Behind the remains of a town scorched by fire, the foothills are lush with new green and filled with birdsong.Wildlife is returning to the Eaton Fire burn area and scientists are closely tracking it four months after the Los Angeles area wildfires tore through the Angeles National Forest and destroyed hundreds of homes and businesses in Altadena.Trail cameras installed by a group of volunteers documented the first mountain lion back in the area March 26. It was seen again as recently as two nights ago.“My first inclination was to share that to people who have lost so much during this fire and our community in Altadena, because it’s a sign of hope that nature’s returning, that nature’s resilient,” said Kristen Ochoa, a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, medical school leading the effort.Ochoa, a long-time resident of Southern California, first began documenting the plants and animals that live in the area known as the Chaney Trail Corridor in July 2024. She founded the Chaney Trail Corridor Project and began uploading observations on iNaturalist, a volunteer-driven network of naturalists and citizen scientists that maps and shares documentation of biodiversity across the globe.Located right behind Altadena, with a trailhead only a mile (1.6 kilometers) up the road from neighborhoods that were decimated during the fires, the privately owned area adjacent to Angeles National Forest land was slated for sale and development into a sports complex. Ochoa and other volunteers set up a network of trail cameras to showcase the biodiversity of the area and take “inventory of everything that was valuable.”Much of the land was charred and barren after the fires, and the group also lost all of its cameras, watching as photos of the flames were transmitted before they went dark. But less than two months after the start of the fires, Ochoa was able to go back out and install new ones to start documenting the landscape’s recovery.“The thing I really remember is coming here right after the firethere was so much birdsong,” Ochoa said.Many volunteers with the group are local residents who lost their homes and have told Ochoa that witnessing nature’s recovery in the area has brought hope to them as well.While the fires burned aggressively, they also burned unevenly, leaving patches of trees and a small oasis of greenery surrounding a stream untouched. Animals were able to seek refuge there while the rest of their home burned.They have not come across any deceased animals, she said, but there were reports of an injured bear and deer.The heavy rain that came in the weeks after the fires have helped with a quick recovery.On a recent Wednesday morning, Ochoa pointed out several charred San Gabriel oak treesonly found in Southern Californiathat had rampant green growth around their base.The “crown sprouting” comes from having deep and developed root systems that have helped the trees survive for hundreds of years, Ochoa said.An aggressive bloom of yellow mustard flowers, an invasive species, have also taken root on the hillsides, potentially crowding out native plants like the California sage brush and wild cucumbera source of food for ground squirrels.The group is partnering with local scientists at UCLA to do research on how bats and birds have fared after the fires as well.As she installed a newly donated trail camera, she pointed out bobcat scat and fresh deer tracks on a ridge that had burned just months before.Two red-tailed hawks circled each other in a mating ritual high above in the sky, a sign of spring.
Jaimie Ding, Associated Press
Google’s profits soared 50% in this year’s opening quarter, overcoming the competitive and legal threats that its internet empire is facing amid an economy roiled by a global trade war.The numbers released Thursday by Google parent Alphabet Inc. indicated the company is rising to the challenge so far, but investors are likely to remain concerned about the turbulent times ahead.The Mountain View, California, company earned $34.5 billion, or $2.81 per share, during the January-March period, up from $23.7 billion, or $1.89 per share, at the same time last year. Revenue rose 12% from last year to $90.2 billion. The results easily exceeded analysts’ projections, according to FactSet Research.“We continued to see healthy growth and momentum across the business,” Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai told analysts Thursday during a conference call. Alphabet’s stock gained more than 4% in extended trading after the numbers came out. The shares had fallen by 16% since the end of last year.Google’s first-quarter performance illustrated the continuing power of its long-dominant search engine in a sea of uncertainty. While grappling with competitive threats emerging as artificial intelligence reshapes technology, Google is also battling court decisions condemning its search engine and digital ad network as illegal monopolies.The AI-driven upheaval has opened new opportunities for people to find helpful advice, insights and information through more conversational search options from the likes of OpenAI and Perplexity.Google’s long-dominant search engine is countering the new competition with a feature called AI Overviews that appear above web links in its results. It is also testing a conversational tool called AI Mode that would usher in an even more radical change to its business model.