Latest news with #Ive
Korea Herald
3 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Korea Herald
Ive drops teaser for 4th EP ‘Ive Secret'
Ive confirmed it will be returning Aug. 25 via agency Starship Entertainment on Thursday. A teaser image released for its fourth EP, 'Ive Secret,' showed each of the six members holding objects behind their backs, including a dangling handgun, a bottle of perfume and a pig with wings. The accompanying phrase, ''XOXZ' Coming Soon,' hinted at the title of the mini album's lead single. The new release follows about seven months after Ive's third EP, 'Ive Empathy,' which earned the group a combined 15 trophies from television music chart shows with prerelease 'Rebel Heart' and main track 'Attitude.' The album also became its fifth consecutive million-seller. Ive also dropped its third EP in Japan, 'Be Alright,' on Tuesday, which quickly claimed a top spot on Oricon's Daily Album Ranking. The bandmates left for Los Angeles, US on Thursday to join the lineup for KCON LA 2025.
Malay Mail
21 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Malay Mail
As K-pop dominates the world, its home crowd is tuning out
SEOUL, July 31 — K-pop may be topping global charts and filling stadiums worldwide, but back home in South Korea, its shine appears to be fading. According to The Korea Herald, industry experts are raising concerns over the genre's weakening grip on the domestic market. Despite international success, K-pop is struggling to maintain momentum locally — especially with the lack of impactful rookie girl groups in early 2025, a key driver of fandom growth in past years. Citing the Circle Chart's 2025 Mid-Year Report, The Herald reported a 6.4 per cent drop in digital consumption for the top 400 songs, nearly 50 per cent below its 2019 peak. Physical album sales also declined by 9 per cent to 42.4 million units. Only seven albums surpassed the one million mark this year, down from nine in 2024. Experts say the industry's increasing focus on global audiences — through English-heavy lyrics and similar-sounding concepts — may be pushing local fans away. This global push is tiring local fans, Circle Chart's Kim Jin-woo said. Girl group dominance has also slipped. In 2024, five girl groups were in the Top 10. This year, only NewJeans, aespa and Ive made the cut, Kim told the paper. Meanwhile, solo acts are rising. Seven of the top 10 tracks in 2025 came from solo performers like Woodz and Hwang Garam — relatively unknown globally but resonating with Korean listeners. Critics argue that while idol music is flashy and energetic, it often lacks the emotional depth listeners now crave. 'Ballads or rock-inflected songs with strong melodic structure and individual expression are better suited for immersive listening,' music critic Lim Hee-yun was quoted as saying. Industry insiders warn that unless the domestic market is re-engaged, K-pop's long-term sustainability could be at risk — even as it thrives abroad.
Korea Herald
24-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Korea Herald
Ive confirms August return
Ive is gearing up for a late August return, agency Starship Entertainment said Thursday. The group will release a new album seven months after its third EP 'Ive Empathy' swept all music charts at home, led by prerelease 'Rebel Heart.' The EP became Ive's fifth consecutive million-seller, and the main track 'Attitude' as well as the prerelease earned the six-piece act 15 trophies from television music chart shows. 'Rebel Heart' spent 10 consecutive weeks on Billboard's Global excl. US chart and made the magazine's 'The 25 Best K-Pop Songs of 2025 (So Far)' list. On Sunday, Ive set the audience abuzz at Lollapalooza Paris with its hourlong performance after going live at Lollapalooza Berlin eight days earlier. The group is set to drop its third EP in Japan, 'Be Alright,' on July 30. The album's title track was unveiled July 16 along with a music video.
Korea Herald
18-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Korea Herald
Ive drops prerelease from Japan album
Ive has unveiled the focus single from its upcoming album in Japan with a music video, agency Starship Entertainment said Friday. The group of six uploaded the video for 'Be Alright,' which fronts its third EP of the same title. Opening with Rei asleep at her desk, the other members appear one by one to pick out clothes for, and support her at an interview before dancing together at her house, savoring freedom. The single encourages listeners to keep on going instead of being afraid of changes telling them they are not alone. The new Japan mini album will be released on July 30, almost a year after Ive's second EP 'Alive,' which debuted atop Oricon's Daily Album Ranking. In April, the group dropped another track from the third EP, 'Dare Me,' as the opening theme song for a Japanese TV show.
