Samsung wants to make your TV feel less like technology.

At least, that’s the idea behind the Frame TV: a swanky, minimalist television set that’s designed to look like a large picture frame.

The Yves Behar-designed TV was first showcased earlier this year as a sort of concept device, but now Samsung is rolling it out as a full-on consumer product. The company announced on Friday that the Frame will be available to purchase on Samsung’s site starting June 18.

As you might expect, it’s not cheap: A 55-inch model will go for $1,999, while a 65-inch model will cost $2,799. A handful of different color snap-on bezels will cost $200 for the smaller model, and $250 for the larger one.

For that cash, though, you get a TV that’s a bit more striking than the usual black boxes sitting in most living rooms.

SEE ALSO: Here's why HDR, not 4K, is the most important upgrade for your next TV

Samsung has dabbled with this “lifestyle TV” design before — the fancy Serif TV it launched in 2015 got at a similar aesthetic. The company says it wanted to harken back to a time when TVs were more like the wooden boxes that, indirectly or not, contributed to the vibe of a living room.

You can decide whether the Frame TV looks like something you'd want. For what it’s worth, though, I was able to briefly check out the new set at Samsung’s offices in New York earlier this month, and I can say that the TV is, in fact, nicely put together. You can still tell it’s a TV when you see it planted among actual picture frames, but it certainly feels less like a gadget.

To be clear, the Frame is still a LED Samsung TV at its core. It’s got a sharp 4K resolution, and it supports HDR10, which’ll give it more life-like colors with compatible content. There is some level of local dimming — a type of screen tech that boost contrasts and creates a more vibrant image — though it's not as deep as on other Samsung TVs. There are a host of ports for HDMI, USB, and Ethernet, too, and the central smart TV interface is the same as it’d be on any other Samsung TV.

I’d have to spend more time with the Frame to make any judgments about picture quality, but Samsung likens it to the quality of its MU8000 series. So, it should be a step below the company’s highest-end TVs — which use a special “QLED” technology for better colors — and instead sit in the upper mid-range area. Everything looked more than pleasant in my demo; just know that you’re paying for the design first and foremost.

The big hook here is something Samsung calls “Art Mode.” The idea is that, when you’re done actually watching TV, you can flip the Frame TV into a separate mode that’s explicitly for displaying digital paintings and photos.

Samsung says the Frame comes with about 100 works of art from a few dozen artists and photographers by default. You can add your own photos through the USB port or Samsung’s Smart View app, which lets you beam content from your phone to the TV, though there’s no integration with photo apps like Instagram or Flickr.

Not since Walt Disney has there been a figure in the animation world who has transcended the medium like John Lasseter, with the studio he oversees, Pixar.

Yes, Jeffrey Katzenberg and DreamWorks Animation had their time, but for over 20 years, Lasseter's Pixar has consistently put out box-office hits (the company has earned close to $11 billion worldwide) and created stories that affect us on an emotional level and that we can't wait to experience again and again.

From the "you've got a friend" tale of the "Toy Story" movies to a commentary on how we need to protect our planet in the multilayered "WALL-E," Pixar movies are much more than kids movies or cartoons. Which is exactly how ol' Walt went about it.

With Pixar's latest, "Cars 3," now in theaters, we've taken on the gargantuan task of ranking all 18 Pixar releases — scroll down to find out the best.

SEE ALSO: 22 stars you didn't know were in the "Star Wars" movies

18. 'Cars 2' (2011)

Taking Lightning McQueen (voiced by Owen Wilson) and Mater (Larry the Cable Guy) away from Radiator Springs and going international (plus making Mater a spy) didn't grab critics. This sequel became the first "rotten" Pixar movie on Rotten Tomatoes. Deservedly.

17. 'A Bug’s Life' (1998)

In the second movie ever released by Pixar, an ant named Flik (voiced by Dave Foley) sets out to find others to help save his colony against grasshoppers and ends up recruiting a unique group of allies.

Though the movie was successful at the box office, with the release of DreamWorks' "Antz" a month earlier, you're more likely to remember the Lasseter-Katzenberg feud than the films. 

16. 'Cars 3' (2017)

Though the "Cars" movies are the least acclaimed of anything Pixar makes, the company continues to churn them out. The latest one touches on some interesting themes like mortality and self-confidence, but it feels like everyone involved in the making of it was on cruise control.

Walk through any major music festival and you're going to encounter similar fixtures: big stages, a mix of hip up-and-comers and established megastars, and an array of gourmet food and drink vendors. Add one more to the list: brands.

At this year's Governors Ball Music Festival in New York City, the brands were tucked into every corner: Bacardi Rum, Tito's Vodka, Coca Cola, Vitamin Water, Subway, and Godiva Chocolate, to name a few.

One might think that advertising at an event attendees pay $300 or more to attend would be unwelcome, particularly among hip millennials, whose reputation as advertising-averse and difficult to reach has spawned a cottage industry of millennial-focused brand experts and consultants. But, it's the opposite.

Everywhere, over the course of the three-day festival, attendees were — to use advertising jargon — engaging with brands — sampling products, filling out surveys, signing up for mailing lists, and taking branded photos and uploading them to social media.

All of that is a testament to the skill of Founders Entertainment, the festival promotion company behind Governors Ball, and more broadly the genius of "experiential marketing" or "engagement marketing" (there are a lot of names for it, I could go on.).

Rather than a one-way, passive relationship between brand and consumer (like traditional television advertisements), "engagement marketing" tries to create a two-way relationship getting the consumer and the brand to interact in the real world. So-called brand activations, like those on site at Governors Ball, are the predominant way to make that happen.

The Founders Entertainment team, led by Alex Joffe, the director of brand and media partnerships, have grown festival sponsorships and activations to a program that generates millions of dollars per year.

'The old days' are over

At its most basic level, activations mean free stuff: bags and bags of Kettle Chips, Vitamin Water-branded sunglasses and drinks, a Subway "sandwich tasting" twice a day.

It gets more complex from there. Subway's tasting area was situated in a massive shaded and air-conditioned "Green Room" that featured a DJ, temporary tattoos, and a photobooth. Citibank offered an exclusive viewing platform for Citibank cardholders. In addition to the Bacardi-branded stage, Bacardi staged a "backyard party" with specialty cocktails, shade structures with comfy chairs, "palm-tree periscopes," and "pop-up" performances.

Needless to say, the activations get elaborate — leveraging emerging technologies like 3-D printing, touchscreens, and advanced camera equipment.

"The old days of festival marketing — the generic name on a stage or a banner in a tent somewhere — are over," Joffe told Business Insider. "It's about as progressive and cool and evolving as we've seen it."

