Square, the point-of-sale system owned by Jack Dorsey’s Block, is announcing a number of new upgrades todayincluding one that will make it easier for business owners to accept payments in Bitcoin.
On Wednesday, the company made three announcements:
An expansion of its platform for restaurants (including AI-voice ordering and a bigger, broader Grubhub integration)
A conversational AI assistant embedded in its dashboard to answer questions, called Square AI
Square Bitcoin: An integrated Bitcoin payment and wallet system for business owners
The upgrades and announcements are designed to help business owners control their costs, dig up more insights within their data, and plan ahead with more confidence, Willem Avé, Squares head of product, tells Fast Company.
Were focused on anything we can do to help small businesses compete better, Avé says.
That includes a smattering of new and beefed-up features for restaurant operators, specifically, such as AI voiced ordering, which allows customers to call in and place an order with an AI assistant (while also answering questions about the menu and make customizations).
Meanwhile, a speedier kiosk will help orders get entered faster, and enhanced accounting and sales reportsplus an Order Guidewill help restaurateurs get a clearer picture of their costs and revenue.
Avé says that the voice-ordering feature is particularly interesting, as the technology has only recently become good enough to launch. At the beginning of this past summer, for example, it wouldnt have worked, he says.
We believe that the tech is finally here to build a natural, good, AI-based ordering system,” Avé adds.
‘The tech is there, the demand is there’
Perhaps the most interesting announcement of the day is the launch of Square Bitcoin, which allows businesses to accept Bitcoin payments, automatically store those payments in a designated wallet, convert other revenue to Bitcoin, and do it all with no processing fees through the end of next year.
Square has always been about accepting any type of payment that comes across the counter, Avé says, and so giving businesses the power to integrate with crypto in a relatively simple way was a natural step for the company.
The tech is there, and the demand is there, and from a cost perspective, Bitcoin payments are cheaper for businesses, he says.
While some large merchant chains accept cryptocurrency paymentsa list that includes the Home Depot, Chipotle, and Whole Foodsits been, thus far, a difficult implementation for small companies.
Squares announcement could change that, all while crypto adoption and prices reach a fever pitch. The timing isnt necessarily a coincidence, as Avé says the company has been trying to move quicker as customer needs evolve.
“This release is highlighting that speed is the name of the game, he says, and were moving faster than ever.
The worlds best engineers, entrepreneurs, and researchers face no shortage of opportunities. If youre building the future in frontier technologies like AI, you could base yourself anywhere. So the real question is where. The answer today points northto Stockholm.
The European Commission recently declared Stockholm as Europes most innovative region. Ahead of Copenhagen, London, and Zurich, the Swedish capital took the top spot. Not just overall, but on a range of individual indicators, from lifelong learning and share of tech specialists employed to cross-border scientific publications, collaboration between SMEs, patent filings, and trademarks.
Right after the European Commissions report, the citys own Lovable was declared the fastest-growing software startup in global history. This is another indicator of Stockholm as Europes capital of the futureadmittedly anecdotal, yet hard to ignore.
STOCKHOLMS LIFESTYLE EDGE
Of course, for youa global top talentthere are regions beyond Europe to consider. The U.S. and China still have metro areas that are more innovative, for now. But what Europes innovative center can also offer is another way of life.
Sweden consistently ranks among the worlds most gender-equal societies. The childcare system is outstandingenabling both parents to combine engaged parenthood with career advancement. Society is cultural, creative, democratic, egalitarian, and open. Clean air and water, smooth public transportation, and buildings designed for light and ventilation make daily life in Stockholm unusually comfortable.
Government bureaucracy is light for individuals and companies. Starting a business is easy, energy prices are among Europes lowest, and taxes not as high as Swedens reputation suggests. With no wealth or inheritance tax, low corporate tax rate, and minimal everyday costs for healthcare, childcare, and education, the benefits often exceed the income tax rate headlines.
Add in generous parental leave (exported by Spotify to the U.S.) and EU freedom of movement, and this capital offers a package of benefits rarely matched in other hubs. For many specialists, flatter structures and shorter weeks tip the balance in Stockholms favor.
Fast Company recognized our Stockholm-based real estate firm as one of the Worlds Most Innovative Companies. My job at Atrium Ljungberg can perhaps best be described as playing SimCity but in real life, with the city I love most as the game board.
To be fully transparent, the job comes with a dose of stakeholder management and administration that SimCity leaves outbut still, the analogy is strikingly true.
Stockholm is evolving, and its a thrill to be part of the ride: Atrium Ljungberg is redeveloping Slakthusomrdet, the worlds largest transformation of a meatpacking district, while also building Stockholm Wood City. The renewal of Slussen, a central hub, is nearing completion, as is the expansion of Hagastaden, linking the city with Europes top medical university and hospital. They knit old districts and new innovation hubs into a more connected city.
FROM NOBEL PRIZES TO SPOTIFY: THE CITYS LONG GAME
How did Stockholm become Europes most innovative region? It helps to start at the beginning. Stockholms tradition has long shown progress.
