Up until a week ago, I was really quite satisfied by my iPhone 17 Pro. Not the Liquid Glass, but its soft orange aluminum frame felt just new enough to give me a spark.
Then I opened the Google Pixel 10 Pro Fold. Yes, its name is too long. Yes, it costs $700 more than my iPhone. Yes, it’s still heavier than I want it to be. And yet, I hate to admit it . . . the Fold justifies every analyst who has cried that Apples hesitance to adopt flexible screen technologies is starting to make it look dated.
An estimated 17 million folding smartphones sold last year, representing a scant 1.5% of the smartphone market, but about every analyst expects that figure to balloon in the next few years. I believe that trajectory could prove out, but I still see the market going either wayit will come down to if the technology can keep iterating toward a sweet spot that turns the tech into delectable design.
[Photo: Google]
Folding phones began as a gimmick deployed by a smartphone industry thats satisfied their customers too well. Theres simply not much reason to upgrade your phone, ever, unless youve broken it. But that doesnt mean theyll always be silly.
After all, weve rolled up scrolls and folded maps and letters for centuries. Its just a natural way to convert a large 2D object into a more portable one. But theyve definitely felt a bit futile, given that their thickness and weight offset any value of space savings. (Do you really want to unfold a brick into a thinner brick?)
In the meantime, heres a no-nonsense take on what its really like to use the current state of the art in folding phoneswith thoughts from Googles own development team on how it’s approaching the challenge, and possibilities, ahead.
[Photo: Google]
The challenge of building a folding phone without making a two-phone sandwich
Herein lies the challenge the industry has been learning the hard way: Screens aren’t paper. They aren’t built to fold. And it’s required incredible ingenuity to change that.
Ive been trying foldable phones since Motorola rerelased the Razr in 2019, kicking off the era of folding smartphones with a rebooted retro play. At the time, Motorola brought me into its labs to demonstrate how it had achieved the impossible. It wasn’t just another slab of electronics, but a complex mechanical device that shifted plates around to allow a ribbon of OLED screen to fold open and closed without breaking.
Motorola, alongside Samsung and Google in particular, have worked hard to expand this market while shrinking their own bulk. The companies have simplified their screens from ornate mechanical contraptions to a thin sheet of flexible glass that belies the complexity beneath (impact coatings, OLED, and hinge mechanics that prevents the screen from breaking when opened and shut).
They’ve all made incredible progress. The Pixel 10 Fold is 2mm thicker than an iPhone 17 Pro when folded. But actually 0.2mm thinner than an iPhone Air unfolded. What you may notice more is the weight, which is about 2 oz. heavier than a pro smartphone.
[Photo: Google]
You dont really see the fold, and you dont care when you do
The Pixel 10 Pro Fold unfolds to reveal a roughly 6″x6″ screen that opens like a book. So the big question is: When you open the Fold, do you see the fold in the screen? Sometimes yes, sometimes not at all.
Head on at night in a dark room, its completely imperceptible. Bright white webpages are surprisingly adept at burning through any glare that might reveal geometric imperfection. The seam is most prominent if you see someone else using the Fold from the side. Most of the time, its subtle enough to forget about.
Obviously its a goal for Google to get rid of the screen fold. Stuff that we don’t want the user to think about, to ever notice toit needs to disappear, says Claude Zellweger, senior director of design at Google who oversees phone hardware. But he also admits it is a somewhat impossible task for the engineering team.
To get closer to the impossible, Google has rebuilt its hinge to be smaller, eliminating the micro gears to have it run on tiny sliding cams (classic mechanical device that turns rotation into straight movementkind of like a jack in the box). It helps hide the crease, but it also improves the all around proportions of the phone.
Its all in srvice of Googles somewhat ironic, ultimate goal of the product.
We want it to feel like your regular phone, says Zellweger.
The outside screen doesnt make sense to mebut it does to Google
For those moments you dont want to unfold the Fold, theres also a more typical touchscreen on the outside. It’s mean to feel like a regular touchscreen smartphone, but it still doesnt really work that way. Its a bit too thick, a bit too heavy.
Google insists its needed, especially to account for more typical smartphone behavior. In its own research, Google found most people are only spending a bit of time on their phones for most interactions, meaning unfolding it every time seemed like too much effort.
