In the fall of 2014, Slack was the hottest startup in software. And that September, it went through a hot-startup rite of passage: It made its first acquisition.
The company it bought, Spaces, had only two employees. They’d built a tool for sharing text, links, images, and other items, which Slack saw as a useful extension of its core messaging platform. It was something like a word processor, but focused o
When we talk about virtual assistants, Siri, Alexa, and Google Assistant are usually the first names that come to mind.
But let’s be honest: Those sorts of digital helpers are mostly just voice-controlled command systems—combined with a bit of basic automation. By and large, they don’t do a heck of a lot to actually assist us in any life-changing, efficiency-enhancing ways.
Gamification predates video games, but it was video games that systematised the mechanics and aesthetics that gamification appropriated—most of all, achievements.
Achievements have existed in video games for decades. As early as 1980, Activision’s games on the Atari 2600 came with manuals promising fabric patches if you reached a particular high score or completed a challenge.6 Owners of
Spotify subscribers have long used the streaming service to play their favorite movie’s soundtrack. But some now are apparently using the service to watch actual movies, too.
Several TikTok users posted videos within the past week showing how anyone o
Wegmans says shoppers were big fans of its self-checkout app that allowed them to scan groceries as they shopped and pay with a quick swipe of the phone at the end, and now we may know one reason why. The supermarket chain has announced that the app, called Scan, is being discontinued because of an unexpectedly large amount of product loss.
“Unfortunately, the losses we are experiencing prevent us from continuing to make it available in its current state,” it said in an e
The biggest news in crypto last week was “The Merge,” the name for Ethereum’s transition from a proof-of-work validation process, where people mine crypto using computers, to a proof-of-stake validation process, where crypto owners use their current ETH coins as collateral for validating new coi
Instacart on Monday announced Connected Stores, a suite of new and existing in-store tech for retailers who want to make their grocery stores smart.
The features, which U.S. and Canadian retailers can implement à la carte, are based on the idea of making the brick-and-mortar shopping experience more seamless, quick, and personalized. They include a new version of AI-powered Caper Carts, the ability to sync Instacart shopping lists to the smart carts, electronic shelf tabs (called
Where writing is concerned, the best of today’s AIs can be very, very good. But when they’re bad, they’re horrid.
They’re excellent mimics. A few years ago, a text generator called GPT-2 analyzed a sample of writing by Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker, then produced an imitation that hardly anyone could distinguish from the real thing. A more recent AI called Copilot, which has been customized for programming uses, is speeding up the work of practiced code
So you’re thinking of dumping cable? Don’t let me talk you out of it.
You should absolutely do it. I did it five years ago and I’ve never looked back. It’s the best thing since working from home.
That being said, without a teensy bit of planning, you’ll probably experience a few bumps in the road along the way. Here are some things I’ve learned.
The two greatest things about cord cutting
You might save money. You’l