Journal

YouTube Red will let viewers watch YouTube videos without ads—and eventually access exclusive content for $10 per month.

The world’s biggest online video site is going freemium. As widely speculated for some time, YouTube is launching a pay subscription service, on October 28. The premium tier, called YouTube Red, will let viewers watch videos without ads and save videos for offline, among other perks. It will cost $10 per month on the web or Android, $13 per month on iOS due to Apple’s 30% fee.

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When will then be now? Soon.

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In response to geopolitical unrest, Israel’s Ministry of Tourism hopes to entice tourists with discounted vacation packages on Groupon.

In response to a wave of stabbings, lynchings, and rioting, the Israeli government is taking an unusual approach to woo tourists: offering discounted vacations on Groupon. Starting next week, Israel’s Ministry of Tourism will sell discount vacation packages to American tourists via Groupon in a rare example of a government agency directly offering vacation tours via the coupon service.

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Meet Howdy, a trainable workplace bot that can automate boring administrative tasks.

When the professional chat app Slack launched in 2013, the small team at software development studio XOXCO immediately started building integrations. Based in central south Austin with a dozen delicious food trucks within walking distance, team lunches were a point of constant group discussion, so the team developed a Slack bot named “Lunch Bot” that would pipe in with suggestions. “We thought, what are the other kinds of things that are boring and mundane that lots of teams do that can be delegated to a bot?” says CEO Ben Brown.

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As Halloween continues seeing couples in Wayne and Garth costumes, Mike Myers talks about how it all began—and why it’s remained so popular.

One recent Halloween, Mike Myers received a phone call from a friend, demanding that Myers make his way to Santa Monica Boulevard for the annual parade. Of course, the exceedingly recognizable comedy star and filmmaker wanted to know why he might wish to subject himself to such a scene. “Because,” the friend replied, “I’m surrounded by five Dr. Evils, six Austin Powers, 11 Fembots, and 14 Wayne Campbells.”

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