Brian Heater
Luis Severino cupped the glove around his ear in frustration. The Yankee Stadium two-strike Death Star siren was blaring over the PA, the announcers reasoned. The pitcher signaled frustration with a new piece of technology that’s quickly been rolled out on baseball’s biggest stage. Manager Aaron Boone walked...
I last spoke with Bill Peduto over the summer. It was an exit interview of sorts, closing out eight years serving as Pittsburgh’s mayor. This week, Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) announced that the politician has joined the Heinz College of Information Systems and Public Policy as a Distinguished...
Update: Amazon says it’s “disappointed” and “evaluating options” following today’s vote. Full comment: “We’re disappointed with the outcome of the election in Staten Island because we believe having a direct relationship with the company is best for our employees. We’re evaluating our options, including filing objections based...
Earlier this week, a video surfaced of a robot dog walking down the streets of Shanghai with a bullhorn strapped on its back. There are those who will, no doubt, view it as a kind of apocalyptic vision. I’d be lying if the thought hadn’t crossed my mind....
Here’s a bummer of a statistic for you: Around 30% of bee colonies disappear every year. Scientists coined the phrase “colony collapse disorder” (CCD) to describe what’s been a devastating ongoing trend in the world’s bee population. No one issue has been identified, but experts tend to attribute...
Air. I love it, you love it. We’re all out here walking around in it all day, filling our lungs and blood with the stuff. We can’t get enough of it. But that beautiful, wonderful, life-saving air that you, me and your pet chinchilla all need is bad...
Turns out the smartphone market can still surprise — to an extent. You can almost certainly figure out which two companies command the first and second position in the U.S. market these days. You would, however, be forgiven for doing a double-take after hearing that Motorola has managed...
The old Gmail inbox is overflowing with agtech pitches, and frankly I only have myself to blame after bringing it up the last two newsletters (damn, just did it again, didn’t?). As for where this whole thing started? I blame the fact that spring officially sprung at precisely...
The first DJI Mavic turned the world of consumer drones on its head when it was released back in late-2016. The compact, foldable design launched a million copy cats around the world — including a number under the drone giant’s own umbrella. Compact certainly isn’t the first word...
A nice secondary effect of writing this newsletter is getting an influx of responses when I write on a specific topic. Last week it was agtech. I expressed a bit of disappointment in the category. So many robotics firms have either failed or been acquired. That’s just kind...
