April 17, 2023

what we've been reading...

empowering you with insights and information from the edge of today’s headlines

Technology

Apple goes East: Apple will be opening up its first two stores in India this week (complete with their own logos, digital wallpaper and playlists). After moving to shift its production outside of China, Apple has moved manufacturing, engineering and it hopes, eventually, consumer demand, to India. (Apple began assembling its iPhone 14 in India last year.) During Apple’s recent earnings call, Tim Cook stated that the firm had record iPhone revenues in India, and the regional iPhone users increased by double digits. Even Taiwanese firm Foxconn, Apple’s main manufacturer, is considering expanding to India.

Apple goes for yield: Apple Card users can now set up a savings account with a 4.15% rate from Goldman Sachs, which is more than 10 times the national average, and quite a nice use for that leftover Apple cash balance. Just a few weeks ago, Goldman had mentioned that it was looking at “strategic alternatives” for selling its consumer business, Marcus, but we guess in the meantime, why not up the deposit base with the ease of a smartphone.

Motivated Partner: Earlier this month, Amazon announced that it was pausing construction on its HQ2 in Arlington, VA, while phase one of the construction project is still expected to be completed in June. Originally, HQ2 was proposed to hold 50,000 employees, while the current project only houses 8,000, which Amazon says is ahead of schedule in terms of hiring. Despite this discrepancy, Amazon recently applied for $152M in economic incentives from the state (Virginia pledged $800M in tax breaks and infrastructure improvements to the tech giant over 15 years). The deadline to apply for incentives was April 1, according to the Virginia Economic Development Partnership.

Business

Airport Robbery: Ever since TSA has changed the rules and forbid travelers from carrying their own drinks through security, we’ve noticed that the price of bottled water has skyrocketed at airports. We were not alone, as one reporter chose to investigate why "a plastic-wrapped turkey sandwich cost[s] $15 at the airport?” Or at least at NY’s major airports. The investigator found that the Port Authority of New York does have a pricing policy which allows vendors to charge 10% over “street pricing,” and street pricing is supposed to be set by the average of “three lowest prices of Comparable Products at approved Comparable Concession Locations.” Unfortunately, despite several FOIA requests, government authorities were mum on the comps. Luckily, airports in the UK are dropping the 3oz liquid rule, so hopefully, the US may be next, and our wallets may reap the benefits.

Scaling Down: Walmart is known for its mega-stores, but in an effort to appeal to customers who often like to shop local or might themselves be living in a tiny home, the giant retailer is testing out “Cute Tiny Stores.” The stores are in partnership with a startup offering tiny houses as vacation homes, so the stores offer mostly outdoorsy, vacation supplies. This maybe be following along from its international strategy. In Mexico, Walmart has successfully launched a chain of mini-grocers, called Bodega Aurrera Express, to compete with mom and pop grocers in the urban landscape.

Peer to Peer Payments: Visa is launching a new service called Visa+ which will allow users to make payments across platforms seamlessly. Strangely enough, Paypal already owns Venmo, but users can’t easily transfer money across the two platforms. Now with the new Visa+ partnership (which should be available in late 2024), Visa becomes the infrastructure to exchange funds and users don’t have to exchange other personal details. While Apple Pay, CashApp and Zelle haven’t joined this consortium, many other wallet players have, and the interoperability of payments should be a big boost to the gig economy.

Just Desserts: It is coming up on summer time, and this is the study you won’t want to miss. Evidently, scientists have been getting results time and time again that ice cream is actually good for us, but they’ve been afraid to tell us. “Consuming as little as a half a cup per week was associated with a 19 percent reduced diabetes risk.” Nutritionists have used this study to point to the positive effects of dairy and yogurt in your diet, but never ice cream due to cultural biases and stigmas in the US. While we don’t expect ice cream to be added to the food pyramid any time soon, we’re putting Mr. Frosty on location tracking for our evening walks.

Culture

Pandemic in a bottle: We are not sure that we are removed enough to look back at the pandemic with reverie or with the eye of a historian, but the NY Times has put together a time capsule of sorts for the pandemic: 17 Pop Culture Moments that Define the COVID Era.

Delayed Gratification: Netflix’s second attempt at a Live show was delayed last night, when its reunion show for Love is Blind was delayed for over an hour. Screens were lit up with an “almost time” notification, while Netflix was dunked on on the socials by Blockbuster , Hulu and AOC. In the end, Netflix decided to film the show, and stream it, so fans could get back to watching Succession.

Pop-ups for Pop: Both Mountain Dew and Fanta took unlikely routes to promote their new brands this week. Mountain Dew threw a “Definitely Over 21” party to launch its new Hard Line Livewire, and picked an unlikely location — a Florida retirement village. While Fanta, which recently underwent a rebrand, launched a Fanta experience pop-up store complete with its own Scent of Fanta fragrance in Venice, California. We guess that citrus is in, and where better to enjoy the sunny flavor than Florida and California.

Camouflage or Prank: Dave Portnoy, of Barstool infame, is traveling around Europe and “treating” Americans to tips about how to travel. The Italians, however, saw Dave coming and decided en masse not to serve Dave lunch, or maybe it was because of his camo jacket. We appreciate the Italian ingenuity and any excuse to troll our loud, American brethren.

Cure for Loneliness: The Covid pandemic definitely caused a surge in issues in people’s mental health, and also put a strain on those who already had difficulty in adjusting to society. South Korea is hoping to help some of its “reclusive lonely young people” by paying them 650,000 Korean won (or roughly $500) per month to “re-enter society.” Young adults between the ages of 9-24 can apply for the aid, or their guardians or teachers can apply on their behalf. The Ministry of Gender Equality and Family is also issuing plans for future action to increase social safety nets and increase early detection systems.

And finally….care of TrungTPhan

— Lauren Eve Cantor

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