Once I stopped hyperventilating, I understood this was okay. Why? Because the iPod changed my life. And, to this very day, I believe it’s the greatest gadget ever created. It didn’t begin that way though. Before I got my hands on an iPod, I thought MP3 players were stupid. The year is 2005. I’m about 16 and I’ve been building a CD collection for several years (one I actually still have, shout out the Marantz CD6007)....
At Wilbur Labs, my team and I recently surveyed 150 founders on why startups fail and found that 70% faced business failure at some point. Among those who attempted to pivot, 75% succeeded. Bob Dylan got it right when he sang about times of change: “you better start swimmin’ or you’ll sink like a stone.” Founders who are willing to adapt their plans have better odds of preventing business failure....
2020 has been a whirlwind of a year (to say the least). However, there’s one upside to challenging times — you can learn from them. A lot has been written about how businesses have had to adapt to the ‘new normal’ and how they’ve managed to stay afloat. But just focusing on startups doesn’t give a full picture of what’s happening in the entrepreneurial world. That’s why I contacted a few VCs to get a quick glimpse into how their year has been, and what they’ve learned during these trying times....
While most of our smartphones are embedded with 4G or 5G chips, a lot of transport infrastructure runs on old-school 3G cellular networks. Think of a large number of telematics and IoT-connected devices. As 3G retires, they no longer operate without upgrading to 4G connectivity. In other words, unless your connected devices support 4G or higher, they’re bricked. The entire transport ecosystem is in a world of pain, including:...
The coronavirus pandemic showed us even established tech companies can suffer downturns in the short term. Apple, a tech behemoth, was left reeling when Chinese manufacturing hubs were temporarily shut down last year. In the longer term, however, technology stocks remain a first choice for many investors. Historically, they’ve dominated global stock markets and continue to grow at a remarkable rate. Even during the downward spiral of the pandemic, tech stocks such as Zoom and Microsoft soared in value as an influx of people started working from home....
Back in June, the subreddit was quarantined for “threats of violence against police.” Widespread community outrage over an Oregon politician’s threat to have law enforcement officers bring Conservative lawmakers back to session resulted in a rash of anti-police, pro-violence posts on the forum. The quarantine essentially just forces visitors to acknowledge a disclaimer indicating the community is being given time to clean up its act. You can still access every post and comment – except those deleted by the community’s own moderators....
NFT artworks can sell for jaw-dropping prices, from a digital collage that cost almost $70m to a GIF of a cat that bagged $560,000. The value of these pieces derives, in part, from scarcity. The works are linked to non-fungible tokens (NFTs) secured by blockchain tech, which makes them unique and proves ownership. At least, that’s the idea. But, sometimes, the assets aren’t all that they seem. There are numerous reports of NFT fraudsters selling fake artworks, stealing credit card information, and hacking into cryptocurrency accounts....
Escooter motors are silent, making it difficult for blind and partially sighted people to detect when a vehicle is approaching. But now, they are being given their very own sound. This week, the University of College London’s specialist Person-Environment-Activity Research Laboratory (PEARL), joined forces with London escooter operators TIER, Lime, and Dott. They’re working together to research and develop a ‘universal sound’ for rental escooters. This sound will alert pedestrians and other roads users of approaching escooters....
Stand-up robots, improvised joke generators, Q&A pun systems, and android bartenders have all failed to make me laugh. “You can get a rum and coke anywhere,” Brian Connors, a hospitality professor, told the Miami Herald, “but how often are you going to get it from a robot that tells bad jokes?” More often than you may think, unfortunately. All of these comedians have something in common: they’re not funny. I don’t blame their creators....
In a statement, the company said that it plans to add more exclusive content on the platform and integrate this into the iOS app as well: However, there’s no information on if it plans to experiment with product integrations or launch a separate app. We’ve asked the company to provide more details, and we’ll update the story if we hear back. Ad-supported streaming services have found some success in India, with Times Internet-owned MX Player being the top app in the category....
