Microsoft is rebranding its Your Phone app to Phone Link and updating it with a Windows 11 design overhaul. Your Phone launched more than three years ago as a key way to link an Android phone to Windows and avoid picking up your device to check calls or notifications. Phone Link is naturally a better description for the app, and it has now been updated to match the Windows 11 design changes.
Phone Link now places the notification panel upfront, and the notifications tab is now pinned to the left-hand side panel. Microsoft has also moved the Messages, Photos, Apps, and Calls sections into a navigation bar that sits at the top of Phone Link. The notifications section has also been cleaned up to make it easier to see the notifications that matter.
The new Phone Link interface on Windows 11.Image: Microsoft
The updated Phone Link app includes a color palette and design that matches Windows 11, with refreshed controls, illustrations, and iconography. The Your Phone Companion app for Android is also being rebranded to Link to Windows, and both apps will share the same icon.
Beyond the changes in design, Microsoft is also making Phone Link available in China thanks to a partnership with Honor. Phone Link now supports the Honor Magic V, Magic 4 series, and Magic 3 series of devices. Otherwise, the best Phone Link features are still largely limited to Samsung handsets and Microsoft’s Surface Duo devices.
The latest Phone Link update is available today, and with the next Windows 11 update, you’ll also be able to enable Phone Link just by scanning a QR code during setup.
The famous Russian-themed vodka is now just to be known by its nickname “Stoli,” one of the companies behind the brand said in a news release.
The move is a “direct response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine,” Stoli/SPI Group said Friday.
“While I have been exiled from Russia since 2000 due to my opposition to Putin, I have remained proud of the Stolichnaya brand,” billionaire Yuri Shefler, Stoli Group CEO, said in a statement. “Today, we have made the decision to rebrand entirely as the name no longer represents our organization. More than anything, I wish for ‘Stoli’ to represent peace in Europe and solidarity with Ukraine.”
Stolichnaya was first distilled in the Soviet Union in 1938. Despite growing calls to ban Russian vodkas in the United States, Stoli is actually manufactured and bottled in Latvia, according to the company’s website.
Calls for boycotts of Russian-made vodka in response to the invasion of Ukraine are gaining momentum in the US and abroad.REUTERS/Jonathan Alcorn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine continues on March 5, 2022.
Get the latestupdatesin the Russia-Ukraine conflict with The Post’s live coverage.
Ownership of the brand is disputed between Shefler’s Stoli Group, which is based in Latvia, and Sojuzplodoimport, a firm owned by the Russian state.
Sojuzplodoimport did not immediately return a request for comment.
ViacomCBS is no more. The media company that is home to MTV, CBS, Nickelodeon and Showtime, renamed itself after its movie studio, Paramount late Tuesday.
Investors apparently weren’t keen on the rebrand, as the stock plummeted more than 21% in the wake of the news on Wednesday.
The media giant — which was created through the merger of CBS and Viacom in 2019 — said that the rebrand is meant to focus on its goal of becoming a major player in streaming, even though it’s seriously lagging behind its peers at the moment when it comes to the number of subscribers.
Paramount intends to “turn streaming into a sustainable business for the future,” Paramount CEO Bob Bakish said during an investor event late Tuesday, “and know this, we are committed to that future and creating that value.”
The company has designs on reaching 100 million streaming subscribers by 2024 — up from its previous goal of 65 million to 75 million during the same timeframe.
Currently, its two streaming services, Paramount+ and Showtime, have a combined 56 million subscribers.
ViacomCBS said it is shifting its focus to streaming as it beefs up its Paramount+ service. GC Images
That’s far behind streaming rivals such as Netflix with 222 million subscribers, Disney+ with 130 million and HBO Max wnith 74 million sig-ups.
Even though Paramount is late to the game, Bakish laid out the company’s big plans, which includes an international push a mobile-only offering and exclusive movies.
The CEO said that starting in 2024, all Paramount movies will be exclusively streamed on Paramount+ in the US following their theatrical runs.
Bakish said the company starts trading Thursday under new stock symbol PARAA on the Nasdaq.
Despite the company’s renewed streaming push, Paramount has a long way to go if it’s going to compete with the likes of Netflix, Disney+, HBO Max and others. Bloomberg via Getty Images
The company also reported that its fourth quarter adjusted earnings totaled $557 million, or 26 cents a share compared with year-ago income of $1.18 billion, or $1.04.a share. Revenue rose 16% to $8 billion from $6.87 billion in the year-earlier period.
ZDF Enterprises, a key production-distribution component of one of Europe’s biggest public broadcaster powerhouses, Germany’s ZDF, is set to operate under the new name of ZDF Studios.
Effective from April 1, the title, announced by ZDF Enterprises President and CEO Fred Burcksen on Monday in Mainz, captures much better ZDFE’s current business reach, scale and ambitions.
