Insights

Cannabis startups envision a not-too-distant future in which consumers seek alternative refreshments during happy hour. As the cannabis industry continues to go more mainstream, entrepreneurs are on the lookout for the next niche market. Edibles have been done every which way, CBD-infused lotions and body care...

They want answers about the Cambridge Analytica scandal. The Facebook CEO received the summons from parliamentary committees in both countries today, reports TechCrunch. Both the U.K. and Canadian parliamentary committees want Zuckerberg to answer questions about Facebook and the Cambridge Anylitca data scandal from...

On Tuesday afternoon, Kanye West pedaled back on his recent inflammatory statements and infatuation with Trump. It probably did not go as well as he expected. For a certain substrata of Twitter, Tuesday afternoon felt a lot like Schadenfreude Christmas.Read Full Story

As the organization’s ranks swell to over 137,000, Women Who Code is not only helping individual women, but also companies as they groom leaders. You would think that holding both undergraduate and master’s degrees from Stanford (the latter in computer science) would make finding a job in tech a cinch....

Back in 2013, Justine Sacco was getting ready to visit her family in South Africa, and before she boarded her flight, she made an insensitive joke on Twitter: “Going to Africa. Hope I don’t get AIDS. Just kidding. I’m white!” By the time her flight was over, she had become the world’s leading trending topic,...

Facebook’s latest earnings report comes in the shadow of several rotating scandals related to data privacy, fake news, and faulty metrics. Facebook reported sky-high profits today despite a number of rotating scandals related to data privacy, fake news, and faulty metrics.Read Full Story

Texas voting machines are switching votes and state officials are trotting out a familiar excuse: Users are to blame. In Texas, some voters using Hart eSlate machines have reported that the machines suddenly changed their votes. The state’s secretary of state Rolando Pablos claims that the problem is due...

Doubling the available character count has not fundamentally changed the nature of tweeting. For years before it happened, people debated whether it should. And when Twitter finally did double the maximum length of a tweet–which it did a year ago today–some of us were skittish about such a fundamental...

It turns the iOS Wallet into a nudge to get to the polls. The midterm election is almost here–and a huge focus for many organizations is getting people to the polls. That includes voter guides, social media campaigns, and even free transportation. But for the American Civil Liberties Union, reminding people to...

In a cruel twist of fate, the most disliked feature of the Google Pixel 3 XL is multiplying. Yes, that’s right, a second notch has appeared on some users‘ phones. Reported on by Android Police, the glitch has been posted on Twitter… So my Pixel randomly grew another notch today. 😂 https://t.co/c6Pff9MVmW...

It just may be the Google Doodle with the best fun factor yet. It just may be the Google Doodle with the best fun factor yet. If you head on over to google.com now, you’ll see the Doodle splash for the game, called Great Ghoul Duel. Click on it to begin playing. (Here’s a direct link for the game.)Read...

I’ll be honest with you. When I reviewed the Pixel 3, I didn’t bother to give the included USB-C Pixel Buds – available separately for $30 – a fair shot. Just another cheap pair of plastic EarPod lookalikes, right? The first time I really listened to them happened to be right after spending an hour testing...

And what it reveals about the importance of diversity in design. “When you are used to being ‘other,’ it’s helpful when you have to think about others,” said Instagram head of design Ian Spalter during Fast Company’s Innovation Festival last week. It’s a succinct...

Apple, Samsung, Google. Those are the names most Americans think of when considering a new flagship phone, but OnePlus is vying to become the next household name. The with OnePlus 6T, it might just succeed. It’s the company’s best phone yet – yes, despite the missing headphone jack. But because it’ll be...

First they came for the favorites, not they come for our likes? Soon, you may not be able to like tweets by clicking a heart icon. The Telegraph reports that Twitter has weighed the possibility of abandoning this feature. And since Twitter doesn’t actually have all that many features, it caught our...