Alixandra Barasch, an assistant professor of marketing at NYU Stern School of Business who attended the festival, said that the amenities provided help generate what companies are after: "positive associations" between consumers and the brand.

And whereas past generations may have viewed any brand presence as an overt and unwelcome "persuasion attempt," according to Barasch, millennials tend to be more comfortable, and even positive, about activations so long as they feel like they aren't being constantly sold to, and are getting something in return.

"Millennials are embracing that idea of having both the authenticity and wanting to make a profit," she said. "But they are skeptical about how you go about that. They want value created."

Barasch pointed to the free ponchos handed out by Tito's Vodka on the rainy Sunday of the festival as a case-in-point. When ponchos were also on sale at stands for $5, who wouldn't welcome that Tito's sponsorship?

The strategy is hardly new

Red Bull is a well-known pioneer of activation and sponsorship-based marketing. As Rob Walker wrote in "Buying In" — an entire book about the rise of experiential marketing — when Red Bull first entered the US market in the early 2000s, it spent hundreds of millions on sponsoring events that fit its "extreme" image like kiteboarding and motorcross competitions and its association to partying, with displays at nightclubs and creating the Red Bull Music Academy.

Evan Holod, the brand director for Coca Cola, said the company has created activations and sponsored local events throughout its history, but it's clear the brand has upped the ante in recent years.

For Governors Ball, Coca-Cola brought its Share-a-Coke activation, which handed out free cans of different Coca-Cola products and featured a specialized vending machine that allowed attendees to type in their name and a friend's and receive two Coke cans emblazoned with the names.

While the activation has appeared at various events since 2014, Holod said the brand iterates the activation from year to year, adding new a look and new features. For example, this year the brand added Coca Cola "ambassadors," who wore backpacks that could spray cold air.

Bill Cosby's publicist issued a strong statement after a judge declared the 79-year-old comedian's sexual assault trial a mistrial after jurors failed to reach a verdict despite 52 hours of deliberation.

"Mr. Cosby's power is back. It's back. He has been restored," Andrew Wyatt, Cosby's publicist said as he left the courthouse with Cosby. 

Cosby stands charged with three counts of aggravated sexual assault after he was accused of giving drugs to and molesting Temple University employee Andrea Constand more than a decade ago. Constand first filed a civil claim against Cosby in 2005. 

Cosby has denied Constand's allegations of assault, saying that they engaged in a consensual sexual relationship. Constand pushed back against Cosby's claim and told police, "We were not involved in any romantic relationship." In total, Cosby has been accused of sexual misconduct by nearly 60 women.

On the fourth day of deliberation, jurors informed Judge Steven O'Neill that they could not reach a unanimous decision. O'Neill instructed them to keep working, but they came back on Saturday and said they were "hopelessly deadlocked." O'Neill then declared a mistrial.

"The jurors used their power to speak, and Mr. Cosby's power is back," Wyatt said after leaving the courthouse. "He has been restored, and for all those attorneys who conspired — like Gloria Allred — tell them to go back to law school and take another class," Wyatt said.

Allred is representing a number of other Cosby accusers. One of her clients, Kelly Johnson, appeared as a witness for the prosecution in Cosby's trial. In response to the mistrial, Allred said, "We can never underestimate the blinding power of celebrity." 

"I hope that the prosecution will try this case again and that the next time the court will permit more priority bad act witnesses to testify as the prosecution had requested for this trial," Allred continued. "For the trial that just ended, the court only allowed one such prior bad act witness to testify. And that was my client, Kelly Johnson, rather than the 13 such witnesses which the prosecution wanted to call."

SEE ALSO: Judge declares a mistrial in Bill Cosby's sexual assault trial, jury says it's 'hopelessly deadlocked'

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NOW WATCH: 6 things that happen in 'House of Cards' season 5 that mirror the Trump presidency

There's a new Cheap Trick record out, the group's second in as many years, and I'll just cut to the chase: it rock n' roll is your thing — you know, the real basic stuff — then you've got to cue this thing up. It's titled "We're All Alright!," and that message is an understatement (it's a reference to their late-1970s staple "Surrender") .

Cheap Trick is one of those 1970s bands that, because it's lasted so long, is hard to categorize or really even to know what to expect from. They've been a jangly rock unit, a garage-glam effort, a Really Huge Band thanks to extensive FM radio play in the '70s and '80s, an arena group, an MTV act, and true road warriors. Their live performance at Budokan in Japan hit hugely in 1978 and was thereafter inescapable. 

Cheap Trick has also flirted with self parody, thanks to guitarist Rick Nielsen's penchant for trotting out axes with a few too many necks. The group also don't get no respect — not like bands that avoided pop flirtations at all costs. But then "I Want You to Want Me" comes on the radio and BOOM! you're singing right along.

"We're All Alright!" isn't exactly a return to form because Cheap Trick hasn't ever lost its form, although the lineup has shifted a bit over the decades. Nielsen and singer Robin Zander have remained constant, but bassist Tom Petersson checked out for while, and these days Nielsen's son Daxx is the drummer (it sort of the same idea as Eddie Van Halen's son Wolfgang taking over on bass for Van Halen). 

What "We're All Alright!" does achieve is a very tasty smorgasbord of thick electric-guitar licks with a definite garage-rockabilly vibe and just enough hair-metal in the mix to keep the whole thing appealingly gnarly. Cheap Trick is often labeled a power-pop band, but they're got a little too much crunch on top of their whole debt-to-the-Beatles reputation to make that work.

Which isn't the say that Beatles mainlining isn't in the playbook. "Blackberry Way" from the new record is as pure a Fab Four homage as your likely to hear all year, right down to Zander's twinge of British elocution and Nielsen's George Harrison-derived moves on the six-string.

The real show here happens right at the top, with the straight-up Kinks/Led Zeppelin slammer "You've Got It Going On," which its chugging chords rolling underneath some niftier lead guitar filigree while Zander belts it out in a lower, blues-y register and does a bit of screeching at the end. 

Then we're on to "Long Time" coming, which continues the the whole London circa 1971 feel and pulls it forward into Def Leppard territory. It's a wonderfully dumb, blunt rocker that, like so many songs before, Cheap Trick redeems itself with a whole lot of really catchy music, including some cool keyboards in the backgrounds — the entire tune is a summary of the 1969-1989 trajectory of rock, right dow to a punky slap of non-sequitur noise from Nielsen as it conks out.

If you miss the Ramones, "Nowhere" is a classic punk grinder that explains why Joey was a fan of the Trick. My personal favorite number is "Brand New Name on an Old Tattoo," the title of which speaks volumes about where Cheap Trick is at these days, but which like so much of this record grabs some pop licks, roughs them up, and performs some musicology by connecting Jimmy Page's slabby chords and ringing fills with an overall composition that evokes Aerosmith.

