Amazon is in talks with some big Wall Street banks to launch a checking account geared towards its younger customers. The e-commerce giant is in the early stages of talks with banks like JPMorgan, according to a Wall Street Journal report. Amazon is not trying to become a bank but rather wants to offer Amazon-branded checking accounts. This would be the second partnership Amazon has with JPMorgan. Earlier this year, the company announced it was teaming up with JPMorgan and Berkshire Hathway to create an independent healthcare company.
Apple will reportedly unveil a cheaper MacBook Air and noise-canceling headphones later this year. Longtime Apple analysts are predicting the cheaper MacBook Air could comes as soon as the second quarter of this year. The current version of Apple's MacBook Air costs $999. The newer version will reportedly be a 13-inch model. And according to Bloomberg, Apple is planning to release noise-canceling headphones, similar to ones made by Bose and Beats by Dre. Those are expected out at the end of this year.
Ashley Jenkins, host of Rooster Teeth's "The Know," joins us to talk about the alleged meeting between President Trump and video game makers. So far, no gaming companies have received invitations for the meeting which is supposed to take place this week. The goal of the meeting is to address violence in video games and what effect it could potentially have on people. Jenkins notes there are no studies showing any link between video game consumption and behavior. She also touches on Twitch's new user guidelines which will strictly enforce anti-hate speech and harassment rules. Jenkins says the new rules will allow Twitch to ban users with more uniformity.
Plus, we're recapping the 90th annual Academy Awards with Bonnie Fuller, editor-in-chief at Hollywood Life. The biggest prize of the night, Best Picture, went to Guillermo del Toro's "The Shape of Water." Fuller was excited to see Frances McDormand win Best Actress for her role in “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri." She also weighs in on McDormand's speech, calling for actors to make use of inclusion riders in their contracts. The show also gave some airtime to the #MeToo and Time's Up movements, with actresses like Ashley Judd and Mira Sorvino taking the stage to call for action.
A new mobile app has launched just in time for Valentine's Day. Our.Love bills itself as an A.I.-powered, gamified, relationship wellness app for couples. The app is set in what the company calls the Coupleverse, a virtual world where each couple can build a virtual relationship home as they also build their real-world relationship. Founder and CEO Tal Zlotnitsky joined Cheddar to discuss how the app works. "The concept behind Our.Love is to give people the opportunity to understand where they stand in their relationship through very simple metrics that we provide within the app that will help them in real-time, see where they stand, see where their partner is, and be able to get closer together," he said.
The Super Bowl is just 48 hours away and things are definitely heating up in the social media space, especially on Twitter. Fans across the country are quickly engaging in color commentary as they call it, and actively sharing their views on who's expected to take the big win, which players they are looking forward to seeing. Senior Sports Partner Manager at Twitter, David Herman, joined Cheddar to discuss more.
Director and producer Ivan Reitman passed away over the weekend at the age of 75. The filmmaker was the mastermind behind some of America's favorite films such as "Ghostbusters". Reitman’s family released a statement explaining how they are comforted by the lives he has touched through his films.
The 21st Annual Food Network and Cooking Channel South Beach Wine & Food Festival (SOBEWFF), is returning to Miami on February 24 with proceeds to benefit the future leaders of the hospitality industry. Lee Schrager, the founder and director of the festival, and Food Network star Jeff Mauro joined Cheddar News to discuss what ticket holders can expect, how the festival benefits students, and how Mauro will be paying tribute to fellow food celebrity, Guy Fieri, by hosting a charity auction dinner. "I mean there's nobody bigger, nobody more magnetic right now in the food space than Guy," Maura said. "I mean the guy had a Super Bowl commercial on last night. That's a dream of mine, so I'm one step closer there just by doing a tight 20 minutes at his tribute dinner."
