What a Simple Tie Taught Me About Winning Customers for Life
Two different brands, two very different experiences. How interactions with a brand can someone feel valued, or not.
People really hate AI, so why can’t they get enough?
Over the summer I talked to the CEO of Springboards, a startup building an LLM that’s designed to come up with a wider variety of responses than its mainstream rivals do. At the start of the call, he said something that’s been stuck in my head since: “We often say that we’re a self-loathing AI…
McDonald’s Has a Secret Archive That Holds a Four-Eyed Grimace and Ray Kroc’s Ring. There’s One Item It Still Can’t Find.
The room is filled with 71 years of McHistory, including shelves of Happy Meal toys and a Chicken McNugget body pillow.
DoorDash Wants You to Ditch Its App and Let Its New AI Agent Order Your Lunch by Text
The delivery app’s new AI agent remembers your go-to orders, hunts for deals and can even round up the group lunch order.
The Humble PB&J Sandwich Is Sparking a Food Fight Among Snack Giants and Startups
Smucker’s Uncrustables proved the classic sandwich can be a $1 billion business. Now everyone wants a bite.
Photon held a funeral for mobile apps. Now it has $4.5M to help replace them with agents
The startup helps developers build AI agents that work over iMessage, SMS/RCS, email, and other messaging platforms. It’s a bet that consumers will increasingly use agents instead of downloading apps.
Hearing tech startup Legato launches its AI hearing glasses
The glasses stem from the startup’s goal of making hearing care more accessible by addressing the cost, comfort, and stigma associated with traditional hearing aids.
Audible’s new features let you explore book worlds — and use AI to talk to characters
Audible is rolling out new features that help listeners keep track of characters, explore places and imagery mentioned in books, and even interact with characters using generative AI.
The new Kindle ditches the bezel in a push toward a smaller, lighter e-reader
The new Kindle lineup features its lightest and thinnest designs yet, with a sleek, front-flush display that eliminates bezels for good.
Amazon introduces Kindle Click, a $35 remote for turning pages
The compact Bluetooth remote is designed to let readers turn pages without touching their Kindle.
The Download: AI “mind-reading” and creative uses for small batteries
This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology. An AI “mind-reading” tool can reconstruct what you’re looking at based on a brain scan A new AI tool can guess what you’re looking at just by analyzing your brain scans—and…