If Cheap Trick had never existed as a group and pioneered this genre-defying pastiche style forty years, you'd listen to "We're All Alright!" and think that you were hearing the greatest cover band in human history trying out its own material. 

As old bands releasing new records go, Cheap Trick's latest doesn't quite touch the highs of Blondie's album from this year, "Pollinator," and in particular the astounding "My Monster," written by former Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr. But here's the thing about Cheap Trick: I listened to the record via Tidal streaming and when it ended, my queue looped over to "Feel," the epic opener from Big Star's 1972 debut, "#1 Record," which came out a year before Cheap Trick formed and established the power-pop mantle that Nielsen, Zander, and the band would take up. 

Big Star's failure is one of the great oversights in modern music, now well documented. Cheap Trick was paying attention back then and understood that heavier, punkier pop could attract a following. They ran with it — and they're still running.

SEE ALSO: Everyone thinks 'Coda' is Led Zeppelin's worst album — but it's really surprisingly great

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NOW WATCH: We drove a brand-new Tesla Model X from San Francisco to New York — here's what happened

Though in the last decade, women have found more work as directors and showrunners on TV, movies are still in the Stone Age when it comes to gender equality. In fact, a recent study showed that in 2016, only 7% of the 250 highest-grossing movies were directed by women, a 2% drop from the year before. 

There’s no better example of this imbalance than the male-dominated comedy movie market, where women are rarely ever given the opportunity to helm outside of rom-coms. So even though there has been needed attention and praise for recent releases like Patty Jenkins’ “Wonder Woman” and Sofia Coppola’s “The Beguiled,” we shouldn’t ignore the significance of Sony releasing Lucia Aniello’s raunchy R-rated comedy “Rough Night” on Friday.

In the last 20 years, there aren’t many examples of women making studio R-rated comedies. The three “Bridget Jones” movies were all helmed by women (Sharon Maguire did the first and third movies, Beeban Kidron made the second), in 2009 Nancy Meyers made “It’s Complicated,” and then you have to go all the way back to 1998's Dave Chappelle-starring classic “Half Baked,” directed by Tamra Davis. So Aniello, who is best known for directing and cowriting many episodes of the Comedy Central hit “Broad City,” is the latest on a very short list. Which she wasn’t aware of for a while.

“I think it's a big deal because it's my first movie, period,” Aniello recently told Business Insider. “That's why it feels like a pretty big moment for me. The fact that there's this additional curse thing that has been broken, which I didn't know about until a few weeks ago, I just hope in some small way if this movie is able to pave the way for anybody else to make an R comedy by women for women, then I think it’s done its job.”

Aniello and her partner Paul W. Downs (who along with being a writer on “Broad City” also plays Trey on the show) wrote the script for "Rough Night" during a break between seasons of “Broad City.” While much of the humor and story on the show — which follows the antics of Ilana (Ilana Glazer) and Abbi (Abbi Jacobson) as they navigate life in New York City — revolve around experiences the staff had in their 20s, Aniello and Downs thought of a way to explore life in their 30s.

“We realized that a lot of our closest friendships have kind of gone to the back burner,” Aniello said. “We had a lot of bachelorette and bachelor parties that we went to and we started talking about this idea of what happens when you have people from college you feel you could never ever live without, but 10 years later, where are you? And is everyone on equal footing or are there issues that have come up?”

They decided to explore those questions inside a raunchy comedy. Over the course of a bachelorette party in Miami, five friends have fun until everything goes very wrong after the stripper they hired dies in a horrific accident.

Aniello and Downs began to pitch it to studios, but there were two stipulations to buying the project: Aniello would have to direct it and Downs would have to play the super-sensitive fiance, Peter. And to their delight, multiple studios were interested in the script, but Sony was the most aggressive.

“From the first conversation, Sony was ready to throw down and make the movie,” Aniello said. “For us we weren't necessarily interested in who is going to give us the most money, we were like, ‘Let's make this thing,’ and that was always our goal from day one. We would have Kickstartered it if we had to, shot it on cell phones in a borrowed house. We just wanted to make something that we really cared about.”

But then things got even better when they found that one of the most bankable actresses in the world wanted to play the lead: Scarlett Johansson.

“It was a complete shot in the dark,” Aniello said about sending the script to Johansson’s people. “I don’t even know if she was looking for that kind of a thing.”

However, Aniello felt the only way to pull off the emotional third act of the movie — in which bachelorette Jess (Johansson) and her friends (Jillian Bell, Ilana Glazer, Kate McKinnon, Zoë Kravitz) open up about being left out of each other’s lives — was with a lead who had serious chops.

“We definitely wanted an actress who had the range of comedy and drama. For us there were very few people in general that we were interested in,” Aniello said.

Though Aniello had no doubts Johansson could pull off the comedy, having seen her hold her own on “Saturday Night Live,” watching her work on the set of a fast-paced comedy movie was still impressive.

“We would give her a Post-It with 30 words on it and she would read it once, hand it back, and I would say, ‘Action,’ and she would deliver it verbatim, perfect timing,” Aniello said. “She’s an unbelievable machine.”

Looking back on the first major movie they’ve been able to make, Downs recalls the back-and-forth with the studio that all hard-R movies experience, like a scene in which his character is offered oral sex at a gas station. Downs said they had to shoot a version that didn’t include the mention of oral sex to appease the studio, but after test screenings, the dirtier version was kept. But another highlight was the camaraderie that was built because of the female power behind the scenes.

“Comedy has always been a boys' club, so I think in that way we knew it was significant that Lucia was directing,” Downs said. “And because it was a woman director and a female cast, all around the same age, they all became girlfriends. That’s the biggest success of this film, how much everyone got along.”

“I’m lucky to be in a position where I can help move the needle, so I’m kind of concentrating on that,” Aniello said of her place in furthering women-directed comedies. “Come and laugh and maybe Hollywood will let women make more R comedies.”

It may just change the landscape of gross-out, goofy R comedies as we know it.

SEE ALSO: "Rough Night" is the woke R-rated female comedy we need right now

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NOW WATCH: HBO just released a new 'Game of Thrones' trailer — the dragons are back

About a month ago, New York Times columnist Farhad Manjoo helped coin a new term for the top-five tech companies that are increasingly dominating our lives: The Frightful Five, better known as Apple, Google, Microsoft, Amazon, and Facebook.

The top of his list? Amazon.

Farhad's argument was that he's increasingly dependent on Amazon for buying stuff and entertaining his family. That's true.

