They say the first step to overcoming addiction is acknowledging the problem, but what if your addiction is to technology?
IPhone designer and Nest founder Tony Fadell told Cheddar people need tools to understand how they use their devices.
“Today we do not have the information at our fingertips to allow us to see what our digital life looks like,” he said. “All of these companies have a measurement of our digital life. They know how much time we spend in each of these apps.”
“Apple and Google create these platforms, and they are in the perfect position to give us this data this back to us, and blend it with our physical data.”
Fadell’s comments follow calls from two major Apple investors that the tech giant do more to combat smartphone addiction among children. Jana Partners and California’s teachers’ retirement fund wrote letter to the company over the weekend, saying overuse of the devices has lead to lack of concentration in classrooms.
Fadell argues, though, that the issue is not exclusive to children.
“We have to think broader,” he said. “When it comes to our family, we have tech-free Sundays, where the parents and the kids are not on technology, where we’re together as a family.”
For the full interview [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/apple-ipod-co-inventor-tony-fadell-on-combating-addictive-quality-of-technology).
Facebook shares whipsawed in after-hours trading Tuesday after the company just narrowly missed third-quarter revenue and user estimates and forecast a continued ramp-up in spending.
Apple on Tuesday unveiled updated versions of its MacBook Air, Mac Mini, and iPad Pro lines from an event at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. The biggest update came in the form of a redesigned iPad Pro, the high-end model of the tablet the company debuted eight years ago and which Cook described on stage as "a magical piece of glass that transforms instantly into anything you want it to be."
You may have a Resideo product in your home and not even know it. The company, until this week a unit of Honeywell ($HON), makes products that are in over 150 million homes, but because it sells largely to contractors and distributors, it is not a brand many end users recognize. Now, as its own company, Resideo ($REZI) can compete on its own terms, and at the speed required in a fast-moving and ultra-competitive industry. "Being an independent company is going to help us go faster," said CEO Mike Nefkens.
Brex, the start-up that provides credit cards for start-ups, has created a rewards program for its customers that awards points for spending on ride-sharing, software, travel, and dining, as well as offers from partners like AWS, Salesforce, and WeWork.
Jamie Iannone, CEO of SamsClub.com, told Cheddar that the retailer's new "Sam's Club Now" store will use a variety of innovative technologies to make shopping easier and, as a benefit, attract new members. The new store opening in Dallas will eliminate check-out lines with "Scan & Go" technology powered by its app, as well as feature digital shopping lists, store navigation, and even augmented reality.
General Electric, the once mighty conglomerate that traces its roots back to the invention of the light bulb, delivered a hugely disappointing earnings report Tuesday morning, in which the company that was once known for its steady and generous payouts to investors slashed its quarterly dividend to just a penny.
Brad Twohig, partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners, said that Fortnite has built itself into a kind of social network and that the community its developed will likely help the game maintain its popularity for some time to come.
Facebook doesn't report its latest earnings until Tuesday, but some analysts are already predicting a drop in the numbers amid security concerns and waning popularity among the platform's younger users. Chris Versace, chief investment officer at Tematica Research, predicted on Cheddar Monday that its quarterly earnings report will put Facebook ($FB) at $1.47 per share, down from $1.59 last year.
Hershey's ($HSY) has unveiled a deal to promote its latest candy creation, a combination Hershey-Reese's bar, with the help of two of esports' biggest names: DrLupo and Ninja. Cheddar was at TwitchCon in San Jose, Calif. and got an early look at Hershey's first foray into esports and live-streaming from the company's head of integrated media, Charlie Chappell.
In a tacit admission that its cloud-computing division was lagging behind competitors like Amazon and Microsoft, IBM announced it would shell out $34 billion for open-source software maker Red Hat for an amount equal to almost a third of IBM's market cap.