“The company delivered a sound response to those questioning the solidity of the search business amid ever-increasing AI demand,” Investing.com analyst Thomas Monteiro said.But Google is trying to keep its business intact as by the U.S. Justice Department attempts to break up the company and impose other restraints after a federal judge last year branded its search engine an illegal monopoly. To make matters worse, its digital ad network also was found to be illegally abusing its power earlier this month in another case brought by the Justice Department.President Donald Trump’s trade war has injected more uncertainty into the mix by rattling the financial markets amid fears the tariffs will reignite inflation while dragging the economy into a recession. Although Google’s digital services aren’t directly impacted by the tariffs, a recession would likely curtail the spending on ads that generate most of Alphabet’s revenue.But there were few signs of a slowdown in the past quarter. Google’s ad revenue during the period totaled $66.9 billion, an 8% increase from the same time a year ago.Although Google’s executives are mostly upbeat during Thursday’s call, they also acknowledged conditions should the trade war trigger a recession.“We are obviously not immune to the macro environment,” said Philipp Schindler, Alphabet’s chief business officer.The past quarter’s steady growth emboldened Alphabet to stand firm on plans to invest $75 billion on AI and other technologies this year while also pursuing approval of a $32 billion deal to buy cybersecurity firm Wiz.This story has been corrected to reflect Alphabet’s first-quarter profit increased 50% from the same time last year, or $2.81 per share, and that its revenue for the January-March period totaled $90.2 billion. The story also has been corrected to reflect Google’s ad revenue for the first quarter totaled $66.9 billion, an 8% increase from a year ago. An earlier version reported the incorrect dollar amounts and percentage change.
Michael Liedtke, AP Technology Writer
President Donald Trump’s administration on Thursday asked the Supreme Court to allow enforcement of a ban on transgender people in the military, while legal challenges proceed.Without an order from the nation’s highest court, the ban could not take effect for many months, Solicitor General D. John Sauer wrote, “a period far too long for the military to be forced to maintain a policy that it has determined, in its professional judgment, to be contrary to military readiness and the nation’s interests.”The high court filing follows a brief order from a federal appeals court that kept in place a court order blocking the policy nationwide.At the least, Sauer wrote, the court should allow the ban to take effect nationwide, except for the seven service members and one aspiring member of the military who sued.The court gave lawyers for the service members challenging the ban a week to respond.Just after beginning his second term in January, Trump moved aggressively to roll back the rights of transgender people. Among the Republican president’s actions was an executive order that claims the sexual identity of transgender service members “conflicts with a soldier’s commitment to an honorable, truthful, and disciplined lifestyle, even in one’s personal life” and is harmful to military readiness.In response, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth issued a policy that presumptively disqualifies transgender people from military service.But in March, U.S. District Court Judge Benjamin Settle in Tacoma, Washington, ruled for several long-serving transgender military members who say that the ban is insulting and discriminatory and that their firing would cause lasting damage to their careers and reputations.The Trump administration offered no explanation as to why transgender troops, who have been able to serve openly over the past four years with no evidence of problems, should suddenly be banned, Settle wrote. The judge is an appointee of Republican President George W. Bush and is a former captain in the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General Corps.In 2016, during Barack Obama’s presidency, a Defense Department policy permitted transgender people to serve openly in the military. During Trump’s first term in the White House, the Republican issued a directive to ban transgender service members, with an exception for some of those who had already started transitioning under more lenient rules that were in effect during Obama’s Democratic administration.The Supreme Court allowed that ban to take effect. President Joe Biden, a Democrat, scrapped it when he took office.The rules the Defense Department wants to enforce contain no exceptions.Sauer said the policy during Trump’s first term and the one that has been blocked are “materially indistinguishable.”Thousands of transgender people serve in the military, but they represent less than 1% of the total number of active-duty service members.The policy also has been blocked by a federal judge in the nation’s capital, but that ruling has been temporarily halted by a federal appeals court, which heard arguments on Tuesday. The three-judge panel, which includes two judges appointed by Trump during his first term, appeared to be in favor of the administration’s position.In a more limited ruling, a judge in New Jersey also has barred the Air Force from removing two transgender men, saying they showed their separation would cause lasting damage to their careers and reputations that no monetary settlement could repair.
