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Ikea is ready to begin overhauling its smart home products. The Swedish furniture manufacturer began dabbling in smart home products as early as 2012, but in July it announced plans to soon debut a revamped range. The goal, it says, is to make products that are more universally compatible and more intuitive to usein other words, bringing the connected smart home experience to the masses. Now, Ikea’s 21 new smart home products are here. The collection includes new smart bulbs that come in more color and light intensity options than previous versions, an array of sensors and controls, and a smart plug that can make any “dumb” lamp or small appliance smart. Pricing and beginning availability date for the products will vary by market, according to the company. [Photo: Ikea] “Until now, smart home technology hasn’t been easy enough to use for most peopleor affordable enough for many to consider,” David Granath, Ikea of Sweden’s range manager, said in a statement. “This launch brings us closer to helping everyone feel ready and confident to get started.” The new line comes as Ikea faces falling sales for a second consecutive year. Ikea said last month that although the number of products sold was up, global revenue fell 1% to about $52 billion. The company is finding ways to reach new customers, like “shop-in-shop” locations inside select Best Buys in Texas and Florida that sells kitchen and laundry room items and extend the brand’s reach without having to build out new stores. The company says its smart home products were developed over years, through a design process that included in-home testing. Ikea says it wants everything it puts out to be intentional, and the strategy going forward will be to release new products if they’re cheaper and easier to use than its existing product line. “We believe technology should serve a purpose, not exist for its own sake,” Granath says. [Photo: Ikea] The company’s new Kajplats smart bulb range comes in 11 variations with options for color and white bulbs. The bulbs are also dimmable. The corresponding Bilresa remote controls come in two variations. One version has buttons that can switch the lights on and off, as well as adjust brightness and color, while a separate scroll wheel option gives an old-school iPod click wheel UI to home lighting. [Photo: Ikea] Ikea’s five new sensors include a motion sensor for indoor and outdoor lighting, as well as sensors for temperature and humidity, air quality, and water leakages. The water sensor, called Klippbok, was designed to be put under sinks and appliances. [Photo: Ikea] The Grillplats is an adaptable smart plug you can use to smarten up dumb lamps and appliances, so you can turn them on and off remotely. You can also pair it with remotes and motion sensors to track energy use. [Photo: Ikea] Ikea previously unveiled its smart home system hub Dirigera, a smart bluetooth speaker, and smart table lamp in a first look at its new smart home products earlier this summer. All of Ikea’s new products are compatible with Matter, a smart home technical standard. The smart home market size was nearly $128 billion in 2024, and it’s expected to roughly quadruple by 2030, according to Grand View Research, a market research firm. By revamping its smart home line and designing products meant to be cheap, useful, and intuitive, Ikea is positioning itself to capitalize on the rise of smart, connected homes.
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E-Commerce
Nintendo’s hard-line approach to piracy has shut down a streamer who seemingly specialized in unauthorized content. Jesse Keighin has been ordered to pay Nintendo $17,500 in damages after livestreaming gameplay footage of at least 10 different games on at least 50 occasions before the games were released to the public. Included among those were Super Mario Party Jamboree, Mario & Luigi: Brothership, The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom, and Pikmin 4. Keighin was served with takedown notices by Nintendo dozens of times for those streams. Yet he continued to air himself playing the games, encouraging viewers to support him on loco.gg, an Indian live-streaming and esports platform, if his other accounts were banned. Platforms would take the account down following Nintendo’s complaints. But after that happened, Keighin sent emails to Nintendo saying I have a thousand burner channels and [w]e can do this all day, according to the recommendation of the U.S. magistrate judge who oversaw the case. Nintendo also says Keighin had released links to repositories of ROMs (digital pirated games), including several that were Switch-specific. Those pirated copies are played via emulators, such as Yuzu. Yuzu was a target of Nintendo’s anti-piracy campaign last year. The video game company shut down the emulator, saying the team behind it had enabled piracy at a colossal scale. The Yuzu team agreed to pay $2.4 million and ended all operations. But in an email to Nintendo, Keighin vowed to actively help people find newer and updated copies of the software, which he said was still being developed underground, according to the judge’s recommendation. That cavalier attitude also led Keighin to ignore Nintendo’s repeated attempts to serve him with the lawsuit. His refusal to engage resulted in the case proceeding without him, which led to the default judgment. Nintendo has long taken an aggressive stance against piracy of its games, including emulator programs. Dolphin, an open-source emulator for the Nintendo Wii and GameCube, was a target of the gaming giant in 2023 when Dolphin’s developers announced plans to put its emulator on the Steam game distribution platform. Nintendo sent a cease-and-desist order to Valve, which pulled the listing. Days later, Dolphins developers announced: It is with much disappointment that we have to announce that the Dolphin on Steam release has been indefinitely postponed. A $17,500 judgment isnt pocket change, but it’s a drop in the bucket compared to the $4.5 million Nintendo is seeking against a now-former moderator on Reddit, after accusing him of facilitating a network of online websites that offered pirated Nintendo Switch games. Nintendo says in the filing that it could easily have demanded more, alleging that the defendant, James C. Williams, “not only copied and distributed Nintendo game files without authorization; he actively promoted their distribution and copying to thousands of others across a variety of websites and online ‘communities,’ and knowingly trafficked in unlawful software products aimed at circumventing Nintendos technological measures protecting against unauthorized access.” While the Switch remains important to Nintendo, the Switch 2 is driving more and more of the company’s revenue. On November 1, the company reported its fiscal Q2 earnings, noting it had sold 10.36 million Switch 2 units between June 5 and September 30 and was raising its sales estimate for the year. Thats twice the rate the Switch sold in the same time period. Nintendo now expects to sell 19 million Switch 2s before the end of March 2026. The original Switch has thus far sold 154.01 million units.
