# Paramount Acquisition and Apple iPhone 17E Launch

**Podcast:** TechCrunch Daily Crunch
**Published:** 2026-03-03

## Transcript

This is TechCrunch.
This episode is brought to you by Adaptive Security, a security awareness platform built to stop AI powered social engineering.
So here's the deal.
Attackers don't need malware anymore.
They just need trust, a cloned voice, a convincing deep fake on Zoom, or an AI written fish that looks like it came from your IT team.
Adaptive prepares your company with simulations across email, SMS, and voice, deep fakes, vision and AI generated fishing, including scenarios that can mirror your own brand and executives.
Steuern Ledigt.
Safe.
Mit Visosteuer.
X adds paid partnership labels so creators can ditch the hashtags.
I'm Imran Shake, and your Tuesday daily crunch starts right now.
On Monday, Apple unveiled the latest version of its budget-friendly iPhone line.
The iPhone 17E retails for 599 bucks and will be available on March 11th.
The smartphone comes with the A19 chip that's found in the base iPhone 17 and will support Apple Intelligence.
The base model comes with 256 gigabytes of storage, which Apple says is twice the entry storage from the previous generation.
It'll have you know.
Now, one of the most notable changes from the previous budget iPhone is the addition of MagSafe and Qi 2, which supports wireless charging up to 15 watts.
The smartphone's available in black, white, and a new soft pink color.
Additionally, the iPhone 17E comes with C1 X.
Ooh, Apple's latest generation cellular modem, which the company says is up to twice as fast as the C1 modem in the iPhone 16E and uses 30% less energy.
As for the camera, the iPhone 17E features that same old 48 megapixel camera as the iPhone 16E.
The smartphone's fusion camera enables an optical quality 2x telephoto, giving users two cameras and one so they can get closer to the subject and easily frame their shot, the tech giant says.
The smartphone takes videos with the ability to record in 4K with Dolby Vision up to 60 FPS.
It also records video in spatial audio for immersive listening with AirPods or Apple Vision Pro.
Following the surprising news that Netflix had withdrawn its bid to acquire Warner Brothers Discovery, Paramount Skydance stepped in and purchased the company.
On Monday, CEO David Ellison announced during a call with investors that the company plans to merge Paramount Plus and HBO Max into a single unified platform to presumably rule them all.
Ellison also reassured investors that HBO's identity and creative vision as a studio would remain unchanged, stating, our viewpoint is HBO should stay HBO.
He also committed to maintaining a robust theatrical slate, pledging 15 films per year per studio for a total of at least 30 annual theatrical releases.
AMC points, here we go.
This announcement comes on the heels of Paramount's recent agreement to acquire Warner Brothers Discovery in a deal estimated at 110 billion dollars.
Now the merger would bring together a vast array of film, TV, and news assets under one corporate entity and is expected to upend the Hollywood landscape as we know it.
It also furthers the trend of consolidation seen among other major streaming platforms such as the combination of Disney Plus and Hulu.
With a projected subscriber base of over 200 million, the new streaming service will be positioned as a serious contender among the top streaming giants.
On Monday, Social Network X announced the introduction of a new paid partnership label that creators can apply to their posts to indicate, well, their ads.
The future could help improve creators' authenticity, so fans know when a product recommendation is an original statement versus a paid sponsorship, while also complying with regulations that say ads on social media need labels.
Now, similar tags have existed for years on other platforms like Instagram, after the U.S.
Federal Trade Commission warned influencers back in 2017 that they needed to clearly and conspicuously disclose when a post was sponsored by an advertiser, or if that company otherwise supports them.
Last year, Instagram expanded on its partnership ads to allow creators to also get paid for written testimonials shared as comments on a brand's social media posts.
Creators on X, however, haven't had a built-in way to label posts, leaving them to use hashtags like paid partnership and ad to label their posts.
With the new feature, creators will be able to toggle on a new content disclose setting on a post to apply the paid partnership label that will then appear directly below the post's content.
This label can also be applied after the fact, in case the creator forgot to use the option when originally posting.
According to X's head of product and Akiti Abeer, the future lets creators be transparent with their followers while also complying with federal regulations.
Now, X has tried to appeal to the creator class for some time now, offering payouts for viral content, ad revenue sharing, creator subscriptions, and a whole bunch more.
But as a platform best known as a place to discuss real-time news and events, amongst other things, the company has struggled to attract creators who still often prefer to reach their audiences through Instagram, YouTube, and, well, frankly, elsewhere.
Folks, that's your Daily Crunch.
Today's stories were reported by Sarah Perez, Lauren Forrestall.
Berliner Stadtwerke.
Good for dich.
Good for Berlin.