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Apple on Thursday disclosed its iPhone sales dipped slightly during the holiday-season quarter, signaling a sluggish start to the trendsetting company’s effort to catch up to the rest of Big Tech in the race to bring artificial intelligence to the masses. The iPhone’s roughly 1% drop in revenue from the previous year’s October-December period wasn’t entirely unexpected, given the first software update enabling the device’s AI features didn’t arrive until just before Halloween, and the technology still isn’t available in many markets outside the U.S. The countries still awaiting Apple’s AI suite include China, a key market where the company continued to lose ground. Alth…

While smartphones are still the indisputable center of our digital lives, this year’s most innovative consumer electronics companies aim to improve life beyond the touchscreen. A lot of that involves advancement in wearable computing. EssilorLuxottica, for instance, has come up with a winning formula for smart glasses in both the Meta Ray-Bans and its Nuance Audio hearing aids, which pack just enough technology to avoid looking uncool. Apple is approaching things from the opposite direction, using its Vision Pro to show what mixed reality can look like when no expense is spared. Bose’s Ultra Open Earbuds, meanwhile, lead a burgeoning category of hearables that let in outs…

So you flew too close to the sun—downloading app after app, recording hi-res video, binging podcasts—and now you’re faced with the dreaded “Storage Almost Full” pop-up on your iPhone. It’s OK: we can handle this together. Here are three extremely expeditious tricks you can use to clear out the clutter and get back to a carefree life of digital hoarding. Detach from big message attachments Every hilarious GIF. Every video of someone’s kid skiing. Every duck-faced selfie. They’re all taking up space, and you’ll almost never need to revisit them. Free up a metric pant-load of storage in mere moments by heading to Settings > General > iPhone Storage > …

Welcome to Pressing Questions, Fast Company’s work-life advice column. Every week, deputy editor Kathleen Davis, host of The New Way We Work podcast, will answer the biggest and most pressing workplace questions. Q: How can I get more sleep? A: I am writing this at 11:12 p.m., so this advice is as much for myself as it is for anyone else. Here’s what we should all be doing differently: First, set a schedule and stick to it. The “stick to it” part is hard. But it’s called the golden rule of sleep for a reason. Set a bedtime, and then plan at least 20-40 minutes back from that time to start your bedtime routine. You might even need an alarm to remind you that it’s tim…

It may be winter and there may be a biting chill in the air, but the dozen men and women who have packed this small sauna room in east London are happily sweating away in their swimwear. It’s more than 90 degrees Celcius (194 Fahrenheit) in here — and it’s about to get even hotter. As ice blocks infused with lavender oil melt over sizzling hot stones, releasing fragrant steam, “sauna master” Oliver Beryl turns on some ambient music and starts to vigorously wave a towel in a circular motion above his head to spread overpowering waves of dry heat around the room. “Now try finding someone and sit back to back with them,” Beryl suggests. “Or, if you want, maintain…

OpenAI is further proving that 2025 is the year of agentic AI. The artificial intelligence giant revealed another new feature from ChatGPT this week, called Deep Research, which it claims can gather research from across the web and summarize it in easy-to-read reports. “Deep research is OpenAI’s next agent that can do work for you independently—you give it a prompt, and ChatGPT will find, analyze, and synthesize hundreds of online sources to create a comprehensive report at the level of a research analyst,” the company wrote in a Sunday blog post. Every output shows clear citations and a summary of the agent’s thinking. The tool is powered by its upcoming Ope…

Legoland Florida plans to lay off 234 workers, primarily performers, in an effort to be more competitive in central Florida’s thriving theme park market, company officials said. The theme park resort in Winter Haven, Florida, said in a notice to the state of Florida last Friday that the permanent layoffs would start at the end of March and last through the beginning of April. Three-quarters of the workers cited for layoffs were performers, and another fifth also was involved in the entertainment side of the theme park, according to the notice. The theme park resort, whose workers are nonunion, has about 1,500 employees. The theme park resort is owned by Me…

Soccer, football, futebol, voetbal. Whichever moniker the world’s favorite game’s 3.5 billion fans use to describe this mega sport, this beautiful game is going through a cultural evolution creating more impact beyond the game than ever before. When I joined Manchester City FC in 2009, soccer clubs and the broader sport were just starting to open their eyes beyond the traditional rules of category marketing for the game and its impact was felt in soccer only. At Manchester City FC, we saw an opportunity to do something different. Very quickly we went on a journey from being a “soccer club that sold entertainment” to strategically pivoting to be an “entertainment b…