This photo-frame gadget isn’t perfect, but it’s a powerful extension of the Google Photos ecosystem. If there’s one major distinction between the Google Home Hub and other Google-powered smart displays, it’s the intent behind the gadget.Read Full Story

The company’s headquarters flips the sprawling tech campus on its side. When it comes to their headquarters, American tech companies tend to favor sprawling campuses with pathways, pantries, and soccer pitches designed to foster interaction among employees across different departments. For its new, reportedly...

Sam’s Club is just the latest brick-and-mortar store to test cashier-less payment systems. The membership-only retail warehouse club is testing a new concept store in Dallas that will allow customers to buy groceries without the need to stand in a checkout line, reports CNBC. The Dallas test location will see...

Companies are grappling with how to find great design talent. For young designers, it’s a major opportunity. Business has finally recognized design’s true value. But there’s still one problem: Where do you find enough good designers to do the job?Read Full Story

Companies like GoDaddy, Stripe, and PayPal are refusing to do business with the white supremacist online haven after the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting. Gab—the supposed social media platform for free speech, which really just means racists and trolls—is now offline. I am usually trepidatious to write...

Ah, face recognition, that nifty little feature that’s already making the still new fingerprint scanners (kind of) obsolete. Let’s face it, any technology that lets us skip a step is a welcome move. But, since these features often collect and use massive amounts of very personal information, there will always be...

IBM today announced it would be acquiring iconic Linux firm Red Hat in a $34 billion all-cash deal. According to a joint statement issued by both companies, IBM will pay $190 for each share of Red Hat, with Big Blue intending to absorb its latest purchase into its Hybrid Cloud division. [NEWS] @IBM to acquire Red Hat...

Google For Jobs has made a great impact on the jobs market ever since it was released by the search giant in June 2017. There’s been tons written on the feature since it came out, but it’s still a new product and many users are still figuring out how to get the most out of it — that’s why I’ve written this...

The page included numerous public posts from 2016 supporting President Trump and denouncing his political rivals. Cesar Sayoc, the 56-year-old Florida man arrested in connection with the recent wave of mail bomb attacks, had a Facebook profile full of right-wing propaganda. The page is no longer available, perhaps...

The accounts represented themselves as U.S. and U.K. citizens, but the posts actually originated in Iran, Facebook says. Facebook took down 82 accounts, pages, and groups that posted about U.S. and U.K. politics from Iran. The company hasn’t found ties to the Iranian government but can’t say for sure...

Are your employees proud to work for your company? You should be making sure they are. A study at Facebook found that pride in the workplace was the single most important driver of engagement. And at a time when Gallup’s gauge of employee engagement finds less than 35 percent of Americans are engaged at work —...

People tend to talk about doctors in respectful, often referential terms. I can think of few other professions besides Medicine which command immediate, universal respect. Except for the past couple of days, when the hashtag #DoctorsAreDickheads trended across Twitter. You read that right. Doctors. Are. Dickheads. As...

To say 2018 has been a difficult year for Facebook is an understatement. The Cambridge Analytica scandal, US senate hearings, and a massive data breach last month have all contributed to making life incredibly difficult for Zuckerberg and friends — and now the EU Parliament wants to add to their troubles. Yesterday,...

Totally wireless headphones tend to be fundamentally compromised. Sure, you get to walk around like a cyborg, with little bits of plastic and metal hanging out of your ears, but when it comes to the holy trinity of durability, battery life, and audio quality, they underwhelm. At least, I thought that was the case, and...

Three industry leaders agree: If you want to be an ethical designer, stop thrusting so much junk out into the world. Take any bad thing you see across apps and websites. Maybe it’s a dark pattern in an e-commerce site, or a racially profiling algorithm behind a mortgage lender. Of course it’s easy to...

Welcome to TNW Basics, a collection of tips, tricks, guides, and advice on how to easily get the most out of your gadgets, apps, and connected services. Need to fire up a new document, spreadsheet, or slide deck? Google’s suite of tools is great for those, and it’s now easier than ever to get started working on...

Two fashion innovators talk about the good old days, the bad old days, the joys of HR, and the importance of hard work. Rebecca Minkoff and Sarah LaFleur have a lot in common. They are both entrepreneurs running fashion companies—Rebecca Minkoff and MM.LaFleur, respectively—they both work with partners...