Associated Press writer Lindsay Whitehurst contributed to this report.
Follow the AP’s coverage of the U.S. Supreme Court at https://apnews.com/hub/us-supreme-court.
Mark Sherman, Associated Press
There’s Blue Sky and then there’s Bluesky.
Blue Sky, a paper goods company founded 16 years ago, appears to be seeing a massive bump in traffic to its website, www.bluesky.com, thanks to the newfound popularity of the social media platform of a nearly identical name.
Blue Sky’s website saw 215,100 visitors in March of this year compared to 56,300 visitors in March of 2024, marking a 282% increase in visits, according to data from digital market intelligence firm Similarweb.
At the same time, Bluesky, the X competitor hosted at bsky.app, saw a 864% growth in visitors. In March 2025, Similarweb tracked 169.8 million visitors, compared to 17.6 million in March 2024.
Bluesky started as a research project at Twitter, but became an independent company in 2021. It launched its platform as an invite-only service in 2023 before opening up public registration in February 2024.
The platform really took off, though, after the November presidential election, when X owner Elon Musk gained a large stake in President Trumps campaign and subsequent administration. The company now has more than 35 million users, according to a tracker built by software engineer Natalie Bridgers.
With the massive growth, it could be that people are typing in “bluesky.com” to get to the social platform, unaware they’re going to be met with visually appealing planners.
Blue Sky didn’t respond to Fast Company‘s requests for comment.
Apple aims to make most of its iPhones sold in the United States at factories in India by the end of 2026, and is speeding up those plans to navigate potentially higher tariffs in China, its main manufacturing base, a source told Reuters.
Apple is holding urgent talks with contract manufacturers Foxconn and Tata to achieve that goal, said the person, who declined to be named as the planning process is confidential.
Apple, Tata and Foxconn did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Apple sells over 60 million iPhones in the U.S. annually with roughly 80% of them made in China. The tech giant is now looking to move the majority of that production to India, the source said.
Apple has already stepped up production in India to beat U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs, shipping some 600 tons of iPhones worth $2 billion to the United States in March. The shipments from India marked a record for both its contractors Tata and Foxconn, with the latter alone accounting for smartphones worth $1.3 billion, Reuters reported last week.
In April, the U.S. administration imposed 26% duties on imports from India, much lower than the more than 100% China was facing at the time. Washington has since paused most duties for three months, except for China.
Trump’s administration has since signalled openness to de-escalating the trade war between the world’s two largest economies that has raised fears of recession.
The Financial Times first reported about Apple’s plan on Friday.
As Apple diversifies its manufacturing beyond China, it has positioned India for a critical role. Foxconn and Tata, its two main suppliers there, have three factories in all, with two more being built.
Munsif Vengattil, Akash Sriram, and Disha Mishra, Reuters
A new report has uncovered a community of Roblox players who digitally re-create and play through real-life school shootings.
Known as Active Shooter Studios, or A.S.S., the group has attracted hundreds of fans on Roblox with detailed recreations of horrific mass shootings, including Columbine, Uvalde, and Parkland, according to a report published this week by the Anti-Defamation Leagues Center on Extremism.
The disturbing games are created by anonymous users using Robloxs in-game tools and browser. In one game viewed by Bloomberg, more than 60 players surrounded a school holding pitchforks, chanting the white supremacist phrase You will not replace us. The game has since been removed.
One of A.S.S.s most popular maps re-creates the 1999 Columbine shooting, allowing players to take on the roles of mass murderers Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold. Players can maim and dismember otherssomething nominally prohibited by Robloxs community standardsfighting to the death or eventually committing suicide when police arrive in the game.