[Read: UK to begin shared e-scooter trials next week, way ahead of schedule] Zoox was formed in 2014 and is based in California. The company was started with the goal of creating an autonomous vehicle specifically for the “robotaxi” market. Think of them as potential competitors to the likes of Alphabet’s (formerly Google’s) Waymo, Yandex, and Uber’s self-driving division. What makes Zoox unique though, is that the company is developing its own vehicle too....
Initially, Facebook said it had garnered support from 28 companies, including some of the world’s top financial and technology giants. But, as soon as regulators and central banks caught wind of Facebook‘s plans they began to issue warnings and air concerns about Libra‘s potential effect on the world’s financial system; spooking several of the company‘s backers along the way. Four months on, and after losing many of its original supporters, Facebook finally managed to get 21, out of the original 28, organizations to sign the Libra Association charter....
A study published in the American Political Science Review in 2012 found that women speak 25% less than men in meetings in which they are both present. Perhaps even more alarming, research published in HBR in 2014 showed that women are twice as likely to be interrupted in group dialogue — particularly in industries and organizations that are male-dominated. But with decades of research highlighting the benefits of diverse and inclusive organizations, it’s time that we do something to bring that diversity and inclusivity to meetings....
For instance, an ecommerce app that offers return functionality may need some proof of damage to the products. They don’t necessarily need to build a camera feature. So they rely on any other camera app of your choosing. Now, users of Android version 11 and above will be forced to use the default camera app for that. Or use any other camera app, and upload photos from the gallery. The new behavior, spotted by Android Police, is documented in the Google Issue Tracker....
One of my favorites was Thomas Bognor’s in October, which TNW’s former CEO Zee M Kane called “sexy as hell”. And that it was, but there was a problem – the horizontally oriented UI would have been impossible to use. Now however, Todd Hamilton, a UI designer based in San Fransico, has built on Bognor’s basic idea and come up with a concept that’s not only sexy as hell, but conceptually functional too....
Killing iTunes is long overdue. It’s been rumored for years now that Apple would shelve the product, as it does little to benefit customers who already made the switch to one of Apple’s standalone apps for movies, music, or podcasts. According to the Bloomberg report, users can expect the Music app to host many of iTunes’ audio features. The move to shutter iTunes, at this point, is largely a symbolic one....
The Guardian reports Apple had an internal project to rewrite Siri’s responses to “sensitive topics,” which apparently included the recent MeToo movement among other things. According to leaked documents, the plan was to make her respond in three ways: “don’t engage,” “deflect,” and “inform.” To whit, when asked about things like women’s rights or gender equality, Siri’s response is now carefully scripted to be positive without moving to one side of the fence....
During the past few years, there’s been a flurry of electrified classic vehicle unveilings from newly launched independent firms, such as Lunaz, Electric Classic Cars, and Electrogenic, as well as an array of manufacturer-backed efforts including Jaguar’s E-Type Zero, Volkswagen’s e-Kafer, and the Renault 4 e-Plein Air. Yet not everyone’s happy about it and many among the antique car enthusiasts find the conversion to electricity, well, a sacrilege. Is a classic car still “classic” if converted?...
Not surprisingly, a lot has been written about how Apple’s walled garden is anti-competitive and particularly unfair to indie developers. Perhaps this is the wrong approach to defend their pricing model. Just look to the internet or cell phone industries as one example where pricing is pretty consistent for US consumers, but they still are not receiving a good deal. A better approach might be to look more concretely at the financial benefit an app publisher receives when on Apple’s platform, and whether that truly offsets the costs....
In two years, Cisco estimates the number of networked devices will top 29 billion, more than three times the global population. That’s an explosion from the more than 18 billion devices connected to IP networks back just three years ago in 2018. Building a business network that allows any of those billions of desktops, laptops, servers, mobile devices and more to connect, share information, and function as part of a cohesive seamless company tech ecosystem has been Cisco’s speciality for 30 years....
