What’s on our minds

Our conference room has a small library. In it are 19 books (so far) that are important to us in some way, be it a gift, a guide, a reminder, or a fundamental truth. We also have a small shoe…

You might wonder what Aristotle, automation, and empathy have to do with one another. The answer is simple: the future of happiness. Aristotle believed that man could achieve happiness by working on and developing the things unique to his nature,…

It has been a tough day for Tesla. Shares opened down 5% and drifted lower throughout the day after Wednesday night’s circus disguised as an earnings call. On the call, Tesla provided incrementally negative commentary regarding Model 3 profitability. As believers…

Now you play chess in AR just like R2-D2 and Chewie. On Wednesday, Star Wars Holochess was released as an additional game mode on the Star Wars Jedi Challenges iOS app. This version of Holochess uses ARKit and allows users to…

After our first visit to Amazon Go, Amazon's automated retail store in Seattle, we're not surprised to hear the company has plans to open up to six more cashierless convenience stores later this year. The automated retail space is getting…

We completed our annual Apple Pay review and found year over year growth has been impressive with active users more than doubling (source: Apple), transactions more than tripling (source: Apple) and online merchant adoption increasing by ~50% (source: Loup Ventures).…

We believe that automation will make customer service — delivering empathy — the most in-demand job in tech. Humans will need to take advantage of the three core capabilities that robots can't compete with: creativity, community, and empathy, and The…

Last week we wrote about simplicity as a driving force behind the world’s biggest technology offerings. We’re extending our thoughts on simplicity into a series that explores the necessity of simplicity in frontier technology. First, we’ll dive into AR.

Don’t expect any big M&A. Everyone is asking who Apple will acquire. The answer is: nobody. At least nobody big ($5B+). Apple announced they’re paying $38B in repatriation taxes, which implies they’re bringing $215B back to the U.S. If there…

Written by guest author Jesse Damiani, Founder and CEO at Galatea Design Story telling yesterday and in the future. For the past several millennia, our stories have lived in two dimensions. We translated our creative impulses into 2D formats—whether it…

Head-to-head. We compared two of the most popular tethered virtual reality headsets, the PlayStation VR and the HTC Vive, to get a sense of where VR experiences are today, what needs to improve, and where they might go tomorrow. While…

Simplicity is underappreciated. In many things. But most obviously right now in our world of consumer technology. Simplicity is a requirement of mass adoption. Look at the iPhone, Google, Amazon, and Uber as examples: The iPhone never shipped with a…