🧘 Your appliances should chill

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👋 Happy Friday to you. It’s an especially happy one for Deloitte employees, who have a constructive new perk — and we mean that very literally. The firm offers employees an annual $1k well-being subsidy where it’ll reimburse purchases that promote “thriving mentally, physically, and financially.” That’s cool, but it’s gotten cooler: The eligible reimbursement list now includes “Legos and puzzles,” so if you see anyone splurging on $1k worth of Legos, be sure to ask them if their team at Deloitte is hiring so you, too, can score some Legos.

🎧 On the pod: Apple’s already-big AI problem has only gotten bigger.

NEWS FLASH

Jeff Bezos and Sundar Pichai in conversation.

👎 Feel like nobody likes you? You’re probably still doing better than Big Tech CEOs: Tech Oversight Project and Public Policy Polling surveyed US voters to see how they’re feeling about our titans of industry and… yeah, not so good. Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg is the captain of the disliked team, with 74% of respondents finding him unlikeable. Behind him are Amazon’s Jeff Bezos (67% disliked), Alphabet’s Sundar Pichai (55%), and OpenAI’s Sam Altman (50%). They could all take lessons from Apple’s Tim Cook — he’s only got 33% of voters turned against him.

🌊 More robot submarines are headed to the last place you’d ever want to go: Sea-mapping startup Bedrock Ocean raised $25m to send more of its autonomous submarines way, way, way down there, where all the scary fish live. The battery-powered bots cruise five to 10 meters above the ocean floor, using sonar and magnetic sensors to map all its nooks and crannies. It’s a departure from the norm (large sonar-pulsing, resource-draining, sealife-disturbing mapping ships) with Bedrock saying two of its subs can cover the same ground as one traditional ship, and each of its ships could launch 10 to 12 subs.

🔨 Less dancing, more how to build a deck: Lowe’s launched its own creator network geared toward home improvement. It enrolled 17k+ participants in beta, and made a deal with YouTuber MrBeast to be the exclusive building partner for season two of “Beast Games,” his competition show, and to feature a MrBeast dedicated storefront on its website. The move targets millennials and Gen Z, who frequently turn to online creators for project inspo and how-tos. If you also got really into gardening or turning Ikea bookshelves into built-in cabinets during the pandemic, you understand.

MORE NEWS TO KNOW

Adding protein to everything remains the 'it' thing to do and even Starbucks is getting in on the action, developing a cold foam packed with 15+ grams of protein. It’ll be available for your coffee drink/meal someday soon.
How popular is remote work, exactly? Cisco’s annual hybrid work report just dropped and it offered up this wowing nugget: 63% of respondents said they’d accept a pay cut if it meant they could work remotely more often.
Grocery shelves might be looking sparse due to a cyberattack on food distribution company United Natural Foods (UNFI) last week. Markets small and large, including Whole Foods, have been impacted. UNFI hopes to return to normal by the end of the week.

SLOW THEIR SCROLL

Posting videos on socials? Read our latest research

Brands + micro-influencers = win-win. A whole 77% of marketers we surveyed said they bring better ROI than other channels.
Community creates connection. Many folks want to find their tribes, and feel some kind of kinship.
Emerging platforms have gravity. Think about TikTok going nuts in 2020. Top brands quickly capitalize on new platforms.
Tailor your content and tone. Your approach to TikTok and Instagram Reels should probably hit different angles.

To hop on top of four major trends, view our latest research.

Social video pro tips

THE BIG IDEA

A beach vacation scene with appliances scattered about.

This group wants our gadgets to chill TF out

Modern tech is usually designed in a way that’s distracting at best and infuriating at worst.

Think: a blinking router in the night, or an unresponsive touch screen that makes you want to chuck whatever it is at the wall.

But it doesn’t have to be.

The Calm Tech Institute, a consumer advocacy group and research firm, is championing a new industry standard that aims to do away with those unwanted aspects of current tech design in favor of products that “enhance human life without causing stress or distraction.”

Working with human attention, not against it

CTI is offering a certification program for mindfully designed products, which it calls “calm tech”: basically, tech that blends discreetly into our life, rather than pulling us out of it.

For example: With a bike, you learn to ride it once and never again. But with a lot of software and physical objects, “you have to relearn it. It gets changed… and you can feel your mind wanting the button to be in a certain place. And it’s not,” founder Amber Case told Ars Technica.

This creates a frustrating experience that CTI says detracts from a tool’s purpose and our attention — AKA not “calm.”

So, what makes tech “calm”?

To qualify, the tech must meet the institute’s 81-point criteria, which is scored across six categories — light, sound, attention, periphery, durability, materials — and follow eight guiding principles, including requiring minimal attention, respecting social norms, and, of course, creating calm.
Cars, smart appliances, electronics, AI, apps, even hotels and museums can all be certified as such. (For now, the program doesn’t include software-only products.)
Companies can pay for a review or for precertification, where CTI helps guide their product development to get it up to standard.

Since launching last year, it’s already certified six products, including the Mui Board Gen 2, a wooden smart home hub, and the Daylight Computer, a blue-light-free laptop.

What’s next?

CTI is currently working with neuroscientists to further its research and with companies to get even more gadgets certified, so that maybe — instead of blue lights, loud beeping, and complicated interfaces — we can live in a world of warm lights, soothing sounds, and intuitive button placement.

Until then, we’ll be patiently waiting for a “calm” microwave that doesn’t make retrieving food sound like an emergency — our last nerve would greatly appreciate that.

🔗

NEWSWORTHY NUMBER

Annual cost of Cambridge, England’s 24-hour cattle rescue service, which saves the 2-4 cows that fall into the River Cam every grazing season.

Cambridge plans to fix the issue with solar-powered GPS collars that make a noise and give cows a mild electric shock whenever they graze too close to the river.

This could also be handy for people who nearly wander into utility poles while looking at their phones.

AROUND THE WEB

📰 On this day: In 1971, The New York Times began publishing the “Pentagon Papers,” a secret Department of Defense study on US involvement in the Vietnam War.

🌉 Seriously though: Have you booked your trip to INBOUND yet? From Sept. 3-5, the year’s biggest business event will take over San Fran. Check the lineup and get your pass here. (We made you the discount code “HUSTLE10” as a show of love.)

🧠 Haha: A website for keeping track of where you put stuff.

🎨 Chill out: with these online paint tools.

🥦 Aww: Eat your broccoli.

QUOTE OF NOTE

I got my journal and my book—my legs kicked up. Let's see what this does for my body.

“Tech neck” is turning young workers into aching hunchbacks, with a reported 24% of employees ages 16-26 skipping work over it last year. Now, Gen Zers and millennials are testing out a possible cure: “tummy time.”

Yup, like what babies do when they’re learning to hold their heads up.

On TikTok, creators like Ari Viscera, whose tummy-time video has garnered 3.5m+ views, are championing the toddler-inspired, expert-approved technique to correct their posture — and unlike many viral trends, this one seems to be working.

SHOWER THOUGHT

Doing something out of a garage is considered lowly, but actually having a garage is considered relatively affluent. SOURCE

Today's email was brought to you by Juliet Bennett Rylah, Sara Friedman, and Singdhi Sokpo.
Editing by: Ben "Also needs to chill TF out" Berkley.

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