But I'd argue Amazon's reach goes deeper than that, deeper than any other company inside or outside the tech world. And its grip on our lives is only getting stronger, which raises some serious questions we haven't had to ask ourselves about the power and influence a tech company can have over our lives.

Out of the Frightful Five, Amazon is the company you should fear the most.

Amazon's surprise $13.7 billion acquisition of Whole Foods is the latest example. We already knew Amazon had ambitions to break into the grocery business through the Amazon Fresh delivery service and the futuristic cashier-free convenience stores, but this is a whole other level — a subtle troll that the online retail giant can creep its way back into the physical world and take over a popular chain of supermarkets.

But let's talk about everything else Amazon has its grip on and how it continues to hold greater influence over:

• Cloud computing. Amazon Web Services powers many of the apps and websites you use every day. (Remember when an Amazon outage took down a large chunk of the internet?)
• Artificial intelligence. Amazon has quickly become a leader in AI thanks to its Alexa assistant, which has opened up a new world of voice-powered computing.
• Logistics. Through Amazon Air, Amazon plans to use drones and its own planes to deliver goods. It's also experimenting with autonmous trucking. Many have speculated that one day Amazon won't need to rely on UPS, FedEX, or the Postal Service to deliver stuff.
• Entertainment. Amazon has dumped millions into original TV programming and movies. It also runs a streaming music service, and lets you buy digital music and video.
• Food. Between Whole Foods, those futuristic grocery stores, and the Fresh delivery service, Amazon is poised to be one of the largest grocers in the country.
• Health. According to a CNBC report, Amazon is thinking about getting it the prescription drug business.
• Retail and e-commerce. This one is self-explanatory.

There's more. Amazon's influence extends to other industries indirectly through CEO Jeff Bezos' personal investments:

• News media. Bezos owns The Washington Post and a small percentage of Business Insider.
• Outer space. Bezos owns a rocket company, Blue Origin, that's building reusable rockets.

That's a lot of stuff that affects you every day from a company that started selling books online back in the 90s. Now it's hard to find a need Amazon can't fill.

That raises some serious, potentially scary questions if Amazon's influence and capabilities continue to grow. Should one conglomerate have that level of control over the future of so many vital industries people rely on? What kind of check will there be on that power, if any? 

Granted, it's a little early to be thinking about all this. Most of the verticals Amazon is involved in are still dominated by traditional companies. But as we saw in the market's reaction to the Whole Foods deal on Friday, it's clear that there's a strong possibility we're accelerating toward a future where there's a digital layer on top of everything we do. And the company best equipped to deliver all is Amazon. There's literally no one else in a position to compete.

That's a lot of power concentrated in one conglomerate, and puts Amazon in a position where it's a company to fear.

SEE ALSO: The creator of Android explains how his new phone will take on Apple and Samsung

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NOW WATCH: Scott Galloway explains exactly why Amazon would buy Whole Foods (when he predicted it last month)

Last week, buzzy startup Essential announced that its debut phone would be exclusive to Sprint when it launches in the US later this summer.

Except, it's not actually "exclusive" to Sprint. You can buy the phone unlocked through Essential's website, buy a SIM card from any of the four major carriers, and use the device on whichever carrier you want. You likely won't have to deal with annoying Sprint bloatware, either.

Prior to that announcement, Microsoft held its annual Xbox showcase at the E3 video games expo in Los Angeles, where it announced a number of games it described as "exclusive" to its Xbox One platform.

Before the trailers for games like "PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds" and "Ashen" aired, the lights in the Galen Center would dim, and a booming voice would rumble through the speakers:

"Exclusive."

Again, nope. Virtually every game Microsoft displayed at the event will at least be available on the PC; a handful of them will land on rival consoles like the PlayStation 4. "PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds" has already become a smash hit on the PC over the past several months.

Misleading marketing is nothing new in the tech industry, but its continued debasing of the word "exclusive" seems to have only amplified as of late.

When Google launched its long-anticipated Pixel phones last year, for instance, it signed a deal with Verizon to market and distribute the devices. As a result, advertisements for the Pixel were run on TV, on billboards, and through banners across the web — all saying the Pixel was available "only on Verizon." It just wasn't true; Pixels are available unlocked through Google's online store and work perfectly well on other carriers. 

The video-game industry has been particularly bad with this. Have a look at this excellent explainer from Kotaku's Kirk Hamilton: Publishers have managed to warp five different meanings out of the word, and they've bludgeoned them so hard into industry watchers' heads that the nuances are just kind of understood at this point. 

With regards to a commodity, the Oxford Dictionary defines the word "exclusive" as meaning "not obtainable elsewhere." An exclusive thing is only available in one place. This is reality.

You already know why this kind of doublespeak happens. Essential could use a carrier to help with marketing money, and Sprint would love a phone it can wave around as a differentiator and sell to Android enthusiasts. Microsoft needs hits it can sell as not being available on the PlayStation, and in return, the team behind "PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds" gets a nice little windfall. It goes on and on. 

There's nothing wrong with businesses making deals. But when it comes at the expense of honest marketing, preying on people who aren't going to bother checking phone specs and looking up LTE network bands for compatibility, potentially leading them to spend more on a platform they don't need, it's bad form.

And yet, here's a snippet of what you see when you search Google News for "Essential exclusive." The obvious takeaway — if you want the Essential Phone, you'll have to go to Sprint — is entirely false. But the feeling of exclusivity is already there:

There's no end in sight for this. The onus will remain on you, the consumer, to be vigilant. Remember that words have meaning, and approach the tech world's claims of purported "exclusivity" with caution. There may be more flexibility than you first think.

SEE ALSO: Verizon and AT&T both launched misleading services this week — and it points to a larger problem

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NOW WATCH: Watch Microsoft announce the next Xbox — Xbox One X

Sometime later this year, Apple's $349 smart speaker, called HomePod, will go on sale.

The HomePod may be many things: a high-quality speaker, another possibly overpriced Apple product, or an odd move from a company best known for portable devices.

One thing it is not — at least, not yet — is a Trojan horse for Apple to put artificial intelligence in your house that talks to you and runs your house and life. 

One key to understanding Apple is that it doesn't pursue technologies for their own sake. It builds things that people presumably want — the user experience, or the reason why someone would pay for it, comes first. 

Apple thinks that people will buy the HomePod because they want a premium stereo. Nowhere is this clearer than in comments that Apple CEO Tim Cook gave to Businessweek earlier this month.

"The thing that has arguably not gotten a great level of focus is music in the home. So we decided we would combine great sound and an intelligent speaker," Cook told Bloomberg's Megan Murphy. 

"When I was growing up, audio was No. 1 on the list of things that you had to have. You were jammin’ out on your stereo. Audio is still really important in all age groups, not just for kids. We’re hitting on something people will be delighted with. It’s gonna blow them away. It’s gonna rock the house," he continued.

