The smartphone isn’t going anywhere.
No other device can replicate what it does for the everyday consumer, so expect to see more smartphones in the public’s hands over the next few decades.
But that doesn’t mean the device will stay the same.
The next steps in the smartphone's evolution are here, and Business Insider Intelligence has collected them into The Top 3 Biggest Smartphone Trends.
Donald Trump and his Japanese counterpart, Prime Minister Abe Shinzo, posed for a rare world leader selfie while playing golf during the president's brief trip to Japan Sunday.
The photo shows Trump and Abe smiling broadly while playing golf at Mobara Country Club, around an hour's drive east of Tokyo, Japan's capital.
Shinzo and Trump are both keen golfers, and have played together before.
Trump is making a brief visit to Japan, one of the US' closest partners in Asia, and the world's third largest economy, where he will become the first world leader to meet the country's new emperor, Naruhito.
Naruhito gained the imperial throne on May 1,replacing his father Akihito, who became the first emperor in more than 200 years to abdicate, citing his old age.
The trip is focused on strengthening Trump's personal bond with Japan's senior leaders, and expanding the relationship that has formed between him and Abe since Trump became president in 2017.
Trump's visit to the golf course was his first engagement of the trip, which has so far also included a trip to the Summer Grand Sumo Tournament in Tokyo, where he presented the winner with the newly made "Trump Trophy."
Would you be able to tell the difference between a $20 purse from Walmart and a $5,000 luxury bag?
According to Jonah Berger, marketing professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and author of "Invisible Influence: The Hidden Forces That Shape Behavior," their similarities are more alike than one might think.
Along with professor Morgan Ward, Berger analyzed the correlation between price and brand prominence in hundreds of products and found a surprising relationship.
As expected, the cheaper the product, the less the brand was identified; as price increased, branding became more prominent. But as price further increased, branding became less prominent again. For example, of 10 sunglasses ranging between $100 and $300 that Berger and Ward studied, the majority featured visible logos — but only a few out of 10 $500-plus sunglasses had a brand name or logo on them.
For every $5,000 increase in price, the logo shrinks by a centimeter — luxury items with less prominent logos are more expensive, according to Berger.
If logos are meant to convey status, why would people spend money on pricey logo-less goods that aren't discernible from their cheaper counterparts, Berger wondered. While luxury brands are higher quality, it doesn't explain the premium price they charge for less prominent branding.
The answer lies in the exclusivity that subtlety creates.
Loud signals are easier to identify, but that makes them more likely to be poached or copied by outsiders, Berger wrote in his book.
He added: "Carrying a handbag that says Louis Vuitton all over it encourages observers to think you're wealthy. But because they're more recognizable, such explicit signals are also more likely to be imitated by people who aren't wealthy, but just want to seem that way."
Consider counterfeit bags — those with blatant logos like Gucci are easier to pirate; to counterfeiters, it's not about the bag's quality, but what it communicates, according to Berger.
"Insiders, or people who know a lot about a given domain, prefer subtle signals," he wrote, adding that they provide a covert communication system. "They aren't as widely observed, but they also help distinguish insiders from wannabes. If people who want to seem rich buy handbags bathed in Louis Vuitton logos, those are no longer a good signal of wealth. So the truly wealthy may diverge and use more discreet markers that only other insiders can recognize."
That's where subtle details like Bottega Veneta's woven pattern bags, costing up to $14,500, or Christian Louboutin's trademark red soles come in — they're recognizable to fashion experts.
Even a company's discreet press strategy can turn its goods into the ultimate status symbol among elite in the know. Goyard, a two-century-old Parisian brand, eschews any type of advertising and builds its business on discretion, an elusiveness that has created what one luxury expert called an "insider's bag."
It's the same concept behind discreet wealth, where showing off wealth is no longer the way to signify having wealth. Rich people are increasingly forgoing the flashiness and material goods that marked conspicuous consumption in favor of investments in things like education and health to signify cultural capital and propel social mobility.
However, the thriving luxury world makes it clear they're not giving up material goods all together — like the rest of their investments, they're just spending money on things the middle-class consumer won't recognize.
DON'T MISS: Rich people keep buying things that aren't actually functional to show off their wealth
During the eight-hour car ride from Ohio to New York, they rode in absolute silence.
The year was 1971 and Pamela Mason, an 18-year-old freshman at Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio, had just found out she was pregnant. She knew that she and her boyfriend had been careless, but she also knew she wasn't ready to be a mother. The moment she realized her period was late, she felt like she was going to pass out.
When she first called up her boyfriend to tell him the news, he immediately hung up. Half an hour later, her phone rang.
"What do you want to do?" he asked her. Her answer was easy: "I want to have an abortion."
Mason's unplanned pregnancy occurred two years prior to the landmark Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade, which legalized abortion in the US and granted women a constitutional right to the procedure. At that time, abortions were heavily restricted in her state.
"I never thought 'Oh, well, we can have the baby,'" Mason, now 65 and an administrative assistant living in New Jersey, told INSIDER. "It was strictly I am getting an abortion. That was the only option for me."
That meant driving 500 miles away in a 1967 green Chevy Impala to New York City, where abortions were legal. And, Mason thought at the time, that distance was doable.
In the decades prior to Roe, there were several ways in which women could try to have an abortion.
Some women, typically those who were wealthier and with "contacts," could convince licensed doctors to perform the procedure as a matter of conscience — or profit — said Carol Sanger, a law professor at Columbia University and author of the book"About Abortion: Terminating Pregnancy in the 21st Century." But, not all doctors were so willing because the penalties fell on the doctor performing the abortion.
In many cases, women had no choice but to partake in illegal abortions to terminate their pregnancies. Some worked with organizations and underground abortion networks, likethe Chicago-based group "Jane," orthe Clergy Consultation Service, made up of religious leaders nationwide, which had been created to help women navigate the abortion landscape and safely access the procedure. Many of the female members of "Jane" learned how to perform the procedures themselves, at one point performing abortions four days a week and serving as many as 10 woman a day.
But, others weren't as lucky.
"The situation pre-Roe was that the rich people did okay because they could pay to get a proper legal abortion. Some people were savvy enough to contact organizations like 'Jane' or the Clergy," Sanger said, adding, "for ordinary women, they would just go by word of mouth and take their chances because they wouldn't want to be pregnant."
Leslie Reagan, a professor of history at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and author of the book "When Abortion Was a Crime", said that illegal abortions became more clandestine as a result of tough enforcement by police and prosecutors. Doctors could be penalized with fines or jail sentences that varied by state. In those illicit situations, the quality of care was extremely uneven and could have disastrous consequences.
