Innovation, Technology & Culture

Sometimes, automakers can't help but try to reinvent the wheel, and that's exactly what is happening with gear shifters these days. Gone are the days of conventional PRNDL shifters on the column or in the center console. In their place are knobs, balls, joysticks and even touchscreen controls. People aren't thrilled.

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Great video article from the Wall Street Journal WSJ interviews Dyson's  founder at Dyson’s headquarters in Singapore to discuss failure and the tension between innovation and profitability.

Eduardo Jiménez, director of technology at Colgate-Palmolive, carries buckets of toothbrushes to meetings. He studies the angle of bristles and their corresponding scrubbiness. He pores over data from focus groups about the width of the handle and the all-important gripping point where a user’s thumb and fingers hold the brush. Sometimes he brushes at his desk.

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What better way to get the cel phone out of drivers' hands? Not only does this make building the car cheaper and more likely to be operated cheerfully for many years to come, but it takes the cell phone right out of the hands of the millions of distracted fuckers driving around in two-ton death machines staring at ticky tocks instead of the road.

“Despite the technological advances in online retailing, the human touch continues to be essential to relationships between retailers and customers,” the study’s authors wrote. Improving its app is another step Starbucks says it’s taking as part of its comeback, but a simple analog solution could also prove useful. Might what works for online retailers prove equally successful for selling Iced Brown Sugar Oatmilk Shaken Espressos? Starbucks certainly hopes so.

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As head injuries became more common, people started seeking out head protection. But the first bike helmets were very different than helmets of today.

Personally, I love the retro-inspired design and comfort of Thousand bike helmets, highly recommended!

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For Pantone Color of the Year 2025, we look to a mellow brown hue whose inherent richness and sensorial and comforting warmth extends further into our desire for comfort, and the indulgence of simple pleasures that we can gift and share with others.

“Especially now, with the world feeling so dystopian, a heritage brand like Jaguar should be conveying feelings of safety, stability, and maybe a hint of rebellion — the kind that shakes things up in a good way, not in a way that unsettles.”

Tesla owners across America are looking to distance themselves from company boss Elon Musk after the Tesla CEO has become increasingly right-wing and, basically, batshit crazy. To do this, they’re doing the only thing any normal person would: they’re buying loads and loads of bumper stickers.

Jaguar’s new logo – and the associated new brand-image campaign – and look at the reactions it’s inspiring, almost none of which are positive. This is feeling like a logo disaster.

Jaguar making a radical and bold change is absolutely a good thing, don’t get me wrong. The brand has been stagnant for some time now, and in desperate need of some sort of reboot. Sure, they have a fantastic history and a legacy of truly iconic cars, but that doesn’t help them sell new cars, which I’m told carmakers enjoy doing. So the idea that Jaguar needs to make a dramatic change is something I absolutely agree with.

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Mr. McCory took an existing product, a lightweight, frameless pack used for short hikes, and added a reinforced bottom, nylon zippers and other tweaks to make it campus-friendly. He decided to leave the leather swatch, originally used for lashing poles to the bag, on its back panel — someone might want to attach an umbrella, he figured. Today, the patch, though rarely used, is a signature element of the JanSport look.

Companies have spent nearly two decades cramming ever more functions onto tappable, swipeable displays. Now buttons, knobs, sliders and other physical controls are making a comeback in vehicles, appliances and personal electronics.

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But I'm here to tell you that after extensive comparison testing by my family, the refreshing yet retro look of Frostie root beer was the big winner out of 20+ brands we tasted this summer. I'm a sucker for any great label and cap, but Frostie matches that with the richest, most natural taste out there.

“Marvel,” rendered in a white font encased by a red block, now sits beside “comics” in white-on-black—an inversion of Marvel Studios’ famous black-on-white logo.

The odd part, to the engineers, was that [none of these problems] appeared in their data. That presented them with two options. They could tell the players that they were wrong. Or they could trust the players and examine whether the problem was with their numbers.

Six experts gathered to make a list of the most influential chairs, sofas and tables, as well as some less obvious household objects, from the past century.

People are surprised to learn how designers sometimes "borrow" design elements from the world around us (we actually do it all the time...) Great story from one of the world's foremost car designers offers good advice if you get caught:

She came to fame in the fashion world in her 80s and 90s, and her wildly eclectic closet of clothes formed a hit exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Calling herself a “geriatric starlet,” Ms. Apfel in her 80s and 90s set trends with clamorous, irreverent ensembles: a boxy, multicolored Bill Blass jacket with tinted Hopi dancing skirt and hairy goatskin boots; a fluffy evening coat of red and green rooster feathers with suede pants slashed to the knees; a rose angora sweater set and 19th-century Chinese brocade panel skirt.

EU regulators are proposing new rules that would mandate the use of in order for cars to receive the top safety rating available

Not sure how I missed this... Honestly, I'd put the Pop Tart up there in the top 100 products ever. And Jerry Seinfeld is about to come out with a documentary on Pop Tarts, to the extent I needed any support for that opinion:-)

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