By the 1880s, Stockholm had the most telephones of any city in the world. The Nobel Prize was established in 1901 and soon became the worlds most prestigious award across five scientific disciplines, later joined by a sixth in economics.
A series of world-class companies were created here in the pre-WW2 industrial era, including Ericsson, Atlas Copco, and Electrolux. That period laid the groundwork for Stockholms rise.
The city gained a reputation as a hub of practical innovation and engineering. In 1954, the Royal Institute of Technology hosted Swedens first nuclear reactor, built underground in the middle of the city. By the 1980s, Stockholms universities were among Europes first online.
The 1997 Home PC reform gave Swedes tax-free access to computers via employers, driving mass adoption and digital skills.
Since the 90s, Stockholm has produced another wave of champions: Spotify, the leading music streaming service globally; EQT, one of the world’s largest private equity firms; and Klarna, a fintech giant. Stockholm now counts more listed firms than any European city, including London and Frankfurt.
Along the way, Stockholm also became a creative capital. The city that once exported timber and steel now exports pop music, design and gamingfrom Avicii to Acne and Minecraft, with billions playing our video games.
In 1968, only a quarter of Swedes had eaten out in the last quarter, and kitchens still shut at 8 p.m. Today, Stockholm is a city full of Michelin stars, neighborhood bistros, late-night bars, and clubs.
THE ECOSYSTEM BUILDING EUROPES NEXT GIANTS
Sweden ranks first in Europe by VC investment per capita and unicorn creation per capita. But capital alone doesnt build companiestalent does. In Stockholm today, workplaces are increasingly designed to attract it: more like clubs or labs than offices, they give talent autonomy, wellbeing, and connection.
A diverse set of Stockholm ventures is now breaking ground. Einride, putting autonomous electric trucks on roads across continents, and Candela, whose electric boats ferry Stockholms commuters, drive the future of transportation. Fashion and beauty names Toteme and Estrid stand beside music investor Pophouse, steward of catalogues from Avicii to KISS and Cyndi Lauper. Investors Creandum, EQT Ventures, Northzone, and Norrsken have underpinned the citys ascent as one of Europes leading venture hubs.
Scaling companies consume vast amounts of energy. To support the soaring demand, national energy company Vattenfall and the government just announced that Sweden will build a series of small modular reactors (SMRs). The initiative is notable globally: While most countries are still piloting single SMR projects, Sweden is planning a program at scale, aimed directly at powering fast-growing industries.
Propelled by clean energy, culture, and investment, few places combine beauty and dynamism like Stockholm: the Nordic Venice with its islands, a cultural city from Gustav IIIs opera house, to Max Martins pop, built on democracy and openness. Yet its real strength lies in its trajectory. For builders, creatives, and intellectuals, Stockholm has become Europes most attractive base to change the world from.
Linus Kjellberg is head of business development at Atrium Ljungberg.
When I worked in tech, I often heard engineering leaders explain why they couldnt hire more women or minorities: the so-called pipeline problem. They claimed there simply werent enough qualified candidates entering the system, so naturally the pool of diverse talent remained thin. Many of us in the ecosystem called BS. The reality wasnt a lack of qualified people; it was a lack of imagination, access, and commitment to creating inclusive environments where diverse talent could thrive.
Fast forward to my work today in womens sports. I find myself thinking about that same phrasethis time with a twist. In sports, a pipeline problem is very real, and very serious. Girls drop out of sports at far higher rates than boys, often by age 14. Not because they lack talent or ambition, but because hidden, solvable barriers stand in their way. Research points to a variety of reasons: lack of access to facilities, fewer female coaches, cultural pressures, and economic hurdles. But there are also subtler obstaclesmenstrual stigma, inadequate athletic gear, transportation gaps, or not feeling seen and supported in spaces where theyre underrepresented. These arent headline-grabbing issues, but they can determine whether a girl keeps playing or quietly walks away.
This isnt just about missed opportunities on the field. Sports participation is directly tied to confidence, leadership skills, academic performance, and future career success. When we lose girls from the pipeline, we lose future team captains, CEOs, scientists, and community leaders.
THE HIDDEN BARRIERS
With gender equity in sports, the conversation often centers on the field of playmedia coverage, equal pay, prize money, sponsorship. These are important, visible markers of progress. Yet, what often goes unnoticed are the less visible, deeply practical barriers that prevent girls from staying in the game in the first place.
This years Gainbridge Assists Powered by Parity grants, in partnership with the Womens Sports Foundation, expanded to empower changemakers addressing these obstacles. Thirty-two recipients across 20 states will receive $222,000 (total), funding projects ensuring girls can fully participate in sportand benefit from the resulting lifelong confidence, leadership, and health outcomes.
In addition to funding camps, clinics, and playing opportunities in sports from basketball and soccer to fencing, lacrosse, and wrestling, this years grantees are tackling some of the obstacles head on. These efforts recognize that access alone isnt enough if hidden barriers continue holding girls back:
Menstrual health. For many student-athletes, lack of menstrual products access is a silent barrier sidelining them from school and sport. In 2025, no girl should have to sit out practice because she cant afford pads or tampons, or because shes embarrassed to ask for them. Period Project Indianapolis is breaking that silence, distributing free menstrual products and normalizing reproductive health conversations in locker rooms and communities.