Sometimes, if there were complications after an illegal abortion, women had no choice but to rush to emergency rooms, only to be harassed by hospital staff and police with probing questions about who performed the procedure. "Most people would be taken care of by doctors, but some of those people died in the emergency rooms," Reagan said.
Other women resorted to self-abortions, the most notable tactic being a coat hanger-induced abortion. But, according to Reagan, desperate women were willing to try anything: "people went to the drug store and they got orange sticks. They also used medical things, like catheters which are rubber covered wires so they are stiff... they used pens, cotton, pencils, a list of things," she said. "There were people who tried to use Coke bottles, tried to use Clorox... there were these pills that were sold and they were told to put them in their vagina, and they just burned through the tissue."
Many women, who could afford the cost, traveled elsewhere to have the procedure, with underground abortion networks helping them navigate the journey and offering details — like how to travel safely or tips on not getting ripped off. For women on the East Coast, Scandinavian countries, like Sweden, were a popular destination, while those on the West Coast traveled to Mexico and Japan.
One of the most high-profile cases of a woman trying to travel abroad for an abortion wasthat of Sherri Finkbine, a 30-year-old television host known as "Miss Sherri" on the children's show "Romper Room." In the spring of 1962, Finkbine, a pregnant mother of four living in Arizona, took pills her husband had brought her following a business trip to England, to curb her morning sickness. She later discovered the pills contained thalidomide, which could cause severe birth defects. Finkbine decided to terminate her pregnancy.
But it wouldn't be that easy. Hoping to warn other women about the drug, Finkbine shared her story with a local reporter, asking for anonymity. But her identity was exposed, unleashing a firestorm over her decision to have an abortion. She requested a therapeutic abortion before a three-man board at a Phoenix hospital, but was denied.
In the early 1960s, when Finkbine requested an abortion, 44 states, including Arizona, only allowed abortion if it endangered the women's life. Women who were caught going to an abortion doctor were often required to appear in court.
"Women were in a difficult position at times because they were still being hauled into court and having to give testimony and sometimes being examined to support the case against an abortion provider," Mary Ziegler, a law professor at Florida State University who has written extensively aboutthe history of abortion andRoe v. Wade, told INSIDER.
Raids on abortion providers' offices — and subsequently women being brought to court to testify against them — became common in the 1940s and 1950s as a way to enforce abortion laws, Reagan wrote in her book "When Abortion Was a Crime." Women could be posed questions about their abortion provider, the procedure, and their sexual encounters. When a Chicago woman who had an abortion refused to testify about the procedure in 1949, she was ordered to six months in jail for contempt of court.
After Finkbine's name became public, the death threats started, andthe FBI even stationed themselves at her home as a safety measure. Eventually, she went to Sweden to have the abortion.
Eight years later, in 1970, New York legalized the procedure and, according to Sanger, became "a mecca for performing abortions." In the years before Roe, three other states, Hawaii, Washington, and Alaska, passed similar laws. But, unlike New York, those states required women seeking an abortion to have already lived in the state for a certain period of time.
Women, like Mason, flocked to New York for the procedure.
At Ohio State in the 1960s, it was known among the student body that Planned Parenthood was the place to go for birth control and information about reproductive health services. Mason took a bus from campus to Planned Parenthood, where she was immediately referred to a clinic in Manhattan. She called to schedule an appointment and was told the procedure was $150, in addition to travel costs.
For Mason and her boyfriend, money was tight; she only had around $50 in the bank at the time. To scrape together the funds, she stole discarded glass soda bottles from her neighbor, which could be sold for around a nickel. Her best friend swiped bottles from her mom to contribute to the cause.
They set out on a Saturday night in the clunky Chevy Impala and, as Mason recalls, her boyfriend barely spoke to her throughout the whirlwind trip. "I was pretty devastated by his reaction to kind of just treat it like it was my fault, that was the message I was getting," she said. "I was just trying to keep my mind on the mission, basically, that I'm doing this because I want to and, regardless of how he is going to behave, I'm not going to pull the car over."
When Mason arrived to New York City she was immediately enthralled by the throngs of people and traffic consuming the city. "Wow, this is some place," she thought to herself. Her boyfriend dropped her off at the clinic and whisked away to find parking. She was all alone.
At the clinic, she was so nervous she could barely speak. While explaining the procedure, a concerned counselor paused to ask, "are you OK?"
"I want it to be over," Mason replied.
The abortion was painful but was quickly over. She'll never forget the kindness exuded by clinic staff.
Almost five decades later, she feels immense relief that New York City was only 500 miles away from Columbus. "If I lived in Kansas or Missouri at the time, I don't want to think what would have happened to me," Mason said. "I was geographically lucky."
In early May of this year, Alabama lawmakers sent shockwaves across the country bypassing the country's most restrictive abortion law. The law effectively bans abortions in the state, unless it poses a "serious health risk" to the mother, and doesn't include exceptions for survivors of rape or incest. Doctors who perform the procedure couldface up to 99 years in prison.
And Alabama isn't alone:various states have passed measures recently to restrict abortion access. Earlier this month, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp signed a so-called "heartbeat bill" that bans the procedure after a heartbeat is detected, typically around five to six weeks and before many women know they are pregnant. In mid-May, legislators in Missouri's State Senatealso passed a bill to ban abortions after eight weeks, with no exemptions for rape or incest. Since the start of 2019, states like Utah, Arkansas, Kentucky, and Mississippi, have brought forth extreme anti-abortion measures, part of a concerted effort to overturn Roe v. Wade.
None of the recently passed abortion bans have formally gone into effect, and groups like the American Civil Liberties Union and the Center for Reproductive Rights intend to challenge the measures.
Mason says she couldn't believe it when Roe v. Wade was passed in 1973. She was still enrolled at Ohio State and immediately began volunteering at the state's first abortion clinic. At that time, the clinic was the only one in the region — and the phone was constantly ringing with women not just from Ohio, but the surrounding five states as well.
Eventually, she was offered a full-time job.
"We sometimes had to turn away more people than we could help because of the large demand," she said about her time working at the clinic. "I wish these lawmakers understood the need, and the demand, for safe, legal abortions."
In the decades since the passage of Roe, anti-abortion groups and lawmakers have pursued a strategy of slowly chipping away at abortion access,imposing measures such as required waiting periods, mandated counseling, and strict requirements on abortion clinics and providers, to make it more difficult for women to access the procedure. Federal laws, like the Hyde Amendment, also block federal Medicaid funds from being used to pay for abortions.
