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Fujifilms newest camera model, the Instax Mini Evo Cinema, is a gadget thats designed for the retro camera craze. The device is a vertically oriented instant camera that can take still images, videos (an Instax camera first), connect with your smartphone to turn its photos into physical prints, and capture images in a wide range of retro aesthetics. Its debuting in North American markets in early February for $409.95. Fujifilms new model taps into a younger consumer bases growing interest both in retro tech and film photography aestheticsa trend thats been driven, in large part, by platforms like TikTok. The Instax Mini Evo Cinema turns that niche into a clever feature called the Gen Dial: a literal dial that lets users toggle between decades to capture their perfect retro shot. [Photo: Fujifilm] How the Gen Dial works Almost everything about the Instax Mini Evo Cinema screams nostalgia, from its satisfying tactile buttons to its vertical orientationand thats by design. According to Fujifilm, the cameras silhouette is inspired by the 1965 Fujica Single-8, an 8-millimeter camera initially introduced as an alternative to Kodaks Super 8. While the Instax Mini Evo Cinema does come with a small LCD display, its main functions are controlled with a series of dials, buttons, and switches, which Fujifilm says are designed to evoke the feel of winding film by hand, add to the analog charm, and expand the joy of shooting and printing. The most innovative of these is undoubtedly the Gen Dial. While there are plenty of existing editing apps and filter presets to give a photo a certain vintage look in-post, this may be the first instant camera to actually brand in-camera filters by era. [Photo: Fujifilm] The dial is labeled in 10-year increments, from 1930 to 2020. To choose an effect, users can simply click to the era theyd like to replicate, then shoot and print. According to the company, selecting 1940 will result in a look inspired by the vivid color expression of the three-color film processes, for example; 1980 pulls cues from 35-millimeter color negative film; and 2010 evokes the style of early smartphone photo-editing apps (throwback!). “Overall, our goal with Mini Evo Cinema is to deepen options for creative expression,” says Ashley Reeder Morgan, VP of consumer products for Fujifilm’s North America division. “Beyond video, the Gen Dial provides an experience to transcend time and space over 100 years (10 eras), applying both visual and audio to the mini Evo Cinema output.” From left: 1940, 1980, and 2010 styles [Photos: Fujifilm] For amateur photographers looking to achieve a certain vintage aesthetic without spending endless hours in Adobe Lightroom or fiddling with complicated camera settings, its the perfect intuitive solution. Retro cameras get a TikTok-driven boost For Fujifilm, the Instax Mini Evo Cinema is part of a broader, internet-driven revival of the brands camera division. While Fujifilm previously spent years moving away from its legacy camera business to focus on healthcare, its $1,599 retro-themed X100V camerawhich went viral on TikTokrecently triggered a resurgence in its sales. The companys most recent financials, released in September, show that its imaging division (which includes cameras) experienced a 15.6% revenue increase year over year, which Morgan says is attributable to the success of its instant and digital cameras. “Overall, we have been thrilled to see younger generations rediscovering the joy of photography, whether instant, analog, or digital,” Morgan says. The X100Vs popularity online is likely driven by Gen Z and Gen Alphas interest in retro tech aesthetics (see: Urban Outfitters iPod revival), as well as a more general resurgence in film photography in recent years. Analog cameras are having a moment, and companies like Polaroid and Fujifilm are cashing in.
