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Kendrick Lamar received mixed reactions from the public over his Super Bowl LIX halftime performance — but it led to a nearly 175% increase in Spotify streams across the United States. According to an Instagram post shared by Spotify on Feb. 10, 2025, several songs from Lamar’s halftime setlist experienced significant boosts. “Not Like Us” — the popular Drake-aimed diss track released in May 2024 — saw a 430% increase, followed by “HUMBLE,” which rose 300%. “DNA,” which, along with “HUMBLE,” is from the 2017 album “DAMN,” experienced a 260% increase. “Luther,” performed with SZA, and “tv off,” featuring lefty gunplay, both experienced a 170% increase in streams. SZA also benefited from the performance, with an 80% increase in her Spotify streams. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Spotify News (@spotifynews) Exactly one week after winning five Grammy Awards — bringing his total to 22 — Lamar performed 10 songs at Super Bowl LIX on Feb. 9, 2025, including five tracks...
Apple has a new app on the market. On Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2025, the tech company introduced Apple Invites, which allows Apple device owners to create custom invitations to round up friends and family for any occasion, the tech giant shared in a news release. The app lets users invite friends from their contact list to an event, share the invite with a link, add photos to shared albums, and interact with an Apple Music playlist. “With Apple Invites, an event comes to life from the moment the invitation is created, and users can share lasting memories even after they get together,” Brent Chiu-Watson, Apple’s senior director of worldwide product marketing for apps and iCloud , said. “Apple Invites brings together capabilities our users already know and love across iPhone, iCloud, and Apple Music, making it easy to plan special events.” While an iCloud+ subscription, which starts at 99 cents, is required to create invites, anyone — including Android users — can RSVP and view information...
Apple is on the lookout for bright developers. The tech giant will soon be jumpstarting its 2025 Swift Student Challenge, which was created to empower rising developers, creators, and entrepreneurs. Its website mentions they will be tasked with scaling their ideas into an application leveraging tools that include Swift Playgrounds and Xcode. Previous winners include Keitaro Kawahara of Japan (PuzzlePix), Ruoshan Li of China (Deep Blue Tangram), and University of Alabama at Birmingham student AJ Nettles, who submitted an application named CryptOh. As AFROTECH™ previously told you, his app includes an interactive guide that explains the importance of password security and serves as a password manager and generator. “I wanted to make it easier for people to store their passwords and not have them on a random sticky note on the edge of their computer,” he told AFROTECH™. Nettles was among the 50 Distinctive Winners out of 350 winners of the challenge in 2024, and he was able to meet...
Despite pressure from a conservative group, Apple is going against the grain. As AFROTECH™ previously reported, Meta announced a hard stop to its diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs and will no longer maintain its DEI team, effective immediately. The company stated it intended to place its attention “on applying fair and consistent practices to mitigate bias for everyone, regardless of their background.” “The legal and policy landscape surrounding diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts in the United States is changing,” Janelle Gale, Meta’s vice president of human resources, said in a memo. “The Supreme Court of the United States has recently made decisions signaling a shift in how courts will approach DEI. … The term ‘DEI’ has also become charged, in part because it is understood by some as a practice that suggests preferential treatment of some groups over others.” Meta now joins companies including Amazon, Walmart, and McDonald’s in retracting their DEI efforts...
People are sensitive about their phones. Want proof? Tell an Apple smartphone user to buy an Android phone, and you’ll be met with the same facial expression as hearing someone say they don’t know how to play Spades . It’s not that 3.3 billion Android users don’t exist. It’s just that Apple has made such a name for itself that the average Apple user is chasing that brand even more than they’re chasing the actual phone. Competitors get dismissed quickly. Even though the average salary for an iPhone worker is $10 an hour , that same phone (ex. iPhone 15 Pro) they made has a price tag of $558. Are Apple Products On The Decline? Last year, according to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission , Apple’s total net sales were $383.3 billion and its net income was $97 billion, a small decrease of 2.79% from $394.3 billion in 2022 . While that may be alarming to founders Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, inflation and unemployment ( 6.3 million in 2023, up from 5.9 million at the end of 2022...