Since Roe was decided, states have introduced more than 1,200 abortion restrictions, with more than a third of those enacted since 2010, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a leading research and policy organization on reproductive health.
"Many women today, particularly in the Midwest and the South, have been living in environments where, frankly, Roe is already not a reality for them, and losing Roe would of course make the barriers to accessing abortion that much worse," said Rachel Sussman, National Director of State Policy and Advocacy at Planned Parenthood Federation of America. "It is going to have a disproportionate impact on people who are already facing systematic barriers to accessing healthcare, so women living in rural communities, women living in poverty, people of color are going to face these barriers."
Going forward, Sussman said it is imperative for those who support women's reproductive health to reach out to their state's elected officials about the importance of safe, legal abortions.
For women like Mason, who benefited from the procedure, that message is more critical now than ever.
"The trauma for me was driving 20 hours. It wasn't the abortion or the aftermath or thinking 'what had I done?'" Mason said about her experience. "I am so grateful to the people in New York City who made this totally petrified 18 year old feel like it's going to be OK, and to get back to Ohio in one piece and to go to school on Monday."
Mason is grateful she had access to an abortion when so many others didn't. "When I look back on the trajectory of my life, all the things I've done throughout my adult life were only possible because I was able to terminate my pregnancy, so just all around it's a lot of gratitude."
Home to tech workers, a public poop problem, and a high cost of living, San Francisco is in a league of its own.
The city ranked as one of the places with the top economies, according to an analysis of local economies in the US's 40 largest metro areas conducted by Business Insider. San Francisco's close proximity to Silicon Valley, considered the tech center of the world, has caused the city to become one of the wealthiest cities in America.
But that's resulted in an expensive life for Bay Area residents, including a housing crisis where most can't afford homes.
The cost of living could get even worse if several tech IPOs go public as planned in 2019, making San Francisco home to thousands of new millionaires by year's end, Nellie Bowles of The New York Times reported.
Here are 13 mind-blowing facts that show just how expensive San Francisco really is.
The median household income in San Francisco brings in $98,710— around 63% more than the national median household income of $60,336.
The city has the third highest number of billionaires in the country thanks to its technology sector, according to Wealth-X's 2019 Billionaire Census report.
The median rent price in the US is $1,700. In San Francisco, it's $4,506. San Francisco is also the most expensive city in the US to rent a two-bedroom apartment.
Even co-living spaces, created for affordability, run $1,900 a month for a room with a bunk-bed, reported Business Insider's Katie Canales.
The national median price of homes listed is $289,900.
San Francisco is the US city with the most million dollar homes — 81% cost $1 million or more, according to a Trulia report.
San Francisco's housing market is so dire that nearly half of its residents said in a 2018 Bay Area Council advocacy group survey that they plan to move away soon.
Single-family homes could cost as much as $5 million in five years, Nellie Bowles of The New York Times reported.
But some homes go for less than that — a 480-square-foot 'fixer' recently sold for $600,000.
According to the listing, it could "easily expand" to a two-bedroom, two-bathroom house as it sits on a 2,500 square-foot lot, reported Canales.
The median US worker earns $46,696 annually, according to data by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Only 12% of households can afford to buy a home based on this estimation, Melia Robinson reported, citing a report from Paragon Real Estate.
As a San Francisco renter, you need to earn $164,214 to live comfortably, according to a GoBanking Rates study. It takes the median US worker 3.5 years to earn that much.
Even the $142,000 salary of the average Bay Area tech worker isn't enough; nearly 60% of tech workers can't afford homes in the area, Robinson reported.
A tech worker lived in his startup's office for a year because he couldn't afford rent.
Tech worker Jonathan Gaurano said in a YouTube video that he lived in his San Francisco startup's offices for an entire year, after his landlord abruptly quadrupled his rent, reported Business Insider's Nick Bastone.
And a 1,000-square-foot home with no working plumbing and a pile of rotting mattresses stacked in the kitchen sold for more than $520,000 in 2018, reported Business Insider's Hilary Brueck.
This has caused San Francisco's homeless population to increase by 17% to 8,011 over the past two years, reported Business Insider's Katie Canales, citing the San Francisco Chronicle.
The region's tech boom and housing shortage are behind these increases, which indicate that San Francisco's long-standing homelessness crisis is worsening, Canales said.
That's $12,370 a month, according to Quentin Fottrell of MarketWatch, citing the Economic Policy Institute.
More than half of tech workers, who typically make a six-figure salary, said that the increased cost of living in the area has caused them to put off having kids, according to a survey by the app Blind.
The Department of Housing and Urban Development determined this number based on median income and average housing costs, reported Karen Zraick for The New York Times.
That's $5,756 a month, according to the Economic Policy Institute. Costs in this calculation include housing, food, transportation, healthcare, other necessities, and taxes, not including savings or discretionary spending.
Americans believe it takes an average of $2.3 million to be wealthy, according to Charles Schwab's 2019 Modern Wealth Survey.
In an interview with ABC News, which aired on Sunday, 2020 presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg said that there is "no question" that President Trump faked a disability to avoid serving in the Vietnam War.
"There is no question, I think, to any reasonable observer that the president found a way to falsify a disabled status, taking advantage of his privileged status in order to avoid serving," he said.
He continued: "You have somebody who thinks it's all right to let somebody go in his place into a deadly war and is willing to pretend to be disabled in order to do it. That is an assault on the honor of this country."
Buttigieg first surfaced the rebuke earlier in the week when talking with The Washington Post.
Trump was exempted from Vietnam after receiving a letter from a doctor that said he had a bone spur ailment in his foot, which made him unfit for service.
Buttigieg, who is currently mayor of South Bend in Indiana previously served in the US Navy Reserve and is an Afghanistan veteran.
In the same interview, Buttigieg criticized Trump for considering pardons for troops accused and convicted of war crimes.
"The idea that being sent to war turns you into a murderer is exactly the kind of thing that those of us who have served have been trying to beat back for more than a generation," Buttigieg said.
Troops are protected "morally and physically" by knowing that "if anybody in uniform does commit a crime, they will be held accountable."
At least 11 people have died after a string of violent storms swept through the Midwest.
Buildings, hotels, and homes were ripped apart in Missouri and Oklahoma. Now, emergency crews are leading clean-up and rescue missions amid flooding, hail, and major wind gusts.
El Reno, Oklahoma Mayor Matt White said the storms had left behind a "tragic scene." See the trail of damage drawn through the region ahead of Memorial Day.
