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UFC CEO Dana White is joining Meta's board, the company announced today. The addition of the mixed-martial arts impresario jives with Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg's well-documented UFC fandom, but also the larger strategy Meta appears to be using heading into a second Trump term: tacking right. That's not to say White's seat on the board is typical, however. Most of Meta's current board members work in the tech industry. The two members Meta is adding alongside White, John Elkann and Charlie Songhurst, fit the social media company's usual bill. White might say he's "a huge believer that social media and AI are the future" in Meta's press release, but the company he keeps is likely the more important reason he's joining now. Dana White and President-elect Donald Trump have been friends for years. White supported Trump's campaign for re-election, and UFC as a whole fits his strong-man tastes. Putting White on the board is as much about burnishing Zuckerberg's self-image as it is having access to the incoming Trump Administration. The President-elect might at one point have thought that Zuckerberg should "spend the rest of his life in prison," but Meta's CEO is doing everything in his power to court him. Zuckerberg visited Mar-A-Lago in November 2024 to have dinner with Trump, one of several tech CEOs to do so. Meta's also been adjusting its executive ranks to better work with a conservative government. The company's former President of Global Affairs Nick Clegg announced he was stepping down just last week, to be replaced by Meta's most prominent Republican executive, Joel Kaplan. Among Kaplan's credits is an eight-year stint in the Bush Administration. Zuckerberg has been in UFC mode for a while now, and it seems like for at least the next four years, Meta will be too.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/meta-adds-ufc-ceo-and-trump-booster-dana-white-to-its-board-230611306.html?src=rss
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CES 2025 is full swing and Samsung has already made a slew of laptop and TV announcements, but the company already has more news on the horizon. The company is hosting it's first Galaxy Unpacked event on January 22, 2025 at 1 PM ET to show off the latest in Galaxy AI, and presumably new Galaxy devices it runs on. Samsung is hosting its event in San Jose, and like previous years, even if it hasn't shared what its actually announcing, you can reserve the company's new gear in advance for a $50 off and the chance to win a $5,000 Samsung gift card. That's on top of Samsung's typically generous trade-in credit this year the company says you can get up to an additional $900 credit if you trade-in an old device. Given the timing of Unpacked, Samsung is likely to announce the Galaxy S25 series, and there's a good chance it'll use the new Snapdragon 8 Elite chip and sport an updated design, at least on the Galaxy S25 Ultra. What might be more interesting are the non-smartphone devices Samsung could show off. The company is rumored to already have a Galaxy Ring 2 in the works, and there's a good chance Samsung's "Project Moohan" Android XR headset could make an appearance at the event. Engadget will have all the details of Samsung's announcements right here, but if you want to watch the event yourself, you'll be able to tune in on Samsung.com, Samsung's Newsroom or the company's YouTube channel.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/smartphones/samsungs-first-unpacked-event-of-2025-will-be-on-january-22-230035883.html?src=rss
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Marketing and Advertising
At its CES 2025 press conference, Samsung just announced that the Ballie home robot it showed off last year will actually be available for sale in the first half of year. This cute yellow rolling device has a built-in projector that allows it to beam images and videos on your walls and floors, so you can interact with it. No further information on pricing and a more specific window of time has been shared, though. When it was first announced, Samsung told The Washington Post that Ballie would actually be available at some point in 2024. Alas, here we are six days into 2025 with no actual date or price yet. We first started seeing early iterations of Ballie in 2020, when the thing was just a tennis ball-sized orb that a Samsung executive tenderly caressed in their hands. Back then, Ballie was touted as a potential "fitness assistant," and Samsung further showed off capabilities like smart home control last year. We also saw last year that you'd be able to talk to Ballie by speaking to or texting it. It also became bowling ball-sized, and the Post said it would have a LiDAR sensor, which should help it detect and avoid obstacles. An onboard infrared sensor is what will help it connect to older home appliances to turn them on or off. Ballie only got the briefest of mentions at Samsung's CES 2025 press conference, which ran for about 45 minutes, and details beyond what I've already described are extremely sparse. For now, we can only guess at a cost. But I wouldn't be surprised if it cost about the same as a Bespoke Samsung fridge.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/home/the-cute-samsung-ballie-home-robot-will-actually-go-on-sale-this-year-223528677.html?src=rss
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