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It's time to set up your holiday streaming campaign
Are you ready to reach holiday shoppers on CTV? For many streamers, the season is already underway.
Last year, according to Roku internal data, holiday content searches on Roku saw an 86% increase during October. And in November, those searches rise an average of 39% weekly. This surging holiday spirit is mirrored by consumer activity, as about half of Roku streamers shopped Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals in 2025.
Meeting those shoppers is easier than you might think. Begin with the seasonal outcome you hope to drive: awareness, online sales, leads, store visits, or another measurable goal. From there, define your audience, upload your creative, set the budget and campaign dates, and establish measurement before launching. You can even create a shoppable ad unit that lets streamers buy with a click of their remote.
Our holiday playbook offers a month-by-month guide to reaching shoppers during this all-important time of year.
First-time spenders get a $5,000 match on the first $5,000 spent with code BEEHIIV5K. Terms apply.
Beginners in AI
Good morning and thank you for joining us again!
Siri has been the punchline of voice assistants for years. Apple's newest beta lets it do real chores inside 15 of its own apps, from scheduling a text to unsubscribing you from junk mail, and any app maker can now plug in. Today you'll see what changed, what's still limited, and a prompt that turns your own to-do list into things you can just say out loud. As always, every story here is human picked and edited.
THE FRONT PAGE
Siri Can Now Do Real Tasks Inside 15 Apple Apps
TLDR: Apple's iOS 27.3 beta lets the new Siri AI do hands-on tasks in 15 Apple apps, from scheduling texts to building playlists, and opens the same powers to any app developer.
The Story:
Apple released iOS 27.3 to developers on November 3. In it, Siri can schedule, edit and unsend iMessages, build a playlist from a request like "a day at the beach" and save it, set urgent reminders, start Journal entries by voice and tidy your Safari tabs. It covers Calendar, Files, Mail, Maps, Music, Notes, Photos, Weather and more, 15 apps in all, and in Mail it can unsubscribe you from mailing lists.
Apple also opened a developer preview so any app can hook into Siri, letting it check a delivery, book a table or place an order when you ask. Those outside-app connections reach customers "in a few months," Apple says, and App Store submissions open in the spring.
Its Significance:
For years, asking Siri for anything tricky got you a web link. This version does the tapping for you, which is what people have wanted since it launched in 2011. The limits are real, though: it needs an Apple Intelligence-capable device, it isn't available on iPhones in the EU, it's off for kids under 13, and Apple says server-side Siri AI features have daily usage limits, with more access coming "for a fee in the future." If you'd rather not wait for the public release, our roundup of the best free AI apps shows what already works on all your devices.
JOIN THE COMMUNITY
Learn AI With Us, Free
Most people try AI once, get a so-so answer, and quit. Our free 14-day challenge gets you past that point, one short lesson a day.
Week one, AI starts working for you. It drafts a real email for you, flags which messages in your inbox need a reply, and turns messy notes into next steps. You also learn to catch its mistakes. By day 7 you have a weekly AI routine you'll actually keep.
Week two, you build something of your own. You find a skill people will pay for and turn it into an offer, with a one-page pitch, a short video and your first client emails, all drafted with AI and ready to test. Day 14 hands you a 30-day plan.
10 to 15 minutes a day. No tech background needed. There's even a cinematography course coming out soon.
QUICK TAKES
The story: ChatGPT product lead Adam Fry told Big Technology the app reached 1.2 billion weekly users, up from 1 billion two months earlier, and that its search volume is about one-fifth of Google's. People also make 1.5 billion images a week, and 250 million use voice or dictation weekly.
Your takeaway: About one in five ChatGPT users now talks to it instead of typing. If you haven't tried voice mode, it's built into the app, and it's the easiest way to ask a follow-up while your hands are busy.
The story: OpenAI says engineers are using ChatGPT and Codex with its GPT-6 Astra model for CAD revisions, circuit board design, manufacturing drawings and design reviews. It named Mazda and the Chip Ganassi Racing team as partners, without saying what each one is building.
Your takeaway: AI is moving from screens to things you can hold. OpenAI admits a person still had to fix tolerances and assembly on its own prototype, so think of it as a fast junior designer whose work gets checked.
The story: In an updated IPO filing, Anthropic says it "may imminently meet" its own threshold for AI-driven acceleration, roughly AI doubling the pace of progress, Gizmodo reports. The company says no current Claude model has crossed that line, and that it doesn't expect to let Claude build new frontier models without meaningful human supervision.
Your takeaway: A warning inside a stock filing works two ways: it's a legal disclosure and a signal to investors that the tech is powerful. Watch whether rivals make similar promises about keeping people in charge.