Student loan debt has an influence over borrowers’ career choices long after graduation, affecting their job satisfaction, career advancement, and investment strategies. According to a recent study conducted by MissionSquare Research Institute, the debt that’s carried by one in four Americans under 40 affects job-acceptance decisions for 56% of public-sector employees and 62% of those working in the private sector. “When they choose to accept . . . jobs, [the] majority of them have considered how that position or that job can help them with their student loan debt,” says the report’s author and MissionSquare’s head of research, Zhikun Liu. “It not only impacts pe…

The Panama Canal is one of the most important waterways in the world, with about 7% of global trade passing through. It also relies heavily on rainfall. Without enough freshwater flowing in, the canal’s locks can’t raise and lower ships traveling between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Droughts mean fewer ships per day, and that can quickly affect Panama’s finances and economies around the world. But the same freshwater is also essential for Panama’s many other needs, including drinking water for about two million Panamanians, use by Indigenous people and farmers in the watershed, as well as hydropower. When the region experiences droughts, as it did in 2023–2024…

Gucci announced on Thursday that its creative director of under two years, Sabato De Sarno, has left the position just two and a half weeks before the next runway show, and that the new collection would be created by the design team. The abrupt announcement of De Sarno’s departure comes as Gucci prepares to open Milan Fashion Week with a combined womenswear and menswear collection on February 25. His replacement will be announced “in due time,” the statement said. Gucci’s new CEO, Stefano Cantino, expressed gratitude for De Sarno’s focus on “Gucci’s craftsmanship and heritage,” while Kering deputy CEO Francesca Bellettini said he had “further strengthened Gucci’s fundam…

This month’s legal dustup between NFL quarterback Lamar Jackson and NASCAR legend Dale Earnhardt Jr. over trademark rights to the number 8 may have amounted to little more than a tempest in a teapot, but it has drawn attention to a rarely considered topic in branding and marketing: the use of numbers in brand names and logos. Why might a seemingly arbitrary number like 8—or 27 or 63, for that matter—be worth fighting over? And are some numbers worth more than others? Obviously, numbers are at an important disadvantage compared to letters when it comes to their use as trademarks. While an initial letter can stand for any word that it begins with, numbers are much more …

The challenges businesses face today are increasingly unpredictable and interdependent. Traditional business structures were built for different times and different challenges. These models helped companies to scale and thrive in a more predictable world, where efficiency, clear hierarchies, and specialization were the keys to success. But as the world has evolved, so too have the conditions for innovation. In today’s fast-paced, globalized, and complex world, these outdated models actively hold teams back. Silos trap expertise—preventing the flow of fresh ideas—rigid hierarchies create bottlenecks that slow down decision making when speed is essential, and a lack of …

It’s game time for Meta’s wearables: The tech giant has bought two ad spots for its Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses during Sunday’s Super Bowl broadcast, including one that has Chris Hemsworth and Chris Pratt wreaking havoc on Kris Jenner’s art collection. The star-studded spot is part of a bigger push to bring AI-powered wearables to the masses. Last week, Mark Zuckerberg revealed that the company had sold more than one million of its high-tech Ray-Bans in 2024, and hinted at plans to sell many more in the near future. “This will be a defining year that determines if we’re on a path towards many hundreds of millions and eventually billions of AI glasses,” he told investor…

Trading could soon be very different on the Nasdaq stock market if the stock exchange gets its way. That’s because Nasdaq president Tal Cohen has announced the exchange’s plans to introduce 24-hour trading to the platform in the near future. The move to 24-hour trading would represent a seismic shift for the Nasdaq—and present opportunities and challenges to investors, businesses, and the media who cover them. Here’s what you need to know. Nasdaq proposes 24/5 trading In a blog post published today, Nasdaq president Tal Cohen has proposed what is colloquially called “24/5 trading”—the ability to trade stocks and other securities on exchange 24 hours a day for …

These 10 companies provide vital services for businesses at every life cycle stage, from birth to death. Whether facilitating communications with customers, scaling operations, or reducing friction in the marketplace, honorees in the business services category of this year’s most innovative companies help companies grow and thrive—or even perform last rites when that moment finally arrives. In an increasingly post-literate world, companies continue to turn to video to communicate with key stakeholders, and two of this year’s business services honorees help enterprises produce streamable content more efficiently. As part of its ongoing efforts to infuse its products with A…

