Apple Holds Auditions for Reality TV Show -- Tech Roundup
Apple (AAPL) - Get Report is planning to move ahead with its reality TV plans. The Silicon Valley giant is heading south to Los Angeles later this year or in early 2017 to begin filming its coding-based show, Planet of the Apps.
When it comes to reality TV, drop the Jersey Shore thoughts. Instead, the show will reportedly more closely resemble Shark Tank, where investors have the option to take a stake in the company.
Those who audition will send in screen shots of their app and a one-minute video as their presentation. From there, the production team will select a number of candidates to move forward.
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Ben Silverman, chairman of Electus, and Howard Owens, founder and co-CEO of Propagate, will team with hip-hop artist will.i.am to produce the show.
Investors are always talking about ways for Apple to generate additional revenue and growth streams. Perhaps this will be one of them.
Shares of Apple closed at $96.87 Wednesday, down 0.6%.
A little more than a month ago, Tesla (TSLA) - Get Report made a price reduction on the Model S sedan. Now, it's making some prices changes to its Model X crossover/SUV.
The automaker introduced a new Model X unit with a shorter range, pricing of which starts at $75,200. Previously, the cheapest version of the car was $84,200, but that was for the 75D model.
The 60D model, which is the new intro, will have a shorter driving range of roughly 200 miles. Some could argue that Tesla lowered the price to spur demand, as deliveries of the Model X still lags that of the Model S.
However, others will pin the disparity between the two models on production hangups. Previously, Tesla had said it was cutting prices on the Model S to offer interested buyers an immediate -- and more affordable -- alternative as opposed to waiting for the Model 3 to begin mass production.
Shares of Tesla closed at $222.53 Wednesday, down 1%.
Tesla has faced a lot of negative press lately and the stock has been holding up relatively well. The latest bit of news has surrounded the automakers Autopilot feature, when a driver using it was killed in an accident in May. That drew the attention of the SEC and NHTSA.
However, that hasn't stopped Nissan (NSANY) from taking similar strides in the semi-autonomous driving world. The company's product, ProPilot, can be enabled on its new Serena minivan and can navigate some highway driving on its own.
The vehicle will go on sale next month in Japan. The automaker, like Tesla, reiterated to customers that it's not a fully-autonomous system. it's only a driver assist mode, meaning drivers shouldn't fully depend on it do everything for them.
More so, if drivers take their hands off the wheel in the Serena, they will be alerted to put them back. If they don't after a few seconds, the PilotPro system will be disabled.
While it's true automakers (and everyone for that matter) have to crawl before they can walk, there's a glaring problem in the steps to becoming fully autonomous.
In theory, going from fully driver-controlled to fully autonomous needs steps in between. These steps would be considered "driver assist" modes rather than fully autonomous. But many consumers will ignore this step, resulting in the incidences that have been popping up in the form of traffic accidents and fatal mishaps.
Hopefully the technology can rapidly improve to prevent such accidents - and hopefully people start using these modes with a bit more caution.
Shares of the over-the-counter traded Nissan closed at $19.47 Wednesday, down 1.1%.
This article is commentary by an independent contributor. At the time of publication, the author held no positions in the stocks mentioned.