What's on Your Mind?

Few brands can point to a specific date for their downfall. For Sonos—once the darling of home audio—that date is May 7, 2024, when it rolled out a disastrous app update that left many of its 15 million customers confused by hardware and software features that were suddenly unusable. When all was said and done, more than a decade of brand trust was flipped like an off switch. Now Sonos is taking its first major steps to earn back trust and audiophile stature with a new brand strategy and the launch of two new speakers: the Sonos Play and Era 100 SL. The Sonos Play is framed as a “callback” to the original Play:1 speaker that invented the smart wireless speaker ca…

Happiness is taking control of a beloved comic strip. Sony is buying a 41% stake in the Charles M. Schulz comic “Peanuts” and its characters including Snoopy and Charlie Brown from Canada’s WildBrain in a $457 million deal, the two companies said Friday. The deal adds to Sony’s existing 39% stake, bringing its shareholding to 80%, according to a joint statement. The Schulz family will continue to own the remaining 20%. “With this additional ownership stake, we are thrilled to be able to further elevate the value of the ‘Peanuts’ brand by drawing on the Sony Groupʼs extensive global network and collective expertise,” Sony Music Entertainment President Shunsuke …

Artificial intelligence has notoriously struggled with creating images, writing out gibberish on signs, or adding extra fingers to people. But it seems it’s not much help for photography either—and the internet is having a field day over it. The official X account for the Sony Xperia smartphone shared examples from its new “AI Camera Assistant” tool, which offers lens, exposure, and color suggestions for users. While it’s a decent idea in theory, the images shared by the post revealed otherwise. The X post included a series of before-and-after examples, with the tool appearing to create a comedically overexposed effect. In one of the images, a picture of a…

A new partnership between music creation platform BandLab and Sony is set to bring users production tools that are aimed at making independent musicians competitive with big-budget artists. Starting this summer, BandLab will integrate Sony’s spatial sound technology, 360 Reality Audio, directly into its song-creation app—allowing the songwriters and producers who use it to build immersive songs on their smartphones, using any headphones. “A lot of these creators don’t have access to expensive equipment and gear,” says Jordy Freed, who leads brand, business development and strategy for Sony’s personal entertainment business. “When we look at 360 [Reality Audio] and…

After writing more than one article a day for the last 23 years, I’ve accumulated a body of text large enough to train an AI model that could convincingly write “like me.” With today’s technology, it would not be difficult to build a system capable of generating opinions that sound as if they came from Enrique Dans—an algorithmic professor that keeps publishing long after I’m gone. That, apparently, is the next frontier of productivity: the digital twin. Startups such as Viven and tools like Synthesia are building “AI clones” of employees and executives—trained on their voices, writing, decisions, and habits. The idea is seductive. Imagine scaling yourself infinitely…

Generative AI is seemingly becoming more and more entrenched in daily life, with built-in tools making it near impossible to avoid across platforms, not to mention the AI-generated content flooding apps like X, TikTok, and Instagram. At every turn, the technology’s critics have shouted their concerns from the rooftops, including the environmental havoc wrought by data centers to the damage AI can do to creative industries. Now, that crowd has something to celebrate: the end of OpenAI’s video generation platform Sora. On Tuesday, March 24, OpenAI announced it was shutting down Sora, its AI-first TikTok clone, just months after its launch in September of 2025. “…

In the handful of years since generative AI became both a zeitgeist technology and common dinner table conversation topic, people across the design industries—ranging from independent graphic designers to tech executives—have landed on a curious mantra to justify its use: it’s just a tool. In this very publication, in 2023, designers Caspar Lam and Yujune Park, wrote that “if we see a designer’s role as communicating and connecting ideas to humans in meaningful ways, AI image-generation becomes another tool and avenue for creative expression.” This perspective is not unique to them. Josh Campo, the CEO of Razorfish, extolling the virtues of AI for creatives in Forbes…

2026 may still be more than seven months away, but it’s already shaping up as the year of consumer AI hardware. Or at least the year of a flurry of high-stakes attempts to put generative AI at the heart of new kinds of devices—several of which were in the news this week. Let’s review. On Tuesday, at its I/O developer conference keynote, Google demonstrated smart glasses powered by its Android XR platform and announced that eyewear makers Warby Parker and Gentle Monster would be selling products based on it. The next day, OpenAI unveiled its $6.5 billion acquisition of Jony Ive’s startup IO, which will put the Apple design legend at the center of the ChatGPT maker’s qu…

