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HomePod Mini: Apple’s pandemic-era product

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Mark Mulligan
Apple’s Tuesday product announcement showcased its 5G iPhones, but also included the launch of the new $99 HomePod Mini. Though it might have looked like a supporting act for the launch, its strategic importance should not be underestimated – especially in the context of how Apple competes with Amazon, the company that is arguably becoming Apple’s most important competitor among the Western Tech Majors (Apple, Alphabet, Amazon, Facebook).
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GB News: An idea ahead of – or behind, its time?

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Tim Mulligan
The long unwinding of impartial news delivery in the UK continues apace with the imminent launch of GB News – the UK’s answer to Fox News. The Chairman of the new venture is Andrew Neil, who rose to prominence as an editor in Rupert Murdoch’s News International organisation as the editor of The Sunday Times from 1983 to 1994, and then spent a subsequent 25 years at the BBC.
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Microsoft’s Zenimax acquisition is about the future of Games Pass more than console sales

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Karol Severin
With the acquisition of ZeniMax Media, Microsoft is gaining an important content asset for its portfolio – Bethesda’s games. And while the timing of the announcement certainly won’t make Sony too happy as it is about to launch PS5, the key benefits of this acquisition are tied to the future of Xbox Game Pass, rather than to who will sell more consoles this holiday season.
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Why Kanye West is the modern-day Prince

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Mark Mulligan
Not ‘prince’ in the Machiavelliansense of the term – though there is an argument for that too – but as in the artist formerly known as. Back in 1992, Prince fought his label Warner Bros to get ownership of his rights and more creative control, struggling to get out of a deal he signed when he was 19 and had since decided was unfair and overly restrictive.
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