“We are a studio, we cover all elements of our industry, from early development to longtail sales. The new name fits our business model much better and reflects our production and distribution expertise,” Burcksen said.
ZDF Enterprises was launched in 1993 to handle worldwide program distribution as new content-avid private TV networks sprang up in Europe and beyond and also to deal with the business affairs of the acquisition of programs from around the world. Since then, however, ZDFE has diversified energetically.
Its brief now covers national and international production where it works all parts of the value chain from initial concept to development to production as well as successful marketing. ZDFE also offers its services to third-party public and private television broadcasters, independent producers, streaming platforms and other customers and partners.
Selling, buying producing and marketing for ZDF would in itself be a major task. In Jan. 2022, the German public broadcaster, with regard to scripted and unscripted series, was working on 73 new unreleased commissions, a number only beaten in Europe by the BBC (196), France Televisions (137), Channel 4 (90) and Arte (89), according to an Ampere Analysis study. It has been a market leader in Germany over the last decade.
Since 1998, when it bought 100% of Hamburg’s Network Movie Film-und Fernsehproduktion, currently one of Germany’s strongest production companies, as Burcksen pointed out to Reporter Door, ZDFE has also built up a network of 28 affiliated production companies, some with interests in distribution, like Amsterdam-based Off The Fence.
The Swarm ZDF und Julian R. Wagner / Leif
The portfolio investment includes a 49% stake in Bavaria Fiction, acquired in 2007, 49% in Moritz von Kruedener and Robert Franke’s Intaglio Films, an operation put through in 2018 and, a year later, 49% in Peter Nadermann’s Nadcon. In its most recent participation, ZDFE bought 49% of Studio Hamburg Production Group’s Real Film, producer of Netflix hit “Unorthodox.”
Upcoming shows include environmental thriller “The Swarm” from Beta Film and ZDF Enterprises’ joint-venture Intaglio Films, which was set up to develop, finance and produce English-language scripted dramas for the international market. “Game of Thrones” executive producer Frank Doelger, who heads up Intaglio, will executive produce.
“Under the new umbrella brand ZDF Studios, we’ll be able to bring our network of affiliated companies even closer together. We’re a group of companies working for our shareholder, ZDF, and for our partners as well. With consolidated turnover of around €240 million [$273.6 million] in the year 2020, we’re one of the largest production groups in Germany and rights distributors in Europe,” Burcksen said.
“Since it was established, ZDF Enterprises has achieved a great deal for the ZDF Group. With creativity, ingenuity and efficiency, the group has become a major player in the fiction and non-fiction arena. The new name ‘ZDF Studios’ makes it instantly clear that this is a media industry company,” added longtime ZDF head Thomas Bellut, director-general of ZDF and chair of the supervisory board of ZDF Enterprises.
Fred Burcksen Credit. ZDF Enterprises
ZDFE also has a sense of corporate identity. Since the beginning of the century, ZDF Enterprises has invested in global content, with a focus on Scandinavia. In 2007, ZDF Enterprises co-produced Danish series “The Killing,” which ZDF aired in Sunday in second prime time to stellar ratings.
“I really admired the courage of ZDF’s editorial department to pick up a great series that was, however, a 20-hour show about just one crime case,” said Burcksen.
“That was basically the starting point of a lot of exciting international investments. So on the one hand, there’s definitely been a large interest to cooperate in original storytelling, in good co-productions. On the other hand, it’s also part of the DNA of the network and of ourselves: Being interested in other people’s stories as well.”
Part of that go-ahead drive has seen ZDF and ZDFE drive into ever edgier fare. Given that ZDF Studios is a subsidiary of ZDF and also produces for other broadcasters and platforms, the escalating demand for high-end series will mean that ZDF Studios can be expected to grow even more its production volume, Burcksen said.
ZDF Studios is also keen to support independent German production companies, putting up if necessary development moneys and support.
“ZDF Studios is not done yet,” Burcksen said. “We are organizing ourselves, we are rebranding. But every day we wake up and look for the next good story. That’s the bottom line. That’s what we live for: The next good story.”
John Hinckley Jr., the gunman who attempted to assassinate President Ronald Reagan in a bid to win actress Jodie Foster’s heart, has traded his six-shooter for a six-string — racking up thousands of views on YouTube with his guitar renditions of sentimental love songs.
Hinckley, now 66, won a lengthy court battle last year, freeing him to publicly display his music, writings and other art, and potentially make a living in the recording industry.
Since then, Hinckley has published a half-dozen videos to a YouTube channel bearing his real name, starting with a performance of an original composition titled “Majesty of Love.”
“When every couple settles down, goodness will be found, this is the majesty of love,” he croons over bright acoustic strumming. “The world is still in so much pain, but we have much to gain, this is the majesty of love.”
Of the six performances posted to the account since December, four are original songs, while two are covers: Elvis Presley’s “Can’t Help Falling in Love” and Bob Dylan’s “Blowin’ in the Wind.”
