Ticketmaster’s dynamic pricing will be investigated, pledged UK Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport Lisa Nandy in response to protests by thousands of disappointed fans who failed to secure tickets to the Oasis reunion tour. Fans waiting in online Ticketmaster queues saw prices shoot up by as much as £200 before they were able to make a purchase. Thousands more reportedly couldn’t even access the site to buy tickets, resorting instead to ticket-resale sites in what is being described as the biggest concert debacle since Taylor Swift fans were frustrated by their attempts to use the service to purchase 2023 Eras Tour tickets. Read more

Huawei Technologies Co. continued to grow revenue for the sixth consecutive quarter, tallying $33.6 billion for the period ending in June, a 33.7 percent increase year-over-year. The privately held company releases limited financial information. The net profit margin at the half-year mark was said to be 13.2 percent, equivalent to $7.7 billion. Bloomberg extrapolated that to profit of about $5 billion for the quarter, which represents an 18.6 percent decline over the same period last year when asset sales boosted results. The overall trend saw Huawei and other Chinese smartphone manufacturers continuing to gain ground against Apple. Read more

Musician and tech entrepreneur will.i.am is launching an interactive radio service built around conversational AI. Called RAiDiO.FYI, the service lets listeners talk to artificial intelligence serving as DJs as part of a one-on-one exchange designed as a personalized listening experience. RAiDiO.FYI’s AI DJs are trained to converse about topics ranging from music to sports, weather and breaking news. The new service is an offshoot of the performer’s FYI.AI, a platform of digital tools for artists. Users can access RAiDiO.FYI for free on the FYI app for iPhone and Android. Read more

In an effort to create a safer environment for teens, social platform Snapchat is providing educators with resources to familiarize them with the app and help them understand how students use it. The company has launched a website called “An Educator’s Guide to Snapchat.” The announcement, timed to the start of the new school year, comes as lawmakers have been pressuring social networks to do more to protect children, with Florida and Indiana going so far as to enact school cell phone bans. Legislators in California and New York have been exploring similar prohibitions. Read more

Hanoi Police in conjunction with global anti-piracy group Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE) has closed down what is being called the largest pirate streaming operation in the world. The takedown of the notorious Fmovies and other active piracy sites involved the U.S. Homeland Security Investigations unit and the U.S. Department of Justice International Computer Hacking and Intellectual Property (ICHIP) program working with Vietnamese authorities. In 2023, Fmovies was ranked by Similarweb as the world’s 11th most popular website in the TV, Movies & Streaming category. Read more