Journal

Just imagine if gadgets were designed by Pee-Wee Herman.

We live in the full throes of the electric age. Why do all our gadgets look the same, then? Design Academy Eindhoven graduate Dan Adlešič was sick of the sleek-but-boring rectangles of glass, plastic, and aluminum that make up the material geometry of pretty much every 21st-century gadget. Instead, he has imagined a series fictional appliances that look like they just came from Pee-Wee’s Playhouse: surrealist devices that are meant to re-awake our sense of wonder in the electric age.

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HomeAway is the third travel brand Expedia has acquired in 2015.

Expedia is set to buy HomeAway, a competitor to Airbnb, for $3.9 billion following a two-year partnership. Unlike Airbnb, which allows people to rent out their homes on a short-term basis, HomeAway focuses on vacation rentals, charging property owners to list their rentals.

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Facebook is now letting users add 30-second song snippets to their news feeds.

Facebook is rolling out a new feature lets users share and play individual Spotify and Apple Music songs in their news feeds. Called Music Stories, the new functionality lets users repackage 30-second song clips in their Facebook news feed through Facebook’s proprietary music player.

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YouTube also announced that its entire video library can now be watched using the Google Cardboard VR viewer.

YouTube today said it is adding virtual reality functionality to its Android app.

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DJI wants to find the best robotics engineers in the Valley, and keep an eye out for potential partners and investments while they’re at it.

China’s DJI, the world’s largest maker of consumer drones, is opening a Silicon Valley research and development center in hopes of harnessing the wealth of robotics talent in the area…and identifying potential new partners and investment targets in the process.

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Shana, they bought their tickets, they knew what they were getting into.

Today, in the spirit of healthy debate,1 I would like to present the Tabs in a “Point / Counterpoint” format. Ready? Let’s begin.

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A new study from research firm IDC predicts massive disruption in the next five years for tech.

A new study from one of the world’s most respected research firms says the tech industry is headed for a period of chaos. The International Data Corporation’s new FutureScape 2016 report claims, for starters, that 30% of the tech industry’s suppliers will “not exist as we know them today” in five years because they will either fail or be acquired.

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A small tweak in Google Calendar now lets users un-delete events and undo changes made.

Google is making a small but useful change to the web version of Google Calendar. The service is adding a “trash can” button that lets users delete events, and then quickly undelete them if a meeting has been rescheduled or an event needs to be put back on the calendar.

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Using artificial intelligence, KEE promises to connect experts, causes, and tools for addressing social and environmental challenges.

When it comes to social or environmental issues, far too many people are content to “like” a Facebook page devoted to it and feel content with that being the extent of their effort. “[People] talk about it, but nothing ever happens, nothing ever gets solved,” says Raymond Ferrero, an attorney who focuses on crisis intervention in mental health and substance abuse in his paid and pro bono work. “They move to the next trend,” adds Rob Hust, a software developer who works in artificial intelligence (AI).

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The weather is one of the most searched subjects online. What if you learned about the five-day forecast—and the 50-year forecast at the same time?

If you look up the weather forecast on a hot day, a new weather site will also tell you how hot it’s likely to be in 2050—and show you exactly how much local temperatures have risen over the last 45 years.

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