TOOLS ON OUR RADAR
🛑 StayFocusd Free: A Chrome extension that caps your time on distracting sites, with a lockout mode you can't undo.
🔑 KeePassDX Free and Open Source: Keeps your passwords and passkeys in an encrypted file on your Android phone, no cloud account needed.
📬 FairEmail Free and Open Source: A privacy-first Android email app for Gmail, Outlook and Yahoo, with no ads or tracking.
📊 Stackby Freemium: A spreadsheet-style database free for up to 5 people, an easier stand-in for Airtable.
✅ Habitify Freemium: Tracks up to 3 daily habits free across phone and web, or unlimited for $59.99 once.
🎧 ElevenLabs Freemium: Turns text into lifelike voiceovers, with about 10 free minutes a month, then $6.
📅 Typefully Freemium: Write and schedule posts for X, LinkedIn, Threads and Bluesky from one clean editor.
TRENDING
Fiserv Cut 3,000 Jobs and Doubled Its AI Savings Goal. The payments company has cut 3,000 employee and contractor roles and now aims to save $1 billion, with AI handling fraud reviews, customer service and coding. Its shares rose about 14% before the market opened.
AMD's Data Center Sales Nearly Doubled to $8.5 Billion. Demand for its new MI450 AI chips helped push quarterly revenue up 45% to $13.4 billion. AMD expects about $17 billion next quarter.
UK Cyber Agency Says AI-Powered Ransomware Is "Highly Likely" by 2028. The National Cyber Security Centre says AI won't invent new attacks but will help criminals find old, unpatched holes at scale. Its advice is unglamorous: keep systems updated, and stop putting things online that don't need to be.
Google Brings Its AI Tutor Mode to Classroom Worldwide. Guided Learning, which walks students through problems step by step instead of handing over answers, is rolling out in Google Classroom globally and coming to Search. Google also changed how schools control Gemini on K-12 student accounts.
Some Voters Got an AI-Made "I Voted" Sticker With a Garbled Slogan. A 404 Media reporter's sticker showed a bald eagle, a flag and a line of text that didn't quite spell anything. Nobody has said who made it, but tiny lettering is still where image generators slip.
TRY THIS PROMPT (copy and paste into Claude, Grok, ChatGPT, or Gemini)
🎙️ Just Say It: Turn any phone chore into words your AI assistant understands
Build a single-file HTML app called Just Say It in vanilla HTML, CSS and JavaScript. No API key needed.
I type a phone chore, like "make a barbecue playlist, text my sister the time and remind me Friday to buy charcoal," then pick my assistant (Siri, Gemini, Alexa or ChatGPT voice) and how I like to talk.
The app calls the Anthropic Messages API to split the chore into 2 to 6 steps and write one short sentence I can say out loud for each. It tags every step: just say it, say it then confirm (anything that sends, deletes, books or buys), or do it yourself. It must never claim an assistant definitely supports a feature, and never invent names, prices or account details.
Show a three-color bar for the split, one card per step, a short checklist of what to check before saying yes, and a privacy note. Style: deep navy background, amber and teal accents, Outfit and Lora fonts.What this does: Type a chore, like making a playlist and texting a friend the plan, and pick your assistant. The app splits it into short sentences you can say out loud and marks which ones are safe to just say, which you should confirm first because they send or buy something, and which you should still do yourself. With Siri learning 15 apps, it's a quick way to start talking to your phone with fewer surprises.
See what's really happening in every deal
Aligned shows you what buyers are doing between meetings inside your most important deals then surfaces the risks, openings, and next steps. No more guessing where a deal stands or finding out a champion went quiet too late. Just real visibility, so you can act before it's too late.
WHERE WE STAND(based on today’s news)
✅ AI Can Now: Carry out tasks inside phone apps by voice, like scheduling a text or saving a playlist, in Apple's Siri beta.
❌ Still Can't: Do it everywhere or without limits. It needs a recent Apple Intelligence device, isn't on EU iPhones yet, and Apple caps daily server-side use.
✅ AI Can Now: Help engineers revise CAD models, lay out circuit boards and draft manufacturing drawings, OpenAI says.
❌ Still Can't: Get the physical details right on its own. OpenAI's own prototype needed a person to fix tolerances and assembly.
FROM THE WEB
RECOMMENDED LISTENING/READING/WATCHING
🎬 Her (2013) - Movie
Spike Jonze's film follows a lonely writer in near-future Los Angeles who falls for the voice assistant on his computer and phone. Thirteen years later, it's still the gentlest picture of the question Siri's upgrade raises: what happens when the voice in your pocket stops answering questions and starts running your day. It won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay.
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Thank you for reading. We’re all beginners in something. With that in mind, your questions and feedback are always welcome and I read every single email!
-James
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