Proper gear. For adolescent girls, a well-fitting sports bra can determine whether they stay engaged in sport. Athletes for Hope, partnering with Bras for Girls, provides gear and the education girls need while navigating puberty. Without this kind of intervention, physical discomfort and body image anxieties drive too many girls to drop out during adolescence.
Mental health support. Sports can be a powerful tool for wellbeing, but only when participation feels safe and inclusive. The pressures young athletes facebalancing academics and expectationscan weigh heavily. When stress or anxiety go unaddressed, sports can feel like another impossible demand. The initiative supports programs integrating mental health resources into athletics. The Skills Center in Tampa will use its funding to host a girls sports and empowerment festival, combining physical activity with mental health workshops for Black and Latina youth. Meanwhile, ZGiRLS will deliver sport psychology programming to help girls manage stress, anxiety, and family pressures during the holiday season.
Transportation. For many girls, the challenge isnt desire but logistics. Getting to practice is a barrier. Families without reliable transportation or parents working multiple jobs cant always shuttle daughters across town. Its a small obstacle with outsized consequencesoften ending in quiet resignation. Fisk University, home to the first HBCU womens gymnastics team, is working to overcome this hurdle.
Each factor might sound small in isolation, but together, they form a web of barriers pushing girls out of sports before they can realize their potential.
INNOVATION BEYOND THE GAME
In business, we talk endlessly about innovation. We laud breakthrough technologies and new markets. But what if innovation also meant tackling the overlooked barriers that keep people from participating in the first place?
Thats what these grantees are doing: rethinking how to support the game and the players. True innovation in womens sports identifies overlooked pain points and designs solutions rooted in empathy and equity. Theyre innovating at the most fundamental level.
The demand is massive. Gainbridge Assists Powered by Parity received over 380 applications this yearmore than double last years total. Each $5,000 grant seems modest, but the ripple effects are significant. In 1974, Billie Jean King founded the Womens Sports Foundation with the $5,000 check she received for being named the Outstanding Female Athlete of the Year by the Bob Hope Cavalcade of Sports. In 2024, the program helped more than 5,000 girls pursue their athletic and academic goals. With this years expanded funding, the reach will only grow.
THE PATH FORWARD
Just as the tech industry confronted its excuses about the so-called pipeline problem, we must confront ours in sports. We can no longer shrug and accept that girls just drop out. Not when we know the reasons, and not when the solutions are within reach.
Equity in womens sports must be defined broadly. Its not just about broadcasting more games or negotiating better contractsthough those remain crucial. Its also about removing the silent, practical, and cultural barriers that quietly push girls out long before they reach elite levels.
King famously said, You have to see it to be it. But before girls can see themselves as champions, they must be given the chance to stay on the field, the court, the track, or the ice. That requires meeting them where they are, addressing their most pressing needs, and ensuring they know they belong.
Leela Srinivasan is CEO of Parity.
In todays dynamic labor market, industries from manufacturing to healthcare continue to grapple with persistent workforce shortages. To fill these gaps, organizations are looking beyond traditional talent pools. One of the most promising yet significantly underutilized groups is second-chance talent, or graduates of prison education programs. These individuals represent millions of highly motivated and skilled professionals seeking stability after incarceration.
Too often, outdated hiring methods and social stigmas have blocked justice-impacted individuals from employment opportunities that could change their lives. However, by shifting perspectives and implementing strategic programs, forward-thinking companies can access a dependable source of skilled workers while creating a positive social impact.
THE SCALE OF UNTAPPED POTENTIAL
The United States criminal justice system affects a much larger portion of the population than most realize. About 600,000 Americans are released from state and local prisons each year. This means nearly one in three or 70 million adults have a criminal record. Many of these individuals face obstacles when reentering society. In a recent episode of Geographic Solutions podcast, The VOScast, Jeffrey Abramowitz, CEO of the Petey Greene Program, stated, It is estimated that there are more than 44,000 barriers to employment for the formerly incarcerated, with 70% related to employment.
Securing stable employment after prison is often the biggest challenge for justice-involved individuals. This is due to several factors, including a lack of education, nonexistent or inadequate job skills, and the stigma of having a criminal record, which often leads to higher rates of recidivism. According to the Safer Foundation, about 75% of justice-impacted individuals stay unemployed one year after their release. These barriers not only limit an individual’s potential but also represent a missed opportunity for employers facing labor shortages.
I think we’re missing an amazing opportunity right now in the country, and that opportunity is to recognize fair chance hiring or getting people who have been challenged in the Justice space back to work, said Abramowitz in the podcast. I also believe we’re missing an opportunity and not recognizing the reality that education plays a vital role in the United States.
BRIDGE SKILLS GAPS WITH TARGETED TRAINING PROGRAMS
The path to integrating individuals with a criminal record into the workforce begins with education and training. Reentry programs play a crucial role in helping justice-impacted individuals successfully reintegrate into society. They offer a variety of services tailored to meet the needs of those returning to the community.