This is completely in line with how late CEO Steve Jobs described the company in 2010. Apple's philosophy is to "make extremely advanced products from a technology point of view but also have them be intuitive, easy to use, fun to use, so that they really fit the users and users don't have to come to them, they come to the user," Jobs said. 

Notice what Jobs didn't say: Apple's goal is not to have the most drool-worthy pure technology that people in Silicon Valley see as the future of computing — although it's doing that a little bit lately, particularly with its experiments in augmented reality, a very early emerging technology.

Apple's not really a tech company. As independent Apple analyst Neil Cybart has previously argued, it's a design company, and with HomePod, it's designed an easier way to play high-quality sound in your home. It's almost incidental that Apple's using Siri as its main control system. 

For the most part, Apple only likes to talk about tech that it's about to sell. As Cook told MIT Technology Review earlier this month, a lot of technology companies "sell futures" — and you'll be able to buy a HomePod later this year. 

Rock the house 

I've personally heard the HomePod, and I can tell you, in my brief listening experience in a controlled and simulated living room, it does sound great. 

I heard HomePod play the same songs as the Sonos Play 3, which is a premium speaker that you can't talk to, as well as the Amazon Echo, which is a cheap speaker that exists to be spoken to.

HomePod clearly sounded better than both to my ears. For someone who wants a really good home stereo, and price isn't a major factor, I suspect the HomePod will have to be a consideration. 

Eventually, you'll be able to talk to Apple's Siri on the HomePod. But I didn't get a chance. Apple didn't want the story out of its recent WWDC conference to be how impressive Siri is — it wanted it to be that the sound is amazing. 

I buy that. Siri can still be frustrating to use. And studies show that when people talk to their Amazon Echo, the most common thing they do is tell is to play music.

Someday, futurists imagine, these speakers will contain a generalized artificial intelligence that humans can converse with, rely on, or maybe fall in love with (ever see the movie "Her"?). 

But that's not what Siri is. Siri is a complicated piece of software that uses machine learning to understand what you say and return answers. Machine learning is a key component of creating an AI, but it's also used all over technology — for example, to keep your iPhone's battery lasting longer. It's merely a way of solving a problem that's hard to define with simple rules.

So Apple doesn't want to be compared against "futures." With the HomePod, Apple's not saying Siri will become your new virtual friend, like the future depicted in movies like "Her." Apple didn't even tell its armies of software makers how to program simple apps for the speaker. 

Apple is simply saying it will rock the house. 

SEE ALSO: Apple says its new $350 speaker will 'reinvent home music' — here's what we know

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NOW WATCH: I wear these computer glasses every day even though I have perfect vision — here's why

Pixar's latest movie, "Cars 3," may have won the weekend box office, but that was hardly the most interesting thing that went down at the multiplex the last couple of days.

The latest movie in the "Cars" franchise took in an estimated $53 million, according to Exhibitor Relations, the lowest opening for any "Cars" movie.

In second place with $40 million is "Wonder Woman," which continues to be a cash cow for Warner Bros./DCEU with a domestic total of $274 million and over $500 million worldwide.

But then things get interesting. In a surprising third place with $27 million is "All Eyez on Me," the biopic on the late rapper, Tupac Shakur. After years in development hell and numerous directors attached (including John Singleton and Antoine Fuqua), the movie finally hit theaters with weekend with music video director Benny Boom at the helm. It proved audiences have a hunger for a Tupac movie as much as they do for his music.

Released through Lionsgate, the movie was the number two ticket seller behind "Cars 2" on Fandango Thursday and Friday and then went and outgrossed "Wonder Woman" on Friday with $12.8 million (including $3.1 million in Thursday preview screenings) versus $10.8 million for the comic book icon.

So, despite its 24% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, audiences flocked to see actor Demetrius Shipp Jr.'s on-the-nose performance of Tupac and the rapper's numerous featured tracks in the movie.

But not everyone did great. Sony can't be happy with the performance of the R comedy "Rough Night," which only took in $8 million on over 3,000 screens.

Though these kind of movies historically never do well in theaters (everyone waits until these titles hit cable/streaming), Sony was hoping with a cast that included Scarlett Johansson, Kate McKinnon, and "Broad City" star Ilana Glazer, there would be a lot of girls' night out treks to the movies.

Sadly, more people went to see the low budget thriller "47 Meters Down," starring Mandy Moore and a whole bunch of sharks chasing her. The movie edged past "Rough Night," taking in $11.5 million.

SEE ALSO: RANKED: Every Pixar movie from worst to best

DON'T MISS: Why it’s a big deal the raunchy comedy 'Rough Night' was made by a woman

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NOW WATCH: This man played Barney the dinosaur for 10 years — here's what it was like

The modern summer blockbuster began in June 1975, when a young director named Steven Spielberg made us scared to go back into the water thanks to the thriller "Jaws." 

Since then, audiences have happily braved the dog days of summer for decades to stand in huge lines for movie spectacles like "Star Wars," "Raiders of the Lost Ark," "Jurassic Park," all its sequels, and more recently, all those Marvel movies.

By feeding people's hunger for franchises and action, this is the time of year when the movie business gets a good portion of its annual revenue. But only a handful of the blockbusters have stood the test of time as Hollywood's biggest summer earners ever.

Below are the highest-grossing summer movies at the domestic box office of all time:

Note: All figures are from Box Office Mojo and adjusted for inflation.

SEE ALSO: The 10 biggest box office bombs of 2017 so far

10. “Jurassic World” (2015) - $698 million

Unadjusted gross: $652 million

9. “Raiders of the Lost Ark” (1981) - $782 million

Unadjusted gross: $248 million

8. “The Lion King” (1994) - $788 million

Unadjusted gross: $422 million

Barbara Corcoran has turned the founders of her favorite "Shark Tank" investments into a family of entrepreneurs.

For the past four years, Corcoran has assembled a group of her most profitable entrepreneurs, along with the most promising founders from the most recent season of the show, for a three-day retreat at one of her homes. The group changes each year.

During this time, they all share best practices, give updates on successes and failures of the past year, and get to know each other better.

This June, she brought the founders of five companies to New York City, ending the retreat at a New York Yankees game. The founders, with custom "Barbara's All-Stars" Yankees shirts, got to enjoy the game from a box suite overlooking home plate.

We met up with them to discuss the best business lessons they've learned from Corcoran.

SEE ALSO: The 'small business owners of the year' share their best advice for entrepreneurs

Daisy Cakes founder Kim Nelson learned that there's no time to feel sorry for yourself when things go wrong.

