SUCCESS

The next trillion-dollar payments network won’t have a checkout page. No card number, no CVV, no human at the keyboard. Just machines paying machines, thousands of times a second, for fractions of a cent.

More than 20 million barrels of oil and LNG per day normally transit the Strait of Hormuz. Here’s why replacing that supply in the short term is nearly impossible.

Bruno Mars hits No. 1 — the top 10 as well — on Billboard’s Top Streaming Albums chart for the first time as The Romantic launches atop the tally.

Mike Bibby detailed the biggest adjustment of being a head coach in the college ranks and what it’s like working with Shaquille O’Neal as his general manager.

Apple’s market capitalization is in the trillions of dollars. As demand for its shares has increased over the past few decades, the company has chosen to split its shares to make the stock more affordable for many individual investors. Without such stock splits, Apple would have been out of reach for retail investors before the rise of fractional share trading on digital brokerages like Robinhood.Here’s a history of Apple’s stock splits, and a look at how high its share price would be today had it not divided its shares.When did Apple conduct its first stock split?Apple had its first stock split on June 16, 1987 (when the shares first traded on a split-adjusted basis). On that day, Apple divided each share into two, in a 2-for-1 stock split. This 2-for-1 stock split doubled the number of shares outstanding while halving the price of each individual share. Related: What Are Stock Splits & Reverse Splits? Definition & ExamplesHow many times has Apple split its stock?After its first stock split in 1987, the tech giant conducted four additional splits, bringing its total to five in its corporate history as of mid-March 2026: On June 21, 2000, Apple conducted a second 2-for-1 stock split. Apple conducted its next 2-for-1 stock split on Feb. 28, 2005.Apple’s next stock split was also its biggest: 7-for-1 on June 9, 2014. The most recent was a 4-for-1 stock split on Aug. 31, 2020.Related: Who owns Apple? Institutional holdings & executives’ sharesWhat happens when Apple conducts stock splits?Dividing shares causes the number of shares outstanding to increase, and the effect lowers the price of the stock on an absolute value basis — all while maintaining Apple’s market capitalization. Increasing the number of shares makes more of Apple’s stock available for trading. And the boost in shares outstanding also allows Apple to offer shares to employees (such as option plans via offerings of restricted stock units), and repurchase its stock to boost its earnings per share.The lower price resulting from a stock split allows retail investors to buy more shares than they could if Apple had not split the shares. For example, before its largest stock split in June 2014, the stock traded around $650 a share. By splitting each share into seven, the company lowered its per-share price to around $93, making the stock more accessible to retail investors with limited cash on hand.Who approves Apple’s stock splits?Apple’s board of directors typically agrees on a decision to split the stock, and it’s usually done to encourage retail investors to buy the company’s shares at a reduced price. The plan is then put forward to stockholders, usually at the company’s annual meeting, who must vote to approve the increase in authorized shares as outlined in its charter. More on Apple:Where is Apple’s headquarters? A spaceship-like office with thousands of treesHow many employees does Apple have? A deeper look at the tech giant’s workforceSteve Jobs’ net worth: How rich Apple’s founder could have beenWhat would Apple’s stock price be in 2026 if it hadn’t conducted any stock splits?Apple’s stock price, had the stock not been split five times, can be calculated by multiplying the current stock price by the the number of shares it split each share into reverse basis: Current Apple stock price x 4 x 7 x 2 x 2 x 2 = Apple stock price had the stock never been splitBased on the March 12, 2026, closing price, Apple stock would be $57,290.24 per share had it never been split. At that price, buying Apple’s stock would be out of the price range of most retail investors.If all these stock splits were factored into Apple’s IPO, the IPO price would have been much lower. Apple’s IPO share price was $22 on Dec. 12, 1990, and the company said that, on a split-adjusted basis incorporating its five stock splits, the IPO share price would have been just 10 cents.Related: Does Apple pay dividends? A history of rewarding shareholders