John Hinckley has published a half-dozen videos to a YouTube channel.YouTube
Most are recorded in a room l ined with at least five clocks visible behind Hinckley.
On March 30, 1981, Hinckley opened fire on Reagan outside a Washington, DC, hotel, emptying his revolver.
The president was struck by a round in the chest, and three others were also wounded in the barrage, including press secretary James Brady, who would remain partially paralyzed for the rest of his life.
President Ronald Reagan waves to the crowd shortly before the assassination attempt outside the Hilton Hotel in Washington on March 30, 1981.Getty Images
Reagan was hospitalized for nearly two weeks, but survived.
Hinckley harbored an obsession with the movie “Taxi Driver,” likening himself to Robert De Niro’s titular lone-wolf hack, Travis Bickle, and fixating on Foster, who portrayed a child prostitute in the cinema classic.
In the years preceding the assassination attempt, Hinckley stalked Foster and attempted to gain her attention, before ultimately plotting to kill the president — mirroring Bickle’s aborted bid to murder a fictitious political candidate.
Police officers and Secret Service agents dive to protect President Ronald Reagan amid a panicked crowd during an assassination attempt outside the Washington Hilton Hotel.Getty Images
Hinckley was found not guilty by reason of insanity and committed to a psychiatric institution, where he spent 35 years.
In 2016, Hinckley was cleared to move in with his mother in Virginia, and two years later to live on his own.
John HinckleyEPA
Upon discovering Hinckley’s creative outlet, viewers plastered the comment sections of his videos with reviews, many of them morbid jokes about his claim to infamy.
“This is definitely a more constructive way to get Jodi [sic] Foster’s attention,” wrote one user.
Cracked another, “Might’ve failed assassination but you didn’t fail to hit those beats.”
But others were pleasantly surprised by Hinckley’s tunes, lavishing praise on “Majesty of Love” and wishing him well.
“When I heard you were released and making songs on YouTube I thought it was a joke, but far out this was such a beautiful song,” wrote one fan. “You are very talented, please make more.”
Added another, “came for the meme, stayed because it’s actually pretty good.”
There is one good thing about the decision of the Major League Soccer team from Columbus, again, there is already a hashtag ready to protest its ridiculous decision.
#SaveTheCrew.
This has come in handy since former boss Anthony Precourt attempted to move the Columbus crew to Austin in 2018. Eventually, the crew Were Saved by an ownership group led by Jimmy and Dee Heslem, and Precourt had the opportunity to have an MLS expansion team in Austin.
Now, the club’s fan base has expended so much energy preventing the team from moving forward, and the Crew have recently won the MLS Cup Championship, and the team is about to enter a beautiful new downtown stadium – well, all goodwill Can’t be allowed to last?
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So of course the team’s marketing department made massive changes to the team’s name and crest, without any consultation from its most ardent fans – in less than seven years after widespread acclaim from Columbus fans and the wider football community It has been decided.
The Columbus Crew will become SC, Columbus Soccer Club or Columbus SC.
To many people this meant that the crew would now move to Columbia, S.C.
they are not. But after looking at the team’s Twitter account, some of the front offices may want to consider a transfer.
The public reaction was overwhelming. The video the rebrand officer tweeted, published after 3pm on Monday afternoon, was a great example of being “proportionate” with 875 quote tweets, including promises to cancel season tickets, about 1,000 comments featuring pig dung pictures Were included and not quite 500 “likes”
Amidst the first reaction when word of the rebrand leaked late on Sunday, there was a tweet from former crew forward Justin Meram, who played 206 matches for the crew and made the 2015 MLS Cup Finals debut, who said the change was “0.0000 Makes sense. “
This makes 0.0000 sense. The history of the club is the one that is most important, not the second rebrand. Everyone in Columbus loves Columbus Cree Columb the https://t.co/zsCBJP23sD
The crew’s group of supporters, The Noordeke, launched a petition to name the team, which garnered more than 2,600 signatures in less than a day. The group also released a statement, stating that its members and any other supporting groups had not been consulted before the decision to change. Some were shown the finished product before release.
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There were quite a few tweets from fans.
But among the comments were It is swamp: “We made the best crest in the MLS. now it’s.
In 2014 the rebrand from Columbus Crew to Columbus Crew SC was ancient. The absurdly original logo featuring three men in a rigid hat was left in favor of a sleek black and gold patch bearing the team’s name and founding year. That change also avoided stupidity – so prominent in the MLS – of trying to convince Columbus residents who thrived on Ohio State goats that the crew should be referred to as “football clubs”.
The new crest is just a big one with a strange spike sticking out from the bottom. What it is intended to do is difficult to imagine.
It seems that very little thought went into this process compared to 2014. Because if any idea was given to the matter, how long would it take someone to say: Why are we messing with something popular?
Perhaps the crew marketing department believed that the massive public failure of the European Super League would provide cover for its questionable decision.
No one has heard of the term “market research” in world football?
