Kano's Computer Kits Let Kids Build Their Own Devices
Alex Klein, co-founder and CEO of Kano, discusses the company's latest funding round of $28 million. The company has released its technology to 4,500 retailers nationwide, including Best Buy and Target.
Klein talks about the inspiration behind the creation of the company, which started with a 2013 Kickstarter campaign that raised over a million dollars. The Kano computer kit was created to open access to computers to people who would not normally have them. It helps people who might not be able to buy devices build computers by themselves! Klein notes that even though the kits cater to kids, they are great for anyone who wants to know how a computer works.
Klein notes that part of his inspiration for Kano was the way in which Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak first introduced the Macintosh. See Cheddar Hosts Tim Stenovec and Kori Hale play with one of the kits on air.
While slumps within the crypto market have typically correlated with major developments, such as China's crypto crackdown or Tesla reversing course on accepting bitcoin, the current slide is coming at a time when the stock market is at or near record levels. Reporter Alex Vuocolo talks about the role of the crypto derivatives market in bitcoin's latest price drop, as well as the future of sustainability in the space.
According to a recent report from T-Mobile, spam call traffic doubled in 2021. The company says so far they have been able to block just 21 billion spam calls for their customers this year. Despite telecom giants blocking these calls, a number of customers continue to receive these spam calls, especially during the holiday season. Founder and President of Vertical Consultants Hugh Odom, joined Cheddar to discuss more.
Venture capitalists and CEOs are clashing over the future of the internet. Web3 is the tech world's name for a decentralized, blockchain-based internet that runs on cryptocurrency. It was recently the topic of a tweet from Block CEO and former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey who wrote that Web3 will not actually be owned by users, and instead be controlled by rich venture capitalists. Dorsey later shared that he was blocked on Twitter by Marc Andreesen, co-founder of VC firm Andreesen Horowitz, which has invested billions of dollars into Web3 and crypto projects. Correspondent for DealBook from the New York Times, Ephrat Livni, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss what this could mean for the future of Web3.
Prices at the pump this year reached a seven-year high, and a new forecast from GasBuddy shared with CNN predicts that gas prices will only continue to rise in 2022 and that the national average could even reach $4.00 a gallon; however, analysts at GasBuddy say anything could happen when it comes to gas prices in the future, as the pandemic has made it difficult to make any predictions about the economy. Consumer Energy Alliance federal policy advisor Michael Zehr joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.