For Kristi Cassidy, Etsy was, at least in the beginning, a boon for her business. Since 2006, Cassidy has used the e-commerce giant to sell her custom-order Gothic, Victorian, and Steampunk wedding dresses and costumes. As someone who makes all of her own products and has to keep up with the demands of a shop, Etsy allowed her to easily connect with customers. But a long list of policy changes at Etsy have hurt business, according to Cassidy. Worst of all, as Etsy has reported earnings increases
The past two weeks brought two space-news headlines: First, Amazon announced gigantic launch contracts for its Project Kuiper satellite-broadband service, and then SpaceX launched the first all-private mission to the International Space Station (ISS). Combined, both stories suggest space flight has become yet another playground for billionaires and their companies. But that overstates things: The orbital-launch business centers on Elon Musk’s SpaceX; everyone else is in orbit around it. L
Whiteboarding apps such as Miro and Microsoft Whiteboard have been around for years. But the category really came into its own two years ago, when the pandemic abruptly put physical whiteboards in meeting spaces out of commission. All of a sudden, many organizations had an urgent need for an equivalent that was digital in nature and designed for a world of remote work. And many software companies, from Figma to Monday.com, have responded by rolling out their own whiteboard apps. Now “
Apple’s entry into live sports was, in many ways, a lot like its foray into other tech fields. It waited on first movers to set some broad standards, then came in with its own enhancements and distinct stamp on things. Unfortunately, the debut of Major League Baseball on Apple TV+ was more Newton than iPhone. While the company certainly got some things right, judging by viewer feedback, it swung and missed on arguably the most important part of broadcast TV: The team of announcers. The re
I don’t need much convincing to understand the appeal of a device like Spotify’s Car Thing. In-car infotainment systems are often cumbersome to navigate and don’t play well with streaming music services, and lots of older cars still don’t have touchscreen systems at all. And while Apple’s CarPlay and Google’s Android Auto do a fine job bringing smartphone apps to car dashboards, in most cases they still require plugging in your phone on every trip. Even
Every day, we read about another brand or technology investing in the metaverse. Virtual worlds like Decentraland—3D digital societies free of physician impediments—will revolutionize how we socialize, shop, seek entertainment, and more, and promises to be a major economic driver around the globe. Less talked about is the metaverse’s digital sustainability. Web 2.0 taught us devastating effects that emphasizing growth over safety when building platforms have on the lives of
When Isoken Igbinedion was 10 years old, she had a “very dangerous encounter” with chemical relaxers that caused her natural hair to fall out. She spent the next 20 years using extensions to give her hair a chance to regrow. And in that time, she realized how much friction there was in the hair products and services market. “In those 20 years, we’ve seen very little innovation used to improve the hair buying and installation process for customers or the manufacturing
One minor quibble with the show Westworld is that there are too few scenes of characters leaving the park to explore less murder-y elements of the near-future. If one company in the world of this show is so advanced that its robots are revolting, what is every other kind of company doing with similar tech? Imagine two guests head out of Westworld to go get some chow. A writer fleshing out this scene might do a bit of research and land on something like a robot salad spot, a fresh pizza kiosk, or
America is in the midst of a Black maternal health crisis, and it is getting worse, not better. According to the most recent data from the CDC, in 2020, Black maternal mortality increased a shocking 26% and has persisted at a rate of at least three-times that of white women for decades. Let’s be clear: It’s racism, not race, that is putting Black women at risk. These data belong to a damning body of research showing how Black women and birthing people go unseen and unheard as they
The state of special education in the U.S. leaves a lot to be desired. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, 7.3 million students ages 3–21 received special education services under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) in 2019-2020. That’s 14% of all public-school students. U.S. law requires education systems to integrate students with special needs, and billions are spent annually to do so. Children with special learning needs—speech-l