These programs provide job training, educational opportunities, housing support, counseling, and soft and hard skills development. A study by the RAND Corporation found that reentry education programs may boost employment prospects post-release, with participants having a 13% higher chance of getting a job than non-participants.
Many of these individuals might struggle with reading, writing, and basic math, all of which are essential components for not only getting hired but also being able to advance their career, said Abramowitz in the podcast. When we talk about getting people back into employment and finding good opportunities for them, we also need to think about the integration of education and how we can set people up to succeed.
Many nonprofit organizations are creating tailored training programs to equip people with skills, knowledge, and opportunities that directly align with market needs. Organizations like the California Prison Industry Authority (CALPIA) have led innovative reentry initiatives, preparing justice-impacted individuals for productive lives outside of prison and reducing their chances of reoffending. A recent study from the University of California, Irvine found that individuals who have participated in CALPIAs programs while incarcerated have lower rates of recidivism compared to those who did not participate.
Similarly, the North Carolina Department of Adult Correction is partnering with the Division of Workforce Solutions at the Department of Commerce for the North Carolina Pathway to Reentry. Using funds from the Pathway Home grant, the project provides pre- and post-release activities, including workshops, counseling, and training to help people transition out of incarceration and reenter their communities. It focuses on goal setting, action plans, education, and skill development for specific jobs.
Creating easily accessible pathways for skill development and job training unlocks new opportunities that not only benefit those with a criminal background but also businesses that are looking to address labor shortages.
BUILD BRIDGES WITH EMPLOYERS
With many industries facing skill and labor shortages, companies are recognizing the value of this untapped workforce. According to the Society for Human Resource Management, two in three HR professionals reported that their organization has hired individuals with criminal backgrounds. Moreover, 85% of HR leaders believe second-chance hires perform as well as or better than other employees.
Despite this, some employers may hesitate to consider second-chance hiring due to concerns about liability, employee morale, perceived unreliability, and social stigmas. A recent survey from the Second Chance Business Coalition shows that almost 90% of employers mandate background checks for applicants, and having a criminal record decreases the likelihood of progressing to a second interview by half.
To successfully hire from this talent pool, employers must move beyond these stigmas and understand that second-chance hiring is more than a charitable act. By re-evaluating long-held hiring biases and actively engaging with this talent pool, organizations can transform a societal challenge into a strategic business advantage that benefits everyone.
Companies such as JPMorganChase and Dave’s Killer Bread are notable examples of organizations that have effectively implemented a second-chance employment model. JPMorganChase reports that almost 10% of their hires over the past five years have had a criminal record, and a third of Daves Killer Bread staff, including cofounder Dave Dahl, have felony convictions.
LOOKING AHEAD
The way forward to addressing labor shortages involves a shift in how businesses perceive and engage with talent acquisition. It requires a proactive approach to recognize justice-impacted individuals as highly motivated and skilled professionals capable of contributing to the workforce.
By adopting inclusive hiring practices, companies can effectively fill labor gaps while also fostering a more diverse workplace. This strategy not only promotes economic growth by expanding the talent pool but also benefits local communities by offering opportunities for individuals to successfully reintegrate into society and attain long-term stability.
Paul Toomey is the founder and president of Geographic Solutions.
On a recent Saturday, several hundred people flocked to Los Angeles International Airport and spent most of the day looking at airplanes — all because they follow the same airline-industry blog. That sentence may require some explanation even if youve read a post or two on Cranky Flier, the commercial-aviation chronicle written by industry veteran Brett Snyder.
The avgeek gathering Snyder calls Cranky Dorkfest began in 2011. Snyder, based nearby in Long Beach, decided to see if any of his readers — many of whom regularly show up in comments on his blog under aviation-related pseudonyms — wanted to meet up. So Snyder suggested a triangular park between LAXs Runway 24R and an In-N-Out Burger that offers some of Americas finest planespotting.
The original plan was really just me putting out a blog post saying that I was going to go to the park across from In-N-Out and hoped some people would join me for burgers, spotting, and conversation, Synder says in an email. A handful did. And then it just kept growing from there.
The idea took off because the notion of people meeting online over a shared fascination and then connecting IRL shouldn’t be that strange. Especially if their meeting point happens to revolve around their common interest.
Soon, airlines, flight-tracking apps and services, and Los Angeles World Airports (LAWA) started taking notice and finding ways to participate, perhaps because of or despite its self-mocking moniker of Dorkfest. (I got some raised eyebrows explaining the event to friends.)
“You have to own it, says Snyder, whose job title at his travel agency, Cranky Concierge, is president and chief airline dork.
Plane selfies
The 2025 edition of Dorkfest began early Sept. 13 at a ramp on the south side of the airport hosted by LAWA. The authority required attendees to register in advance; a week later, signups maxed out at 500.
Attendees had the treat of two parked airliners to be explored at length: American Airlines sent a Boeing 737-800 in its throwback Astrojet livery and Delta Air Lines loaned an Airbus A350-900. With almost everybody wanting a flight-deck selfie, boarding took awhile.
