Fast Company

The startup, which ties together an array of services through a conversational interface, will help build out Satya Nadella’s vision.

On Monday, Microsoft made headlines by plunking down $26 billion for LinkedIn. Now it’s announcing its second acquisition of the week: For an undisclosed sum, the company has bought Wand Labs, a Silicon Valley-based startup that declares its mission is “to tear down app walls, integrate your services in chat, and make them work together so you can do more with less taps.”

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In the wake of all too common mass shootings, what should company leadership and HR do to make employees feel safe?

It’s a safe bet that Monday morning watercooler talk included shock and disbelief over the tragedy that took place in the Orlando nightclub Pulse. Unfortunately the topic isn’t new, as shootings have become more common. And while employees will talk, when should leadership enter the conversation?

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A resolution in the city legislature would allow citizens to officially comment on proposed laws through the Internet rather than in person.

Since the dawn of blogs, people have been able to share their thoughts—for better or worse—in the comments section. Now, New York City’s government might be catching up.

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Five artists illustrated the App Store review guidelines.

One of the more unusual things to come out of Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference this year is a lovely comic interpretation of Apple’s app review guidelines.

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After years of pursuing new devices to extend the broad reach of apps, Apple now implores developers to go deep.

After last month’s Google’s I/O conference, I wrote about how its announcements followed a theme of lowering barriers, such as not requiring a separate device for Android Auto, or a PC for advanced virtual reality, or even installation to experience an app. While Apple also announced efforts to make app development child’s play at its Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) keynote on Monday, it focused more on embedding apps deeper into the fabric of the core experiences that make up its emerging uberplatform.

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With its first retail-oriented program, Techstars and Target are hoping to turn Minneapolis into a hot new destination for entrepreneurs.

If you’re one of the 600 hundred million people around the world who work shifts, trying to plan out your day can be a nightmare. You’re given a printout of your schedule several weeks in advance but you might be asked to change shifts at the very last minute. If you have a sudden emergency, you must scramble to find a co-worker who can replace you. The problem is that there’s often no formal way to do this: Often, you’re left to your own devices, which means reaching out to your colleagues through a Facebook group or texting them on WhatsApp. “They’re really relying on just SMS and basic pictures of their schedule,” Atif Siddiqi, a former retail employee says.

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Where apps and calendar reminders fail, this method has been proven to help you remember all those little things.

If you use alerts on your phone or sticky notes on your desk to remind yourself to complete a task, researchers have found an easier, more effective way to trigger your memory . . . and it involves an alien doll.

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Why do gun control groups focus on moderate proposals instead of advocating radical solutions?

In the 1970s and 1980s, two prominent advocacy groups in the gun control movement were called Handgun Control and the National Coalition to Ban Handguns. Today, these groups are still major voices on the issue, but their names—as well as those of every other major organization involved in the issue—don’t anymore refer to banning or controlling guns. They are the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence and the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence. Other groups include Everytown for Gun Safety and Americans for Responsible Solutions.

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“Under no circumstances would I do a job for Trump today,” Milton Glaser, the legendary designer of I ♥ New York, says.

At Milton Glaser’s Manhattan studio, his most famous projects are strewn about on casual display—buttons and mugs read I ♥ NY, Brooklyn Brewery six-packs dot the space, and surely, a New York magazine cover must be floating about, which he founded just a few floors above where he sits today.

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A new report shows the variety in attitude and approach to creativity in the U.S., U.K., Germany, Brazil, Turkey, Russia, China, and India.

What is creativity? What does it mean to be creative? And, assuming you can come up with your own definition, how do you think it differs from others around the world? Those are just a few of the questions addressed in a new report from agency Crispin Porter + Bogusky London and Vlad Glaveanu, an associate professor at Aalborg University’s International Center for the Cultural Psychology of Creativity in Denmark.

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