50 Cent claims he received a six-figure payout from the late Steve Jobs. During an interview shared by “Tha Row TV” on YouTube, the rapper -turned-business-mogul took a trip down memory lane to recall being paid handsomely for a product placement in one of his music videos. This became possible thanks to a conversation with Jobs, who had a meeting with Beats By Dre co-founder Jimmy Iovine at his office. In the interview, he claimed that within the first 10 minutes of meeting, he was able to get his hands on an iPod, which had just been released in 2001. He then convinced Jobs that he could help market the iPod, leading to a $150,000 payday. “I told him ‘Let me see that.’ They gave it to me I said ‘What’s it called. It’s called an iPod? How many songs you said?’ ‘You think you could sell an iPod? I can sell an iPod.’ H e looked at Jimmy, Jimmy said ‘Believe it or not, the kid is gold. I don’t care whatever he says right now it’s gonna go’ and h e just went with it and gave me...
Well-known for her career in entertainment, Malinda Williams is now dedicating time to uplifting women in technology. The Pivot Many may recognize Malinda Williams for her work as an actress, which includes credits in shows such as “The Cosby Show,” “Sister, Sister,” “Moesha,” and films like “Soul Food” and “The Wood.” She had been booking gigs for more than 30 years, yet she encountered a period of stagnation during which work became scarce. Money management had always been easy for her, which was helpful when it was time to stretch her earnings, Williams shared in an interview with AFROTECH™ . Eventually, she had to move to New Jersey and ventured into a “difficult” period, which also reignited a new area of interest. “I set out on a continuation of my spirit spiritual journey, but I also went to the bookstore, and that’s where I find a lot of my spiritual material, and a book called ‘HTML For Dummies’ fell off the shelves,” she told AFROTECH™. “I had tinkered around a little bit...
AJ Nettles wants to work at Apple one day after meeting CEO Tim Cook. The second-year student attending the University of Alabama at Birmingham has affirmed his journey in cybersecurity, one that began at an early age tinkering with computers while living in the small town of Monroeville, AL. “Our family had our first computer near when I was 5, and I really had fun interacting and playing around with it, learning about the internet and things like that,” Nettles told AFROTECH™. “Then I like to play games, so that kind of helped feed back into learning about technology overall, like computer science, and thinking about how it works and stuff. I was first exposed to it when I was young.” By the time Nettles reached the end of his time at Monroe County High School, he gained robotics experience and became more interested in learning about computer science and building technologies. “I had a bunch of different accounts for everything to play my games and email and all that. And I used...
The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is among the countries facing a humanitarian crisis. The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) reported that it’s not only experiencing one of the world’s longest humanitarian crises but also one of the most complex. A most prevalent issue in the DRC is child labor. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, nearly 25,000 children work in cobalt mines. Despite the alarming rate of exploitation, a case in the U.S. regarding the matter has ended with the defendants not found at fault. Previously, in 2022, Apple, Alphabet Inc. (Google), Dell, Microsoft, and Tesla were said to have been “knowingly benefiting from and aiding and abetting the cruel and brutal use of young children in the Democratic Republic of Congo to mine cobalt,” according to ABC News. However, in March 2024, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia found the five tech giants not liable due to only having an “ordinary buyer-seller transaction” with...
While working in the music industry, many artists make the smart move and don’t limit themselves to only excelling in music. Will.i.am is among such musicians who are the definition of “multi-hyphenate.” As an entertainer, record producer, tech entrepreneur, and founder, the East Los Angeles, CA, native has built an extensive resume for himself. “Investor” is yet another title under his growing list of endeavors. In an interview with the “Drink Champs” podcast, Will.i.am recounted two specific investments he’s made thus far. When asked by host N.O.R.E. whether he’d choose Steve Jobs or Elon Musk — like in a game of “This or That” — Will.i.am was prompted to share how both CEOs have made an impact on his life. “I invested in Tesla in 2006 before Elon took over [the company] — around the same time,” Will.i.am explained on the podcast. He continued, “And then, I was a part of Beats. And then, Apple bought Beats from us. So you’re talking about two companies that changed my life. So, I...
For over three decades, Diddy has built a legacy in the music industry. Staying true to his “Can’t stop, won’t stop” motto, the mogul hasn’t let up on both releasing music and discovering new talent. As previously reported by AfroTech, he announced the latest level of his evolution with Love Records — his new R&B label that has partnered with Motown Records.
When your father is Steve Jobs, you may be a little analytical about the evolution of the iPhone. This is true for Eve Jobs, who appears to not be a fan of the iPhone 14 design. However, she isn’t the only one because Twitter users are not feeling the update that the renowned tech company unveiled during an event on Wednesday (Sept. 7). Eve Jobs, the daughter of Steve Jobs and Laurene Powell Jobs, reacts to today’s iPhone announcement on her Instagram. pic.twitter.com/bfn2VtbpsA — Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) September 7, 2022