Kim Nelson is the veteran of Corcoran's all-stars, having made a deal with her in Season 2, back in 2010. Corcoran invested $50,000 for 25% equity in Daisy Cakes, and the South Carolina-based online cake company grew rapidly. Last year it brought in $5.2 million in revenue, at a profit.

Nelson said that Corcoran taught her the importance of knowing when to keep her emotions from impacting her decisions and, in turn, hurting the business.

In 2013, Corcoran secured an update segment for Daisy Cakes on an episode of "Shark Tank" — the investors compete for the update spots because each appearance drives sales. After the Daisy Cakes update aired, one of Nelson's employees was unavailable to take orders, and it had a significant negative impact on the segment's potential success. It was also just one of many mistakes this employee had been making.

Corcoran was furious and told Nelson she needed to fire this employee immediately. Nelson began crying, because even though this employee had failed her, she considered her a friend.

"It's OK to cry," Corcoran told Nelson. "You've got five minutes. Step outside, get your cry, get it over with, and get back inside and get your ass back to work."

Nelson said she's carried the lesson with her: "If something doesn't go right or how you wanted it to, get back up, dust yourself off, and go back after something else. Don't sit around having a pity party, feeling sorry for yourself."

Grace and Lace founders Rick and Melissa Hinnant learned how to expand their team.

The husband-and-wife team of Rick and Melissa Hinnant gave 10% of Grace and Lace to Corcoran in exchange for a $175,000 investment in Season 5, in late 2013. The women's apparel company has made $25 million in total sales since its appearance on "Shark Tank," and the Hinnants expect sales to be over $10 million this year, at a profit.

Melissa is the visionary behind Grace and Lace, and during the summer of 2015 she was overwhelmed with the growth of business, to the point of "almost having a breakdown." Corcoran told her and Rick that the problem was that the company was too big for Melissa to be individually designing every product, micromanaging operations.

Melissa said that she had been unwilling to share some of her responsibilities sooner because she believed it would be handing over her business, which would inevitably transform the company for the worse.

Corcoran reframed the idea of hiring a team to share some of Melissa's burden as "empowering" and helping to grow her vision rather than "handing it over."

Rick added that Corcoran told them that when they went to build this design team, they needed to focus less on résumés and more on who Melissa connected with. "Just get good people around Melissa and it'll take care of itself," Rick said Corcoran told them. "And it's totally done that."

Pipsnacks founders Jeff and Jen Martin learned the importance of timing.

Sibling entrepreneurs Jeff and Jen Martin made a $200,000 deal with Corcoran in Season 6, in 2014, for 10% of their New York-based Pipsnacks. Since then, they've landed a deal with Whole Foods that got their line of gourmet popcorn into every Whole Foods location in the US, and they're expecting sales this year to be around $5 million, at a profit.

Jen said that Corcoran taught them the importance on staying focused on where they excel, and told them to "figure out how you can dig deeper in that" rather than expanding beyond their strengths. Jeff added that Corcoran has stressed that there's a right time for everything, and that they need to be disciplined about how they grow the company.

For example, the Martins said, they added three new flavors of Pipcorn this year because they felt they had sufficiently used their core offering to build brand awareness, and Whole Foods was ready to increase the product's presence in its stores. Jen and Jeff said they have plenty of ideas always ready to implement, but that releasing a product at the wrong time could be a disaster.

Jeff said Corcoran helped them realize that growth is "cyclical," and that when they finally feel comfortable with the scope of the business, it's time to readjust, that, "it's always coming back to square one where you can see what's happening everywhere and adjust, and then find out when you should grow again."

Jay Z's new album is coming on June 30, and it will stream exclusively on the rapper's music streaming service Tidal.

The New York artist's latest work, titled "4:44," will join Tidal's catalogue of music, but not everyone outside of the service's current user base is out of luck.

Tidal is partnering with US carrier Sprint, whose customers will be able to enjoy a free six-month Tidal HiFi membership.

It is not yet clear when (or whether) Spotify's 50 million and Apple Music's 27 million users will get a chance to hear Jay Z's new LP. Last year, fellow rapper Kanye West debuted his own "The Life of Pablo" exclusively on Tidal, too, although the exclusivity was lifted six weeks after the initial release.

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NOW WATCH: Every map of Louisiana is a lie — what it really looks like should scare you

On Sunday's "Last Week Tonight," host John Oliver delved into a topic that has been prominent in the news recently thanks to President Donald Trump: the coal industry.

Though Trump used coal as a reason for pulling out of the Paris climate agreement earlier this month, Oliver dedicated his longer segment to explaining why he believes Trump needs to start being honest with coal workers.

Oliver points out that though Trump supporters push the narrative that former President Barack Obama is the cause for the decline in coal jobs due to legislation under his administration, the fact is that coal mining has been in a decline for a decade.

This has to do with the drop in natural gas prices and growth in renewable energy. Then there's also the reality of the world we live in now when it comes to hard labor.

“The hard truth is even if consumption wasn’t declining, companies would still be cutting jobs as they are increasingly replacing miners with machines,” Oliver said.

The dilemma is that even though new energy jobs are on the rise, that's not happening in states that have been historically known for being coal country. And because of that, Oliver believes Trump needs to be more truthful to the mining community.

But there's a problem: He's got friends in high places in the world of coal.

His Secretary of Commerce is Wilbur Ross, founder of International Coal Group. And during Trump's campaign for president, one of his biggest supporters was Bob Murray, CEO of Murray Energy.

“If Trump really cares about miners, he would be putting a plan in place for their futures as mining continues its long-term decline, but he isn’t doing that,”  Oliver said. 

In fact, Oliver points out, Trump's new budget proposal would cut funding for the Appalachian Regional Commission, which helps revitalize communities affected by coal mining job losses. 

“Trump needs to stop lying to coal miners. We all do," Oliver said. "Stop telling them that their jobs are all coming back when they’re not, stop telling them coal is clean when it isn’t, and stop pretending that this isn’t an industry in the middle of a difficult, albeit necessary transition. An honest conversation about coal and its miners needs to be had.”

Watch John Oliver's segment on coal below:

SEE ALSO: RANKED: Every Pixar movie from worst to best

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NOW WATCH: This man played Barney the dinosaur for 10 years — here's what it was like

Sofia Coppola has always taken to moody, subtle stories that explore the human condition. Her latest movie, "The Beguiled" (opening in limited release Friday and nationwide on June 30), certainly has that, but Coppola also throws in suspense resulting in something she's never really made before: a genre movie.

Granted, this genre movie is highbrow — it's made by a master filmmaker and features incredible cinematography and performances by some of the best actors working today. But if you only heard the plot of this titillating Southern Gothic tale featuring attractive women and a dashing soldier, you would think this was a steamy melodrama from the 1970s (which it actually was).

