Most people try their voice assistant for a few simple tasks—asking Siri the weather, or Google a random factoid—but don’t dive much deeper. Maybe it seems too complicated, you’re worried about privacy, or you just feel weird talking to yourself. This is where I was a few years ago. But during the pandemic, with more time at home, I started to use voice for more tasks. I found it helpful ergonomically—voice gave my eyes, fingers, back, and neck a break from str
Welp, 2021 is nearly behind us. And if you ask me, it wasn’t quite the about-face from 2020 we’d been hoping for. It wasn’t as rough as last year. But it was still kinda rough. But! Dogged optimists that we are, we refuse to be cowed by doom-saying, humbuggery, and fashionable cynicism. So we’re delighted to present you, dear readers, with five tech-flavored things from the past year you can feel unequivocally good about.
- A flotilla of plastic-eating ocea
Meta, née Facebook, had a rough year in 2021, in public opinion if not financially. Revelations from whistleblower Frances Haugen, first detailed in a Wall Street Journal investigative series and then presented in congressional testimony, show that the company was aware of the harm it was causing. Growing concerns about misinformation, emotional manipulation and psychological harm came to a head this year when Haugen released internal company documents showing that the company’s own
The first time I tried to raise venture capital was a flat-out failure. I was an operator turned founder, and my startup, although early, had real velocity. But my attempts at raising went nowhere, and at the time I didn’t understand why. Back then, I had a sense that angels were different than VCs, and that some VCs invested more than others. But mostly I was just focused on my company, and under immense pressure to get funding. Any funding. So I plowed ahead, treated all investors alike
When it comes to gifts for yourself, one possibility stands out above all others. And in and of itself, it doesn’t even cost a dime. I’m talking about the gift of time—the intangible asset that’s always in shortest supply in my life. And given the fact that you’re here and reading this, I’m guessing that might be true for you, too. Well, here in this digital domain of ours, there’s no better way to shave seconds off your day than to unearth and em
We live in an era of big promises but results that fall far short of expectations. Take the failed construction startup Katerra. Founded in 2015, the company claimed it would use the approaches of digital and mass production industries, including glued and laminated “mass timber” products and modular design, to “disrupt” the construction industry, long seen as a bastion of backward, inefficient craft labor. Many people enthusiastically bought into this vision. Over si
It was the best of times; it was the worst of times. Actually, it was mostly the worst of times. It’s hard to look back on the past year and think of it as a monumental improvement over 2020. And that’s just as true in the tech space. Chip shortages affected every corner of the industry, making it hard to find a PlayStation 5, new graphics card or even a new car and Facebook got so much bad press, it changed its name. There were some good moments, though, along with some truly awfu
When the pandemic forced millions of teams to embrace remote work, tools like Dropbox, Zoom, Slack, and Atlassian’s Jira and Confluence made it possible to transition almost overnight. But the switch was rushed, and now we’re starting to see cracks in the foundation. The next step is replicating the human interactions and connections we’re accustomed to in the physical world in a digital one. The metaverse presents a massive opportunity here. New people are joining our
Ho-ho-holy cow, we made it through another crazy year! It was a time of insurrections, the continuation of the pandemic, and the introduction of an entirely new COVID-19 variant as a parting gift. And the bad news? Another new year is right around the corner. While we can’t predict what 2022 will have in store, you can get your year off to a slightly better start by performing a digital detox on your smartphone by deleting apps that are no longer working for you. Everybody’s wants
Every so often a toy comes along and gets its fuzzy grip on the public’s attention. Cabbage Patch Kids, Teddy Ruxpin, Furby, Beanie Babies, to name a few, transcended mere popularity with kids (and, yes, adults) to become full-blown crazes, complete with bemused media coverage, wiped-out shelves, and even in-store scuffles. As with any craze, however, the fervor cooled and those toys receded into nostalgia. But Squishmallows creator Jonathan Kelly is banking on his plump and indelibly sof