Celebrities are continuing to learn the hard way that publicly pontificating about their views on AI, like politics, might come with far more risk than reward. The latest incident involves beloved Academy Award winner and Walk the Line star Reese Witherspoon, who is facing ongoing backlash for an Instagram video she posted last week—and then again defended this week—encouraging women to learn more about AI. In a recent video posted from what appears to be her kitchen, Witherspoon told her followers that she’s worried not enough women are using AI. Her evidence: An informal poll she took at a recent meeting of her book club, where most of the members told her they wer…

Early in my career, I was fortunate to cross paths with a mentor who changed how I saw design—and myself. He ran a small studio whose influence reached far beyond its size. He led with a quiet confidence and quick wit, showing how intelligence and humility could coexist in the creative process. I was passionate about the craft, but there was still so much more to learn about the tools, and about business. He taught me how to infuse storytelling into design. How to navigate constraints. How to bring meaning to every project, not just the ones that sparked instant excitement. He reminded me that creativity thrives on play and curiosity, and that if you lose joy in the proce…

Despite its status as an architectural celebrity, the Breuer building, commissioned by the Whitney Museum in the 1960s, has never had an easy relationship with New York City. With a hulking, top-heavy build, brooding dark-gray granite cladding, and nearly windowless facade, it’s as introverted as buildings come, standing confrontationally against its traditional Upper East Side neighbors. Either you love it or hate it. Critic Ada Louise Huxtable described the building as an acquired taste akin to “olives or warm beer” (how appetizing) yet celebrated the “maximum artistry and almost hypnotic skill” of its namesake architect, the Bauhaus-trained modernist Marcel Breuer…

SoundCloud is facing backlash after creators took to social media to complain upon discovering that the music-sharing platform uses uploaded music to train its AI systems. According to SoundCloud’s terms of use, unless a separate agreement states otherwise, users “explicitly agree that your Content may be used to inform, train, develop or serve as input to artificial intelligence or machine intelligence technologies or services as part of and for providing the services.” These terms appear to have been added to SoundCloud’s website in February 2024. Futurism was the first to report on artists’ concerns. Musical duo The Flight brought attention to the terms thi…

Consumers are urged to check their kitchens and pantries after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) posted a notice that warned about health risks associated with select chowder soups. A recall has been issued for the select chowder soup products due to fears they have the potential to be contaminated with Clostridium botulinum. The bacterium can cause a potentially deadly form of food poisoning known as Botulism. Here’s what you need to know about the recall. What’s happened? The FDA has posted a notice of a voluntary recall being conducted by the SeaBear Company of Anacortes, Washington. SeaBear initiated the recall after the company became concerned t…

Do you know where your drinking water comes from? In South Florida, drinking water comes from the Everglades, a vast landscape of wetlands that has long filtered the water relied on by millions of people. But as the Everglades has shrunk over the past century, the region’s water supply and water quality have become increasingly threatened, including by harmful algal blooms fueled by agriculture runoff. Now, the water supply faces another rising challenge: saltwater intrusion. FlickrCC BY-ND 2.0 Protecting South Florida’s water hinges on restoring the Everglades. That’s why, 25 years ago, the federal government and universities launched the world’s largest e…

California, soaked from days of relentless rain and recovering from mudslides in mountain towns, was hit with another powerful storm Christmas Day that led to evacuation warnings and high surf advisories. The San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department in Southern California issued an evacuation warning for Wrightwood, a mountain town about 80 miles (130 kilometers) northeast of Los Angeles, a day after rescuing people trapped in cars during a mud slide. The National Weather Service said waves near the San Francisco Bay Area could reach up to 25 feet (7.6 meters) Friday. Statewide, more than 70,000 people were without power Thursday afternoon, according to PowerOutage.u…

Want more housing market stories from Lance Lambert’s ResiClub in your inbox? Subscribe to the ResiClub newsletter. Back in 2023, this single-family home at 19374 Rizzuto St. in Venice, FL (34293 ZIP Code) was purchased for $565,000. By the time the transaction closed, the housing market had already begun to enter a period of cyclical cooling—with Florida seeing a sharper power swing to buyers and some pockets of Southwest Florida moving into what ResiClub considers “correction mode.” By February 2025, the homeowner listed the property above for sale at $519,000. After 4 subsequent price cuts and a brief delisting, the home finally sold in December 2025 for $455,0…

Southwest Airlines’ signature tagline “Bags Fly Free” seems to be a thing of the past. Since its inception nearly 60 years ago, the airline has offered customers two complimentary checked bags as part of its pitch to distinguish it from competitors. But by this summer, it seems, Southwest will have to replace its oft-repeated slogan with a new one: “bags fly for an added fee.” That’s because any customers who are not members of Southwest’s frequent fliers programs or traveling in an upgraded seat will have to pay for their checked bags, starting with flights booked after May 28, according to a company press release. The airline did not provide specific rates for…