Based on the novel of the same name by Thomas P. Cullinan, the story is set in a Virginia girls' school during the Civil War that shelters a wounded Union soldier, John McBurney (Colin Farrell). John instantly has sexual tension with the headmistress, Martha Farnsworth (Nicole Kidman); a teacher, Edwina Dabney (Kirsten Dunst); and an older student, Alicia (Elle Fanning). Gradually as John gets more healthy, the flirting increases. But one evening, an incident leads to John being in worse condition than when he originally arrived. And that's when things get really dark.

Cullinan's story was originally given a Hollywood adaptation in 1971 with Clint Eastwood in the John McBurney role and Don Siegel directing. Audiences didn't really want to see Clint in the role of a heartthrob and passed, but it's currently streaming on HBO Go/Now and you should check it out. It's a performance by Eastwood he's never done before or since.

Coppola's version is more ambiguous than Siegel's. She teases the audience more about the women's feelings toward John and also provides a better atmosphere of the horrors going on around them. With the Civil War at full speed, we hear bombs going off constantly beyond the tree lines, and the talk of if the Union or Confederates have the advantage leads to the feeling of helplessness the women have about what they do with John and John's own motives for wanting to stay.

Farrell as John is perfect casting. He certainly has the looks to pull off the role, but the role also shows the confidence he's exuding at this point in his career. He's always been a strong actor, but in the past five years, he's done some of his best work, and here he's performing at a high level.

Kidman, Dunst, and Fanning also give stellar performances.

Coppola, who won the best director award at this year's Cannes Film Festival, uses a slow-burn approach to build a thrilling chamber piece. It won't be a movie that works for all, but it shows another side of the filmmaker's capabilities that is a joy to watch.

SEE ALSO: 22 stars you didn't know were in the "Star Wars" movies

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NOW WATCH: 6 things that happen in 'House of Cards' season 5 that mirror the Trump presidency

Best known for her comedic work in movies and TV — and her recurring role as Trudy Campbell on “Mad Men” — Alison Brie is on the cusp of taking her career up a notch. And she’s getting there by taking on some edgy material.

On Friday, you’ll see her as the lead in the fictional origin story of how the Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling got off the ground in the 1980s with the new Netflix series “GLOW.” Then a week later she and Aubrey Plaza star as horny nuns in the indie comedy “The Little Hours,” in which they seduce an attractive man-servant (played by Brie’s husband Dave Franco) who has mysteriously shown up at their 14th-century convent.

Brie recently talked to Business Insider about shedding her girl-next-door persona; how many times Franco put her through watching “The Room” in preparation for “The Disaster Artist,” an upcoming movie about the making of the bad-movie classic (directed by Dave’s brother James Franco); and her excitement about playing Meryl Streep’s daughter in the the upcoming Steven Spielberg movie “The Papers.”

Jason Guerrasio: "The Little Hours" marks the first time you and Dave have starred in a movie together. Were you guys interested in working together on a project?

Alison Brie: We were. I sort of unofficially signed on first. I've known ["The Little Hours" director] Jeff [Baena] for a couple of years.

Guerrasio: Since you did "Joshy"?

Brie: Yes. And I've known Aubrey for years just because we were both at NBC at the same time and knew each other socially. And then I worked with Jeff very briefly on "Joshy" and developed a friendship. Jeff invited me out for coffee and said he had an idea he wanted to talk to me about and pitched me this movie. And Jeff is so smart and he basically studied this time period and this topic and just as he described to me these stories from "The Decameron" and adapting them into a film. Us playing nuns in the 14th century and that Aubrey would be one of the nuns and possibly Molly Shannon — the whole idea just got me very excited. It's so unique and the majority of movies getting made today are remakes or stories that have been done before. I feel almost everything you see has a quick log line of "it's this meets this" and this was not like that at all.

Guerrasio: But was it also exciting that it was edgier than the nice girl-type roles you usually get?

Brie: Definitely. I'm always looking for that. I feel that's always the goal, to try to do work that is different from material that I have done before where characters are different or some aspect of it is different or exciting in some way. And with "The Little Hours," another big part of it was — I mean, hearing that it's going to shoot in Italy didn't hurt at all — but that it was also unscripted. Jeff had a detailed 20-page outline for what the plot of the movie would be and what would happen in each scene but there was no script so there was this feeling of it being an experimental film. That we would go to Italy with this group of people that we know and love to perform with and we would make it up together as we went along. That, to me, seemed like an amazing adventure. It kind of scared me and I'm always intrigued by things that scare me. I like to run at stuff that terrifies me.

Guerrasio: I wondered about how you pulled it off, particularly the sexuality of it. I mean, you're there with your significant other and he's taking part in some racy scenes. I know it's all performance, but did those scenes ever get weird or uncomfortable for you?

Brie: No. It really didn't. Jeff had told me the premise of the movie before Dave had signed on to do the movie, so I knew that it was about this guy who shows up and all the women seduce him. And I said, "Who are you thinking of for the guy?" Because I'm thinking, God, I hope it's someone that I respond to. And when he said Dave I was relived. And I sort of helped convince Dave a little bit to do the movie.

Guerrasio: That's funny.

Brie: I just felt, how much fun would it be to go to Italy together on this strange adventure with this movie? Also, both of us are professional and we watch each other do romantic scenes all the time. If anything, it was more comfortable because I knew all these people so well.

Guerrasio: This won't be the last time you and Dave will be in a movie together. You'll both be in "The Disaster Artist," so how many times has Dave put you through watching "The Room"?

Brie: [Laughs] Um, I think only one time.

Guerrasio: Wow. I figured at least a couple of times.

Brie: Dave signed on to do "The Disaster Artist" very early on to work with James. This was still when they were putting the movie together. So I didn't think I was going to be involved at all. I was around while Dave was doing his research, but we never watched the movie together. Then we listened to the book on tape of "The Disaster Artist" together. So from listening to that he said, "You have to see the movie now that you know the backstory," so we bought a copy of "The Room" at Amoeba and we put it on and two minutes in I was like, "I have to have a drink, I can't watch this totally sober." But the crazy thing about that movie is it's so genuine.

Guerrasio: I’ve heard people who are fans of the movie like Jonah Hill and Paul Rudd, and I'm sure James feels the same way. They don't love it because they think it's bad — they appreciate the work that's gone into it and want to champion it.

Brie: Yeah. And it's really an endearing and inspiring story about two friends trying to make it into the entertainment industry.

Guerrasio: I talked to your trainer Jason Walsh. He said you did all your own stunts for "GLOW."