LAWA catered breakfast from the local favorite Randys Donuts and brought a DJ, who spun location- and subject-relevant tracks like A Tribe Called Quests I Left My Wallet In El Segundo and the Red Hot Chili Peppers Aeroplane.
A large fraction of the attendees ignored all of that to stand next to a fence separating the area from an active taxiway so they could take in the view of arrivals and departures on LAXs two southern runways — plus a Boeing 747-8 freighter operated by Cathay Pacific Cargo taxiing nearby.
I hope people have travel plans soon
A few hours later, it was time to head over to the In-N-Out thats become my favorite fast-food joint in the world. People opened ride-hailing apps for the short ride and waited for their Ubers and Lyfts to roll up, which is when I ran into a friend from grade and high school, an aviation lawyer I hadnt seen since March of 2020.
The lunchtime scene at this In-N-Out is always great, since that block overlaps with the start of a wave of arrivals of widebody jets from overseas. Even with a few hundred extra people added to the noon crowd, the place remained as marvelously efficient as Ive seen it in past visits to L.A.
As attendees cycled their gaze from flight-tracking apps to each Boeing 777 or Airbus A350 arriving from places like Shanghai, Paris, Rome or Singapore, Snyder conducted a raffle drawing, with prizes contributed by a flock of companies.
Struggling to be heard over the roar of jet engines even with the help of a megaphone, Snyder cracked jokes as he called out winners of such goodies as a subscription to the aviation-industry publication The Air Current, free tickets or frequent-flyer miles from various airlines (I hope people have travel plans soon, he said while awarding 20,000 points from bankrupt Spirit Airlines), models of planes, and bundles of airline swag.
One airline had a formal presence: Recently merged Alaska and Hawaiian Airlines sent reps to hand out their inflight snacks of pretzel mix, Biscoff cookies, and POG (passionfruit orange guava) juice to any attendees not already stuffed from animal style Double-Doubles.
Other years have seen more in-person airline participation. Snyder recalls 2019s Dorkfest, when United Airlines CEO Oscar Munoz showed up and handed out burgers.The day wrapped up with an event hosted by NYCAviatio at a food hall called the Proud Bird, situated across Aviation Boulevard from LAXs other pair of runways. The plane that drew the most cheers out of the audience was not any passenger airliner but a more esoteric airframe: a McDonnell-Douglas MD-11 freighter operated by FedEx, the final version in a series of triple-engine widebodies dating to the DC-10.
That New York aviation-enthusiast group had started its own annual SpotLAX meetup a few years after Dorkfest began, then opted to align that gathering with Snyders.
We realized we should keep doing that, Snyder says. It really increased the opportunities for people to participate and helped justify travel from further away to come join.
The two farthest origin points for 2025s Dorkfest, per a map at the Great Circle Mapper site generated from attendee input: Shizuoka, Japan and Haikou, China.
Most real-world meetups of online communities dont draw people from that far awaywith the exception of such high-profile gatherings as the NASA Socials that the space agency hosts for launches. On one I joined for the penultimate space shuttle launch in 2011, I was struck by how readily strangers agreed to coordinate on shared housing nd rental-car transportation. Often, these gatherings are much smaller-scale, like Wikipedia-editor meetups, the weekly happy hours coordinated by some local Reddit forums (see, for example, those at r/washingtondc) or just two members of the FlyerTalk frequent-travel forum recognizing each others yellow FT luggage tags in an airport lounge.
It may be weird showing up to these events. But embrace the weirdness and the chance to get to know strangers who maybe arent so distant from you.
As Snyder says: The best moments are meeting people who I’ve never seen other than in discussion online.
A new study out Wednesday in the journal Nature from the University of California, Berkeley found that women are systematically presented as younger than men online and by artificial intelligencebased on an analysis of 1.4 million online images and videos, plus nine large language models trained on billions of words.
Researchers looked at content from Google, Wikipedia, IMDb, Flickr, and YouTube, and major large language models including GPT2, and found women consistently appeared younger than men across 3,495 occupational and social categories. (Note: It’s possible that filters on videos and women’s makeup may be adding to this age-related gender bias in visual content.)
Study data showed not only are women asystematically portrayed as younger than men across online platforms, but this distortion is strongest for content depicting occupations with higher status and earnings. It also found that Googling images of occupations amplified age-related gender bias in participants beliefs and hiring preferences.
“This kind of age-related gender bias has been seen in other studies of specific industries, and anecdotally . . . but no one has previously been able to examine this at such scale,” said Solne Delecourt, assistant professor at the Berkeley Haas School of Business, who co-authored the study along with Douglas Guilbeault from Stanford’s business school and Bhargav Srinivasa Desikan from Oxford’s Autonomy Institute.
“Even though the internet is wrong, when it tells us this fact about the world, we start believing it to be true,” Guilbeault said. “It brings us deeper into bias and error.”
Looking specifically at ChatGPT, researchers found when the AI chatbot generated and analyzed some 40,000 resumes, it assumed women were younger by 1.6 years and had less work experience, while rating older male applicants as more qualifiedeven though the data shows no systematic age differences between men and women in the workforce.