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E-Commerce
Have you ever wondered how the letter A got its shape? Or why some fonts instantly look psychedelic? Or where the word text even came from in the first place? Kelli Anderson, a graphic artist, author, and master of all things paper, has asked all of those questionsand shes answering them with a massive new pop-up book called Alphabet in Motion. The book takes readers through an interactive journey about the history of typography from A to Z, starting in ancient Egypt and moving all the way into the digital age. But it’s no ordinary history tome. Anderson hand-designed 17 different pop-ups, including light projections to colorful sliders and mind-bending illusions, that demonstrate how humans have painstakingly developed type technologies over time better than a stand-alone blurb ever could. [Image: courtesy Kelli Anderson] With that artful addition in mind, Alphabet in Motion is really a set of books, including the two-inch-thick pop-up book and an accompanying 120-page-long, coffee-table ready book of essays, each corresponding to one of the pop-ups chapters. (There’s one chapter for each letter of the alphabet.) The book retails for $85 and is currently available for preorder on bookshop.org and Amazon. It will also be available at local bookstores across the country upon its release on November 18. [Image: courtesy Kelli Anderson] How ‘Alphabet in Motion’ dives into the fascinating history of letters Anderson released her last pop-up book, This Book is a Camera, back in 2015, and shed been dreaming up a new concept ever sincebut it wasn’t until she started researching the history of typography and the craft behind it, she says, that something clicked. She began work on Alphabet in Motion, with that catalyst, in 2019. [Image: courtesy Kelli Anderson] We inhabit this typographic reality where letters make us feel things, and providing some kind of satisfying explanation helps bring more meaning to why people are feeling those things, Anderson says. When you see psychedelic blobby letters, why does it remind you of the 1960s, Andy Warhol, and Development Underground? When you see different kinds of mod letters, why does that remind you of the space race era? [Image: courtesy Kelli Anderson] These questions, Anderson says, led her to some really unexpected places. After combing through historical type collections from sources like Londons St. Bride Foundation, books, and academic articles on the subject, she began to build a massive wall, held together by masking tape, full of all the examples shed discovered. At the same time, she spent thousands of hours experimenting with different cut paper pop-up mechanisms to demonstrate each concept. [Image: courtesy Kelli Anderson] I had certain pop-up mechanisms where I was like, Oh, this is so cool. I have to include this just for the razzmatazz element, Anderson says. And then it was a matter of figuring out where, with any integrity, I could place it to support a conceptbecause I didn’t want it to just be dancing bologna for dancing bologna’s sake. I wanted people to, once they read the text, understand, Oh, this is actually a demonstration of a concept that will help me understand this particular era of typographic technology. [Image: courtesy Kelli Anderson] And how psychedelic fonts got their shapes One typographic era that most fascinated Anderson was the early 60s, which is explored in-depth through Alphabet in Motion‘s chapters on the letter “J.” Anderson was curious why this period produced so many whimsically blobby, puffy, and even flared-looking letters. During her research, she discovered that these iconic hallmarks of the era were all thanks to a new technology called phototypesetting. [Image: courtesy Kelli Anderson] Phototypesetting allowed type designers to set type by shooting light through pieces of film, then projecting it on a photo paper and arranging it like a magazine layout. This breakthrough made typesetting vastly easier, quicker, and cheaper, since the most common earlier method was to use molten lead. [Image: courtesy Kelli Anderson] You had all of this experimentation, which is in line with the psychedelic experimentation of the era, Anderson says. There was all of this interest in bending and projection of light. And so if you went to a concert at the Fillmore or with Andy Warhol’s Exploding Plastic Inevitable, you might see go-go dancers with light images projected on them warping space. People were actually doing that when they were setting type, too. [Image: courtesy Kelli Anderson] With Alphabet in Motion, readers can experience a taste of that process for themselves. On the books page dedicated to the letter J, a paper cut-out pops up to become a projector for your iPhone, allowing you to use your flashlight to create a 60s-style typographic light show. [Image: courtesy Kelli Anderson] Thats just one example of how Alphabet in Motion uses tactile experiences to place typographic innovations in context. Other pages in the book include a 3D model that explains the development of uppercase and lowercase letters in the Roman Empire and European Middle Ages, respectively; a mini pop-up that describes the creation of early video game bitmap fonts; and an interactive page that shows how the early practice of weaving actually shaped our modern lettersand served as the basis for the word text itself. For Anderson, her biggest goal is that this six-year passion project will help introduce a new generation to the world of type design. I hope some people buy it for their little kids thinking it’s just an A through Z pop-up book, and enjoy it on that level, Anderson says. Then stick it back on the shelf and have their kid in 12 years open it up and actually realize that design and typography are interesting and tie in with the larger world and culturethat they’re not a separate thing.
