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Three years after buying Crunchyroll for over $1 billion, Sony plans to capitalize on its purchase (and piss off countless anime fans) by shutting free users out of one of its most popular series. The company said that starting soon, youll need a paid subscription to watch past the first 206 episodes of One Piece. Cue the obvious jokes about locking a show about pirates behind a paywall. (Yo ho!) Crunchyroll will use a tiered rollout to block free members from most of the anime, which has been in production since 1999. On December 23, the Water 7 to Fishman Island story arcs will become paywalled. On January 20, Punk Hazard to Whole Cake Island (and six specials) will be locked behind subscriptions, followed by Reverie and Wano Kuni to Egghead Island on February 17. Until Sonys new content lockdown takes effect, free users can (as they always have been able to) watch the entire series with ads. Snippets of One Piece are also available on Hulu and Netflix (the latter also hosts the live-action version). But Hulus library only reaches episode 384, while Netflixs goes to 238. The series currently has over 1,100 episodes. Sony is reportedly in talks to buy Japanese publisher Kadokawa. In addition to games like Elden Ring, Dark Souls and Bloodborne, the studio produces anime like Overlord and The Rising of the Shield Hero. If todays news is any indication, watching much anime in the West that doesnt go through Sony may soon require the digital equivalent of the Straw Hat Pirates.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/streaming/crunchyroll-will-soon-paywall-most-of-one-piece-214652714.html?src=rss
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Marketing and Advertising
For its eighth annual campaign, the NFLs My Cause My Cleats initiative which sees players express charitable interests through custom footwear designs is embracing generative AI. Three NFL stars used a tool developed by Amazons AWS to create their custom cleats. Using Amazon Bedrock, the technology combines Anthropics Claude with Stability AIs image generation capabilities to transform simple prompts into detailed designs.Players can select from various artistic styles, including Graffiti, Watercolor, Pixelated and Grunge, and specify up to three colors to guide the AIs creative direction. Raiders defensive end Maxx Crosby, for instance, used terms like pitbull and wild to generate artwork supporting Stand Up for Pits, while Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen collaborated with children from Oishei Childrens Hospital, incorporating their artwork on his cleats for a game against the San Francisco 49ers.Fans can participate, too, by creating their own AI-generated cleat designs through the My Cause, My Cleats microsite and potentially winning a pair of game-worn cleats. AWSs design tool allows users to preview their cleats before sharing them on social media and amplifying support for the charitable causes selected by NFL athletes. For Amazon, meanwhile, its a hands-on way of demonstrating AWS Bedrock and its AI capabilities blending B2C, B2B and cause marketing in one fell swoop.
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Marketing and Advertising
On Monday, Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) became the first individual account with a million followers on Bluesky. The decentralized platform has seen a spike in adoption since the US election, with its user base tripling within three months. As for the reason why, AOC wrote about Elon Musks X in a recent post, People are leaving Twitter because its not fun anymore and no one is obligated to be on a platform they dont enjoy. Its not rocket science. AOC has been active on the platform long before its post-election surge, posting 437 times since joining the platform in April 2023. Waitress turned Congresswoman for the Bronx and Queens, her profile description reads. Grassroots elected, small-dollar supported. A better world is possible. Blueskys account is still the most popular on the platform by far, with nearly 17 million followers at the time of publication. But AOCs audience of 1,032,729 users is the most of any individual. The next closest are George Takeis 862,646 followers and Mark Hamills 797,541. As it turns out, being in a legendary Star... franchise and having witty, sharp and socially conscious takes pays off. The top publication is The Onion (769,718), followed by The New York Times ( 762,499), perhaps illustrating that satire is todays most trusted news source. Shameless plug: You can follow Engadget on Bluesky, too.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/us-representative-alexandria-ocasio-cortez-is-the-first-bluesky-user-with-a-million-followers-202125073.html?src=rss
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Marketing and Advertising
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