Source: AccuWeather
Source: AccuWeather
Source: AccuWeather
Source: USA Today
Source: The Associated Press
Source: The Associated Press
Source: The Associated Press
Source: AccuWeather
Source: AccuWeather
Source: The Associated Press
5G wireless will be the No. 1 technology to watch in the coming years — with international leaders like Huawei, Qualcomm, and Intel transforming not only industries but entire countries with its broad applications and economic significance.
But it's not the only technology you should have on your radar.
In the 2019 Technology Trends Report in China, EqualOcean, a leading China-focused industrial tech media and investment innovation research firm, breaks down eight evolving technologies that deserve special attention. These technologies are either currently undergoing or about to undergo major phases of change.
This report represents a guidebook outlining which of China's technology trends will be most significant in the next two to three years.
The technologies included in this report are:
Here are some of the key takeaways from the report:
Quantum computing, edge computing, and flexible display are all still in an early period, but will soon begin to attract commercial and enterprise adoption.
In full, the report:
The companies included in this report are:IBM, AWS, Google, Intel, Alibaba, D-Wave, Regetti, 1QBit, Azure, Tencent, HPE, Cisco, Samsung, LG, BOE, Apple, Xiaomi, Visionx, Microsoft, Facebook, Baidu, ByteDance, iFlytek, NOKIA, ZTE, Ericsson, MSD, Novartis, BMS, Allogene Therapeutics, Junshi, BeiGene, I-Mab Biopharma, Hyperledger, Ant Financial, Mastercard, Ethereum, Ripple, SONY, HTC, Oculus, and Magic Leap.
Insider Picks writes about products and services to help you navigate when shopping online. Insider Inc. receives a commission from our affiliate partners when you buy through our links, but our reporting and recommendations are always independent and objective.
If you're not on the iPhone bandwagon and aren't impressed by the Samsung lineup, fret not — there may be a better option for you yet. The Google Pixel lineup has emerged as a very real contender for the best smartphone you can buy.
Although Google recently introduced the budget-friendly Pixel 3a and 3a XL smartphones for $400 and $480 respectively, many Android fans are eagerly awaiting the launch of its high-end Pixel 4 and Pixel 4 XL smartphones.
The Pixel 4 and 4 XL are slated to be released later this year, and there are plenty of rumors circulating about when we can expect these two smartphones to hit the market, and how much they'll cost. We're keeping an eye on when Google may drop its newest devices, but here are our predictions.
While there's no certainty around the Google Pixel 4's release date quite yet, we do know that it'll be sometime in the fall. If history is any indication, we can expect an announcement in early October, and an actual release a few weeks later. For example, the Pixel 3 was announced on October 9 and was subsequently available in stores on November 1. The Pixel 2 and Pixel 2XL followed a similar timeline as well.
The folks over at GottaBe Mobile have a hunch that the launch event will be the second Tuesday in October (October 8) and that the actual release in stores will follow in mid-October.
It seems as though Google wants to keep up with Apple and Samsung's design and technology ethos, so it looks like we'll have a new Pixel that has no bezels and edge-to-edge display. A Google patent also recently revealed a bezel-less phone with dual front-facing speakers, so this could be the design that we're in for.
9to5Google also reported that there will be a second camera in the back for better photography and that both the Pixel 4 and Pixel 4XL will feature the newest Qualcomm Snapdragon processors, wireless charging, water-resistant properties, and alas, no headphone jack.
If the technology and design of the new Pixel phones are set to match that of Apple and Samsung, then we can only expect the price to also be on par. That means that the newest Pixel will be quite expensive, with experts suggesting a starting price of at least $799. The Pixel 4 XL, of course, will be even more expensive given its larger size, its additional cameras, and longer battery life — that model could start around $899.
For folks looking to tack on additional RAM and storage, prices will probably increase by another couple hundred dollars.
The good news, however, is that we can probably expect older generations of the Pixel to be discounted as a result of the new release.
Check back regularly, as we'll update this post when we know the official launch and release date of the 2019 Pixels.
You can currently buy the high-end Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL, which were released in 2018, or you can pick up the newly released budget-friendly Pixel 3a and 3a XL phones for a much lower price. The Pixel 3a series phones start at just $399 and $479, which is much cheaper than the $799 to $899 price tags of the flagship Pixel 3 and 3 XL.
We recommend going for the Pixel 3a or 3a XL if you prefer to save a bit of money. Those of you who want a flagship phone will want to wait for the Pixel 4 and 4 XL.
On a Sunday in early April, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez announced via Twitter that she'd be adopting a rooftop community garden plot in Washington, DC.
"Any green-thumbs out with sage words of advice?" the New York progressive asked her 4 million-person following. Among the thousands of responses were puns from an Israeli rabbi and counsel from British Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn.
The 29-year-old freshman lawmaker framed her new gardening hobby as a way to practice "self-care" and "mindfulness," an escape from her demanding life as a member of Congress.
"I feel like plants are a great accountability partner because they literally die if you don't take time to tend to yourself and to them,"she said in an April Instagram story.
Ocasio-Cortez has a habit of using her social media celebrity to mix politics with daily life in a way that targets a millennial and Gen Z audience. She's brought her legions of fans into her kitchen for live "Cook + Q&A" sessions and into her livingroom to drink wine and assemble IKEA furniture, all the while answering questions and opining on the issues of the day.
Perhaps playing off Instagram's gardening influencer community, Ocasio-Cortez is now mixing politics, food, and environmental activism.
"Food that comes out of dirt — it's magic," she says of her collard greens and spinach.
The project was also designed to focus attention on Ocasio-Cortez's Green New Deal resolution— a sweeping, ambitious plan to combat climate change, stimulate the economy, and expand the social safety net.
Ocasio-Cortez received widespread criticism for a set of FAQ's her office put out — and quickly retracted — suggesting the resolution called for eventually eliminating cows and airplane travel, and providing a living wage to those "unwilling to work." The congresswoman said she's faced strong pushback from advocates for agriculture.
"When we were deploying the Green New Deal, one of the first attacks was, 'Well, what does she know about farming?'"Ocasio-Cortez said in an Instagram story describing why she took on the rooftop gardening project.
Viraj Puri, the CEO of Gotham Greens, a New York urban farming startup, said that urban gardening is a good way to educate communities about the ties between environmental issues and agriculture.
"Community gardening is — no pun intended — a low-hanging fruit. It's an easy entry point to build up awareness around agricultural issues and around health and wellness," Viraj Puri told INSIDER. "[It] really straddles so many different themes — from climate change, to health and obesity, to urban greening, to quality of life."
