#184 Fitbit, Cash Cat, and Therapists on TikTok - Sat, Jan 16 2021

CES 2021 may be a little different to previous years, but it hasn't disappointed in the cute robots department – and this may be the most adorable AI creature we have ever seen. Created by Vanguard Industries with a successful Kickstarter…

Clo Willaerts I remember this one from its ⁦Kickstarter‬⁩ campaign: Moflin, the 'AI pet' that really looks like a Tribble - except that it will sit on your lap and purr. Funny thing is: I’d buy it. [Tribbles are a small, furry, gentle, attractive, and slow-moving but rapidly reproducing lovable species from the Star Trek universe.]

Burned in is what we look for in an electronic device. It's working perfectly, in the groove. Burned out is what happens if we abuse it. Burn-in comes from a practice, a generous, persistent approach that's within our control. Burn out, on the…

Clo Willaerts Learnt an interesting concept from marketing guru Seth Godin: Burn-in comes from a practice, a generous, persistent approach that’s within our control. Burn out is often caused by trying to control things that we can’t possibly control. As a result, we waste cycles and create a pattern of stress.

In China, color-coded health-tracking programs accessible on mobile phones have become essential tools for containing COVID-19. But this week, a man in the eastern Zhejiang province was caught illegally fabricating the technology. The man, surnamed…

Clo Willaerts Mobile health codes double as digital passports in China, granting coronavirus-free people access to businesses and services.

I'm writing today to let you know that Fitbit is now officially part of Google. It's an incredibly exciting moment for us as a company and for our Fitbit community of users around the globe. When Eric and I founded Fitbit 13 years ago, we did so…

Clo Willaerts It’s official now.

Cash cat was developed for Wealthfront as a social media campaign during the COVID-19 lockdown. She can be seen doing several relatable indoor activities, such as folding origami, kneading sourdough and reading Infinite Jest.

Clo Willaerts Cash cat was developed for Wealthfront as a social media campaign during the COVID-19 lockdown. She can be seen doing several relatable indoor activities, such as folding origami, kneading sourdough and reading Infinite Jest. Found via Veerle Pieters.

“Now this looks like a job for me,” licensed doctoral therapist Courtney Tracy mimes along to an Eminem track through crimson lipstick, responding to the question she's posed, in black and white text, to her 1.4 million TikTok…

Clo Willaerts « Welcome to therapy TikTok, where a steady stream of mental health professionals are trying to meet an anxious generation of young people where they are on social media. »

David Pierce (@pierce) is Protocol's editor at large. Prior to joining Protocol, he was a columnist at The Wall Street Journal, a senior writer with Wired, and deputy editor at The Verge. He owns all the phones.

Clo Willaerts It's not enough to say what happens online affects the real world. They're the same thing, two parts of what it's like to be alive now.

Three decades ago, Tim Berners-Lee devised simple yet powerful standards for locating, linking and presenting multimedia documents online. He set them free into the world, unleashing the World Wide Web. Others became internet billionaires, while…

Clo Willaerts The idea [behind “Pods,” personal online data stores] is that each person could control his or her own data — websites visited, credit card purchases, workout routines, music streamed — in an individual data safe, typically a sliver of server space. Companies could gain access to a person’s data, with permission, through a secure link for a specific task like processing a loan application or delivering a personalized ad. They could link to and use personal information selectively, but not store it.