[Photo: Google]
A lot of interactions on your phone are short and fleeting. The text message that youve got to send to your partner quickly, the Spotify song that you need to change, the alarm that you need to set, [these tasks are done] within a minute or two, says George Hwang, product manager at Google leading the Folds engineering. “And if you look at that data, those are probably like, frequency wise, about 60 to 70% of everything you do. So it’s really, really high.
I get his point. Yet the Fold isnt quite normal, so using it as a typical phone isnt quite normal. The big outer screen actually ruins the occasion of using the product. I like that unfolding the phone feels intentional. Its a certain barrier to checking your screen and getting sucked into apps. That could be a feature not a bug!
[Screenshot: courtesy of the author]
The keyboard needs to be adjustable because foldables should be ergonomic
Tiny qualm, but here it is: The Pixel Fold features a split virtual keyboard for typing. Its quite comfortable and you can type pretty darn fast on the thing. But buttons like enter are still placed way too far into the corners . . . making them a real jam of the thumb to hit.
Look, Google and everyone elsemy thumbs are like Jordans knees. Theyve played a lot of games at this point in their career. For such a large device, users should be able to tweak the ergonomics of the keyboard to their exact preference for optimum comfort, because the screen has room. Seriously, why arent keyboards perfectly configured to our hand sizes in an era when my face and fingerprint unlock the phone?
At the very least, give me a few more options of the default.
Google is getting closer to a proper fidget
Since Motorola debuted the first modern folding phone, these designs have gotten thinner, lighter, and open and close without feeling like youre gonna break em any moment.
But . . . it still feels strange to open a folding phone for the first time. It has a sort of even resistance curve that feels less like snapping open a flip phone or even opening a hard cover book than it does bending a thick coat hanger into a new shape. You actually have to open and close it a bit for the mechanisms to feel properly loosened. Its weird!
Of course this is a small qualm in the face of some really unbelievable engineering work, but the experience of opening and closing most folding phones just doesn’t feel good enough for these products to appear solidified. It doesn’t offer a sense of innate satisfaction or completion to the action. The hardware works, but for some reason it also feels a little dead.
The Fold is getting better in this regard. It offers a light, almost “tap” sound when you open it, and a more satisfying compact-case clap when it closes. It feels good. I still want it to feel fidgety-amazing.
[Gmail left. Google Drive files right. Screenshot: courtesy of the author]
Big apps hit different in a thin frame
I didnt unlock some amazing multitasking experience with the Pixelthough you can technically load two apps and, in some cases, drag and drop files between them.
Gmail feels approachable for sure, but it falls short of its potential. It formats information into either a big email or a few thin columns . . . essentially giving you the experience of holding a few phone side-by-side. It’s a sensible solution, but one that falls short of rethinking information architecture and display entirely to celebrate the possibilities of a larger screen.
[Gmail. Screenshot: courtesy of the author]
But media-forward apps are a real a delight.
[Screenshot: courtesy of the author]
Instagram goes from feeling like youre perusing large postage stamps on your regular phone, to looking at CD jewel cases on a Pixel Fold. The same is true for TikToks and YouTube clips. Yes, this sort of scale can exist on a laptop, or a tablet, of course. But the thin bezel of Googles latest phone makes it feels almost like youre holding this media in your hands.
[Screenshot: courtesy of the author]
It’s a unique sensationGoogle Earth suddenly feels magical again. The act of holding the phone with two hands rather than one creates a preciousness to the experiencelike reading a book, or using your full attention to accept a gift. It demands intention by default. Im reminded how Zellweger was inspired by the sensation of a Moleskin when Google released its first Fold in 2023. When held open, the Fold really does feel like a precious, digital take on a notebook.
[Screenshot: courtesy of the author]
This is so close to feeling great . . . but what else could it be?
There is an ideal folding phone in all of our hearts. The Fold still isnt quite there. Its an engineering marvel with some very thoughtful touches of design, do not get me wrong. Its neat as hell. It still feels a generation or two (or three?) removed from whatever sweet spot of iteration takes an idea from novel to captivating, or even essential.
Even if folding phones are the next big paradigm in smartphones, I’m not sure it means that those smartphones need to be as large as the Pixel Foldand this 6-inch-ish crossover vehicle form the industry has landed on.
But technically speaking, can we make these phones that much smaller or thinner? Because looking at smartphones over the past decade, in many cases, weve actually seen them grow thicker. The iPhone Air, for all of its ingenuity, is still thicker than an iPhone 4. The industry seems cautious to make anyone give up any bit of the growing Swiss army knife of features in a modern phone.