Ocasio-Cortez's approach to urban gardening differs from that of other Democrats, including former First Lady Michelle Obama, who promoted her White House vegetable garden as a way to combat childhood obesity, rather than as an environmental initiative.
The congresswoman has also faced pushback for taking a social justice-oriented approach to the project. During a recent trip to the Glover Street Community Garden in the Bronx — documented on Instagram, of course — she made the case for growing plants that are "culturally familiar to the community." She argued that many community development projects fail because they involve outsiders dictating how things go, rather than allowing the community to lead.
"That is such a core component of the Green New Deal — is having all of these projects make sense in a cultural context," she said. "When someone says that it's too hard to do a green space that grows yuca instead of, I don't know, cauliflower what you're doing is you're taking a colonial approach to environmentalism."
She went on, "If I went to a predominantly white community and said, 'Okay, you guys are going to be growing plantains and yuca and all these things that you don't know how to cook, and that your palate isn't accustomed to,' it's going to be like cute for a little bit. But it's not easy."
These concepts are well-established among food justice advocates.
"A lot of people of color are actually generationally closer to working the land than the a lot of — for lack of a better term — white hipsters, and yet it's middle-class, educated, white folks who think they need to come into communities of color to educate them," Luz Calvo, a professor of ethnic studies at Cal State East Bay who wrote a book entitled "Decolonize Your Diet," told INSIDER.
But critics on the right were quick to ridicule the argument, saying that Ocasio-Cortez had maligned cauliflower as racist.
"Also, cauliflower's delicious and yuca tastes bad," right-wing provocateur Ben Shapiro said in a YouTube video. "Maybe that's just my different cultural sensitivity speaking to me here — but also I don't care if you grow yuca."
A man has been charged in connection to the death of a 13-year-old who was pronounced dead after she was dropped off at a Massachusetts hospital.
Carlos Rivera, 47, was arrested Saturday, after authorities accused him of giving drugs to Chloe Ricard before dropping her off at Lawrence General Hospital and telling staff she needed help Monday night. Rivera is also reportedly facing charges of indecent assault.
Investigators with the Essex District Attorney's Office said Ricard and another girl were at Rivera's apartment Sunday evening and during most of Monday, according to MassLive.
Ricard's mother, Deborah Goldsmith-Dolan, and stepfather, Brian Dolan, told the Boston Globe they grew concerned when Chloe didn't come home Sunday night, but a friend of Chloe's on Monday morning told them their daughter was safe.
Goldsmith-Dolan told the Globe that she filed a police report Monday evening after Chloe's Department of Children and Families case worker notified her of "red flags" and said the girl was thinking of moving to Virginia. At the police office, she received a text from Chloe's friend that her daughter had been taken to a hospital.
"You ruined my life," Goldsmith-Dolan said Tuesday, according to CBS Boston. "All you had to do if she was sick was call the ambulance, do something to try and save her. You took away my world."
"They dropped her off like she was a bag of trash," said Ricard's stepfather, Brian Dolan. "Have some compassion."
Her family set up a GoFundMe page, where they wrote that 13-year-old Ricard was taken "far too soon."
Chloe is said to have had a turbulent upbringing, with her biological father reportedly dying five years ago.
Rivera is being held on $75,000 bail and is scheduled to be arraigned Tuesday in Lawrence District Court.
Read more:
The woman who was lost in a forest for 2 weeks ate moths and lived in a wild boar den to survive
GREEN BAY, Wis. (AP) — Bart Starr, the Green Bay Packers quarterback and catalyst of Vince Lombardi's powerhouse teams of the 1960s, has died. He was 85.
The Packers announced Sunday that Starr had died, citing his family. He had been in failing health since suffering a serious stroke in 2014.
The Packers chose Starr out of the University of Alabama with the 200th pick in the 1956 draft, and after Lombardi's arrival in 1959, Starr led Green Bay to six division titles, five NFL championships and wins in the first two Super Bowls.
But it was in the "Ice Bowl" on New Year's Eve 1967 that Starr secured his legacy, scoring on a sneak with 16 seconds left to give Green Bay a 21-17 win over the Dallas Cowboys.
Starr was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1977.
Starr's family said in a statement that his health had been in decline since a stroke "he suffered in September 2014," and "his most recent illness was too much to overcome."
The rest of the family's statement said:
"While he may always be best known for his success as the Packers quarterback for 16 years, his true legacy will always be the respectful manner in which he treated every person he met, his humble demeanor, and his generous spirit.
"Our family wishes to thank the thousands of friends and fans who have enriched his life – and therefore our lives – for so many decades and especially during the past five years. Each letter, text, phone call, and personal visit inspired him and filled him with joy.
"His love for all of humanity is well known, and his affection toward the residents of Alabama and of Wisconsin filled him with gratitude. He had hoped to make one last trip to Green Bay to watch the Packers this fall, but he shall forever be there in spirit."
Starr suffered a mini-stroke while giving a speech in Madison, Wisconsin, in 2012. He later suffered another stroke, a heart attack and multiple seizures in 2014 before undergoing stem cell treatments in 2015 and 2016.
Packers President/CEO Mark Murphy said in a statement that Starr was "a champion on and off the field."
"Bart epitomized class and was beloved by generations of Packers fans," Murphy said. "A clutch player who led his team to five NFL titles, Bart could still fill Lambeau Field with electricity decades later during his many visits. Our thoughts and prayers go out to Cherry and the entire Starr family."
President Donald Trump's weekend trip to Japan — where he contradicted his national security advisor, backed the murderous North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un, and misspelled former vice president Joe Biden's name while calling him "low IQ"— also included a trip to a sumo wrestling stadium.
On Sunday, he presented the "United States President's Cup"— a 60-pound trophy more than four feet tall that Japan made up for the occasion — to Asanoyama, the 25-year-old sumo champion.
"In honor of your outstanding achievement as sumo grand champion, I hereby award you the United States President's Cup," he announced from the wrestling ring.
Trump said he hoped the cup would continue to be awarded for "many hundreds of years."
It was part of a visit to the country's Ryōgoku Kokugikan Stadium, where an estimated 11,500 fans gathered to watch a series of five-minute sumo matches.
Trump's visit to the wrestling match broke several traditions. Foreign leaders do not usually give presentations between matches. And while viewers generally sit on cushions on the ground, called zabutons, Trump and his wife, Melania, were given chairs. The Japan Sumo Association also banned the practice of throwing zabutons into the air as a security precaution, according to the Associated Press.