WhatsApp is super late introducing stickers on its messaging platform, but hey, at least they’re available now. There are already a bunch of free sticker packs available, and you’ll recognize some of them from Facebook Messenger (no surprise there). The company noted that third parties can also create sticker...

How geography, a new subway stop, and aggressive planning are combining to make Somerville, Massachusetts’s Union Square the northeast’s next promising tech hub. Kendall Square in Cambridge, Massachusetts, represents a near-perfect marriage of technology, science, and capitalism. Butting right up against...

“There was no criminality” when a driver crashed into a father and son in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, the NYPD told Fast Company. After a father and son were struck crossing the street in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, this morning by a driver who appeared to run a red light, the NYPD reportedly told Gothamist no...

Working with and around Facebook, Google, and Twitter’s algorithms to win in digital entertainment. “We have over 10 million followers on Facebook, Instagram” and other social platforms, Nameless Network CEO Kareem Rahma told a crowd at the Fast Company Innovation Festival on Wednesday....

The breach happened in March, but was only made public on Wednesday. Cathay Pacific gave 9.4 million of its passengers a little souvenir to remember their trip on the airline—a data breach. The Hong Kong-based airline has admitted that the personal details of 9.4 million passengers were inappropriately...

A conversation with Levi Strauss & Co.’s president and CEO. Whether he’s plotting a way to end gun violence or spearheading a major turnaround of an iconic brand like Levi Strauss & Co., Chip Bergh is an American original. Now we’re about to find out how original he is...

In a sweeping study of 2 million pieces of financial data and 100,000 design actions over five years, McKinsey finds that design-led companies had 32% more revenue and 56% higher total returns to shareholders compared with other companies. For years, the design community has been working to build the case that...

LikeWar author P.W. Singer on how Taylor Swift, Facebook, Trump, and others helped turn us into accidental soldiers in the battles of the future. One weekend in June 2009, Twitter was preparing an upgrade that would take the service offline for a few hours, when the U.S. State Department called. Delay the upgrade,...

Big game ads have addressed politics and social issues, but Amy Schumer’s boycott adds a new element to just showing up. Taking a stand on a social or political issue isn’t anything new in advertising, and the biggest American ad show of them all—the Superbowl—is no exception. In 2017, we...

One of 2018’s biggest revelations was that Facebook completely failed its users when it allowed Cambridge Analytica to access personal data without their consent. For this massive privacy breach, Facebook has been fined a whopping… £500,000? The measly fine — which amounts to around €565,000 or $645,000 —...

Ugh, the Gregorian calendar is so boring. That’s why we’re disrupting monthly series with a lunar cycle-based series about the best patents of the last synodic month, picked by the PatentYogi team. Get ready when that moon gets gibbous, y’all. This October-ish roundup lands on the beautiful Hunter’s Moon!...

Twitter’s just announced its quarterly earnings, in which it revealed its user base has shrunk by nine million monthly users over the last quarter. This is a good thing. That’s because the company’s been purging bots from its platform, a mission it’s been on  since July. The initial exercise saw Twitter...

Stock soars as Twitter handily beats expectations. Twitter has released its Q3 earnings report and it’s smashed financial experts’ estimates. Here’s how Twitters Q3 numbers break down:Read Full Story

At the Fast Company Innovation Festival, three designers shared the design trends they think are the most overrated in 2018. It’s easy for a trend to turn into a cliché–popular ideas have a way of becoming ridiculous when taken too far. At the Fast Company Innovation Festival, Co.Design editor...

The fine is the maximum allowed by law. The U.K.’s privacy watchdog, the Information Commissioner’s Office, has fined Facebook the maximum amount for failing to safeguard user’s data that was compromised in the Cambridge Analytica scandal, reports CNBC. The £500,000 (about $644,600) fine was...

Welcome to TNW Basics, a collection of tips, tricks, guides, and advice on how to easily get the most out of your gadgets, apps, and connected services. Google’s search service is great at helping you find stuff across the web, but all your queries also help the company build a profile of you it can use to target...