T-Mobile appears to be making good on its promise to double down on removing customer pain points. Amid recent headwinds in its business, the phone carrier has quietly added a new feature in its T-Life app designed to make switching plans more seamless for customers. However, the new feature has already drawn some customer criticism. In October last year, after seeing an uptick in postpaid phone customers canceling service, then-T-Mobile Chief Operating Officer Srini Gopalan vowed to implement a “digital transformation” at the company to simplify the customer experience.“The amount of friction and frustration we cause customers today because of our processes and the state of evolution in this industry is phenomenal,” said Gopalan during an earnings call on Oct. 23. “We have a huge opportunity to change that with our digital transformation.”Shortly after Gopalan became CEO in November, his plan started to take effect. For example, a few days after he took on his new position, T-Mobile unveiled its “Switching made Easy” initiative, which aims to enable consumers to switch phone carriers on their own digitally in 15 minutes or less. The initiative introduced an option called “Easy Switch,” which officially launched in the T-Life app and on T-Mobile’s website in December. It matches consumers from rival phone carriers with a competitive T-Mobile offer, reducing reliance on customer service assistance.T-Mobile quietly adds new T-Life feature to simplify plan selectionNow, T-Mobile has added a feature in the T-Life app to help customers switch phone plans. When customers go to change plans in the app, they can now compare the prices of their current T-Mobile plan to the one they are interested in switching to. Comparing plan prices has long been difficult for customers as wireless carriers frequently update their offerings.More Telecom News:T-Mobile drops 2 new phone plans to stop customers from fleeingVerizon CEO shifts gears after 2.25 million customers departAT&T closes billion-dollar acquisition to win back customersFor example, T-Mobile launched its “Better Value” phone plan in January and quietly added two new ones in February.A T-Mobile customer took to social media platform Reddit to flag that the T-Life app now details and compares the total monthly costs, perks, and features for both plans, adding more transparency to the switching process. It also now warns customers if they might lose benefits or promotions when switching to another plan.

T-Mobile has launched a new tool to compare plan prices in the T-Life app.Helen89/Shutterstock

T-Mobile customers skeptical of the new tool’s pricing detailsWhile this change adds transparency, some customers say it doesn’t go far enough, as the app still doesn’t detail the taxes and fees associated with the plan. “They still are screwing you by not showing the prices after taxes and fees. For folks with many free lines that are 100% cost free on legacy plans it’s a significant difference,” wrote one Redditor.Related: T-Mobile revives free perk for customers amid challenges“The lack of showing taxes and fees is crazy and a bait and switch imo. In Washington state, for example, it has a combined state and local tax of 18.62% for cell phone plans and that’s not even the highest state. Not to mention that is only the taxes and not the extra fees t-mobile charges, too,” wrote another. “That’s what’s keeping me from changing right now. I want to know my exact cost beforehand, not just guesstimate and hope for the best,” wrote a T-Mobile customer. Last year, T-Mobile began omitting taxes and fees from its plan pricing, a change that hasn’t been sitting well with some customers. A source close to T-Mobile told TheStreet in June that the carrier has been excluding taxes and fees from some plan prices because it received feedback that this information was confusing for customers, making it more difficult for them to compare plans across mobile providers. T-Mobile navigates a growing customer problem amid heavy competition T-Mobile’s new plan price comparison feature in the T-Life app comes after its postpaid phone churn, the percentage of customers who canceled their service, reached 0.9% in 2025, according to its most recent earnings report. This is an increase from the 0.84% churn it saw in 2024.The carrier’s elevated churn comes after it implemented a series of price increases and phone plan changes last year, which frustrated customers.  Many Americans have been reevaluating their phone plans and exploring nontraditional options for phone service, such as plans from MVNOs and cable companies, as they face higher monthly bills, according to a recent survey from Oxio.Why U.S. consumers are rethinking their mobile plans:Around 70% of U.S. consumers reevaluate their mobile plan at least once a year.Bill increases motivate 58% of consumers to take a closer look at their current plan.When choosing a new plan, 79% said price is the most important, followed by network coverage (63%), speed and performance (60%), and transparent billing (40%). Nontraditional mobile providers are viewed positively or neutrally by 75% of consumers, and 56% are open to purchasing mobile service from a retailer.
Source: Oxio
“Last year, our research pointed to a shift: consumers wanted more control, more transparency and real alternatives to the set-and-forget model that has defined mobile for decades,”  said Oxio CEO Nicolas Girard in the survey release. “This year, openness became action.”“Our latest survey shows a market in motion,” he continued. “Consumers are actively evaluating plans, comparing value and reacting quickly to price increases. Switching is no longer rare, and the friction that once protected incumbents is fading. Loyalty can no longer be assumed. It must be earned and re-earned.”Related: T-Mobile customers set to receive a significant network upgrade