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E-Commerce
During an annual condominium meeting, at the end, the leader asked if anyone had any suggestions or questions. I spoke up: How about we convert a portion of our common storage into a small gym? My idea was met with uncomfortable silence, and eventually the leader responded hesitantly: I honestly dont know how to address that, before promptly closing the meeting. In that moment, I began doubting myself, wondering, Was my idea really that bad? Was it stupid? Years later, small gyms in condominiums became a popular trend, adding real value to properties. My idea wasnt rejected because it lacked merit. It was dismissed because the environment wasnt open to new suggestions. The silence in that room wasnt personal. It was systemic. And that same silence echoes through boardrooms, project teams, and innovation labs worldwide. History is filled with organizations that silenced ideas before the market did: Kodak dismissing digital photography, Nokia resisting smartphones, Volkswagens culture muting concerns about CO emissions. Their failure wasnt a lack of intelligence or resources; it was a lack of psychological safety. Every innovation process, from idea generation to prototyping and implementation, depends on people talking to each other, challenging assumptions, and learning together. When psychological safety is low, people hold back, stay silent, or play it safe. When its high, they question, debate, and experiment. Thats why psychological safety is the oxygen of innovation. Innovations invisible condition In innovation, fear works like carbon monoxideodorless, invisible, but deadly. It seeps into meetings, decisions, and projects, making people stop breathing out ideas. Lets look at high-risk industries or R&D projects. They are filled with uncertainty, time pressure, and costly mistakes. In such environments, psychological safety becomes even more critical. High autonomy combined with high uncertainty often leads to psychological isolation, where people hesitate to share concerns or collaborate openly. Pressure to deliver results discourages experimentation, unclear authority structures create confusion about decision-making, and fear of criticism drives risk-averse behavior. These are all symptoms of low psychological safety and they quietly suffocate innovation. Organizations like Pixar or Toyota show that when leaders build environments where errors are seen as learning opportunities rather than liabilities, innovation flourishes even under intense pressure. Its not about removing accountability but about balancing it with openness and trust. The leader sets the tone Its tempting to think psychological safety is a company-wide culture that HR can build. But in reality, psychological safety is a property of a leader, not of an organization. Every teams climate is a reflection of its leaders behavior. People will only speak up if they believe theyll be heard and that their voice will lead to change. If, in the past, speaking up led nowhere, silence becomes the safer option. I often remind leaders: silence is not laziness, its learned futility. I once ran a workshop for a company whose CEO proudly announced, We have strong psychological safety here. At the end, I asked a quiet participant, one of the sales directors, what he thought about the issues we had discussed. He sighed and said, What does it matter? They never listen anyway. That single sentence said more about the company culture than any engagement survey ever could. Building psychological safety means walking the talk. Its not what you declare in values statements, but what you do consistently: how you listen, how you respond, how you follow through. Consistency builds trust, and trust keeps dialogue alive. Trust builds performance At Sparebanken Norge, a 200-year-old Norwegian bank, leaders decided to make psychological safety measurable. Employees were encouraged to lift each other up, even across departments, and mistakes were treated as learning opportunities. Directors were evaluated on how they spoke about peers, both publicly and privately. That shift helped the bank become one of Norways top performers. Their lesson: innovation isnt about tools or technology, its about trust. Many companies celebrate diversity, but few realize that diversity without psychological safety leads to fragmentation. Having different perspectives in the room doesnt help if people dont feel safe enough to share them. Diversity brings sunlight and rain, but psychological safety is the fertile soil where ideas grow. What leaders can do To create that fertile ground, leaders must replace fear with curiosity and control with clarity. Model vulnerability. Admit when you dont know. When leaders say I might be wrong, others start contributing. Encourage open dialogue. Ask for dissenting opinions. Silence in a meeting is never a sign of alignment. Its a sign of fear. Empower and clarify. Give people autonomy but clear expectations: freedom with direction builds confidence. Celebrate learning, not perfection. Reward smart risks and small experiments, not just flawless results. Remember: psychological safety isnt about comfort. Its about courage. The best teams pair high trust with high accountability: they debate, disagree, and still leave meetings energized rather than exhausted. If I could go back to that condominium meeting, Id still suggest the gym. Innovation doesnt die from bad ideas. It dies from silence.