Brie: I did.

Guerrasio: Did you suffer any injuries from doing all the wrestling moves?

Brie: No. Not at all. I hate to disappoint you —

Guerrasio: No, it confirms that what Jason said is true: You are a badass.

Brie: [Laughs] It definitely does. No, I think the work I did with Jason definitely helped to keep me safe. Because we certainly got banged up. I had visible bruises, you can see them on my legs and butt in episodes of the show, but we had a great wrestling trainer for the show, Chavo Guerrero Jr. He comes from a long line of wrestlers, so he was incredible with us and very patient and made us all fall in love with wrestling. And our stunt coordinator, Shauna Duggins, whose main priority really was our safety and breaking down these moves so we would be able to do them for 10-12 hours at a time. And obviously there were tricks. If the camera doesn't show all the way to the mat, there would be a pad there that we would land on. And a bigger move, like a suplex, we would limit the amount of takes. We would say, "We got five suplexes in us today, so tell us when you got the shot."

Guerrasio: You also recently have been cast in Spielberg's "The Papers," about how the Pentagon Papers were released. Can you get into who you will be playing?

Brie: I’m playing Lally Weymouth, Katharine Graham's daughter. So Meryl Streep is playing Katharine and I'm playing her daughter.

Guerrasio: Have you had a chance to meet up with Meryl yet?

Brie: I met her very briefly on set when she finished shooting a scene and she could not have been lovelier. I'm over the moon, I couldn't be more excited about that movie. I could burst into tears right now just talking about it. It's a dream come true.

Guerrasio: You are really at a point now where your profile is rising. What's the next elevation? Would you go the superhero route if called upon?

Brie: I hope that's the case. I would love to. I think especially after working on "GLOW," where we all felt like we were superheroes, in a way it has satisfied my desire to do something like that. But in some ways it's only whet my appetite. But I guess I feel very lucky that I've been able to work on such different projects recently. All different time periods and genres. So that looking forward is the goal. I love working in comedy. I would want to continue doing that, but I would also like to do more dramatic roles. Since wrapping "Mad Men" I have missed that a little so I'm excited to work on "The Papers" at that capacity. Just continuing to work with great people.

Guerrasio: Is there a superhero character you would drop everything to play?

Brie: Oh gosh, no. I'm open for any. Just call me and offer. [Laughs]  

"GLOW" is available on Netflix Friday. "The Little Hours" opens in theaters June 30.

SEE ALSO: RANKED: Every Pixar movie from worst to best

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NOW WATCH: HBO just released a new 'Game of Thrones' trailer — the dragons are back

It's no surprise that the big gameplay reveal for "Star Wars Battlefront 2" has been watched nearly 10 million times in just over a week. 

Nothing quite gets people going like the whoosh-whoosh of a lightsaber — except for maybe wielding that lightsaber themselves, of course. 

And that's exactly what you'll get to do in the upcoming game, scheduled to launched on November 17 for Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC.

Here's everything we know about the game so far!

SEE ALSO: A brand new 'Star Wars' game was just announced — here's everything we know

"Battlefront 2" takes place in the aftermath of "Return of the Jedi" (the final film in the original "Star Wars" trilogy). The second Death Star has just exploded, and you're an Imperial soldier with revenge on the brain.

Rather than a saber-wielding Jedi, you're a trooper. And that means guns instead of future-swords. This is a first-person shooter, first and foremost.

Through her journey of revenge, Iden will visit a variety of stunning locals.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Carrie Fisher’s autopsy report shows the actress had cocaine in her system when she fell ill on a plane last year, but investigators could not determine what impact the cocaine and other drugs found in her system had on her death.

The report released Monday states Fisher may have taken cocaine three days before the Dec. 23 flight on which she became ill. She died four days later.

It also found traces of heroin and MDMA, which is also known as ecstasy, but that they could not determine when Fisher had taken those drugs. The findings were based on toxicology screenings done on samples taken when the “Star Wars” actress arrived at a Los Angeles hospital.

Coroner’s officials ruled Fisher died from sleep apnea and a combination of other factors.

SEE ALSO: The awesome life and career of 'Star Wars' icon Carrie Fisher

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NOW WATCH: The richest village in China is one of the most mysterious places on earth

Shares of Snapchat maker Snap Inc. jumped nearly 3% on Monday following the news that the app maker has entered a new agreement to make original shows with Time Warner.

The deal means that Time Warner will pay Snap $100 million to develop shows and advertise in the app over the next two years, according to a person familiar with the matter.

And the partnership comes at a crucial time for Snap, whose shares sunk to its $17 IPO price for the first time last week. Tech giants like Facebook, Netflix, Amazon, and Apple are all increasingly competing for original shows.

Snap typically broadcasts one shows per day in its app under a "Shows" header. They are all 5-10 minutes in length and are made in participation with networks like NBC, ABC, BBC, A&E, Discovery, Vice, and others. Shows have collectively drawn "audiences of over 8 million," Snap CEO Evan Spiegel said during the company's last earnings call.

By the end of 2017, Snap aims to have 2-3 shows air in its app every day, a spokesperson told Business Insider in May.

“This partnership is another exciting step as we continue to branch out into new genres, including scripted dramas, comedies, daily news Shows, documentaries, and beyond," Snap's VP of content, Nick Bell, said in a statement on Monday.

SEE ALSO: The world's biggest ad company plans to spend $200 million on Snapchat this year

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NOW WATCH: WPP CEO Sir Martin Sorrell on Snapchat becoming the 'third force' to Google and Facebook

People really like Star Wars. More than Super Mario, and FIFA, and even Call of Duty.

The gameplay trailer for the latest Star Wars game, "Star Wars Battlefront 2," racked up nearly 10 million views in just over a week!

More importantly, "Battlefront 2" got more play on YouTube than "Super Mario Odyssey," "Call of Duty: WWII," and the latest game in the long-running FIFA game series during E3 2017 — the annual video game trade show in Los Angeles. 

All four games shared space with the likes of "Assassin's Creed Origins" and a reboot to the "God of War" series in YouTube's top 10 list. We've compiled all 10 games below, alongside the latest trailer for each!

SEE ALSO: I played Nintendo's insane new 'Super Mario' game for the Switch — here's what it was like in person

10. "Dragon Ball Z FighterZ"

Youtube Embed:
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Width: 800px
Height: 450px

Release date: "Early 2018"

Platforms: Xbox One, PlayStation 4, PC

9. "Need for Speed Payback"

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Height: 450px

Release date: November 10, 2017

Platforms: Xbox One, PlayStation 4, PC

8. "Anthem"

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Height: 450px

Release date: "2018"

Platforms: Xbox One, PlayStation 4, PC