The Fast Company Impact Council is an invitation-only membership community of leaders, experts, executives, and entrepreneurs who share their insights with our audience. Members pay annual dues for access to peer learning, thought leadership opportunities, events and more. In a world increasingly shaped by the potential of artificial intelligence, the life sciences industry may be one of the largest beneficiaries of its transformative potential. Artificial intelligence (AI) has already revolutionized elements of the drug discovery and development process, redefined research methodologies, enhanced disease detection and diagnosis, and paved the way for personalized…

As a kid of the 1970s, I was fascinated by a short-lived art movement known as photorealism. The painters who practiced it created works that weren’t merely realistic. They were borderline indistinguishable from photographs—an extraordinary feat to pull off with oil on canvas. If the genre hadn’t involved so much painstaking effort, it might have gained more momentum. Thanks to generative AI tools such as DALL-E and Midjourney, which can turn a written prompt into a photo-like image in seconds, we now live in an era of point-and-click photorealism. The results often don’t amount to anything more than internet chum. I certainly didn’t consider any of it to be art—until…

Digital transformation is the most important investment that organizations can make to drive enterprise value. That’s according to 68% of 1,600 business leaders surveyed by Deloitte. And while I largely agree with their thinking, I would take things one very important step further. In my six years as CEO of Argyle, a technology company whose existence hinges on other organizations’ willingness to digitally transform their income verification process, I have learned this: A transformation that prioritizes the needs, skills, and experiences of the humans operating the technology being adopted is the key to long-term success. Consider the users Some call it takin…

With a new streamlined application, it’s easier than ever to apply to Fast Company’s Best Workplaces for Innovators. Here are six reasons why you should apply to our seventh annual BWFI program. 6 reasons to apply 1. Brand exposure. Every company ranked in the top 100 or earning honoree status in a category will appear in the fall (September) issue of the magazine and on fastcompany.com. 2. Talent retention. Public recognition as a Best Workplace for Innovators honoree provides powerful third-party validation that enhances your ability to recruit and retain top talent. 3. Editorial access. Fast Company editors will review all applications; the application …

In news outlets, business publications, and scholarly journals, there is a crescendo of commentary about the combined power of human intelligence and artificial intelligence. Without question, that convergence is already yielding exciting discoveries in many fields. Yet a third, equally crucial, kind of intelligence is being left out of the discussion: nature’s intelligence. The idea that nature itself displays the hallmarks of what we understand as intelligence—the ability to learn, to encode those learnings in new, more effective models, and to continually adapt—is not altogether new. Leonardo da Vinci understood this well. Nature was his teacher and his inspira…

It’s been gradual, but generative AI models and the apps they power have begun to measurably deliver returns for businesses. Organizations across many industries believe their employees are more productive and efficient with AI tools such as chatbots and coding assistants at their side. Numerous AI startups found traction offering such solutions during 2024. Glean, for example, puts cutting-edge AI search capabilities in the hands of employees so that they can tap into various apps and platforms to find documents and corporate intelligence. Contextual AI lets organizations put a company’s proprietary intelligence into a secure data store, then lets them build AI apps tha…

Her voice cracking with emotion as she stood under the fluorescent lights, Janice Blanock asked her local legislators in southwestern Pennsylvania to take a moment and leaf through the photos of her son that she’d handed them. “There’s really nothing different that I can say to you that I haven’t said already over the last several months,” she told supervisors for the tiny township of Cecil outside Pittsburgh. “I can, however, share these photographs. These are just a few of the many pictures we have of our son Luke, from the time he became ill until before he died.” The supervisors were gathered to vote on a zoning ordinance amendment that would greatly increase …

In a world where work-life boundaries are increasingly blurred, the well-being of employees has emerged as a pivotal issue. Despite leaders’ good intentions, a stark reality persists: While a staggering 91% of executives believe they prioritize employee well-being, only 56% of employees share that sentiment. This disconnect, revealed in a recent Deloitte study, underscores a critical gap that companies must bridge if they are to thrive in today’s competitive landscape. As businesses grapple with the complexities of modern work, a framework is emerging to guide leaders: The Four Pillars of Worker Well-Being. These pillars offer a comprehensive approach to fostering a h…