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E-Commerce
My aha moment about how to use artificial intelligence effectively came from an engineering group that built an operating model for experimenting with AI. They didnt pilot AI once and move onthey built lightweight checklists and safety rails so teams could try, learn, and scale, week after week. Some guidance was deeply technical, but the lesson was universal: Make continuous experimentation part of how the team works. Not a side project. Thats the job in front of every leader now. AI is changing work at two levels at once: Individuals capabilities are being augmented, and teams are collaborating differently. The best results dont come from isolated power users. They come when managers redesign how the whole team gets work done together. In practice, that means every manager becomes the teams chief experimentation officer. Because the technology will keep improvingand the way its embedded into processes will keep changing. In this piece, premium subscribers will learn: The four key principles for designing a workplace that experiments continuously The new KPI managers should focus on Why you dont need a reorg, and what to do instead 1. Dont just roll out AI. Redesign the work. Start with the work itself. Not just the tool set. As AI takes on tasks, dont let the freed-up time quietly refill with more of the same. Decide, explicitly, how youll reinvest that capacity into higher-value activities: coaching and peer learning, deeper customer engagement, or structured ideation. Write those shifts into roles and goals so people experience the upside of adoption, not just another layer of obligations. Then, treat adoption as a managed habit. The technology improves every few weeks; norms should evolve with it. Make experimentation part of the operating rhythm: Embed tools into real workflows, coach individuals on where and how to use them, and revisit the playbook as capabilities change. Pair that flexibility with simple guardrailswhat to try, what to avoid, and how youll check qualityso the team can move quickly and securely. Momentum has to be top-down and bottom-up. Senior leaders set a clear direction. Managers create the flywheel by curating grassroots experiments, codifying whats repeatable, and sharing wins across teams. Frontline teams surface new ideas. Finally, keep the team inclusive as you evolveand be clear. Many groups will add agents alongside people. Early lessons from implementation at Microsoft suggest the best guidance for agents looks a lot like good human management: crisp goals, scope, guardrails, and quality checks. Bring everyone into the process so the benefits of whats newly possible are broadly shared, and your team gets more productive, more effective, and more resilient with each iteration. 2. Your new KPI: learning velocity. Heres the tension: Leaders want certainty. AI rewards speed of learning. The companies pulling ahead are the ones that learn faster than the problem changes. Because products and models improve quickly, a tool that didnt help two months ago may be essential today. Your cadence of experiments becomes the competitive edge competitors cant see and cant easily copy. And as AI replaces parts of a job, managers should deliberately change roles and expectations. Dont treat AI as a sidecar. Build it into how your team actually works: the meetings you run, the documents you draft, the research you do. Coach each person on where AI helps in their role, and revisit often. If a tool didnt work two months ago, try it again as models and products improve. Be clear in your guidance (goals, scope, guardrails, quality checks) for people and agents. 3. Guardrails arent brakes. Theyre speed rails. Simple, transparent guidelineswhats inbounds, whats out, and how results get reviewedlet people move fast without inviting risk. Those sales checklists, for example, arent bureaucracy; they are the mechanism that makes speed repeatable. As systems and workflows change, update the playbook in ways that expand participation, build skills, and keep risk proportionate to the reward. Run a steady cadence of small, team-level experiments, and pair speed with safety rails (checklists, inbounds/out-of-bounds, review steps). Capture what works, scale it, and sunset what doesnt. Measure managers on ongoing adoption and innovation, not a onetime rollout. 4. Close the gap between whats possible and what you practice. Managers still own outcomes, talent, and culture. In an AI-driven workplace, they also own the system that learnshow the team tries, measures, codifies, and scales better ways of working. You dont need a reorg to begin. You need a charter, a plan for the time AI frees up, and a cadence that keeps learning alive. Start small and real. Make the next experiment easier than the firstbecause youve built the rails. As the tech keeps improving and embedding deeper into processes, the leaders who treat experimentation as a discipline, not a one-off, will unlock the most value for their teams and their customers.
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E-Commerce
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