Viewers have long complained about the early HBO Max app’s tendency to crash, and its lack of discoverability features. There have been a number of overhauls and fixes since then. Now we know why. Turns out that HBO Max launched its apps before they were ready in order to keep up with its competitors. The app was “never intended to go global” or to suit the needs of a direct-to-consumer market, according to an interview that Sarah Lyons, HBO Max’s head of product experience, gave Protocol. The network wanted to build an audience first, and then fix the app’s flaws as the service scaled up.While Lyons admits that the early days of HBO Max were rocky, she thinks the company made the right decision. We’ve been changing out the engine of the plane while we’re flying the plane,” she said. “I do think it was the right decision to try to balance both,” said Lyons.HBO Max first released its app in May 2020, to join an already saturated streaming ecosystem that included Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, Apple TV+ and others. At the time, both HBO Go (the network’s on-demand app for cable subscribers) and HBO Now (the standalone app for cord-cutters) were still available, a fact that confused many subscribers. The network has since retired both apps.Viewers have flocked to Reddit since the app’s initial launch with complaints that spanned platforms and devices. “We’ve been trying to watch the Harry Potter movies and literally every 15 min or so we get an ERROR message and have to force close... Continue reading at 'Engadget'
[ Engadget | 2022-04-14 23:32:58 UTC ]
Unit sales of print books in the week ended Aug. 6, 2017, were down 17% from the similar week in 2016 at outlets that report to NPD BookScan. The decline was due entirely to the release last year at this time of J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, which sold about 2.5 million... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2017-08-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (Sphere) has bewitched the UK Official Top 50 for a second week, holding the number one spot with 23,711 copies sold, according to Nielsen BookScan’s Total Consumer Market. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2017-08-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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As her wizarding world returns to the stage and screen, Rowling’s $95m pushes James Patterson into second place with $87mJK Rowling will need to reserve a particularly large vault at Gringotts bank after a bumper year for the Harry Potter novelist magicked her back to the No 1 spot on Forbes’... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2017-08-03 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (Little, Brown) has Wingardium Levoisa’d straight into the UK Official Top 50 number one spot. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2017-08-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Newspapers’ business models have been taking on water for years thanks to the rise of Google and online advertising, and they’re continuing to gradually sink as their readers find more of their news on Facebook. The social network and the omnipresent search engine steer some online traffic to... Continue reading at Slate
[ Slate | 2017-07-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Veteran Hollywood executive Jonathan Dolgen, who formerly headed Paramount Pictures, has sold his home in Malibu for $18 million. The buyer was Chris Columbus, director of such films as “Home Alone,” “Mrs. Doubtfire” and “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.” The English traditional-style home... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2017-07-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The first book in the Harry Potter series is set to be translated into Scots for the first time, with "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stane", marking the 80th translation of the publishing phenomenon. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2017-06-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
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On 11th July 1997, The Bookseller interviewed Jo Rowling, then a little-known author, about her first novel - Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. To mark 20 years since the release of the first Harry Potter novel, we republish that interview, conducted by The Bookseller's then children's... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2017-06-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Bookshops around the country are unveiling a host of magical events — including Quidditch Pong, Harry Potter Bingo and Horcrux hunts—to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the publication of J K Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (Bloomsbury). Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2017-06-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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We dug into the archives to find the first Kiwi review of Harry Potter, but the earliest seems to be from 1999. Continue reading at Stuff
[ Stuff | 2017-06-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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A proof of the first Harry Potter novel, which got the author’s name wrong, is only the latest example of an ungainly tradition stretching back centuriesProofreaders may be worth their weight in gold to authors, but their oversights have proved lucrative for some lucky readers of JK Rowling. On... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2017-06-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Driven by sales of general merchandise and 'Harry Potter and the Cursed Child,' the Canadian bookstore chain reported record revenue growth for fiscal 2017. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2017-05-31 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Star Wars, Harry Potter or indeed the almost century-old comic book legends Batman and Superman may have sprung from a rich creative well, but in a stunning twist all of them have been banished to the box office naughty step. Continue reading at Stuff
[ Stuff | 2017-04-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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A Soho awards night with David Nicholls and a "very special" Harry Potter screening at the St. Pancras Renaissance Hotel London lead the "eclectic" line-up of this year’s London Book & Screen Week. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2017-02-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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North London retailer the Big Green Bookshop is tweeting out every word of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (Bloomsbury) to broadcaster Piers Morgan following his Twitter spat with its author J K Rowling. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2017-02-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Helped by Harry Potter and the hit fitness guru, year on year takings to December rose sharply to £1.59bnRetail sales struggled in 2016, but JK Rowling cast a spell strong enough to power sales towards a magical £1.6bn during the year, a rise of almost 5% on 2015, according to the latest annual... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2017-01-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Dan Brown is back. Tolkien is back. Tony Abbott is back. Harry Potter is back (well, recycled in four new editions). Continue reading at Stuff
[ Stuff | 2017-01-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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JK Rowling and Bill Bryson top the charts, while film tie-ins give Paula Hawkins and Jojo Moyes a second bite of the cherry – but this unpredictable year has also seen a welcome revival of humorous writingIt was a year when the No 1 book was a play script. When hyper-prolific James Patterson,... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2016-12-31 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The release of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child helped lift sales in the children’s/YA category 31.1% in July over the same month in 2015, according to figures released by the Association of American Publishers as part of its StatShot program. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2016-12-30 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The bestselling books over the holidays at the e-tailer were 'Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Double Down,' 'Harry Potter and the Cursed Child,' and a children's backlist book. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2016-12-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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