People who enter the elevated dirt wrestling ring — called a dohyo — are supposed to be barefoot, but Trump wore slippers as he handed out the award. Some members of the Japanese media suggested that the ring would now have to be reconsecrated after Trump's presentation, according to the Washington Post.
According to viewers, Trump didn't appear to pay much attention to the matches. He didn't react to some of the most dramatic moments.
"He didn't smile at all, he didn't do any gestures," Jaime Tiktin told the Post. "It was kind of strange to see him not moving his lips at all."
Trump's visit to the sumo arena was part of a larger four-day trip meant to strengthen ties with Japan's leaders. He already has a close personal relationship with Japanese Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, even as they're at odds in a trade dispute. Trump has threatened to impose high tariffs on Japan unless the country and the United States shrink the gap between their trade surplus.
Over the weekend, Trump has golfed, taken selfies, and eaten lavish meals with Abe. He will also be the first world leader to visit Naruhito, Japan's new emperor.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and other progressives criticized the New York Times on Sunday for writing that former White House aide Hope Hicks is facing an "existential question" over whether to comply with a congressional subpoena.
Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee have demanded that Hicks produce documents by June 4 and testify before Congress on June 19 as part of the Committee's investigations into possible obstruction of justice and corruption in the Trump administration.
Ocasio-Cortez was critical of the Times' framing of the story, which described Hicks' "dilemma" as an "existential question," rather than a straightforward matter of law and order.
"What gets me is news breaks that this woman is weighing committing a crime before Congress & it's getting framed by the NYT as some Lifetime drama called 'Hope's Choice,'"Ocasio-Cortez tweeted. "This is a [former] admin official considering participating in a coverup led by the President. Treat her equally."
Hicks, who left her position as White House communications director and top confidante to President Donald Trump last year, has not yet indicated whether she'll comply with the legally-binding subpoena.
Ocasio-Cortez then joked that she'd demand royalties if "Hope's Choice" was made into a film and donate the money to the National Bail Out Fund, a criminal justice reform advocacy group.
Others similarly argued that the 30-year-old former Trump confidante is being afforded special privileges because of her status as a well-connected white woman.
"There is nothing for Hope Hicks to 'decide.' She got a subpoena from Congress," Rolling Stone writer Jamil Smith tweeted. "Were she not white, wealthy, and connected, we wouldn't be having this conversation. She would appear, or she would face the threat of prison like the rest of us. As she should."
This comes shortly after the White House directed former White House counsel Donald McGahn not to comply with the House Judiciary Committee's subpoena for documents and testimony. The White House has not yet said whether it will instruct Hicks to defy the Committee's orders. But the Trump administration is stonewalling congressional investigations into the president following the release of special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation report.
Man, I love Harrison Ford. pic.twitter.com/JQ6HY3lyk3
— Tanooki Joe™️ (@TanookiKuribo) May 24, 2019
Insider Pickswrites about products and services to help you navigate when shopping online. Insider Inc. receives a commission from our affiliate partners when you buy through our links, but our reporting and recommendations are always independent and objective.
Voracious readers, get ready to become voracious listeners, too. For all the times that you couldn't put your book down but had to because — despite your best efforts — you cannot, in fact, drive and read at the same time, there is now a solution. Audible, the company behind the largest selection of audiobooks and original audio shows (nearly 500,000, to be exact), is here to save you from cliffhangers.
While I've always purported to prefer reading to listening, I'll admit that listening to Meryl Streep read Nora Ephron titles is something that I cannot do in my own head. Similarly, while I have yet to score tickets to "Hamilton," I like to think that listening to Lin-Manuel Miranda and Karen Olivo narrate "The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao" by Junot Diaz comes as a close second.
There are also some pretty solid Audible originals. For the political junkies in the room, there's "Conversations with Joe," which offers the highlights from Vice President and presidential candidate Joe Biden's tour across the US, in which he spoke of his son's Beau's life and battle with brain cancer. Or, there's the extremely popular "Heads Will Roll," featuring Kate McKinnon and Emily Lynne, which listeners have called "TV for your ears" and "unbelievably funny."
In short, regardless of what content you like to read or hear, you can probably find it on this Amazon-owned service. Here's how to get Audible and use it on your devices.
In order to use Audible, you'll have to be an Amazon member, but not necessarily an Amazon Prime member. Unlike many of Amazon's other offerings, this isn't an add-on service that is contingent on your having a Prime membership. Rather, all you need is a standard Amazon account.
In order to get set up, you'll want to navigate your way over to the top righthand corner of the Amazon home screen, where you'll see an option that reads Hello, Sign In. If you roll over that, you'll see text that says, New Customer? Start here. From there, you'll just need to enter your name, email, and password, and you're all set.
Note that while you don't have to be a Prime member, a Prime membership would grant you free access to Audible content, so if you're on the fence about it, this may sweeten the deal in one direction or another.
If you're not interested in going the Prime route, then you'll simply need to sign up for an Audible account by heading over to this new member page. You'll be granted a 30-day free trial, after which you'll begin paying the monthly $14.95 fee.
Every month that you're an Audible member, you'll receive one credit, which is good for any title, regardless of price. But of course, you'll want to listen to more than just one book a month. In that case, you'll have to buy these additional titles. The good news, though, is that they stay in your permanent collection, so you can go back to them time and time again and build the library of your dreams.
As it stands, you can use Audible on any iPhone or Android device, thanks to the Audible app. The service is also compatible with a wide range of other devices, including:
To start listening, simply find the title on your My Library page or the Cloud tab on your mobile application. You can then either download the audiobook onto your computer to listen or transfer to another device; stream and listen via the Audible Cloud Player, which can be found on the My Library page; find the title in the cloud on your mobile device for downloading; or, if you're going old school, burn the audiobook onto a disc. Note, though, that you can only use the last option with iTunes software.
SEE ALSO: Amazon Prime benefits that go beyond 2-day shipping
Digital transformation has arrived. 
Not a single industry is safe from the unstoppable wave of digitization that is sweeping through finance, retail, transportation, and more.
And in 2019, there will be even more transformative developments that will our businesses, careers, and lives.
Business Insider Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service, has put together a list of 40 Big Tech Predictions for 2019 across Apps and Platforms, Digital Media, Payments, The Internet of Things, E-Commerce, Fintech, Transportation & Logistics, and Digital Health.
Some of these major predictions include:
A YouTuber inspired a flood of memes after he posted what he called the worst moment of his life, captured in a video of his wife falling several feet while on a hike.
