McKinsey and A2Mac1 analyzed design choices that can help pave the way to profitable mass-market EVs.Will 2017 be remembered as the year when electric vehicles (EVs) made the move to become mass producible? A thought-provoking question for the industry, and reason for McKinsey, in partnership with A2Mac1, a provider of automotive benchmarking services, to deepen our work in the field. Last year...

Last year, when the price of bitcoin rose 1,000%, you might have regretted not buying in. Now that it has fallen almost 40% so this year, perhaps you don’t have as many regrets. The murky trading and wrenching volatility of cryptocurrencies threaten their place as a fundamental plank of the future financial system, as proponents are pushing. Now, a group of famed economists and financial innov...

Apple and others expect bright and efficient, microLEDs to extend the life of your smart-watch battery.[Bright Light: This transparent microLED display from Plessey Semiconductors appears bright even against ambient light.]The race for the next great display technology may be nearing the finish line. British chipmaker Plessey Semiconductors claims it will be the first to market with a microLED...

We analyzed 10 years of earnings call transcripts from Facebook, Apple, Microsoft, Google, and Amazon (FAMGA). We found Apple and Google are very concerned about what each other is doing. Meanwhile, another tech giant doesn’t seem to worry about the competition.Google and Apple talk about each other more than any other FAMGA pairing, according to CB Insights analysis of earning transcripts fro...

Seven million women (and men) love theSkimm. With its daily newsletters designed to keep you in the loop on the latest news and pop culture, theSkimm has developed a loyal following, and even recruits fans called “Skimm’bassadors” to help spread the word.That word-of-mouth hype is helping, and the startup has seen enough growth to warrant more funding. TheSkimm is announcing a $12 million ro...

Wireless real-time monitoring could add precision to the linkage between diet and health.Monitoring in real time what happens in and around our bodies can be invaluable in the context of health care or clinical studies, but not so easy to do. That could soon change thanks to new, miniaturized sensors developed by researchers at the Tufts University School of Engineering that, when mounted direc...

As designer Deepanjan Sinha puts it, Plus (earphones) and Nest (speaker) “bridge the gap between public and private listening.” The two products are not only aesthetically connected but functionally fused!Nest serves as both a sound hub and a wireless charger for the headphones. Let’s say you’re on a run listening to music on the Plus phones. Once you get home, you can remove the headphones...

Waving at drones: The wackiest patent image you’ll see today, courtesy of Amazon. This is exactly how I would react if a drone came flying at me.The U.S. Patent Office on Tuesday issued a patent for an unmanned aerial vehicle that can understand and react to human gestures. Accompanying the document is an image of a drone, a house, and a person flailing wildy. A blank speech bubble opens an en...

Imagine a company that zealously and thoughtfully safeguards and marshals the consumer data it holds, for the good of both company and consumer—so much so that consumers preferentially choose to buy products and services from this company and to share relevant data for new and unrelated purposes. Think too about the many companies that have made headlines—and have been punished by consumers a...