Happy Nice Mall

This article is part of the On Tech newsletter. Here is a collection past columns.

owned by Amazon more than 800 people It’s working on audio like wheeled videoconferencing devices, but isn’t sure customers want them.

Apple has spent almost a decade and untold billions of dollars Beginning, retreat and over and over again rework A car development project that will never hit the road.

Google and Facebook continue to spend billions buying and building ornate complexes when no one is sure of the post-pandemic needs of face-to-face office work.

We want successful companies to tackle expensive projects even if they fail. Wandering and stumbling, that’s how invention happens. But that may not be all that’s happening in the research labs and corporate suites of America’s tech giants.

Some of what we can see right now are companies that are so rich that they sometimes throw money around – hey, why not?! — in a way that distracts other companies and themselves from breakthrough innovation.

Yes, I’m asking if it’s possible to be really very rich. (And yes, that’s a problem I’d like to have too.)

Let me explain why we should care about a handful of tech giants wasting their time and money.

Not having enough money can strain a company or entrepreneur, but it can also encourage focus and creativity. There’s an axiom about tech start-ups that in times of financial hardship, start-ups often turn out to be the greatest successes. Young companies and their leaders learn to do more with less and devote their attention to only their best ideas.

And like a wealthy friend who installs gold toilet bowls in each of his 25 bathrooms, having that much money can force companies to go after half-baked ideas.

The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday that Amazon’s testing concepts for a store with digital clothing labels that customers can scan with their phone to try on products and then add robots for some reason. Technology doodads probably not the way to improve the shopping experience but Amazon can try overly complex concepts because hey, why not? It can work.

When Amazon throws money at an issue, other companies often respond with their own high-tech countermeasures. Shortly after Amazon bought the Whole Foods supermarket chain, Kroger came up with a plan. futuristic stores With digital shelves to quickly change product prices and help people shop faster. Walmart and other stores commissioned robots to detect out-of-stock items and test systems automate the payment process.

Some types of technology for retail, especially automation of parts shoppers have never seen, could be huge advances. But the trap that retailers and Amazon fall into is a pretentious obsession with what is truly useful. Has anyone stopped and asked: Is a fussy digital touchscreen or a robot the best way to do this? Walmart last year gave up in rack scanning robots as simpler alternatives are just as good.

Amazon can try all this because it has seemingly endless money. But what else could Amazon, Kroger or Walmart do that are more likely to improve shopping rather than chasing their expensive “The Jetsons” dreams?

Many small tech companies also fear that tech giants are accumulating talent because they are talented. Imagine the mid-level software engineer who banked at Google who might otherwise start a self-driving car company, or a Facebook executive who could instead steer a second-tier e-commerce company to become the next Amazon.

The people who own America’s tech giants – the shareholders – mostly rely on Google, Facebook, Amazon, Apple and Microsoft to follow the right paths to wealth. (Sometimes shareholders worry that these companies are wasting their money and as a result admin changes or other company actions.)

We want Big Tech to continue investing in finding fresh products and services. But we all know that having too much money can make people and companies undisciplined and thoughtless.

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Tip of the Week

speed up your phone

What if I told you that your iPhone could feel like new, even if you didn’t spend $700 on it?most incremental upgrade ever”? Brian X Chen, a consumer technology columnist for The New York Times, tells you how.

There’s a widely shared conspiracy theory that phone makers deliberately slow down phones as they age to entice you to buy a new device. In reality, the opposite has been true. Over the last few years, Apple’s iPhone software updates have made older phones faster, and Google’s version of Android 12, which is expected to be released in the coming weeks, is also designed to improve performance.

It’s true that phones slow down over time – but for different reasons. Like a car, smartphones need maintenance to stay in top condition. If your phone is slowing down, here are some tips on what to do to speed up your phone:

Change the battery. Some manufacturers like Apple, slow down phones when battery is on fritz to keep the device working longer. A simple solution is to replace your battery through the company or at a local phone repair shop. Depending on phone model and repair shop, battery replacement can cost between $30 and $80.

Take care of your storage. Many people don’t realize that just because your iPhone or Samsung phone has 64 or 128 gigabytes of storage doesn’t mean you have to fill it up completely. If there is more storage, the device will run faster. So at least once a year, clean apps, photos and files you no longer use

Start fresh. Over time, software updates, tweaked system settings, etc. Due to this, phones may slow down and cause problems. If the above basic maintenance steps do not help then try to backup all your phone data and completely wipe all data on the device. Then reinstall the operating system and restore your data from backup. This can fix software problems that would otherwise be difficult to diagnose.

Before you go …

• Germany wanted to stop the worst online abuses but fell short: The country passed a law in 2017 requiring companies like Facebook and Twitter to quickly delete online hate speech. My colleague Adam Satariano didn’t necessarily stop all harassing online postsincluding those who threaten women political candidates with violence. Free speech groups also say the law sets a dangerous precedent for government internet censorship.

• There is no magic solution to bring the Internet to more Americans: Bloomberg News focuses on a rural area of ​​Arkansas to explain why it’s difficult to build gold-standard internet pipes all over the United States. A mix of technology is likely to be needed, such as a project in Arkansas for a US Navy transmission spectrum reuse purpose. zap internet signals from water towers, flagpoles, a prison and other high points.

• Change these settings now: A Washington Post guide Settings worth changing on Amazon, Facebook, Venmo, and other popular websites and apps, and why we’re better protected if we do it.

hug this

My colleague Erin McCann tweets regularly photos this charming dog he hanging On your doorstep in London.