Shaun McBride, who goes by the username Shonduras, posted the video, titled "JENNY FELL OFF A CLIFF.. scary moment for our family," in which he and his wife Jenny reflect on the incident and show footage of her misstep and fall.
McBride says the video captures the "scariest moment of my entire life" as his wife fell about 12 feet into "lava rock and scariness."
INSIDER could not independently verify the height of McBride's fall.
The video is preceded by a content warning because McBride said it could be scary for viewers, but he decided to post it on his usually fun channel to inspire viewers to make the most of every day.
"We want Jenny's near-death experience to be motivation for you guys to make every single day the best day ever and make life the best ever because it can just change like that," he said.
McBride's wife echoed his serious worry about the incident, saying she thought she was going to die, though she only ended up with minor scrapes and bruises.
"I literally thought I was going to die," she said. "I'm lucky to be here and not even have a broken bone, just a really, really sore body."
Though she wasn't injured, McBride said the incident was serious enough to make her realize how suddenly "life can change"
"Sure changes your perspective," she said. "Even the littlest things shouldn't bother you because you never know, life can change in a split second."
Despite the McBrides' expression of trauma from the incident, people on Twitter didn't share the same serious tone and instead posted droves of memes.
please. my wife. she fell off a cliff. pic.twitter.com/bAhfIG7q1d
— jonny sun (@jonnysun) May 26, 2019
My Wife Tumbled Off A Knoll
— Dan (@dankgdl) May 25, 2019
please be with me and my family during this trying time. My wife fell off a cliff and then exploded
— davos sealauf (@tweetlauf) May 25, 2019
pic.twitter.com/nTOtXOCWAM
Tale as old as time
— Mmm? (@Merman_Melville) May 25, 2019
Song as old as rhyme
Wife fell off a cliff
Many users took the video as the next development in internet content about wives, referencing Curvy Wife, who's husband gained traction on social media for his posting about his plus-sized wife.
I am my own curvy wife and I’m falling off a cliff
— Brendan O'Connor (@_grendan) May 25, 2019
Welcome to WIFE QUEST
— Ginger (@gingerBFG) May 26, 2019
Choose your class:
CURVY
CLIFF
ELF
BORAT VOICE MY
crying laughing alone in the car at all the different wives of online. just ruining my makeup. curvy wife, elf wife, the wife who was emailed, the wife who fell off a cliff. every day a new wife for us to guffaw about. an endless parade of wives.
— elizabeth 🌱 (@spindlypete) May 25, 2019
McBride did not immediately respond to INSIDER's request for comment.
Read more:
Before we talk about the best armchairs you can buy, let's take a step back and talk about armchairs more broadly. What is an armchair, exactly? After more extensive research than I care to admit, I came to a rousing conclusion: It's a chair with arms. The word "armchair" is an umbrella term for chairs with arms.
A recliner? That's an armchair. An executive desk chair with armrests? That's an armchair. A dining room chair with arms? Armchair.
Being that the armchair is such an amorphous term, really, rather than suggesting a few of the best armchairs you can buy, we'll be looking at a few of the best places to buy armchairs, while also highlighting a few of our favorite pieces.
Knowing where to shop for armchairs means first knowing where the chair you ultimately buy will go. Is it the man cave, the sitting room, the living room, or somewhere else?
Once you know where the chair is going, the next step is to consider the rest of the furniture and decor that's already in place. Seeing as many armchairs are large, attention-commanding objects, you don't want to risk choosing one that will throw off the aesthetic of the space. Also, you don't want to buy an armchair that won't fit in terms of its physical size, either.
Assuming you have considered the space, the style, and the proportions, then it's time to start shopping for a great armchair. Here are five companies where you're sure to find just that.
West Elm has a wide selection of armchairs in a variety of styles, ranging from super modern to classic. The least expensive chairs West Elm sells cost around $150 and the most expensive ones can cost $1,000 or more, but the average chair costs between $500 and $700.
I tried the $599 Crescent Swivel Chair and the $699 Contour Mid-Century Chair from West Elm, and I love them. They represent two very different looks from the company.
The Swivel Chair is very modern, entirely unique, and effortlessly stylish. The fabric is soft to the touch and comes in several fun colors, including a great horseradish yellow. It smoothly swivels and spins around, making it a great chair for a conversational cluster in any living room.
In contrast, the Contour Mid-century Modern Chair is a simple classic chair with a dark, warm wood frame and a sleek silhouette. The fabric of the chair comes in two nice colors: teal and wheat. It looks modern and timeless — My grandmother had a similar chair from Sweden that she brought with her to the US in the '60s.
It's also incredibly comfortable. The little pillow headrest hits in just the right spot for comfort, the sloped seat makes you want to put our feet up, and the armrests are just the right width at the elbows.
Neither of these chairs is terribly expensive nor very cheap. At $599 and $699, they're moderately priced for such fine, well-made furniture. It's important to note that some of the fancier made in USA chairs can cost upwards of $1,000. However, West Elm also regularly has sales and discounts, so you're likely to find a good deal on these chairs and the dozens of others on offer.
Delivery for large furniture costs $139 to $299, depending on where you live in relation to the nearest West Elm store, so it is something to keep in mind. — Malarie Gokey
Pros: Wide selection, mid-century modern style, good materials
Cons: Expensive
Amazon has already made it cheap and easy to shop for microwaves, snowboards, fishing rods, parkas, kayaks, and candy bars, so why wouldn't the retailer have a huge selection of affordable armchairs? When you type "armchair" into the Amazon search bar, you get more than 2,000 results, many of which are quite affordable.
Amazon even has its own in-house brands like Rivet and Stone & Beam, which sell very attractive furniture for good prices. We've tried both in-house brands' furniture and loved it.
As our editor Sally Kaplan writes: "Rivet, with its up-to-date designs based on the popular mid-century modern style, offers more affordable takes inspired by the classic Hans Wegner and George Nelson originals we all wish we could afford. The aesthetic is slightly industrial, featuring bold brass finishes, walnut wood, black steel accents, and lots of cognac leather, plus gentle grays and navy blues. Many of the individual pieces are still warm enough to fit seamlessly into essentially any sort of decorative theme, but the shapes and lines tend to skew more angular and masculine."
"Stone & Beam's style is a bit more upscale, with warmer pieces and lighter finishes. The aesthetic leans toward clean, cozy, and slightly rustic — like a farmhouse that's as comfortable and livable as it is picturesque."
Most pieces range from $200 to $500, which is fairly affordable for decent chairs that will last. However, Amazon does have a ton of even more affordable furniture. When you set your price at $100 and under, you still get more than 200 results.
