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I have never had any interest in getting a hardware wallet like the new Ledger Nano Gen 5. But talking with Susan Karethe designer of the original Apple Macintosh icons and an endless torrent wonderful pixel artmade me realize I need one. “The idea that an individual can really control their own assets without a government or anything political coming between you and your assets. I like that,” she tells me. The Ledger Nano is a 0.3-inch-thick credit card-sized block that keeps your digital assets secure by storing them offline. It has a frontal e-ink display that displays a grid of pixel art icons that look very much like the original Mac. For the Nano Gent 5, Kare worked with the French company to design a set of nine pixel-art icons that are laser-engraved onto small aluminum tags. These tags physically snap into a dedicated slot on the Nano Gen 5, allowing owners to customize their device with a satisfying click. Kare got involved thanks to Tony Fadell”the Father of the Apple iPod” and board member of Ledgerwho called her to see if she’d like to work on the project. It was a call between old friends; the two had worked together at General Magic, the secretive Silicon Valley startup founded in 1990 by Apple veterans Bill Atkinson, Andy Hertzfeld, and Marc Porat that tried to build the first smartphone decades too early. Fadell knows her taste, Kare says, and pitched the project as a high-concept design challenge she would enjoy, similar to the work she did for Asprey Studio. He kept the details intentionally mysterious, not even mentioning Ledger by name at first. The only hook was the promise of a fun, creative puzzle. For Kare, that was more than enough. Of course, I wrote back immediately, like, tell me more, she recalls. A meeting in San Francisco with Ariel Wengroff, Ledgers EVP of Communications and Marketing, sealed the deal, and soon Kare was back at her digital drawing board. Ledger Nano Gen 5 [Photo: Ledger] Power and fun Kares collaboration comes as Ledger reinvents its flagship product. The new Ledger Nano Gen 5 is a significant evolution of the device used by eight million people in 165 countries. More than 20% of the world’s crypto assets are secured by its hardware wallets, the company tells me. Physically, Ledge Nano Gen 5 is larger and more refined, with a 2.76-inch E Ink touchscreen that now dominates its face. The new energy-efficient display enables advanced security features like clear signing, which gives you an unambiguous on-screen verification of any transaction or approval, and a Transaction Check function, a security feature that simulates a transaction to identify potential threats before you give final approval. The device, now officially called a signer to reflect its expanded role beyond just financial transactions, is built to be your key to a broader digital life. With Bluetooth 5.2 and NFC capabilities, its designed for on-the-go use, allowing you to securely manage your assets or verify your identity from anywhere. It connects to the revamped Ledger Wallet app, which acts as a secure control center for buying, swapping, and earning assets, and can now connect directly to popular decentralized apps, like 1inch, a service that searches across multiple cryptocurrency exchanges to find the best possible price for a token swap. The company claims that its devices have never been hacked, but every Nano Gen 5 includes a Ledger Recovery Key as a physical backup, just in case. While the technology is serious, the company claims it wanted to inject a dose of personality into the experience. Thats where Kare came in. Wengroff tells me that as our digital and physical lives blur, the team wanted to offer a form of personal expression. The idea was to create a series of collectible badges that would physically snap into the new Nanos chassis. We really thought, actually, the perfect person would be Susan Kare, Wengroff says. She believes that Kares has a legendary ability to create an emotional connection for new technology using her pixel art. The badges themselves are small, laser-engraved aluminum tags, each featuring a new pixel-art icon from Kare, manufactured in Ledgers own facility in Vierzon, France. They click into place with a satisfying snap, a small sensory experience. For Kare, the project was a perfect fit. I usually jokingly say, you know, give me 16 by 16 and a concept and I will make it happen, she says. The first step was deciding on the actual grid resolution. To ensure the designs were bold and clear on the small tags, she and the Ledger team opted for fewer, but larger, pixels, with each icon fitting within roughly an 18 by 20 pixel grid. Rather than being handed a specific list, the company just told Kare to do her thing. Any other thing would have been like asking David Bowie to write something retro like Life on Mars for you. She ultimately developed around 30 concepts for the team to choose from. Her goal was to create an assortment that felt fresh and spirited, steering clear of anything that felt like a standard emoji. Through weekly Zoom calls with Ledgers creative director, they whittled the collection down to the final nine, which include a mischievous cherry, a magic 8-ball, a horseshoe, and a chihuahua the team has fittingly named Nano. [Image: Ledger] But the bestand apparently everyones favoriteis the crowned frog. Wengroff believed it was a frog princess bt Kare was thinking about the frog prince. Its funny because I thought it was a frog prince, Kare says, referencing the fairy tale and the dating adage about having to kiss a lot of frogs. But, she adds, it can totally be either. And I realized that thats good. Wengroff notes that everyone in the office has interpreted the icons differently and picked their own favorites, proving the designs power to evoke a personal response. In fact, everyone in Wengroff’s team was so focused on the badges that she says she constantly had to remind everyone that the launch was for a new device, not for the badges. Which I guess is exactly the whole point of this article and also the device itself. For Kare, this is the joy of her work. While the device itself is the point, it is that little dab of something with a little feel of art or personality, as Kare describes it, what makes it (clickity clack) click. Its the same philosophy that has made her work timeless. And what makes the new Ledger Nano not just a powerful tool for securing your digital life, but a small canvas for expressing it.
