The more technology gets baked into things that we once enjoyed in simpler formats ,the more people will choose to “Strategically Downgrade.” Many farmers, for example, have turned to new ways of hacking the software on their tractors themselves. Now there is a new tool, from the same hacker that famously hacked the iPhone when he
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If you are a parent, one of the things that probably keeps you up at night is how to monitor your kids activity online and keep them safe from scams, cyberbullying or worse. This newly launched tool from Google looks to be a wonderful resource both for parents and also educators to teach kids everything
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What if a chatbot could learn the logic of customer service interactions and help you do everything from fight a parking ticket to negotiate a discount on your mobile phone bill? It turns out chatbots are excellent at this type of negotiation because of how formulaic most customer service scripts are. If a bot can
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What is the most hipster-centric product you could imagine? The answer is just one of the six interesting stories curated for you in this week’s newsletter. Along with the ironically true tale of the invention of the “Avolatte,” you’ll read about new efforts to become more relevant and innovative from the USPS, a promising new
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As I sat bombarded with the same stories over and over this week, I found myself longing for something different. I feel that way a lot. So this week, my curated stories deliver on just one promise: they are genuinely fascinating ideas for products and services. From a slow checkout line designed to offer a
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This week I kept seeing the recurring theme of convenience. Whether it was a story about how cell phones can be used for monitoring disease carrying mosquitos to a new Amazon Echo Virtual Stylist that will judge your new outfit. There is a new portable scanner that will test the pesticides in your fruit and
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Inventions are fun and world changing … but sometimes they are also dumb and head-scratching. In this week’s email, I’ll share a few of both. You’ll read stories about Intel’s secret plan, the future of aquaculture and perhaps the most gratuitously pointless product ever. Some of these inventions may be ahead of their time and
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Nothing says the future quite like robots, and this week there were plenty of interesting stories of how robots are being used in important, curious, quirky and sometimes terrifying ways. From robots replacing advertising agencies to virtual home tours to an edible robot that could soon crawl through your insides, the stories this week touch
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As you know, this weekly post is a collection of interesting stories, but today I was inspired to try something different. Rather than sharing individual stories, I’m going to make connections and instead share three themes with multiple stories, along with a collection of links to stories that caught my attention this week. In the
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Fascinating stories from the world of business this week included Lego’s bold move to finally create a safe social network online for kids, Starbucks’ growing pains from its mobile app that perhaps works too well, a new startup that will pay business travelers to skip the hotel mini bar to save money, and how augmented
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