Now, many of the cheap chairs on Amazon are so in terms of price and quality, so don't just find the least expensive seat you can and pull the trigger. Make sure you cross-reference reviews and take a look at the brand itself. A chair that's shoddily made or looks bad in person isn't worth the savings.
That said, as easy as Amazon makes it to order a chair online, the retailer also makes it easy enough to return a purchase with which you're not satisfied — just keep the original packaging intact until you're sure you bought the right seat.
Shoppers who bought a Baxton Studio Sorrento Mid-Century Modern Chair said it was an "excellent value,""totally gorgeous," and "higher quality than its price point would suggest."
People who bought the Sofamania Modern Velvet Accent Shelter Style Armchair for $99.99 called it "comfy and sturdy,""beautiful," and said it provided a "nice pop of color."
And a buyer of the $90 Roundhill Furniture Tuchico Contemporary Fabric Accent Chair called it "a great looking chair for the price [she] paid."— Steven John, Sally Kaplan, & Malarie Gokey
Pros: Many low priced options, fast delivery, easy returns as needed
Cons: Occasional quality issues with third-party brands
So you have a downtown apartment appointed in 1960s "Mad Men"-esquestyle? No problem, Crate & Barrel has a dozen armchairs that will match. Or what's that, you have a richly furnished Craftsman style home? OK, that's fine, too, the company has multiple options that will work with Mission decor. Or maybe it's a country home where upholstered prints look great? Yep, they've got it.
Crate & Barrel has a broad selection of armchairs. As different as one might be from the next, you can count on all of their chairs to be of high quality. These are lifetime purchases, and with that quality and durability will come a rather hefty price tag. Many chairs cost well in excess of $2,000 and few sell for less than $500, but a great chair anchors the room and, of course, offers a place for comfortable repose, both of which are worth some dollars spent.
A quick perusal of some of the hundreds of reviews left about various Crate & Barrel chairs shows a general consensus: They're excellent. One shopper who bought the timeless Trevor Leather Chair called it "comfortable and stylish" and "so versatile... [it] could go in any style home." Another owner called the Trevor a "great reading chair" with leather that's "soft and buttery."
An owner of two fabric-upholstered Lounge II Chairs called it the "perfect comfy cozy chair." And a Harvey Natural Swivel Armchair customer praised the seat's "aesthetics and function," saying it "is not only pleasing to look at but comfortable."— Steven John
Pros: Great selection, high quality of materials and construction, great customer service
Cons: Quite expensive
If you want a big, overstuffed, super comfortable recliner in which you'll watch the game, read the paper, and often enough doze off, then Macy's has you covered. On the other hand, if you want a recliner that looks like a classical upholstered armchair that doesn't look like it should recline at all, Macy's has you covered there, too. Want an electric recliner with a powered footrest and seatback? There are multiple options. And hey, how about a wooden and leather Mission style armchair recliner? No problem.
Frankly, I was rather surprised by the vast selection of reclining armchairs Macy's offered, but the more I looked through the selection, the more firmly I was convinced that Macy's is a great place to shop for this specific type of furniture.
For people with mobility issues for whom rising out of a chair is a challenge, Macy's has multiple powered lift assist armchair recliners that pitch forward to help lift a person out of the seat or help them ease down into it.
The first armchair recliner that caught my eye as I browsed Macy's also has more than a hundred reviews and ratings online, almost all of which come with five stars. It was the timeless Harrison Leather Pushback Recliner, which one owner called "classy, sturdy, and very comfortable."
In classic recliner style is the Karuse Leather Power Recliner, though with a built-in USB power outlet, it's anything but old fashioned. One owner said using this reclining armchair is "like sitting in a comfortable cloud."
Finally, I was also taken with the Thomas Leather Power Recliner, the ultimate man cave seat thanks to its built-in cup holders, storage compartments under the armrests, and a side table. A shopper named Lala said: "[I]bought two on a whim for Hubby's man cave. He's in Love. This chair has all the bells and whistles and men Love Bells and Whistles. You cannot go wrong with this chair. I highly recommend it."
Just make sure you shop during one of Macy's frequent sales, as its reclining armchairs are by in large quite pricey. Sales and coupons are rather the core of the retailer's business model, so be patient — a deal will come along! — Steven John
Pros: Great selection, many recliners look like ordinary armchairs, excellent customer service
Cons: Expensive when not on sale
Burrow is a startup that sells sofas and chairs that arrive on your doorstep unassembled in a bunch of small boxes. You can choose from a few different designs, all of which have a simple, modern style that can fit in with a lot of decor schemes.
Burrow's fabrics are made from stain-resistant olefin, a synthetic polymer, and its wooden frames come from responsibly managed forests in the US that are certified by the Forest Steward Council.
When you design your chair, you can choose the fabric color, armrest height, and the number of seats (if you end up wanting a couch or loveseat). Burrow has a limited color palette, but the shades are fairly neutral and universal. You can choose between Beige, Brick Red, Crushed Gravel, Navy Blue, and Charcoal.
You will have to build your own chair, as the pieces come unassembled, but it's relatively easy to put the chair together. Two reporters on our team tried Burrow's furniture and were able to build it in 10 to 20 minutes.
Perhaps best of all, shipping is free and quite fast — it only takes 2 to 5 business days. And, if you're not happy with the chair, you have 30 days to return it. — Malarie Gokey
Pros: Good quality, 30-day trial, customization, sustainable, free and fast shipping
Cons: You have to assemble it, not cheap
This is a preview of the Internet of Things (2018) research report from Business Insider Intelligence. To learn more about the IoT ecosystem, tech trends and industry forecasts, click here.
The Internet of Things (IoT) is transforming how companies and consumers go about their days around the world. The technology that underlies this whole segment is evolving quickly, whether it’s the rapid rise of the Amazon Echo and voice assistants upending the consumer space, or growth of AI-powered analytics platforms for the enterprise market.
And Business Insider Intelligence is keeping its finger on the pulse of this ongoing revolution by conducting our second annual Global IoT Executive Survey, which provides us with critical insights on new developments within the IoT and explains how top-level perspectives are changing year-to-year. Our survey includes more than 400 responses from key executives around the world, including C-suite and director-level respondents.
Through this exclusive study and in-depth research into the field, Business Insider Intelligence details the components that make up the IoT ecosystem. We size the IoT market and use exclusive data to identify key trends in device installations and investment. And we profile the enterprise and consumer IoT segments individually, drilling down into the drivers and characteristics that are shaping each market.
Here are some key takeaways from the report:
In full, the report:
