Insights

YouTube this week revealed new tools that allow users to more easily raise money for charities. It’ll also help by paying the fees for donations up to a point. The primary tool, which I expect will be the most frequently used by followers, is Super Chats for Good. It takes YouTube‘s Super Chat donation service...

Google has quietly been providing select advertisers a “stockpile” of offline credit card transaction data. After a four year negotiation, Google and Mastercard reached a deal that would pay the latter millions in exchange for coughing up data on its card holders, according to a Bloomberg report. Google then...

Trump’s misplaced anger over the lack of right-wing news in search results could act as a catalyst for a renewed antitrust investigation of Google. Much of Donald Trump’s power comes from setting up bogeymen for his base, and then railing against them. This week Trump’s bogeyman is the tech...

Google wants to know what you buy, and Mastercard is here to help. The Holy Grail of advertising data is offline sales. Every marketer wants to know if an ad for something online led to someone going into a physical store and buying it. And data companies have long offered services trying to measure this. Nielsen...

“You’d think years of using the tool would make us proficient, but email is considered one of the biggest time wasters at work.” Email has been around for decades, and even though a lot of companies are moving to communication platforms like Slack, it’s not going away anytime soon....

And now they’re for sale in a Los Angeles gallery for $7,000 a pop. Buckminster Fuller was an engineer, architect, inventor, designer, and all around Renaissance man. He was also his own number one fan–and at the end of his career, he even made his own fan art.Read Full Story

Utah Senator Orrin Hatch (R) has penned a letter to the FTC asking the governing body to “reconsider the competitive effects of Google’s conduct in search and digital advertising.” Utah Senator Orrin Hatch (R) has penned a letter to the Federal Trade Commission asking the governing body to...

Discover the best graphics tablets for drawing, art and design and how to choose a tablet that is right for you as an artist, graphic designer or illustrator.

Twitter announced it was making a change to its policy on political ad tweets, and in doing so it’s fixed on of the biggest problems with those promoted tweets — namely, that the information about them wasn’t easily accessible. The policy applies to ads that “advocate for legislative issues of national...

Using voice assistants in a multilingual home is an exercise in frustration, as they can usually only be set to one language at a time. That’s a particular inconvenience if someone in your family isn’t fully fluent in the language of choice. An update to GoogleAssistant will now remove that hassle, if your...

Voice control is becoming table stakes for all kinds of speakers. Speaker makers are lining up behind Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa at the IFA conference in Berlin, with companies announcing a slew of new voice-controlled speakers. Here’s a rundown:Read Full Story

Google says a large and growing number of households regularly speak two languages. Google’s Assistant can now differentiate between two languages commonly used in a household, and respond in kind. You no longer have to go into the Assistant’s Settings to choose which language you want to use, Google...

Honor today lifted the lid on its upcoming flagship phone at Berlin’s IFA 2018 tech trade show, the Honor Magic 2. Honor Magic 2 😱🤔🤫 pic.twitter.com/qv06xiK9bR — Clinton Jeff (@clintonjeff) August 30, 2018 The Honor Magic 2 is somewhat of a departure from Honor’s typical fare, which usually floats...

After the social network removed a graphic news article about Holocaust education, the Anne Frank Center fought back. Facebook is facing off against an unlikely group this week—the Anne Frank Center for Mutual Respect.Read Full Story

But he’s wrong. In a really odd move, President Trump has continued attacking Google for alleged bias against him by posting a 24-second video that purports that Google promoted President Obama’s State of the Union addresses on its homepage every year but stopped the State of the Union promotion when...

The Google Play store has a nifty – and seemingly new – feature that should make it a whole lot easier to stream your favorite movie or TV show: its search now lets you look up content right in the store, and displays services that host it. To use it, simply fire up the Play store on your Android device, and punch...

Google is set to roll out a much-needed update to Wear OS that will revamp the interface so it’ll be easier to use smartwatches running the platform. The biggest change is in notifications, which presents information in a way that’s easier to parse, with colors to distinguish between things like the name of the...

Security cameras managed to catch a glimpse of a Tesla Model S doing its best impression of the General Lee from Dukes of Hazard. Google it, Generation Z. After speeding over railroad tracks in Barrie, Ontario, Canada yesterday, the car lost control after landing and crashed into the parking lot of a nearby elementary...

After two decades in Hollywood, Regina Hall is just warming up. Hear about her new indie “Support the Girls” and projects she’s writing and producing. Listen to the latest episode of Fast Company‘s podcast Creative Conversation featuring actor Regina Hall on Apple Podcasts,...

Polk Audio has made a name for itself with solid budget- and mid-range audio equipment, and over the past year, it’s been dipping its toes into the smart speaker segment. Its latest connected offering is the Polk Assist, a $200 speaker that’s basically a Google Home on steroids – at least on the audio front....

Google simplifies its smartwatch software before new hardware hits. Google has spent the last couple of years tacking on new features to its Wear OS smartwatch platform. Now, the company’s making it all easier to access with a revamped interface:Read Full Story

A year after Google’s kerfuffle over its alleged stifling of conservative culture, Facebook is facing a similar issue. Remember James Damore? He was the former Google employee who was fired from the company after posting an internal document that essentially claimed women were not as biologically equipped to do...

Make your resume stand up to the seven-second test. Having a well-crafted resume can be the key to getting your foot in the door at the company of your dreams. But figuring out how to make your resume fully representative of your experience and also stand out is easier said than done. After all, hiring...

