Author: arthursheikin@gmail.com

[ad_1] On the rare occasions Apple has allowed visitors inside its secretive product design labs, gray blankets covered the tables, shielding any future products from prying eyes.So what might be under the cloth?Apple is famously secretive about what’s around the corner, but it’s left some breadcrumbs here and there for the careful observer. CEO Tim Cook and other executives have dropped subtle hints in recent years on earnings calls and in interviews.Other times, Cook or other execs will be asked about the competition or what Apple’s role in a future product category could look like, and their answers help signal…

[ad_1] Welcome back to our Sunday edition, where we round up some of our top stories and take you inside our newsroom. Since getting laid off nearly two years ago, a former Accenture manager has struggled to land a job. He told Business Insider that recruiters say he’s “expensive.”On the agenda today:But first: It’s a seismic culture shift.If this was forwarded to you, sign up here. Download Business Insider’s app here.This week’s dispatchWe got the memo John Lamparski/Getty, Getty images; Tyler Le/BI Last Saturday morning was a very Business Insider moment for me.I was reading around on our site when…

[ad_1] It started with boredom and a curious kid who had nothing better to do.My son was 13, it was summer break, and like most teenagers, he was wandering around the house complaining about being bored. I was working from my home office, running my digital marketing and branding agency, when he appeared in my doorway for the third time that morning.”What are you actually doing in here all day?” he asked, genuinely curious.Instead of shooing him away like I normally would, something made me pause. “Want to see?” I asked, patting the chair next to my desk.That simple invitation…

[ad_1] It turns out Elon Musk might be on to something with his retro-futuristic Tesla Diner.With sci-fi classics playing on giant drive-in screens, servers dashing by on roller skates, and EVs and robotics on display, the Tesla CEO appears to have cued into something ultra-trendy.Industry insiders told Business Insider that in the next few years, many eateries will be cashless, use robots for customer interactions, and lean into old-school design elements. So while every restaurant won’t be a clone of the instant West Hollywood landmark, Musk’s latest business venture will fit right in.”I think we’re going to start to see…

[ad_1] Costco didn’t become the third-largest retailer in the world by rushing into things.The warehouse club has instead taken a conservative approach to growing its business over the last four decades.That has served the retailer well, but a robust digital strategy is no longer optional for companies that wish to remain competitive in 2025.”We continue to make progress with technology,” CFO Gary Millerchip said during Costco’s earnings call in May. “One of our key focus areas is building capabilities to deliver more personal, relevant experiences for our members, helping them save time and money.”Costco is still well behind Walmart in…

[ad_1] This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Cheryl Orlov, a 55-year-old from Los Angeles who moved to Albania in 2023. The conversation has been edited for length and clarity.I spent 23 years living in the Los Angeles area, where my home was two miles from Redondo Beach. I owned a furniture company for 32 years, built from the ground up, and worked very hard to create a comfortable lifestyle for myself.I had a full life in Los Angeles. I built a good community of friends and was very active, especially in endurance sports. I’m a lover of…

[ad_1] In 2017, Jacob Schneider, then 16, landed his first job at a Chipotle in Lawrence, Kansas. It offered “decent” pay for a person his age, he says, above minimum wage, as well as robust training. “I learned how to do my job really fast,” he tells me.”I didn’t notice a lot of bad things at first,” he says. But eventually, he felt, training quality started to decline. Breaks got shorter. Equipment would break and not get fixed; a cooler was out of operation for about a year, Schneider says. “A lot of corners were being cut over time.”The deterioration…

[ad_1] After a tedious week of squinting at spreadsheets, Sandy McConnell, 80, makes her way to a restaurant in Nevada for a monthly lunch with former colleagues.”Life is too freaking short,” McConnell recalled texting the group chat years ago to kick off the tradition of talking life, family, and the news over a meal. “I’d like to start having lunches.”When she returns home, she checks her bank account: it’s down to $37. She expects she won’t eat at a restaurant again until next month’s reunion.McConnell works full-time as a remote accounts receivable specialist, earning about $50,000 annually to supplement $1,784…

[ad_1] The AI industry is always talking about breakthroughs in intelligence and benchmark wins, but the biggest story this week is GPT-5 — and how easy it is to use for casual users not paying attention to every development.OpenAI promotes the new and improved capabilities of every iteration of its flagship model. When OpenAI released GPT-4, it said the model “exhibits human-level performance on various professional and academic benchmarks.” GPT-4.5, meanwhile, improved the model’s “ability to recognize patterns, draw connections, and generate creative insights without reasoning.”GPT-5, OpenAI said on Thursday, marks “a significant leap in intelligence over all our previous…

[ad_1] The crypto market this week cheered as President Donald Trump signed an executive order meant to open retirement plans to alternative assets including cryptocurrencies. The move from the White House has the potential to be a game changer for the adoption of digital assets. It could help turn them into mainstays of the U.S. financial market by expanding access and encouraging longer-term investing in crypto. Bitcoin , which has been riding a big wave of institutional acceptance and adoption since last year’s debut of U.S. bitcoin ETFs , could one day become more established within financial services. It probably…