Broadcast Retirement Network’s Jeffrey Snyder discusses whether the Hollywood blockbuster is still possible with Lumovex Media Group’s Steve Diamond and Kerri Zane.Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement NetworkJoining me now, Kerri Zane and Steve Diamond from Lumovex Media Group. Steve, Kerri, great to see you. Thanks for joining us this morning.Kerri Zane, Lumovex Media GroupThank you for having me here.Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement NetworkYeah, look, I’m really excited about this. We’ve chatted a lot offline about the world that is changing, the content world, and I’m excited to have people from your industry and bring them into the financial services world because, gosh, we need help communicating with people. But, Carrie, I want to start with you because I want you to set the landscape here.How is artificial intelligence changing the landscape in Hollywood today in the entertainment industry?Kerri Zane, Lumovex Media GroupIt definitely is, Jeff, and whether the community wants to believe it or not or embrace it or not, it is here to stay. Like many other innovative disruptors, like CDs versus Spotify or cable versus streamers, the entertainment community is always evolving, and this is the next evolution. This is the next disruption.I mean, think about the media giants now. Just yesterday, Ben Affleck announced that Netflix purchased his AI company, which he secretly had since 2022, and he fully admitted that he was afraid, but he jumped in, and he created a process that will help the entertainment industry in post-production. So case in point.And also Disney allowing their characters to have UGC create animation with their little characters. I mean, they just got free animation, right?Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement NetworkI think that’s in the eye of the beholder. I mean, certainly the technology, Steve, is absolutely amazing. I’ve seen a lot of the shows.We’re going to get into the IP and the privacy issues involved, but I want to ask you, does AI programming look as real? I come from the Ten Commandments era where Cecil B. DeMille made the Ten Commandments.There were practical effects, Star Wars. Does AI programming look as real today as some of those practical effects in the past?Steve Diamond, Lumovex Media GroupWell, I’ll tell you, practical effects still own a certain amount of the moments in filmmaking today. AI shines when you need it, which is really when it comes to speed, scale, and iteration without burning through those massive budgets. But we’re getting there at LumaVex.com, and we use AI for speed, but we use humans for taste, story, and final approval. I think that’s so important. And we do it so that the audience feels it, not just sees it.Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement NetworkSo, Kerri, can you still produce the blockbuster, the Hollywood blockbuster I just referenced in Star Wars, the Marvel comic trilogies, can you still produce the Hollywood blockbuster like we did in the past using AI?Kerri Zane, Lumovex Media GroupI think that Hollywood blockbusters are here to stay. I think big Hollywood celebrities are here to stay. I think that AI can enhance what they’re doing.And I think that there’s also a great space for small indies that have a lot of moxie and want to create their own films. They can raise their own money. Chris Struckman just did it.He raised $1.4 million on a crowdfund, and he’s marketing, and he’s having a lot of success. I think the middle ground in terms of filling the entertainment pipeline is where AI is really going to shine.Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement NetworkSteve, Kerri talked about Ben Affleck’s sale to Netflix of his AI business, but I’ve read a lot in The Hollywood Reporter, there seems to be some concern from actors and actresses about maintaining their likeness. How are these actors today protecting themselves in this new AI world?Steve Diamond, Lumovex Media GroupThey’re coming to Lumavex because we’re actually consulting them on this. Consent is the new baseline, and actors are demanding that kind of control over their own IP, and they have every right to. Look at Matthew McConaughey, for example.He federally trademarked his likeness and his iconic phrases, and now he has the ability to force a takedown if someone uses it without his permission. Lumavex has a division that is supporting actors in this process, and we treat their likeness like an identity. It’s documented, permissions, clear terms of usage, and human oversight from start to finish.I think that is going to be the industry standard moving forward.Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement NetworkSo I can’t say, all right, all right, in the same way Matthew McConaughey. I did it on purpose not to say it that way, because I don’t want him suing me in the broadcast about the network.Steve Diamond, Lumovex Media GroupHe wouldn’t sue you in that respect. I think where it will be used is if you use it in some sort of a property that’s being sold or monetized in some way, that’s when he would come after you.Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement NetworkOkay. Well, Matthew, I apologize. You were the best.I loved you in which it dazed and confused. Carrie, we talked earlier about the short, the Hollywood blockbuster, but is the future, and our show is a short form content show, but maybe not as short as where things are heading. So is it all about short form today?Kerri Zane, Lumovex Media GroupYou know, I think that there is a time and space for long form content and short form content. If you think about it, long form, you’re very intentional. You’re going to go to the movies or you know there’s something on a streamer that you want to see.It’s still that kind of appointment feeling. But short form fills that, the dopamine that you need, that hit of entertainment. So if you’re in the subway and you’ve got, you know, 10 minutes from stop to stop, maybe you just want to watch something.And TikTok and Instagram and micro dramas where we’re landing, that’s where it’s king. And it is exploding. And I do think that short form may outperform monetarily, may do better in the long run than some of the short, some of the long form.But I guess that’s, you know, we have to wait and see. I mean, you’re in the financial business. So what do you think?Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement NetworkOh, wow. So you’re the interviewer now.Kerri Zane, Lumovex Media GroupIt’s fair.Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement NetworkThat’s fine. That’s fair. Turnaround is fair play.We started the broadcast Retirement Network seven and a half years ago. We started with longer form content. What we noticed is that people, even people my age, our age, had lesser attention spans and therefore we shortened.So our show was now eight minutes, give or take. And then we put out 45 second to 60 second clips. So it’s my estimation that it’s going to continue to get smaller and smaller.Now, we don’t have the same micro dramas, the same scripting that you do in the Hollywood entertainment world. But as Steve, you were saying this is a blending that’s happening between all these other industries and entertainment.Steve Diamond, Lumovex Media GroupIt really is. And I’ll tell you something that I think about a lot is, you know, TikTok really was the game changer in terms of attention span. And that’s really where the data came from for us to understand that short form content is the content going forward.And you’ll be shocked to know that the average person has an online attention span of just eight seconds.Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement NetworkEight seconds, actually.Steve Diamond, Lumovex Media GroupSo when you think about it, you know, you have probably two seconds to three seconds at the very most to grab someone’s attention before they scrolled on to the next thing. Wow.Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement NetworkYeah, I can see that. Kara, we’ve got about a minute or so left. And I really enjoyed this conversation.We’ll have to bring you and Steve back. But I’m a small business. You guys are a small business.I always worry about the smaller enterprises. So does this AI conversation really help those smaller studios get off the ground? Because they’re fighting for funding.They’re fighting for opportunity. They’re fighting for distribution every day.Kerri Zane, Lumovex Media GroupYeah. Yes, in a very big way. And I think everyone should understand that AI is not scary.It’s an incredible opportunity for many of us. I was a small studio. I was an indie.And what AI does is it allows us to tell our stories and create our sizzle reels or do some short form to garner buyers’ attention or viewers’ interest. And it’s affordable. It’s well done and it’s affordable.And I think that’s another thing that we at Lumavex do and do very well is to help smaller businesses and smaller studios tell their stories. Story is a game, by the way.Steve Diamond, Lumovex Media GroupAnd one more point I’d like to point out in addition to that. You know, there’s good AI and there’s what we call in the industry, slop AI. And just like good or bad stories or good or bad movies, you will watch them all until you don’t.And at some point, the audiences will become more discerning and lean into better quality AI. And that is where the top talent like writers, directors, actors working with companies like us to use their highly skilled knowledge and all of that to create scripts and also allow our prompt engineers to create better content. And I think that’s going to be the future.Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement NetworkWell, look, guys, I’ve enjoyed the conversation. I just ask that if you make me into an avatar, you take the early 30s, Jeffrey, who had hair, was a little bit more svelte, and we can do it, which is, you know, crackling with energy. Kerri Zane, Steve Diamond, so great to see you.Thanks for joining us. And we look forward to having you back on the program again very soon. Thank you so much, guys.

Valory co-founder David Minarsch says autonomous agents running on the Olas protocol are giving retail traders a 24/7, strategy-driven edge on platforms like Polymarket.

The Philadelphia Phillies have made a surprising preseason decision on a long-time infielder as he fights to make the team.

Paris Hilton was diagnosed with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder in her 20s and is trying to raise awareness and understanding of ADHD via Embrace Your Sparkle.