The A.S.S. is part of a darker corner of the internet known as the True Crime Community (TCC), an online subculture where followers idolize serial killers and mass murderers. The Columbine shooting is among the events most romanticized by TCC members.
A Roblox spokesperson told Fast Company, Roblox is committed to safety and civility, and our Community Standards explicitly prohibit any content or behavior that depicts, supports, glorifies, or promotes terrorist or extremist organizations in any way. They confirmed that steps are taken to remove material and accounts that violate these standards.
We have a dedicated team focused on proactively identifying and swiftly removing such content, as well as banning the individuals who create it, and we will continue to diligently enforce our policies, they added.
This is not the first time such re-creations have been found on the platform. The ADL previously discovered re-creations of the 2019 mosque shooting in Christchurch, New Zealand. Despite Robloxs efforts, removing these maps often becomes a game of whack-a-mole. According to the report, A.S.S. members have started hosting games on paid Roblox private servers to evade detection.
With over 80 million active users logging onto Roblox dailymany of them children or teensgames that glorify mass violence risk desensitizing players and may serve as a gateway to other extremist content.
However, Roblox insisted the vast majority of users on its platform do not seek out A.S.S. content and that it is not easily searchable. Because of the swift, proactive safety measures we have in place, it is very unlikely users would be exposed to such content on our platform, the spokesperson said.
Combatting content that supports extremist views is an internet-wide challenge, as these individuals constantly try to evade detection, they continued. We work closely with other platforms and in close collaboration with law enforcement to keep content that violates our policies off our platform.
Yesterday was an eventful day for shareholders and employees of Intel Corp. The American chipmaker reported its Q1 2025 results while its new CEO, Lip-Bu Tan, confirmed earlier reports that Intel would be laying off employees. Heres what you need to know about those layoffs and the latest movement in Intels stock price.
New Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan confirms job cuts
The most devastating news to come out of Intel yesterday was that earlier reports were correct and the company would be laying off employees.
On Wednesday, Bloomberg reported that Intel was preparing to lay off up to 20% of its current workforce. Given that Intel reported having 108,900 employees at the end of 2024, that 20% cut would equate to roughly just under 22,000 people being laid off. The 22,000 layoff figure, if accurate, would be larger than Intels last round of mass layoffs in August 2024, when then-Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger announced 15,000 job cuts.
Intels CEO confirmed the new job cuts in an email he sent to employees on April 24, which Intel then later published on its website. In the email, Tan laid out his desire for Intel to once again become an engineering-focused company so it can better compete in the chip marketplace and begin innovating again.
But in order to refocus the company to one that is engineering-first, Tan said Intel will need to find ways to reduce its existing costs. Some of that cost reduction will come from layoffs. In a poorly subtitled section of his email called Flattening the Organization, Tan said he was a big believer in the philosophy that the best leaders get the most done with the fewest people.
In order to refocus the company on engineering, Tan said, Intel would need to remove its organizational complexity and unnecessary bureaucracy. To this end, Tan said there was no way around the fact that these critical changes will reduce the size of our workforce.
However, Tan didnt state the size of this workforce reductionneither in terms of the number of employees that will lose their jobs, nor in the percentage of Intels workforce that would be let go. That means it is currently unknown if Bloombergs 20% figure was correct.
Fast Company has reached out to Intel for comment on the number of upcoming layoffs.
What Tan did confirm is that the layoffs would happen in Q2which is Intels current quarter. He also said that the company will move as quickly as possible [with the layoffs] over the next several months.
Intel stock price sinks after Q1 earnings results
But Intel employees werent the only ones who got bad news yesterday. Investors did, too. After Intel released its Q1 2025 numbers yesterday, the companys stock (Nasdaq: INTC) is currently down a significant amount in premarket trading this morning. As of the time of this writing, INTC shares are currently down around 6.7% to just above $20 per share.
INTC shares had gained 4.3% yesterday to close at $21.49 before the company revealed its Q1 performance.
Unfortunately, investors usually see layoffs as a good thing for a company because when a company lets go of workers, it can save a lot of money. Fewer employees mean fewer associated costs. Yet still, INTC shares are down after the companys Q1 results and layoffs confirmation.
But why?
Intel announced that its Q1 revenue was $12.7 billionessentially flat year-over-year. It also reported a loss equal to 19 cents a share. But those disappointing numbers didnt seem to bother investors as much as Intels quarterly forecast for its current Q2.
Intel issued revenue guidance for its Q2 of $11.2 billion to $12.4 billion. But as Reuters notes, the analysts’ average estimate was $12.82 billion. Many investors thus saw the guidance as an admission from Intel that its turnaround effort will take time.
The company is largely seen to have fumbled the opportunity to take advantage of the AI boom in the early years of this decade, and thus seeded AI chip dominance to Nvidia. Intels Tan is now hoping to make Intel into an AI chip juggernaut, but the companys guidance suggests thats not going to happen overnightand certainly not in the next quarter.
Until yesterday, Intel was one of the few major tech companies in America whose shares were up for the year. INTC closed yesterday at $21.49, up 7.18% for the year. But with its nearly 7% premarket decline this morning, INTC shares are now essentially flat for the year to date.
Looking out to a longer timeline, INTC shares have performed much more poorly. As of yesterdays close, INTC shares had fallen nearly 38% over the past 12 months. Over the past five years, INTC shares were down nearly 64% as of yesterdays close.
Job interviews are the fortune cookies of hiringvague and often misleading. But companies keep using them, despite research suggesting that typical job interviews are mostly unreliable predictors of future job performance, because they give hiring managers the illusion of insight, and a convenient way to validate gut instinct with zero data.
Its not that all interviews are useless; some formats, like structured behavioral interviews with scoring rubrics, including AI-based scoring algorithms that match responses to actual outcomes and future performance, can be moderately predictive. But the typical unstructured interview? Oftentimes, it conveys the illusion of predictability by allowing hiring managers and interviewers to unleash their biases and subjective preferences during the interview, and then reactivate those same biases during their job performance ratings and evaluations of those candidates, once they become employees. Its mostly a personality contest masquerading as a talent evaluation.
The candidates who perform best in interviews are often the ones with the most confidence, charisma, and charm. Unfortunately, these traits are also the calling cards of narcissists, Machiavellians, and the occasional smooth-talking psychopath. What passes for “leadership gravitas” can often be ego dressed in a blazer.
In fact, studies show that narcissists are more likely to be seen as competent in interviewsespecially by less experienced, trained, or qualified interviewers who confuse bravado with ability.. So how do you stand out in an interview without sounding like you’re auditioning for a TED Talk titled “Why I’m Amazing (and You’re Lucky I’m Here)”?
Here are five science-based recommendations:
1. Quantify your brilliance instead of announcing it
Its one thing to say youre a strong leader. Its another to say you managed a team that increased revenue by 35% in under a year during a hiring freeze. Guess which one gets remembered? Vague self-praise triggers skepticism. Data builds trust. Candidates who provided specific behavioral examplesespecially with measurable outcomesare generally rated significantly higher in competence and hireability. Swap generic lines like Im results-oriented for I led a cross-functional team that reduced churn by 28% in Q3. And when you do this, resist the urge to sound smug. If your data is good, it speaks for itself. No need to add a drumroll.
2. Be confident enough to admit what you dont know
Ironically, one of the most confident things you can do in an interview is say, I dont know. Not followed by silence, of coursebut followed by . . . but heres how Id go about figuring it out. This signals humility and problem-solving, a combo thats far more attractive than pretending youve mastered every domain from supply chain to quantum physics. As psychologist and author Tasha Eurich suggests, self-awarenessparticularly awareness of ones own limitationsis a key marker of effective leadership. If you mention a skill you havent mastered, follow it with a brief story of how youve successfully learned something similar.Now youre not just self-awareyoure coachable. In todays volatile and unpredictable job market, people should care less about what you know, and more about your ability, disposition, and willingness to learn in the future.
3. Show you have empathy
Narcissists tend to lack empathy. So, if you want to distance yourself from that ego-obsessed camp, demonstrate that you can see the world through someone elses eyes. Empathy isnt just about being nice in interviews. Its about showing an ability to collaborate, manage conflict, and not derail an entire Slack thread with your emotional immaturity or self-centered delusional rants.Same rule applies to the job interview: When you describe past experiences, include others in the narrative. What were their challenges? How did they feel? How did you adapt your approach to help? How did you realize they felt and reasoned? Ask your interviewer thoughtful questions about the team dynamics, not just your potential title. It shows you care about humans, not just your LinkedIn profile.
4. Let your achievements shine, but dont dwell on them for too long
The bigger the accomplishment, the more chill you should be when you mention it. Theres a fine line between thats impressive and wow, do you talk about anything else? Weve all met someone who peaked in high school sports and never got the memo.
Think of it this way: if youre a big deal, you dont need to say ityour story should do the heavy lifting. Let your success land quietly and let the interviewer be the one who leans in. For example, instead of I turned around a failing division single-handedly, try I was fortunate to be part of a turnaround effort that ended up boosting performance by 40%. In other words, same data, less ego.
5. Read the room
Heres a wild idea: Focus more on the people interviewing you than on your own performance. Read the room. Listen actively. Make eye contact. Nod (at appropriate times, not like a bobblehead). Pause to check if your answers are clear. It sounds basic, but narcissists are notoriously bad at this. They monologue. They steamroll. They mansplain. They circle back to points no one asked about.So if you want to distinguish yourself, be the person who not only speaks wellbut listens even better. For example, after you answer a question, try asking, Did that answer what you were hoping to learn? or Would you like more detail on that? Its called being a kind and socially skilled human, and its rarer than you think.
Final thought: Be the antidote to the ego parade
The truth is, narcissists can be magnetic in interviews. But so can people who are competent, thoughtful, and self-aware. The latter are just more unusualand in far greater demand once the honeymoon phase is over and actual work begins. So, the next time you walk into an interview, remember: You dont have to dazzle with hype.You just have to seem real, competent, and curious enough to connect. Confidence is great, but only if it helps you persuade others that you are competent. In contrast, humility in the face of complexity will make you stand out, because modest competence beats delusional confidence (most of the time).
Lets get one thing out of the way right now: If youre taking photographs with a Polaroid camera in the 21st century, its not because pristine image quality is your overarching priority. In the digital age, the dreamy imperfection of Polaroid pictures is part of their appeal. Theyre never that sharp, and no two come out exactly the same. Even Fujifilms Instax camerasinstant photographys current market-share giantproduce more consistent results.
Still, even people who love Polaroids analog soul and tactile immediacy have their limits. Each shot from an eight-photo film pack costs about $2.25, considerably more than Instax shots. Thats less than it did in instant photographys golden age decades ago, once adjusted for inflation, and you can save by buying multipacks of film. But paying more than two bucks to take a photo is a shock to the walletespecially given that digital ones are effectively free. So youd probably like to get the best pictures your Polaroid camera can muster, or at least avoid outright misfires.
[Photo: Polaroid]
Thats the idea behind the companys newest camera, the Polaroid Flip. At $200, its pricier than the diminutive Polaroid Go ($95), entry-level Polaroid Now ($120), and slightly above-entry-level Polaroid Now+ ($140). The additional investment buys you several features designed to improve your odds of getting pleasing shots in a variety of shooting environments. (Meanwhile, the high-end Polaroid I-2, with its fancy lens and manual settings, is aimed at the select group of photographers who crave more artistic control and are willing to spend $450 on an instant camera.)
The Flip in the cameras name references its most obvious new element, a flippable bar that houses the flash and some LED indicators. Relocating the flash let Polaroid increase its size and distance from the lens, both of which can improve photo qualityjust as they did back when original Polaroid models such as the Sun 600 sported a similar design. That is particularly critical given that instant photos benefit from turning the flash on in pretty much any environment except bright sunlight.
The Polaroid Flips improved flash helps in dimly lit environments.
The Flip upgrades the two lenses used by Polaroids cheaper models to a four-lens system capable of sharper results at a wider range of distances. It also has sonar autofocusing, a technology the company first used almost 50 years ago in one of the worlds first autofocus cameras that works equally well regardless of lighting. None of these features transforms the look and feel of the photos youll get, but they help eke out better image quality in tough conditions.
Along with helping you take better pictures, the Flip has a new feature that prevents you from taking bad ones. If you try to take a photo of a subject thats too close or insufficiently lit, a red light displays in the viewfinder. In extreme cases, the shutter button wont fire at all. Stine Bauer Dahlberg, Polaroids chief product officer, reminded me that one of the most famous original Polaroid cameras, 1965s Swinger, did something similarthough I like its approach even better: If its vetting confirmed you could take a good photo, you saw an affirmative YES in all caps.
Compared to Fujifilmwhich offers several hybrid Instax cameras melding digital sensors and film outputPolaroid seems happy, so far, to stick to its traditional roots. The Flip does connect to Polaroids smartphone app via Bluetooth, opening up options such as exposure compensation and manual control of aperture and shutter speed. But even if you adjust some of the settings on your phone, the resulting photos are still analog through and through.
Functionally and aesthetically, most 21st-century gadgets bear little resemblance to gear of the 1970s and 1980s, unless theyre going out of their way to embrace a retro vibe. By contrast, a citizen of 1985 transported to 2025 would unhesitatingly identify the Flip as a Polaroid camera. Yet its striking resemblance to the models of yore doesnt feel like an act of nostalgia. Why mess too much with something that still works? The classic Polaroid design did, and does. Pressing the red shutter button and listening to the whirring as the photo emerges from the slot in front is still a satisfying experience. Take someones photo, and theyll be curious how it turned out in a way thats less common with smartphone photos. Even a Polaroid camera thats just sitting on your desk provokes questions and smiles.
My biggest quibbles with the current Polaroid experience are with the film, not the camera. The company still hasnt quite gotten its quality back to where it was before the old Polaroids near-death experience early in this century. Nor do photos develop anywhere near as quickly as the old ones did and Fujifilm Instax ones do today. Keeping up with demand for film packs also seems to tax Polaroids production capacity: Earlier this week, the classic white-frame version was out of stock on the companys website. (Its back as I write this, and usually seems easy enough to find at retail.) Dahlberg told me Polaroid is still working on film improvements: There are a couple of things that we’re doing right now that are going to be more visible soon.
Now, at some point in every article about Polaroid in the 21st century, it has been obligatory to marvel at the factthat instant photography is still a thing and that the companywhich went bankrupt twice and once abandoned camera and film productionremains extant. Such wonderment seems less and less essential. After all, its been almost two decades since a band of enthusiasts calling themselves the Impossible Project took over the only remaining Polaroid film factory. That last-moment gambit eventually led to it acquiring the Polaroid brand, launching new cameras, and securing shelf space in places such as Best Buy and Target. Fujifilms Instax, meanwhile, never stopped booming.
Human beings, it turns out, still like to take instant film photosincluding people who werent even alive in Polaroids heyday. At this point, its safe to say the medium isnt going anywhere. If you want to partake in it, the Flip is one of the best options Ive seen, and certainly worth the $60 premium over Polaroids Now+. Its available for purchase on the companys site and will be in stores next month.
You’ve been reading Plugged In, Fast Companys weekly tech newsletter from me, global technology editor Harry McCracken. If a friend or colleague forwarded this edition to youor if you’re reading it on FastCompany.comyou can check out previous issues and sign up to get it yourself every Friday morning. I love hearing from you: Ping me at hmccracken@fastcompany.com with your feedback and ideas for future newsletters. I’m also on Bluesky, Mastodon, and Threads, and you can follow Plugged In on Flipboard.
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The average adult spends five hours and 48 minutes each day looking at their phones. Heineken thinks thats way too much time and has launched a new campaign encouraging people to put their devices down and socialize more in person.
Ideally, with a beer of course.
With consumers spending 88 days per year scrolling on their phones, the Dutch brewer this week is kicking off a Social Off Socials marketing blitz thats built around the premise that adults acknowledge they spend too much time online, but also feel trapped in a vicious cycle of social media addiction.
Heineken commissioned a study of 17,000 adults of legal drinking in the U.S., U.K., and seven other international markets and found that more than half of adults feel overwhelmed keeping up-to-date with social media. Nearly two-thirds say they are nostalgic for the 1990s when there were no smartphones.
Social Off Socials will include a TV ad spotwhich counterintuitively, also appears on social mediaand stars singer Joe Jonas and influencers including Dude with Sign, Lil Cherry, and Paul Olima.
The spot depicts empty highways with abandoned cars, quiet streets, and influencers who are freaking out because they arent getting any views or likes from their content. Where is everybody, Jonas screams. It turns out they are all at the bar, sans phones and having a great time.
Championing social life is at the core of what we do, says Nabil Nasser, global head of the Heineken brand, during an interview with Fast Company. And addressing the barriers to social life, the enemies of social life, is at the core of this campaign.
One of those enemies, which Heineken has been confronting for some time, is excessive use of the phone thats driven by doom scrolling on TikTok, Instagram, and other social media channels. Too much reliance on technology is a theme that also appeared in Heineken’s The Boring Phone and Forgotten Beers ad campaigns last year.
Boring Phone, in particular, leaned on the insight that some consumersin particular those from the Gen Z cohortwere eschewing the smartphones and instead buying flip phones to help curb their online addiction. Heinekens Boring Mode mobile app blocked notifications, the functions of the camera, and other apps for a set period of time to help users unplug.
Gen Z needs to hear this
Heinekens survey found that Gen Z is even more addicted to their phones than older generations, with daily usage rising to six-and-a-half hours for that demographic. One in 10 spend over 12 hours each day looking at their phone screens. Gen Zers are also more likely to say they feel drained by the amount of time they spend speaking to other people online.
Gen Zers are aware there is a time and a place for technology, says Nasser. And they also long for real-life connection as well.
Four out of 10 adults surveyed by Heineken also reported that they speak to people on their phones more than they do in real life, and even with all those connection points, three in five say they feel lonely. That ties into the loneliness epidemic thats become a rising concern among health care professionals, including former U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy.
Bars, hotels, restaurants, and stadiums can play a role in helping mitigate those feelings of loneliness.
Last year, Heineken announced a $50 million investment in revitalizing U.K. pubs, a reaction to high inflation. The investment also points to Heinekens own business interests in keeping spaces open where consumers can meet and talk around a beer. Thats especially key in mature markets like the U.S., where brewers are facing competition from ready-to-drink cocktails and non-alcoholic beers, resulting in lower consumption of traditional ales.
Protecting the bar makes business sense, but it also makes sense for our communities and consumers, says Nasser. It is a place where people go to socialize.
Heinekens new ad campaign was filmed in South Africa and developed by the brewer along with creative agency LePub, which is part of French ad giant Publicis Groupe. Jonas, who stars in the spot, filmed his scenes amid his busy touring schedule. Jonas will also appear at an in-person event, hosted by Heineken in Manhattan, that promotes disconnection.
The intention is that when Jonas performs his new song, Heart by Heart, the crowd will unplug and simply enjoy the moment.
The musician says there are benefits to being online, including socializing with friends, and finding new music and artists. But Jonas adds that he was enticed to appear in the campaign because he liked the idea of encouraging people to be on their devices less frequently.
I could be using that time to meditate, or reading or writing, or pick up a guitar, says Jonas. Find a healthier balance. And spend time with friends, which is why I think the ad that we built really came easily to all of us.
He recalls a recent visit to the Masters Tournament, which is held at the Augusta National Golf Club, where cellphones are prohibited. Moments of panic would set it when hed find himself in a line, with no phone to reach for. And youre like, Oh wait, Im fine, I can be without my phone for another hour, says Jonas.