There is still headroom, and we’re excited about future products and things like that. On general, we’re going [pursue thinness] aggressively, but within measure, so that we don’t compromise durability and battery life, says Zellweger.
Hwang adds that its easy to forget all the features we take for granted in modern smartphones, like haptics, speakers, and of course, cameras. All-in-all, these features add up to keep our phones thick. There are subtle trade-offs when you do when you keep on pushing in [thinness] that I think most users wouldn’t know until they actually hold the device and use it side-by-side, says Hwang, referring to these compromises as paper cuts.
I hope to see the entire smartphone industry push the boundaries in other ways. I want small phones like the iPhone Mini back. I want small, folding phones like the Razr back (and indeed, Motorola has been snagging some market share by offering a lower cost, smaller folding smartphone). I want curvy wearables portended by the Nike+ Fuelband back. I want to see what we can do with flexible screens outside of this smartphone-to-small-tablet size everyone seems to be investing their energies in.
I agree with you, says Zellweger when I present him with most of this rant. Fundamentally, I think the extremes [in screen size] are interesting. And I think in a world where we are moving towards more sort of agentic based interactions, our need for for large displays may change.
Realistically, we think it’s going to change in the next five years, adds Hwang. And so we’re really in an interesting time to think through this stuff and be involved in it.
Indeed. Right now, there is a unique opportunity to not just make a bunch of mostly same phones, but to push the extremes of size, shape, ad ergonomics. In a sea of the regular, its so easy to stand out.
Carbon offsets have existed for decades, and the size of the voluntary carbon market has ballooned to about $2 billion. Many countries and countless companies, including giants like Amazon and FedEx, use carbon offsets to reduce their emissions as they work toward reaching net zero.
And yet, these offsets havent significantly curbed global greenhouse gas emissions. In fact, global emissions are still increasing. As a climate solution, carbon offsets have failedand according to a new scientific review looking at 25 years of carbon offset research, theyve failed because theyre riddled with intractable, deep-seated problems that incremental changes wont be able to solve.
Carbon offsets have long been criticized for their issues, including concerns over greenwashing or double-counting. Multiple studies have found that individual offset projects overestimate their climate benefits. Offsets also dont always last; trees used as carbon offsets have burned in wildfires, releasing all the carbon theyve long stored.
Proponents of carbon offsets say such criticisms focus on a few bad apples.
But the problem is, it isnt really a few bad apples. Its pretty much all the apples, says Joseph Romm, a senior research fellow at the Penn Center for Science, Sustainability and the Media, and the lead author on the review of offset research.
25 years of evidenceand issues
Romm and his fellow researchers looked at carbon offset studies spanning more than two decades, and used more than 200 references, including documents from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
Carbon offsets are essentially a way for rich polluterseither countries or companiesto finance projects that reduce emissions somewhere else. Then, they claim that projects emissions reduction for themselves, while continuing to pollute the atmosphere.
Offsets need to be verified, and also additionala term meaning that the project wouldnt have happened anyway (it only exists, and benefits the climate, because of the offset program). But the idea of additionality is flawed, Romm says.
Take renewable energy projects, which have long been the base of carbon offset projects, and are still the most common offsets today. We pay someone to do a renewable energy project, and then we say that that has reduced emissions. [But] the thing is, renewables are now the cheapest [energy to build], Romm says. As the cheapest option, renewable projects likely would be built anyway, so the offset project didnt really change anything.
Since the carbon market is voluntary, theres no regulations or oversight. That creates a race to the bottom, Romm says, where buyers pay low prices for offset projects. Its left the world with the impression that theres a vast sea of cheap offsets in poor countries, he says. Its just not the reality. Its why theres been a reckoning in terms of companies realizing its going to take more effort to reduce their emissions.
Other issues include impermanence (like offset projects burning in wildfires); leakage (when the pollution or logging is simply moved elsewhere, outside of the offsets boundary); and double counting (when more than one party claims the same carbon credit).
Carbon offsets are a distraction
Essentially, the voluntary carbon market is full of junk offsets that dont really have a climate benefit.
The appeal of offsets is obvious: Without having to change their own behavior or pay a lot of money, countries and companies can claim another entitys emissions reductions. But the reality isnt that easy, and offsets are a distraction from the fact that we need to stop burning so many fossil fuels in the first place.
At the end of the day, this comes down to: Everyone needs to get their own emissions as low as possible, Romm says. Theres no offloading this problem on someone else.