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E-Commerce
Like clockwork, every few years viral relationship tests or theories will resurface online, prompting renewed discourse about the state of romantic unions. The latest test doing the rounds: the bird theory.” The idea first went viral two years ago but has recently resurfaced on platforms like TikTok and Instagram. The concept is simple: Point out something mundane to your partner, like spotting a bird, then watch how they react. If your partner matches your enthusiasm or reacts with curiosity, then congratulationstheyre a keeper. The thinking goes that if they respond with interest to your attempts at connection, they’re emotionally invested in the relationship. If they ignore you, react with indifferenceor worse, get frustratedwell, your relationship might be in trouble. The theory resurfaced after a video by @keketherealmrsjones went viral this month. The day I realize Husband doesnt want me the caption read, as the clip shows her trying, and failing, to engage her husbands attention. The video currently has over 56 million views. Before anyone gets married please test the bird theory, one commenter wrote. I keep telling people about the bird theory and they just wont listen, another added. Many have also jumped on the trend to test their unwitting partners, mostly to positive results. Turns out, the bird theory is not just TikTok pseudoscience: It’s grounded in real research by psychologist John Gottman. Gottman refers to bids (not birds) as the fundamental unit of emotional communication. His research suggests that the way in which partners respond to these bidsby “turning towards” and engaging with the bid or “turning away” and ignoring itis a strong predictor of a relationship’s long-term success. A bid for attention, affirmation, affection, or any other positive connection, could be as simple as smiling, reaching for a hand, requesting help, or, yes, pointing out a bird. Gottman published a paper in the Journal of Marriage and the Family in 1998 sharing the results of a study based on 130 newlyweds. Six years later, the couples that were going from strength to strength were the ones who, 86% of the time, turned toward each other’s bids for connection. The couples who didn’t? Only 33% were still together. According to Gottmans findings, couples who ignore each others bids about 5080% of the time are far more likely to divorce. While microtesting your relationship isnt always advised, use at your own risk.
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E-Commerce
U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy warned Sunday that he is about make good on a threat to revoke millions in federal funds for California because he says the state is illegally issuing commercial driver’s licenses to noncitizens.In an appearance on Fox News Channel’s “Sunday Morning Futures,” Duffy said Gov. Gavin Newsom has refused to comply with Department of Transportation rules that require the state to stop issuing such licenses and review those already issued.“So, one, I’m about to pull $160 million from California,” Duffy said. “And, as we pull more money, we also have the option of pulling California’s ability to issue commercial driver’s licenses.”Eva Spiegel, a spokesperson for the California Department of Motor Vehicles, said the Trump administration “has no legitimate basis” to withhold federal highway transportation funds.“The federal government previously allowed commercial driver’s licenses for asylum seekers and refugees and on September 26 announced emergency regulations to cease this practice that went into effect on September 29. California is in compliance with these regulations and will remain in compliance with federal law,” Spiegel said via email.When Duffy threatened to revoke funds last month, a spokesperson for Newsom dismissed the attack and noted that CDL holders from California have a significantly lower rate of crashes than both the national average and that of Texas, which is the only state with more licensed commercial drivers.Last month the Transportation Department tightened commercial driver’s license requirements for noncitizens after three fatal crashes that officials said were caused by immigrant truck drivers. Only three specific classes of visa holders will be eligible for CDLs under the new rules and states must verify an applicant’s immigration status in a federal database. The licenses will be valid for up to one year unless the applicant’s visa expires sooner.Duffy said last month that California should never have issued 25% of 145 licenses investigators reviewed. He cited four California licenses that remained valid after the driver’s work permit expired sometimes years after. The state had 30 days to come up with a plan to comply or lose funding.A nationwide commercial driver’s license audit began after officials say a driver in the country illegally made a U-turn and caused a crash in Florida that killed three people. It found licenses that were issued improperly in California, Colorado, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Texas and Washington.Duffy said Sunday that California has unlawfully issued tens of thousands of these licenses to noncitizens.“So you have 60,000 people on the roads who shouldn’t have licenses,” Duffy said. “They’re driving fuel tankers, they’re driving school buses, and we have seen some of the crashes on American roadways that come from these people who shouldn’t have these licenses.”Duffy said earlier this month that he would withhold $40 million from California because it is the only state that is failing to enforce English language requirements for truckers. California defended its practices in a formal response to the Transportation Department, but federal officials were not satisfied.The investigation launched after the Florida crash found what Duffy called significant failures in the way California is enforcing rules that took effect in June after one of President Donald Trump’s executive orders. California had issued the driver a commercial license, but these English rules predate the crash. Associated Press
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E-Commerce
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