It seems like every other week lately, we see some new app or other that promises to revolutionize the way we organize our lives. And I’m as guilty as anyone when it comes to salivating over high-potential (alleged) organizational miracles. The problem, though, is that adopting most of these apps is an organizational obligation in and of itself. You have to import your info, learn a whole new system, and devote tons of time to perfecting your fancy new framework—setting up the
Amazon has reportedly ended its controversial program through which workers tweeted nice things about the company on social media, closing the book on what cynics might call a case study in how to never market. The program was a PR solution launched back in 2018 as Amazon was facing increasing criticism for the work conditions in its fulfillment centers. The company was growing at dizzying speeds, adding tens of thousands of new warehouse workers per year (and still is!), but a number of news re
It’s easy to grow numb to numbers. The projected loss, in dollars, from what is clearly an unabating wave of cyberattacks has gotten so extreme that it has become, well, meaningless. Seven years ago (a lifetime in technology), CSO reported that companies and governments were losing $400 billion per year to cybercrime. Truth is, cybercrime is just getting warmed up, fueled by sophisticated criminal enterprises and state-sponsored terrorists flocking to cyberspace. It’s hardly news.
Go into any restaurant or coffee shop, and you’ll see a familiar scene: Individuals or groups of people seated around tables, holding a beverage in one hand, shoulders and backs crouched forward as they scroll on their smartphones with the other. (Bonus points if they’ve got wireless earphones in.) This would appear to be the antithesis of mindful eating. But with the recent explosion of mindfulness and meditation techniques, it may be that utilizing our smartphones can help us fi
Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota says she’s feeling good about her chances of passing the first significant antitrust reform since the dawn of the internet. Just a few days have passed since last Thursday’s hearing to mark up the American Innovation and Choice Online Act, introduced with Republican Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa. The bill would prohibit Big Tech platforms such as Amazon and Apple from taking advantage of their gatekeeper status to give themselves advan
So, Wordle is having a moment, huh? If you haven’t played the daily word game, you must. You get six tries to guess a five-letter word. Each guess tells you if you have a letter in the right place, a correct letter in the wrong place, or a wrong letter. Each guess is supposed to get you closer, except for the time the word was “knoll” and everyone on the internet lost their collective minds. But I digress. The worst part about Wordle (which is itself perfection) is that you
In the early days of the pandemic, there were some clear corporate winners. We all devoured episodes of Tiger King, while singing the praises of Netflix. We hopped on our Peloton bikes, wondering why we ever went to the gym. We used DoorDash to bring us our groceries and takeout. Zoom meetings kept us productive (and were used nearly as often for virtual get-togethers and happy hours with friends and family). And we spent those long hours in isolation deep diving through Etsy and Shopify to find
Hackers made up for some lost time last year. After seeing the number of data breaches decline in 2020, the Identity Theft Resource Center’s 16th Annual Data Breach Report says the number of security compromises was up more than 68% in 2021. That tops the all-time high by a shocking 23%. All told, there were 1,862 breaches last year, says the ITRC, 356 more than in 2017, the previous busiest year on record. “Many of the cyberattacks committed were highly sophisticated and complex,
Amazon sent a jolt through the tech world in 2014 by announcing it was buying Twitch, the 3-year-old streaming platform that was becoming popular with gamers, for nearly $1 billion. At that time, Silicon Valley-based New Enterprise Associates (NEA) had grown to be one of the largest venture capital firms in the world on the back of investments in companies like Uber, BuzzFeed, Groupon, Coursera, 23andMe, and Cloudflare. Looking for the firm’s next big thing, NEA partners Rick Yang and Jon
From cell phone cameras to microchips, life on Earth abounds with NASA technology. Since the Apollo era, NASA technology has found extended life in more terrestrial applications—to such extent that the space agency set up its Technology Transfer Program (T2) in 1976 to streamline getting its patent offerings to the public. Chances are that players in next month’s Super Bowl trained on machines derived from microgravity exercise treadmills used by astronauts on the International Spa