Harnessing the data that companies collect about you sounds like a great idea, but how much are they willing to share? In theory, a startup called Digi.me can liberate your personal data from tech giants such as Google and Facebook.Read Full Story

Picular analyzes the top Google image search results to suggest colors that relate to any topic you search for. A new design tool called Picular is built around an unlikely data source: Google image search.Read Full Story

A tweet from Bitcoin’s self-proclaimed creator Craig Wright has got the entire cryptocurrency community turning to calculators. Wright took to Twitter to posit that cryptocurrency mining pools that can’t mine blocks of 32MB – which even a 56K modem could handle – “deserve to be bankrupt.” If a pool cannot...

Smarter sets could mean more niche programming and fewer annoying ads, says the TV industry. Privacy advocates worry consumers are being kept in the dark. Digital advertisers have it relatively easy. On the web, they know they can send you ads based on the products you’ve browsed, the searches you’ve...

Fortunately for us, they’re not all that functional. Is there an object of design more commonly used or celebrated than the chair? For many renowned designers and architects, a single chair can be their piece de resistance–and prized pieces are known to even fetch millions of dollars on the...

Polk Audio has made a name for itself with solid budget- and mid-range audio equipment, and over the past year, it’s been dipping its toes into the smart speaker segment. Its latest connected offering is the Polk Assist, a $200 speaker that’s basically a Google Home on steroids – at least on the audio front....

Every email you receive in your Yahoo or AOL inbox is read by Oath’s software to extract data so the company can better target ads at you. The two companies, which are now joined under the Oath banner and owned by Verizon, have a massive email scanning operation going on, reports the Wall Street Journal. Every...

Hey, Google. Can you understand my accent? Of course. You have an incredibly pleasing dialect. So began my Saturday morning discussion with my Google Home Mini. And while I was happy to receive a compliment about my speech, that wasn’t my motivation for asking the question. Our human-to-robot chat was triggered by...

Watch is competing with a number of online video services including Netflix, Amazon Video, and YouTube. The company first launched the video streaming service in the U.S. last year, and now finally people in other parts of the globe will be able to see it. Watch is competing with a number of online video services...

Musk suggests the reason the diver hasn’t sued is because it’s true. Back in July Musk accused, Vernon Unsworth, one of the Thai cave rescue divers, of being a “pedo” after the diver criticized Musk’s idea of a rescuing the stuck children with a small submarine. In a since-deleted...

The move should help Chipotle increase its average order price. The company has added the ability for customers to order burritos through the app and website and get them delivered right to your door. Previously delivery of Chipotle required a third-party app called DoorDash. But now Chipotle and DoorDash have teamed...

A new study quantifies just how much organized labor can raise individual workers wages–even for non-unionized workers. In the past 40 decades, regular working Americans have barely seen their salaries grow, while around them, cost of housing and basic needs have skyrocketed, as has pay for business executives....

A Facebook ad promoting the contraceptive smartphone app as a “highly accurate” method of birth control has been found to be misleading by the UK’s Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) after figures revealed it is less effective then suggested. Natural Cycles claimed it “provided a clinically tested...

Whether you’re a Google Docs newbie or an old pro, you’ll learn something—or several somethings—from this how-to extravaganza. When you’re working in a word processor, every second you save matters. And while Google Docs may seem simple on the surface, it’s practically...

Instagram today announced new security and authenticity measures, the biggest of which is a handy application for users to request verification within the app. Verified accounts are already a thing on Instagram, obviously. Like every other social media service, they’re identifiable by the blue check mark: The...

The social network is buying wind and solar power from sources all over the world–and helping grids get more clean energy for everyone in the process. In Huntsville, Alabama, a sprawling new data center under construction for Facebook will run on solar power from the local grid. In Luleå, Sweden, Facebook...

The department swears the bees will be relocated to new hive. Bees are dying off, so some bee lovers were naturally alarmed today when video emerged of the New York Police Department vacuuming up thousands of bees that had descended upon a hot dog stand in Times Square. A live stream provided by Reuters (and shared...

Google “best noise-cancelling headphones,” and you’ll see almost certainly see Sony’s 1000X series among the top recommendations. My boss liked the WH-1000MX2 so much he may or may not have stole them from Sony. Now in its third iteration, the WH-1000XM3 – Sony really needs a better naming scheme – brings...

The clock has been ticking for cryptocurrency mining apps to either comply with Google’s revised terms of service, or face removal from the Play Store. In July 2018 Google initiated a ban on all apps that mined cryptocurrency on devices. Yet, around two weeks ago, it became evident that many apps that boasted...

It’s a flat, empty gesture to indicate that the video platform cares about “digital wellbeing.” YouTube has debuted a new “digital wellbeing” tool that was designed to help you track how much time you spend watching videos on the platform. Called Time Watched, it charts how many...

“Design is becoming the competitive advantage within companies. We see that trend continuing.” The co-working space giant has acquired Designation, a Chicago-based, for-profit design education school, reports Reuters. Designation was officially required through WeWork’s Flatiron School, the coding...

People who are approved for the loans will see the money deposited directly into their bank account associated with Google Pay. The search giant has teamed up with four Indian banks to grant consumer loans online, reports Bloomberg. Google will team up with HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, and Federal Bank...

An algorithm could never replace human designers… oh, who are we kidding? We’re screwed. MIT researchers have debuted a tool that automatically generates products–and analyzes them in detail–on your behalf.Read Full Story

Starting today, service members can search “jobs for veterans” on Google to see relevant civilian jobs. There’s no doubt that being in the military is incredibly difficult. However, leaving the military can be tough, too, particularly when it comes to finding a job. Nearly 1 in 3 veterans say they...

On Monday afternoon, “Saturday Night Live” tweeted out a request for suggestions on hosts for this coming season. Over 9,000 people responded. On Monday morning, the President of the United States had a difficult time using a speakerphone on live TV. Thankfully, due to summer hiatus, we will all be...