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AT&T lets mobile phones control the television
MUMBAI: US telecom major AT&T Inc. is offering subscribers a new kind of TV remote control: their cell phones. The company will begin offering its Homezone customers the ability to control their digital video recorders through Web-enabled phones. The interface allows cell phone users to remotely schedule or delete recordings from their set-top boxes connected to satellite television service. |
The downloadable programming was also being expanded to include 12,000 programs from Akimbo, ranging from movies to concerts to how-to videos. AT&T previously had content agreements with Yahoo Inc. and Movelink. Homezone is a service that uses a set-top box to help deliver content over the Internet to televisions, including on-demand movies, caller ID and photos stored on the home computer. The company will not disclose how many subscribers Homezone has, but the service has far broader reach than U-verse, the premium service AT&T hopes will help it eventually win back cable customers. |
AT&T is still slowly expanding U-verse, but the rollout has been delayed because of software difficulties with the service delivered over a high-speed Internet connection. AT&T said it would begin offering U-verse in Dallas-Fort Forth on Tuesday, its 14th market for the service. Patrick Comack, an analyst with Zachary Investment Research, said the Homezone box, made by 2Wire is convergence technology strong enough to allow AT&T to compete with cable providers, but in the long term, the success might breed other challenges. “There’s going to be a lot of Homezone boxes, and it’s going to create a problem when AT&T wants to migrate them to U-verse down the road,” he said. |
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With 57 per cent single new users, Ashley Madison rebrands as discreet dating platform
Platform says majority of new members now identify as single
INDIA: Ashley Madison is shedding the “married-dating” label that defined it for two decades, repositioning itself as a platform for discreet dating in what it calls the post-social media age.
The rebrand, unveiled in India on 27 February, 2026, marks a structural shift in business model and identity. Once synonymous with married dating, the company now describes itself as the “premier destination for discreet dating” under a new tagline: Where Desire Meets Discretion.
The pivot is data-driven. Internal figures show that 57 per cent of global sign-ups between 1 January and 31 December, 2025 identified as single: a notable departure from the platform’s married core. The company argues that its community has already evolved beyond its original positioning.
“In an age where our lives have been constantly put on public display, privacy has become the new luxury,” said Ashley Madison chief strategy officer Paul Keable. He framed the platform’s offering as “ethical discretion” for singles, separated, divorced and non-monogamous users seeking private connections.
The shift also taps into wider digital fatigue. A global survey conducted by YouGov for Ashley Madison, covering 13,071 adults across Australia, Brazil, Canada, Germany, India, Italy, Mexico, Spain, Switzerland, the UK and the US, found mounting discomfort with hyper-public online lives.
Among dating app users, 30 per cent cited constant swiping and messaging as a source of fatigue, while 24 per cent pointed to pressure to curate public-facing profiles and early personal disclosure. Some 27 per cent said fears of screenshots or information being shared contributed to exhaustion; an equal share cited unwanted attention.
The retreat from oversharing appears broader. According to the survey, 46 per cent of adults actively try to keep most aspects of their life private online. Only 8 per cent feel comfortable sharing most aspects publicly, while 35 per cent say they are becoming more selective about what they disclose.
Ashley Madison is betting that this cultural recalibration towards controlled visibility can be monetised. By doubling down on privacy infrastructure and reframing itself around discretion rather than infidelity, the company is attempting to convert reputational baggage into a premium proposition.