Time of India
14-07-2025
- Business
- Time of India
Rugolo: AI device startup that sued OpenAI and Jony Ive is now suing its own ex-employee over trade secrets, ETHRWorld
Advt Advt Join the community of 2M+ industry professionals. Subscribe to Newsletter to get latest insights & analysis in your inbox. All about ETHRWorld industry right on your smartphone! Download the ETHRWorld App and get the Realtime updates and Save your favourite articles. A secretive competition to pioneer a new way of communicating with artificial intelligence chatbots is getting a messy public airing as OpenAI fights a trademark dispute over its stealth hardware collaboration with legendary iPhone designer Jony the latest twist, tech startup iyO Inc., which already sued Ive and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman for trademark infringement, is now suing one of its own former employees for allegedly leaking a confidential drawing of iyO's unreleased the heart of this bitter legal wrangling is a big idea: we shouldn't need to stare at computer or phone screens or talk to a box like Amazon's Alexa to interact with our future AI assistants in a natural way. And whoever comes up with this new AI interface could profit immensely from maker of ChatGPT, started to outline its own vision in May by buying io Products, a product and engineering company co-founded by Ive, in a deal valued at nearly $6.5 billion. Soon after, iyO sued for trademark infringement for the similar sounding name and because of the firms' past interactions.U.S. District Judge Trina Thompson ruled last month that iyO has a strong enough case to proceed to a hearing this fall. Until then, she ordered Altman, Ive and OpenAI to refrain from using the io brand, leading them to take down the web page and all mentions of the venture.A second lawsuit from iyO filed this week in San Francisco Superior Court accuses a former iyO executive, Dan Sargent, of breach of contract and misappropriation of trade secrets over his meetings with another io co-founder, Tang Yew Tan , a close Ive ally who led design of the Apple left iyO in December and now works for Apple. He and Apple didn't immediately respond to a request for comment."This is not an action we take lightly," said iyO CEO Jason Rugolo in a statement Thursday. "Our primary goal here is not to target a former employee, whom we considered a friend, but to hold accountable those whom we believe preyed on him from a position of power."Rugolo told The Associated Press last month that he thought he was on the right path in 2022 when he pitched his ideas and showed off his prototypes to firms tied to Altman and Ive. Rugolo later publicly expanded on his earbud-like "audio computer" product in a TED Talk last he didn't know was that, by 2023, Ive and Altman had begun quietly collaborating on their own AI hardware initiative."I'm happy to compete on product, but calling it the same name, that part is just amazing to me. And it was shocking," Rugolo said in an new venture was revealed publicly in a May video announcement, and to Rugolo about two months earlier after he had emailed Altman with an investment pitch."thanks but im working on something competitive so will (respectfully) pass!" Altman wrote to Rugolo in March, adding in parentheses that it was called has dismissed iyO's lawsuit on social media as a "silly, disappointing and wrong" move from a "quite persistent" Rugolo. Other executives in court documents characterized the product Rugolo was pitching as a failed one that didn't work properly in a said in a written declaration that he and Ive chose the name two years ago in reference to the concept of "input/output" that describes how a computer receives and transmits information. Neither io nor iyO was first to play with the phrasing - Google's flagship annual technology showcase is called I/O - but Altman said he and Ive acquired the domain name in August idea was "to create products that go beyond traditional products and interfaces," Altman said. "We want to create new ways for people to input their requests and new ways for them to receive helpful outputs, powered by AI."A number of startups have already tried, and mostly failed, to build gadgetry for AI interactions. The startup Humane developed a wearable pin that you could talk to, but the product was poorly reviewed and the startup discontinued sales after HP acquired its assets earlier this has suggested that io's version could be different. He said in a now-removed video that he's already trying a prototype at home that Ive gave him, calling it "the coolest piece of technology that the world will have ever seen."Altman and Ive still haven't said is what exactly it is. The court case, however, has forced their team to disclose what it's not."Its design is not yet finalized, but it is not an in-ear device, nor a wearable device," said Tan in a court declaration that sought to distance the venture from iyO's was that same declaration that led iyO to sue Sargent this week. Tan revealed in the filing that he had talked to a "now former" iyO engineer who was looking for a job because of his frustration with "iyO's slow pace, unscalable product plans, and continued acceptance of preorders without a sellable product."Those conversations with the unnamed employee led Tan to conclude "that iyO was basically offering 'vaporware' - advertising for a product that does not actually exist or function as advertised, and my instinct was to avoid meeting with iyO myself and to discourage others from doing so."IyO said its investigators recently reached out to Sargent and confirmed he was the one who met with told the he feels duped after he first pitched his idea to Altman in 2022 through the Apollo Projects, a venture capital firm started by Altman and his brothers. Rugolo said he demonstrated his products and the firm politely declined, with the explanation that they don't do consumer hardware same year, Rugolo also pitched the same idea to Ive through LoveFrom, the San Francisco design firm started by Ive after his 27-year career at Apple. Ive's firm also declined."I feel kind of stupid now," Rugolo added. "Because we talked for so long. I met with them so many times and demo'd all their people - at least seven people there. Met with them in person a bunch of times, talking about all our ideas."--------The Associated Press and OpenAI have a licensing and technology agreement that allows OpenAI access to part of AP's text archives.