But perhaps the greatest takeaway from the study is that this biased view online reinforces inaccuracies about, and stereotypes of women, which can end up creating a distorted feedback loop between online perceptions and AI, that moves from the internet into the real worldwhich can then result in widening the gap between men and women in the job market.
Too late. Too expensive. Too bland. Too antiquated. Too much of the same. There are just too many toos when it comes to Teslas new “cheap” cars, which the company announced on Oct. 7. Its highly anticipated “affordable models” are just stripped-down Model 3 and Model Y variants that come in at a more expensive price point than the current 2025 models.
Some marketing genius labeled them as Standard, but judging the cars against cheaper, better models from automakers around the world, Tesla’s newest offerings can’t even claim that benign adjective. The truth is, these cars are terrible news for the company.
With its reputation in tatters thanks to Musks brand suicide-by-Trump and years of quality complaints, technology stagnation, and tired design, Tesla really needed a big bang to counteract its quickly shrinking market share. Judging by the reaction online, that big bang looks more like a Starship exploding on the launch pad.
The consensus is that these new models are just manufacturing cost-cutting without the price tag cuts. Unsurprisingly, Tesla stock fell 4% yesterday after the announcement. It will rebound, Im sure, but my prediction is that it will crash way harder when new sales data comes in the next two quarters after people realize how much of a dud these models are.
[Photo: Tesla]
Cant compete
The Hyperloop-sized fact of the matter is that there is just no way these new cars are going to beat the competition. Lets put aside their lackluster trimmings and repetitive design to focus on price for now. The new cars aren’t affordable at all: The Model Y Standard starts at $39,990 and the Model 3 Standard at $36,990. These prices cant compete in the market today.
Chinese brands like BYD and NIO destroy them at every single metric. They already offer a better price for a superior technology than Teslas expensive models, which is why the companys market share is in free fall everywhere Chinese EVs are on the road. Many Chinese models have longer-lasting and more durable batteries, better trimmings, better finishes, and even free autonomous driving for life for many models at genuinely affordable prices.
[Photo: BYD]
Worldwide EV market king BYD sells vehicles starting below $30,000 globally, with models like the Dolphin priced at around $26,700 and the Seagull compact selling for under $10,000 in China. The company has outsold Tesla globally for the last four quarters, selling about 1.6 million all-electric vehicles through Q3 2025nearly 400,000 more than Teslas 1.22 million units in the same period.
But you dont even need to go compact to see the price difference: NIO’s new Onvo L60 SUV starts at $30,439 while offering more interior space and equivalent range. How can Tesla every hope to beat them?
Even American competitors offer better options. The Chevrolet Equinox EV starts at $34,995 with 319 miles of range, undercutting Tesla’s Model Y by $5,000 while offering traditional amenities Tesla removed. You know, like FM radio and powered mirrors. Tesla’s new models dont have FM radio and the new Standard Model 3 is now the only car sold in America with manual side mirrors, as the car publication The Drive points out.
[Photo: Chevrolet]
Japan has cheaper and better EVs, too, like the Toyota bZ4X SUV, which starts at $38,520. The Europeans, too, if you want really inexpensive. The Dacia Spring starts at about $19,500. The Citrën ë-C3 begins at about $23,000. I can go on and on, but you get the idea.
Worse yet: The new Teslas cant even compete with its existing models. Thanks to Musk’s Trump supportwhich brought the elimination of federal tax creditsthe Standard models are more expensive than Tesla’s cars cost just days earlier, as EV car blog Electrek points out. The Model Y costs $37,490 after credits, about $2,000 less than the Standard version. Tesla somehow managed to launch cheaper cars that are more expensive. Well done, Elon. Heres your $1 trillion cookie.
[Photo: Tesla]
Dollar General cars without the price cuts
Thats the other thing with the new models. The company has systematically removed features across every category in these vehicles. The Model Y, for example, has dropped its range by 36 miles to 321 miles. Some of them as basic as FM radio and powered mirrors, no heated second-row seats, and no adaptive high beams. Cars.com counts a total of 15 missing features.
Gone are the LED light bars that were Teslas signature, according to The Autopian. The Model Y now looks like a generic crossover with simple headlamps. Inside, Tesla swapped premium vegan leather for cheap textile inserts, removed the rear touchscreen that passengers actually used and kids loved, and even eliminated ambient lighting throughout the cabin. The audio system drops from 15 speakers with a subwoofer to just seven speakers. The rear seats fold manually instead of electronically. The front trunk shrinks by a cubic foot and loses its waterproof lining.
The engineering cutbacks are even more worrying. Tesla downgraded the suspension from its frequency-selective dampers back to basic passive shocks. Why? No idea. But it’s particularly shocking because the suspension has been a big point of disgust for many users and car testers, like MotorTrend, who hated it.
Gone is the lane-centering autosteer too, a major safety feature in a car brand known for being one of the most dangerous cars on the road. The number of cameras have been reduced, too. And, of course, no autonomous driving (which may be a blessing in disguise, given the deficient state of the technology, still far away from Musks self-driving sci-fi promises).
