Journal

In Re/code, the ex-Reddit CEO explains why she is dropping the case she brought against her former employer, Kleiner Perkins.

Since 2012, Ellen Pao, the embattled former CEO of Reddit, has pursued a high-profile gender discrimination suit against her one-time employer, venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins. When the case went to trial earlier this year, the court ruled in favor of Kleiner Perkins, yet Pao pressed on in hopes of appealing the decision. But no longer: In a Re/code column published Thursday, Pao announced that she was “moving on” and would be dropping the case.

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How two entrepreneurs from Guinea are working with tech companies and the UN to fight the spread of disease.

In early 2014, every major network across the globe was discussing the Ebola outbreak in West Africa. At one point, there were more experts on CNN discussing Ebola in the U.S. than there were people with Ebola in the U.S. Then, suddenly, everyone stopped talking about the disease and the aftermath, until a new Ebola case emerged recently in Sierra Leone, where the country’s last patient was discharged a week prior. As of August 23, 2015, 28,041 Ebola cases and 11,302 deaths had been reported worldwide.

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We got a VC’s take on the pitch decks of five now-billion-dollar tech companies. Here’s what they got right (and wrong) from the start.

Is it impossible now to imagine life without an Airbnb, LinkedIn, or YouTube?

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Apple’s radio play may get all the attention, but DJ Skee’s baby is growing fast.

When Apple introduced its revamped Apple Music ecosystem in June, one of the most intriguing features was Beats 1, a live, 24-hour, human-curated Internet radio station featuring top talent. Beats 1 eschews firm playlists and computer algorithms in favor of an old-school, expert-led, handcrafted listening experience, using lean, internet-only technology. Observers have hailed it as a “serious threat” to both traditional and satellite radio as well as other streaming services, and analyzed its content for secrets to Apple’s grander musical agenda.

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Cheaper plane tickets, better Amazon deals, movies you’ll actually like, and more.

When you were a kid, you leveraged a Magic 8 Ball to help you make decisions. Now that you’re all grown up, you have technology on your side—and hopefully your Magic 8 Ball tucked safely away in your closet, just in case.

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The Netherlands spent seven years and $202 million to digitize huge swaths of AV archives that most people will never see. Was it worth it?

Driving through the Dutch countryside near the town of Hilversum, I have an overwhelming feeling that the surrounding water will wash out the road, given that my car is almost level with it. So it’s surprising that the Netherlands’ main audiovisual archives at the Sound and Vision Institute reside in a multilevel underground structure here, ostensibly below sea level.

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Novelist Dennis Cooper’s latest books use found GIFs to tell creepy horror stories.

Novels are made of words. Graphic novels are made of pictures, and often words. But what does a novel composed of GIFs look like, and can it be called a novel at all?

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The architecture firm’s “Walk the Line” concept subs in airport-esque people movers for Underground cars.

“Transportation in London is a bit of a minefield,” Christian Coop, design director at NBBJ’s outpost in the British capital, says. The global architecture firm is no stranger to wildly imaginative design proposals and when prompted to dream up a way to make the city better, NBBJ turned its attention to the Underground—a labyrinthine system that accommodates more than 1 billion passenger trips in a year and is notorious for congestion and overcrowding.

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But can pressure sensitivity really beat Google’s mind-reading AIs?

Let’s say you want to take a selfie, or hail an Uber, or send a new email. How many taps does it take you? How many screens do you have to visit? It depends on what you’re trying to do, but the answer’s going to be “more than one.” This is mobile’s shallow UI problem; everyone from Google to Apple is feeling the pinch.

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The chart-topping artist talks about those epic VMA ads, his relationship with Apple Music, and the art of being a brand.

On the song “Tell Your Friends,” The Weeknd sings, “Last year I did all the politicking/This year, I’m a focus on the vision.” And since his voice first mysteriously dropped online back in 2010, it’s been clear the 25-year-old Toronto native has had a shrewd strategy all along. From no pictures or interviews at the start, to building his name and spreading the word through key associations with artists like Drake and Ariana Grande, then appearing on soundtracks for blockbusters like The Hunger Games and Fifty Shades of Grey—all bricks in the foundation for becoming one of the biggest acts in music.

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