*By Jacqueline Corba*
Google's chief executive Sundar Pichai wasted no time Tuesday addressing one of the most vexing issues facing the tech giant.
"It came to my attention we had a major bug in one of our core products," Pichai said Tuesday. "It turns out we got the cheese wrong in our burger emoji."
Determined to be as transparent as possible at a time when tech companies are coming under increasing scrutiny for opaque terms of service agreements and data privacy concerns, Pichai owned up to another gaffe that surprised ー and may have tickled ー the crowd at Google's annual developers conference.
The beer emoji, often used alongside the burger emoji, appeared to defy the laws of gravity.
"I don't even want to tell you the explanation the team gave me as to why the foam was floating above the beer," Pichai said. "But we restored the natural laws of physics."
To be fair, given the breaches of data security, mounting concerns over the role of technology in our lives, and the ways Silicon Valley firms treat their employees and customers, these emoji mishaps hardly rate. But it provided a light-hearted way for Pichai to kick off his keynote speech at Google's I/O conference in Mountain View, Calif.
And emojis really matter to consumers, said Jeremy Burge, Emojipedia's chief emoji officer.
"Companies in the last year or so have figured out people love emojis," Burge said.
For the full interview, [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/google-ceo-sundar-pichai-leads-developer-conference-with-emoji-controversy).
Energy Vault, the company developing sustainable, grid-scale energy storage solutions, is now trading on the New York Stock Exchange following the completion of its business combination with Novus Capital Corporation II. Energy Vault develops sustainable, grid-scale energy storage solutions designed to advance the transition to a carbon free, resilient power grid. Robert Piconi, co-founder and CEO of Energy Vault, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to disucss.
A new mobile app has launched just in time for Valentine's Day. Our.Love bills itself as an A.I.-powered, gamified, relationship wellness app for couples. The app is set in what the company calls the Coupleverse, a virtual world where each couple can build a virtual relationship home as they also build their real-world relationship. Founder and CEO Tal Zlotnitsky joined Cheddar to discuss how the app works. "The concept behind Our.Love is to give people the opportunity to understand where they stand in their relationship through very simple metrics that we provide within the app that will help them in real-time, see where they stand, see where their partner is, and be able to get closer together," he said.
Alyson Wilson, VP of Brand Innovation at Alo Yoga, joins Cheddar News to discuss the yoga apparel company entering the metaverse and teaming up with Spring Studios for New York Fashion Week.
Sēkr, a mobile app that aims to improve and digitize the outdoor travel experience, announced this week that it raised a $2.25 million seed round. In the Sēkr app, users can get access to more than 50,000 campsites throughout the U.S. including the nation's largest database of free campsites. The company is saying it is on a mission to make every step of the planning experience for outdoor travel easier, safer, and more social. Breanne Acio, co-founder and CEO of Sēkr, and Jess Shisler, co-founder and COO, joined Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
Valentine's day is right around the corner and love is in the air....or right at your fingertips if you're on dating apps. Lox Club is the dating app that 'kind of hates dating apps.' If you're burnt out from awkward, cringe-worthy, and superficial dating app encounters, it might be time to join Lox Club. Austin Kevitch, CEO and co-founder of Lox Club, joins Cheddar News to discuss.
