO David Wehner. This is justifiable since Facebook reported its slowest user growth rate ever for the quarter. As a social media platform dependent on advertisements, Facebook mandates a growing user base to remain the best site for advertising; decline in growth would concurrently slow revenue gains as competitors such as Twitter and Snapchat might gain more ground. However, Facebook attempted to belittle these pessimistic views with an optimistic statement that 2.5 billion people use at least one of the company's apps, which extend to Instagram and WhatsApp. While Instagram confidently can foresee growth in the future, especially after its introduction of IGTV, Fac

As Apple CEO Tim Cook rose to the stage on September 2017 remarking their newly revealed iPhone X, he referred to it as "the future of the smartphone." Truly, the iPhone X did feature a revolutionary design compared to its previous generations and included greatly upgraded specs and features, such as the A11 Bionic chip, a powerful dual-lens camera, and Face ID. Yet the phone didn't receive the buzz it had hoped for due to the presence of a controversial notch. A truly radical design choice, the notch is the epitome of maximizing screen as opposed to applying a narrow bezel, as illustrated on Galaxy phones. While the phone is edge-to-edge, its notch restricts screen but is necessary to store the proximity sensor, selfie camera, and other functions. So for some, the iPhone X is clearly not "the future of the smartphone."  The true revolution of the smartphone started from Steve Jobs' reveal of the original iPhone in 2007. Its simplistic design, void of

Google parent company Alphabet just reported earnings today, and the results outperformed expectations. Google Play Store revenues and advertising business saw admirable growth, and their guidance for the future seems rather positive. Google's "other bets", which include the self-driving car company Waymo and Nest, reported greater revenues, but faced increased expenses. Overall, these are positive news, considering that the company was hit with a massive $5B fine from the EU over antitrust issues. The EU claimed that the Google Play Store restricts competition as it automatically comes pre-installed with Google's suite of apps, such as Google Search, which is forced upon manufacturers by Google as a way to empower and encourage its search engine. Due to this fine, Google's net income decreased from $8.3B to $3.2B for the quarter. This reveals how consistent government trouble can cause a major hindrance to the company's long term growth. In fact, Googl

Android has notoriously been the world's most popular mobile operating system due its extensive reach across many types of phones and its open source versatility. iOS has always trailed second due to its exclusiveness to iPhones and iPads. Initially revealed in 2007, Android has undergone numerous releases, with the latest being Android P, previewed earlier this year. Despite these updates, Google has imagined and been experimenting with a grander redesign for Android, one that will stretch its boundaries quite literally. Called Fuchsia, this recreated operating system has already seen some appearances of its open-source code online. This project will reportedly combine the elements of Android and Chrome OS under one platform while removing Android's dependence on Linux and eventually extend to other devices and hardware, including Google's smart home devices and eventually laptops. Its core feature will revolve around the use of voice interactions and possibly ar

Over the past 4 years that Satya Nadella has been CEO of Microsoft, we have seem some sort of extraordinary transformation. Microsoft has gone from being the poster boy of monopolistic greed to one of the most innovative tech companies around. In order to accomplish this, Nadella has focused on revamping two main parts of Microsoft's business. First, he has made many of the companies products subscription services, such as Office 365, which is an example of SaaS (Software as a Service). Second, he as embraced the shift to the cloud, by focusing his company's resources on building up the Microsoft Azure platform. On top of this, Nadella has made some big acquisitions, acquiring LinkedIn for 26 billion in 2016 and more recently, acquiring code-sharing site GitHub in 2018, further demonstrating his vision of innovation and open-source software. Microsoft reported in its earnings call that its "Commercial Cloud" business, which contains cloud products such as Azure a

Prime Day has ended and has generated the highest single-day sales in Amazon's history as it sold over 100 million products. However, the event was also beneficial to many of the company's competitors, boosting their sales due to the many discounts they concurrently offered to seize the action. One of these competitors was Walmart, which held many deals in an effort to steal some profits from Amazon. Walmart has notoriously been Amazon's largest online competitor, but by a huge margin. Though initiating its online business roughly at the same time as Amazon, the company has never been able to make more revenue or surpass Amazon's growth primarily due to its inferior business model compared to Amazon Prime. The membership fees that Amazon attains is massive and is mostly responsible for the company's revenue. However, the company also gains a considerable amount of money from Amazon Web Services, which offers cloud-computing platforms to individuals and businesse