[Photo: Tesla]
As one industry expert observed: “It’s challenging to justify such a lengthy list of missing features when the price difference is merely $5,000 from the next trim up. As a Redditor pointed out in one of the many threads slamming the new models, it feels like Tesla dont actually want to sell these carsperhaps it’s a move to get consumers to upgrade to the next, more expensive model.
If thats the case, its a strange way to get back into the leadership position. One that doesnt seem to justify Musks astronomical pay package. Perhaps these new models are an admission that he has given up completely on cars and he thinks that robots and autonomous cabs will save his company from oblivion.
But that bet is now more dangerous than ever. Maybe that would be a possibility if Tesla had all this technology working and deployed, but his promise about Tesla Robotaxis being everywhere in 2026 still feels completely unfeasible, no matter what some analysts are smoking. Its still testing the cars in Austin and the Bay Area, while competitors Waymo and Apollo are establishing full services in cities worldwide.
And his promise about Optimus also shipping by the gazillion next year, well, LOL is all I can say. The latest demo in September was toe-curling embarrassing.
But I digress. We were talking about cars. We’re talking about new Teslas that are not affordable, but are cheap. But hey, at least have arrived, even if it is years too late. And even if their arrival is nothing more than a reminder that Tesla is once again ceding its reputation as an innovator.
If youre a frequent flier, chances are youve been seized by the fear that your carry-on bag is too big for the overhead compartments.
Now, for American Airlines passengers, its even more important to make sure that your bag is within the size limit before boarding. This week, the airline announced that its getting rid of its bag-sizers at gates.
American Airlines told the news station KTLA that it started removing the metal sizers, which typically allow customers and gate agents to decide if luggage will fit in the airplanes overhead bins, on October 6.
According to the airline, the move is intended to simplify the boarding processbypassing the bottleneck that sometimes forms when multiple passengers need to check the size of their bags.
How will bags be checked for size?
Starting this week, gate agents will be responsible for visually assessing whether carry-ons are the appropriate size.
According to American Airlines website, customers are allowed one personal item, which should be 18-by-14-by-8 inches or smaller, as well as one carry-on, which cannot exceed 22-by-14-by-9 inches. The airline noted to KTLA that bag-sizers are still available in airport lobbies for passengers who would like to use them.
Team members will continue to monitor carry-on baggage in the lobby and at the gate, and oversized items will still be required to be checked in ahead of the flight, the airline said.
This procedural change is only the latest update in American Airlines recent effort to get passengers boarded faster.
In late 2024, the company began cracking down on gate licepassengers who swarm the gate before it’s their time to boardby implementing a new boarding pass technology that makes an audible beep if fliers try to board in the wrong group, sending them back to the end of the line.
Other airlines are increasingly focused on streamlining their boarding processes, too.
Over the past several years, the air travel industry has become reliant on charging customers for an ever-expanding list of ancillary fees to boost profits, forcing the U.S.s biggest companies to compete on offering the most desirable perks. For Southwest Airlines, thats meant scrapping its iconic open boarding system in order to implement an eight-group boarding process with premium seating options.
American Airlines did not immediately respond to Fast Companys request for additional details on its new bag-sizer policy.
As any Studio Ghibli fan will testify, an afternoon spent binging Hayao Miyazaki classics is guaranteed to leave a warm, fuzzy feeling inside. Now, this feeling is backed by science. A study published by JMIR Serious Games, a peer reviewed journal focused on how gaming is connected to education, health, and social change, looked into how the brain responds to both watching films produced by the Japanese animation studio and playing the open-world game The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.
The researchers gathered 518 postgraduate students and divided them into four groups. Some played Breath of the Wild and some watched Studio Ghibli films like My Neighbor Totoro and Kikis Delivery Service, while others did both and a control group did neither. Researchers then measured feelings of exploration, calm, skill mastery, purpose, and life happiness via a brief questionnaire.
The results matched what fans have intrinsically known for years.
Those who played Breath of the Wild reported higher levels of life happiness than those who didnt. Peacefully roaming the world of Hyrule, perhaps stopping by a pond or cooking a meal under the stars, creates a relaxing form of escapism for players away from lifes daily stresses, permitting a chance to recharge mentally.
For an added boost of happiness, however, the researchers found both playing the game and watching the Studio Ghibli films produced the best results.
This comes down to the Studio Ghibli films unique ability to induce nostalgia. Films such as My Neighbor Totoro and Kikis Delivery Service often focus on the small, everyday wonders of life, such as playing in the countryside or sharing mealtime with family, the research noted.
By shining a spotlight on ordinary moments and turning them into something magical, Miyazakis works tap into a universal longing for the innocence and wonder of childhood. This kind of warmth can evoke nostalgia for times when people felt safe and cared for.”
Previous research backs up the positive mental health effects of these leisure time activities. Studies have shown that casual gaming can be an effective way to unwind and relax, while open-world games in particular, have been shown to significantly enhance cognitive escapism, promote relaxation, and improve overall mental well-being.
Now your weekend plans are sorted. You’re welcome.