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E-Commerce
Anthropic’s Claude Code tool is having a moment: It’s recently become popular among software developers for its use of agents to write code, run tests, call tools, and multitask. In recent months the company has begun to stress that Claude Code isnt just for developers, but can let other kinds of workers build websites, create presentations, and do researchand stories about non-coders completing interesting projects have filled social media. The latest offering, called Cowork, is a new version (and a rebranding) of Claude Code for work beyond coding, and it could dramatically widen the audience for Anthropics tools within the enterprise. Cowork is in research preview and is available only to Anthropics $100-per-month Max plan subscribers; theres a waitlist for users on other plans. While Claude Code requires an API key and runs in the terminal, users can access Cowork through the Claude desktop app with a familiar chatbot interface. Most important, Cowork is built to access content stored in the file system on the users computer. A user can give the tool permission to modify, or just read, files in a given folder. They can also allow Claude to create new files or organize existing ones. The new tool could help Anthropic as it eyes an IPO in 2026 (reportedly at a $350 billion valuation), and may put additional pressure on Microsoft, which offers a number of predesigned AI agents (for things like research, analysis, and meeting facilitation) as part of its Copilot AI assistant. A December 2025 report from The Information claimed that Microsoft salespeople have been having trouble hitting their quotas selling the companys Azure (cloud) AI products (including agents and agent builders) to enterprises. Microsoft denied the report. Cowork can do simple things like organize a users desktop folders or the contents of a downloads folder. Or it can search folders and emails for recent expenses and collect them in a new folder. But its most powerful use cases involve more complicated tasks. The tool can produce slide decks, large reports, or spreadsheets by calling up local (folder) data or data from connected business tools (such as Microsoft Teams or Zendesk) and then synthesizing the information. For multipart tasks, Cowork can create subagents for each part. Each of the subagents start with a clean context window so it has plenty of room to gather and remember information about its task. (In single chats with complex tasks, chatbots sometimes run out of context window memory, or become overwhelmed with data and then fail to make sense of it.) For example, a user might present the tool with a long document, then ask the AI to analyze it from different perspectives (legal, financial, ethical, public relations, etc.). A main agent might assign each perspective to a subagent. Each subagent would work independently to collect data and form a draft document, then return to sync up its work with that of the other subagents. A master document would be created and delivered to the user. Then the user might begin talking to the chatbot about how to refine the result. The Anthropic model that underpins Cowork is the same or very similar to the ones that power Claude Code. These models have already spent a significant amount of time working with real-world developers on real work. The models have already seen lots of different kinds of complex tasks, including unique edge cases, and have run into many types of roadblocks. Theyve been trained on lessons learned from that experience. For those reasons, along with the inherent quality of Anthropics models, workers may find in Cowork their first taste of AI agents that build trust through qualitywhich could change how people see the technology as a tool that can actually help them at work.
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E-Commerce
You know the feeling: Youre replying to emails, navigating open tabs, responding to direct messages, when suddenly, it happensyour standing weekly 2 p.m. gets canceled abruptly. Giving everyone 30 minutes back today, the organizer says. A rush courses through your nervous system: Youre free. Nothing about this recurring meeting is particularly onerous or necessarily stressful. And yet, at this moment, you feel like a burden has been lifted. Maybe you even audibly sigh in relief. That sudden sense that all is right in the world has a psychological cause, Dr. Wilsa Charles Malveaux, a psychiatrist in Los Angeles, explains to Fast Company. A neutralized threat in the brain Our body is responding to the release of stress, Charles Malveaux says. Between jobs, families, social obligations, and more, many of us feel overextended. At work, in particular, it can feel as though theres no option to say no to something, like having to attend a meeting. So when a meeting gets canceled, It takes the responsibility of havingor wantingto say no away, which leads to that sense of relief, Charles Malveaux says, noting that biologically, Were getting a sense of I can breathe again. Were programmed to anticipate threats, primarily through the amygdala, the structure in our brain that senses and responds to fear. Once it activates your fight-or-flight system, the brain releases cortisol, which often lingers after a threat so that we remember how to recognize it and respond for the future, Charles Malveaux says. So, weekly catch-ups, as harmless and banal as they may be, could actually activate an elevated sense of threat tied to anxieties around being on time, or having to show up and present a certain way in a meeting, she adds. When you no longer have that, you feel that release. But the reason why a particular meeting may trigger someones internal threat system depends on the individual. An invitation for introspection Beyond the joy of suddenly having extra free time to plow through piled-up tasks or ditch work early, there may be additional insights you can glean about yourself when certain meetings get canceled. Its probably not all of our meetings getting canceled that makes us experience an absolutely electric sense of newfound freedom, Charles Malveaux says. Its probably just some of them. If were really paying attention to what adds stress to our day-to-day work life, and what does not, it could lead to some helpful introspection. Maybe certain meetings make us feel pressure to perform, or maybe theres a colleague in that weekly meeting who triggers us. We can use that kind of personal examination to gather information and potentially move more mindfully throughout our workday. Understanding what types of meetings push us into an emotionally heightened state can help us approach them with a better attitude. Or, in the right environment, we may be able to approach our employers with those concerns and insightssomething that could shift the companys culture across the board. Its a two-way street: Employers need to be receptive to the idea that all-hands-on-deck-style meetings, for example, may not be the healthiest option for everyone. Long-standing gripes Meetings in general remain a contentious aspect of professional life. Data shows that many of them truly do waste time and drain workers to be less productive. As the workplace at large has been reexamined and reimagined in the post-pandemic era, redesigning meetings has become more of a topic of discourse. Sometimes a meeting can just be an emailand if removing it from workers calendars can lower stress levels, why not do it? Building a work culture that understands the difference between necessary and unnecessary meetings is a top-down issue, Charles Malveaux says. After all, theres only so much most workers in an organization can do to control the problem. Employers and upper-level management should really look at what is actually necessary for optimal function and performance of your organization, versus control, which is a way a lot of people erroneously use meetings, she says. A reframe That may be easier said than done, and the fact of the matter is that a lot of us will still be sitting through meetings wed rather avoid as part of being in the workforce. Dealing with the resulting stress is all about energy management, Charles Malveaux suggests. Energy management is a fairly individualized journey, and includes keeping track of the things that drain us, versus those that fill us back up, and making sure we book time for the latter, she says. If youre consistently finding yourself immensely relieved every time a meeting gets canceled, it might be worth zooming out and making sure your energy is being refilled elsewhere in your lifeand not just being depleted constantly at work. Doing an hour or so of something we hate or dont want to participate in is going to feel a lot different from an hour of something that invigorates us, Charles Malveaux says, noting, Making sure that we tune into those things that make us feel good and then schedule time for [them] is key, and it takes intentionality on the individuals part. Making space for breaks can help keep burnout at bay, whether its just five minutes of silence in your car or a walk in a nearby park. Sounds like the perfect way to spend the time gained from that canceled meeting.
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E-Commerce
Amanda Lee McCarty, sustainability consultant and host of the Clotheshorse podcast, remembers fixing a tear on her Forever 21 shirt with a staplerjust long enough to get through the workday before tossing it out. In the early 2000s, when fast-fashion brands began flooding the market, clothing became so cheap that shoppers could endlessly refresh their wardrobes. The garments were poorly made and tore easily, but it hardly mattered. They were designed to be disposable, encouraging repeat purchases. “It didn’t seem worth the time and effort to repair the top,” she recalls. “And besides, I didn’t have any mending skills at the time.” [Photo: Levi’s] McCarty isn’t alone. Starting in the early 1900s, schools trained studentsmostly girlsin the art of sewing and mending clothes in home economics classes. Students learned how to operate sewing machines to create tidy hemlines and sew buttons by hand. But by the 1970s, partly due to the feminist critique that home economics classes reinforced traditional gender roles, these courses slowly began getting cut from public schools. There are now several generations of Americans with no sewing skills at all. In a recent study conducted by Levi’s, 41% of Gen Zers report having no basic repair knowledge, such as fixing a tear or sewing on a buttonwhich is double the rate of older generations. [Photo: Levi’s] This also coincided with clothes getting cheaper, thanks to a global supply chain and low-wage labor in developing countries. Suddenly, clothes were so inexpensive that even the poorest families could buy them instead of making them. Eventually, as McCarty illustrates, they were so cheap that there was no point in even mending them. Today, the average American throws away 81.5 pounds of clothing every year, resulting in 2,100 pounds of textile waste entering U.S. landfills every second. This transformation of the fashion industry has led directly to the environmental disaster we now find ourselves in: Manufacturing billions of clothes annually accelerates climate change, and discarded clothes now clog up landfills, deserts, and oceans. Levi’s believes that one step in tackling the crisis is to teach Gen Z how to mend. The denim brand, which generates upward of $6 billion a year, has partnered with Discovery Education to create a curriculum aligned with educational standards that teaches high schoolers how to sew a button, mend a hole or tear, and hem trousers. This curriculum, which launches today, is available for free and will be shared with teachers across the country who can incorporate it into a wide range of coursesfrom STEM to civics to social studies. [Photo: Levi’s] “Needle-and-Thread Evangelism” The idea took hold during a poker night. Paul Dillinger, Levis head of global product innovation, noticed that a button had popped off a friends Oxford shirt. Oliver said he didnt have time to throw it away and put on a new shirt, Dillinger recalls. It was an illustration of everything thats wrong with the current paradigm. And it could be fixed with a little needle-and-thread evangelism. Dillinger, who trained as a fashion designer and is a skilled garment maker, spent 20 minutes teaching the groupmen in their mid-twentieshow to sew the button back on. Since then, hes made a habit of preaching the gospel of mending with everyone in his orbit, including his colleagues at Levis. [Photo: Levi’s] One of them was Alexis Bechtol, Levis director of community affairs. She saw an opportunity for the company to scale that education beyond informal demos. Bechtol helped spearhead the Wear Longer program and the partnership with Discovery Education, which specializes in developing age-appropriate lesson plans aligned with state and federal standards. Levi’ and Discovery Education worked together to create a curriculum that teaches students the foundations of mending a garment by hand without a sewing machine. There are four lesson plans that are each designed to take up a single classroom period and are flexible enough to be incorporated into courses across disciplines. Kimberly Wright, an instructional design manager at Discovery Education who worked on the curriculum, says the lessons arent positioned as a revival of home economics. Instead, theyre framed as practical, transferable skills relevant to a wide range of careers. Were seeing a resurgence in skills-based learning, Wright says. Across the country, theres a shift toward not just making students college-ready, but career-ready. The initiative is funded through Levis social impact and community engagement budget rather than its marketing arm, although the curriculum will be branded with the Levis logo. Dillinger believes that it is valuable for Levi’s to be associated with mending, because it emphasizes that its products are designed to be durable and long-lasting. “Levi’s wants to be the most loved item in your closet, the thing you wear most often,” he says. “If we empower our customers to sustain this old friend in their closet, it creates brand affinity.” [Photo: Levi’s] A Small Fix for a Larger Systemic Problem At its core, the curriculum aims to challenge Gen Zs perception of clothing as disposable. In theory, mending keeps garments out of landfills. Its about extending the life cycle of your product so you dont have to buy something new, Bechtol says. Gen Z is coming of age in a world dominated by ultra-fast-fashion players like Shein, where clothes are cheaper than ever. Mending is no longer an economic necessityand in some cases, it can cost more in time and money than a garment is worth. Levis is trying to reframe mending as something else: a creative act that allows wearers to personalize their clothes. Over time, Dillinger says that personal investment changes how people value what they own. Once youve invested time and care into repairing a garment, it shifts the value equation, he says. It becomes more like a plant or a petsomething youre responsible for sustaining. There’s no doubt that mending is a crucial part of the sustainable fashion movement. McCarty, who once stapled her shirt, now repairs her clothing to extend its life. But she points out that the fashion industry’s bigger problem is flooding the market with cheap clothes and encouraging constant consumption. While individuals can buy less and wear clothes longer, she says brands must take responsibility for producing fewer, more durable products. “It’s sort of like putting a Band-Aid on a bleeding wound and calling it fixed, when there are larger issues to deal with,” she says. [Photo: Levi’s] McCarty extends this critique to Levi’s itself. While some Levis products are durable, she notes that the company also produces large volumes of lower-end jeans for retailers like Target and Kohls. These garments are often made with synthetic fabrics that are harder to repair and wont biodegrade. “Levi’s is selling far more volume in lower-end jeans than they do in premium,” she says. “Some of these products are just not repairable.” Still, McCarty believes the Wear Longer program could meaningfully educate Gen Znot only about mending, but also about the broader consequences of overproduction. Dillinger agrees. “Once you become a participant in the life of the garment, it becomes harder to ignore the broader industrial reality of how clothes are made,” he says. “You’re not participating in a similar set of tasks to the people who made the clothes.” Ultimately, Dillinger sees mending as a form of empowerment. Teaching young people how to repair their clothes gives them agencyto extend what they own and to engage with fashion more critically. “The sooner we respect kids as emerging adults with agency, the sooner they can make more responsible decisions for themselves,” he says.
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E-Commerce
Reddit is now the fourth most visited social media platform in the U.K., overtaking TikTok. The online discussion platform has seen immense growth over the past two years, reaching 88% more internet users in the U.K., thanks to a combination of shifting search algorithms and social media habits. Three in five Brits now encounter the site while online, according to Ofcom, up from a third in 2023. The U.K. now has the second largest user base behind the U.S., according to company records shared with the Guardian. Reddit has also witnessed a drastic demographic change over the same period. More than half of the platforms users in the U.K. are now women and one-third are Gen Z women, many of whom turn to the platform for forums dedicated to skincare, beauty, and cosmetics. A change in Googles search algorithms last year, prioritizing content sourced from discussion forums, is partly behind the platforms growth. Reddit has since become the most-cited source for Google AI overviews, after inking deals with Google and OpenAI, placing the platform at the lucrative intersection of traditional search and AI discovery. Thats combined with the ways we search online evolving in recent years. Many internet users bypass Google altogether and instead seek out human-generated reviews and opinions on platforms like TikTok, YouTube, or Reddit. Gen Z are very open to looking online for advice around these life stage moments, like leaving home and renting for the first time, which happens a little bit later for some of this generation, Jen Wong, Reddits chief operating officer, told The Guardian. Its a very safe place to ask questions about balancing a cheque book, or how to pay for a wedding. Rival platforms like YouTube and Facebook have become subsumed with AI-generated slop, and the percentage of Americans using X since Elon Musk took over has dropped drasticallysince overtaken by Redditaccording to new findings from Pew Research. Here, Reddit stands out as one of the last remaining platforms that holds a semblance of the small community-run forums of the early internet. Users follow topics of interest rather than influencers. Everyone is anonymous rather than at the mercy of an algorithm. Rather than offering answers it thinks users want to hear, or serving an endless stream of spam, bots and slop, the human-centred discussion threads that remain at its core invite curiositythe foundation the internet was built upon in the first place.
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E-Commerce
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