Prime Day has become notorious for being referred to as the "Black Friday of summer" due to its vast quantity of deals and discounts on numerous consumer products. An event beginning in 2015 as a celebration of Amazon's 20th anniversary, this tradition has continued each year and has generated considerable revenue for Amazon and much attention in the public. But to what extent is Amazon Prime Day valuable for the company? Last year, Prime Day achieved a new record for the company as its sales surpassed that of 2016 Black Friday and Cyber Monday, temporarily becoming the largest e-commerce day until eventually surpassed by 2017 Black Friday. Sales grew by 60% from the previous year, revealing its increasing popularity and interest. Just recently, it was reported that Amazon will control 49% of the e-commerce market by the end of this year, up from 43% from the previous year, which only hints at the massive growth in sales that Prime Day will achieve. Clearly, Prime D

Amazon's Prime Day has been heavily advertised for weeks. Amazon Prime Day just began today at 3 PM Eastern Time. With deals on hundreds of thousands of items, today was by no doubt the biggest sales day of Amazon's year. Amazon had a multimillion dollar advertising budget for Prime Day, and was aggressively publicizing the event in the weeks leading up to it. Yet on the most important day of the year, Amazon's website is down, and searching for items results in a 404 error that says "Something went wrong on our end." Amazon's stock dropped half a percent on Wall Street trading when news of this story hit. This is especially ironic since Amazon is the owner of Amazon Web Services, famous for being able to adapt to increasing traffic and for its pay for what you use business model. In the midst of the the "cloud wars" between Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and IBM, this definitely does not look good for AWS, which has been steadily losing market s

Good news: Avengers: Infinity War is set to have its 4K Blu-ray and DVD release on August 14. Now, fans will be able to relive the movie experience while watching it in the comfort of their homes. But is this actually news? For years, we have had follow-up DVD releases of blockbuster movies, but as society becomes more modern, the excitement and desire to own a DVD has largely shrunk. Online streaming services, such as Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime Video, have now become the rage due to their wide selection, affordability, and access. These online streaming companies have seized huge chunks of market share, leaving little to no representation of DVD companies, namely Blockbuster. In 1992, Blockbuster, with its 2800 worldwide stores, was the leader in rental videos, promoting the consumer enthusiasm of watching content which would only become a very profitable business in years to come. Their reign continued for many years until an ambitious startup called Netflix entered the

It is that time of the year again: summer! A time to enjoy, travel, and watch new summer blockbusters. The summer season is usually the hottest for theaters, but the summer of 2017 turned out to be the worst in box office results since 2001. As a result, a new movie ticketing concept emerged last year that has generated much enthusiasm in the past few months. Called MoviePass, this company has altered the movie industry by its groundbreaking subscription service that entitles members to watch a movie per day for the cost of $10 per month. Since the movie ticket prices in most states surpass $10, many people are getting more than their money's worth by watching just one movie. As of June of 2018, MoviePass had 3 million subscribers and believes it will attain its goal of 5 million by the year's end. However, MoviePass's service benefits more than just its subscribers. MoviePass has rejuvenated the movie industry. People have a greater incentive to watch movies. That

As the world rapidly evolves, people's lives alter to become more technological and advanced. Most lifestyles, mediums, and actions have transformed to online, such as social media used for news as opposed to newspapers, and Google for research or learning as opposed to books. One of the most revolutionary transitions to online that characterized the 21st century and its evolution from the 20th century revolves around commerce. Describing the activity between buyer and the seller, commerce has remained an effective trade system for many centuries as it has allowed the seller to get the product or service he or she wants while the buyer can achieve a profit, fulfilling his or her own ambitions and desires. In the late 1900s, commerce slowly became more accessible as its online concept was introduced, in which buyers can buy the product directly from websites, instead of going to the store. The company that contributed most to this change was Amazon, which began as a bookstore s

"An iPod, a phone, and an internet communicator. These are not three separate devices. This is one device, and we are calling it iPhone. Today, Apple is reinventing the phone." These earth-shattering words agitated the general public and "smartphone" companies alike. The lava was soon to erupt from the volcano, engulfing the entire society from its excessive power and invincibility. On January 9, 2007, Steve Jobs revealed his visionary masterpiece, soon to revolutionize consumer products permanently. The epitome of simplicity and an aggressive, altered design, the iPhone became a novelty brand and a fearsome competitor to other "smartphones" that at the time lacked any smart, unique features. More than ten years later from the original iPhone launch, the iPhone remains the most notorious, compelling smartphone in the market. However, that comes at a rather large cost. Apple's products ranging from iPhones to MacBooks to iPads are notorious for being