When treating a head injury, one of the questions doctors ask their patients is whether they know who is currently the president. Its part of a standard neurological exam for assessing alertness and cognitive function after a jolt to the brain.
In the absence of any preceding head trauma, though, it does not seem to bode well when hundreds of perplexed X denizens ask an elected official a similar questionespecially when such inquisitory swarms have become a well-established pattern online in 2025.
On Monday, U.S. Senator Jim Banks sent a fiery letter to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, urging him to investigate errors from the 2020 census. Banks shared the letter with his 174k followers on X, in a post excoriating the Biden administration for its approach to the census, which supposedly included illegal immigrants and handed Democrats extra seats.
Theres just one tiny problem with this statement, which I wont insult readers cognitive function by spelling out here. Thousands of X users made sure Banks was aware of it, however, by asking him who was president in 2020. One of those asking even made Xs AI chatbot Grok explain the answer in a caveman voice.
Genuinely wild how so many people fail the Who was President in 2020 test https://t.co/CGGwQPBsDd— Armand Domalewski (@ArmandDoma) October 6, 2025
"Who was president in 2020?" remains one of the great disputed questions of American politics. https://t.co/xeytBAMi84— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) October 7, 2025
Banks attempted to save face later on by clarifying that President Biden had prepared the 2020 Census Report in 2021, implying hed manipulated the good, clean census data Trump had gathered as president. (As evidence, he retweeted a post from the president of something called Election Watch, Inc., who has apparently blown the doors off this incredible conspiracy.)
Still, even assuming Banks excuse absolves him, what explains all the other pundits, politicians and officials within the Trump administration who seem confused about the year 2020? So many of them have made this same mistake that asking the obvious follow-up question is now a meme.
According to current Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, for instance, it was the Democratic Party who blew out the deficit in 2020, leading Bluesky users to seek a minor clarification.
Bessent: "This Democratic Party blew out the deficit in 2020." (Trump was president in 2020.)— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2025-07-06T13:26:22.164Z
Who is to blame for the more destructive excesses of 2020, in the immediate wake of George Floyds murder at the hands of police? As Congressman Mike Collins tells it, the Biden administration was obviously at fault.
Once again: "Who was president in 2020?" Is a question so many politicians, pundits and even mainstream media have a hard time answering correctly.— Chris Hayes (@chrislhayes.bsky.social) 2025-07-15T02:56:08.769Z
Even President Trump himself couldnt seem to remember under whose leadership the recently resolved antitrust lawsuit against Google originated. (The Department of Justice filed its case in October 2020.) Of course, this lapse wasnt out of character for Trump, who suggested last year that the White House pressured Facebook to suppress the Hunter Biden laptop storya story that broke while Trump himself occupied the White House.
Some pundits have attempted to inject ambiguity into the prosecution of Jeffrey Epstein and his accomplices as that story gained fresh traction this year. Newsmax talking head Greg Kelly, for instance, implied back in August that the Biden DOJ had prosecuted Ghislaine Maxwell, despite the fact that she was both charged and arrested in 2020. When Bill OReilly falsely claimed on NewsNation in July that Epstein had been convicted during the Biden administration, however, host Leland Vittert sheepishly corrected him in real time.
WhoopsDon't ya just love live TV?— (@jacksimon.bsky.social) 2025-07-16T14:41:12.819Z
Mostly, though, much of the foggy memory that leads to so much questioning online over who was president in 2020 seems centered around COVID.
Rep. Buddy Carter claimed on CNN in August that the COVID vaccine eroded trust in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), leading host Kate Bedingfield to ask The Question on air. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy deflected blame for recent airline problems by suggesting, on live TV, that someone dropped the ball by not addressing those problems during the COVID lockdown. And just last month, Human Health Services Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. attempted to score points against Democratic Senators by claiming that the U.S. did worse in COVID than any country in the world, apparently forgetting who was at the helm of our COVID response.
Who was president in 2020?— Eric Swalwell (@ericswalwell.bsky.social) 2025-09-08T19:59:35.292Z
It has become unavoidably clear that the events of 2020 caused a seismic trauma for Americans, and that its aftershocks will be felt for decades. The chaos of a (hopefully!) once-in-a-lifetime pandemic, combined with a social movement that briefly made folks question the role of police and whether racism is embedded in the very fabric of U.S. society, appear to have severely rattled the countrys collective brains. As with any head injury, some confusion is inevitable.
Whether it is in fact confusion, or rather a product of deliberate misremembering, this pattern of forgetting who was in charge of the country during some of its darker hours encapsulates the state of vibes-based unreality that many currently choose to live in.
The hypothetical America where everything that went wrong in 2020 can be blamed on the Biden administration is the same one in which major U.S. cities can be considered war-ravaged simply because the President seems to think so.
Its the same reality in which the Trump White House can claim to have officially crushed Bidens inflation crisis, while grocery prices are demonstrably rising.
And its the same reality in which an administration stocked with inexperienced podcasters and Fox News b-squad counts as merit-based hiring in the wake of DEIs forcible expunging.
At least all of this is being captured for the record. If the people running this country dont seem to know who was president in 2020 today, imagine what they wont know about today tomorrow.