Actual carbon capture projects, which sequester carbon from the atmosphere, could work as offsets, but those are currently expensive and operate at a small scale. It takes a lot less money and energy to not burn fossil fuels in the first place, than to burn them and then recapture the emissions.
Such criticism of offsets isnt new. Romms review cites 25 years worth of them. This paper also builds on Romm’s publication from 2023, titled Carbon offsets are unscalable, unjust, and unfixableand a threat to the Paris Agreement.
Romm hopes that by putting all this research in one place, and by having a comprehensive look back at the way carbon offsets have failed over the past two decades, it helps people understand the reality.
Leaders of companies or countries always think they can be the one to solve the intractable issues within carbon offsets, Romm says. They say their technology is better, or that they really care about making it work. The review paper counters that notion.
We wanted to have somewhere someone could go and simply see the compendium of studies and see that people have been warning about this for over two decades, he says. Everything they warned about is true. No one’s ever solved these problems.
Amazon is rolling out kiosks that let patients get their prescriptions while they are still at the doctors office.
Starting in December 2025, the tech behemoth will be stepping up its efforts to become a bigger presence in the pharmaceutical market by launching in-office pharmaceutical kiosks stocked with medicine.
The kiosks will initially be launched at certain One Medical locations (which Amazon acquired in 2023 for $3.9 billion), including in Downtown Los Angeles, West Los Angeles, Beverly Hills, Long Beach, and West Hollywood.
The company claims that the kiosks will help combat pharmacy deserts across the U.S., and help patients who dont or cant fill their prescriptions for chronic health conditions.
Doubling the dose
This is the latest move into pharmaceuticals by Amazon, which on top of One Medical also acquired medical startup PillPack for $750 million in 2019.
Amazon does not disclose the official number of prescriptions it fills yearly, its pharmaceutical and healthcare financials, or specific revenues for Amazon Pharmacy. In an earnings call in July, CEO Andy Jassy said Amazon Pharmacy grew 50% year-over-year “on an already significant size base.”
Amazons pharmaceutical kiosk expansion comes as other longtime pharmacies are facing their own troubles and sizing down.
Walgreens Boots Allianceowner of Walgreens Pharmacyannounced mass closures last year and was taken private in August of this year, while Rite Aid has closed all of its locations after filing for bankruptcy. Meanwhile, CVSthe sectors leader with a 33% market shareplans on closing 270 stores in 2025.
Good news for those who want to get their prescriptions via One Medical: Patients do not need to be a member or pay a fee if they are not enrolled in Amazon Prime.
As for prescription choices, kiosks will be stocked with medication based on prescribing patterns of consumers living in that specific location.
Theres a common story in the marketing and advertising industry, with many variations. Whenever a member of that industry is at a party or on a plane, inevitably someone will ask what they do for a living. And as soon as they say advertising, that person immediately begins to tell them how good theyd be at working in advertising, how they should make this or that ad campaign better, or why that ad they saw during an NFL game is terrible. This probably doesnt happen to engineers and doctors.
The discipline of advertising, and the process behind it has always been up for debate and question. Well, starting on September 30th, NBCs new show On Brand with Jimmy Fallon is shining a bright, reality show light on that very process.
Brands like KitchenAid, Marshalls, Pillsbury, Samsung, SONIC, Dunkin’, Southwest, Captain Morgan, and Therabody, all signed up to have their briefs or brand challenges taken on by 10 contestants, guided through the process by Fallon and and Bozoma Saint-John.
Saint-John is a former chief marketing or brand officer at companies including Netflix, Uber, and Beats by Drewho also just happens to star on The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. For this months episode of the Brand New World podcast, she joined me on stage at Fast Companys Innovation Festival, which was held in New York City in mid-September.
On how she became a part of the show: Jimmy had the idea and sold it probably a year before we had a conversation. The challenge that he was facing was that, of course, he’s a genius at what he does, commenting about pop culture and making creative partnerships. But what he would say he doesn’t have is the résumé, the professional corporate chops to back it up. So he needed a partner to add legitimacy to the show.
Then he saw me on The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, and his wife said, “What about Boz?” And he was like, “I dunno if a housewife is what I’m looking for.”
But of course, we got on a call together, and we talked about the idea and what it could mean, how much I love the concept . . . I told him that the concept of marrying those two thingsadvertising and marketingas an entertainment platform can engage an audience. I was like, “Shoot, you better sign me up. Otherwise, I’m just coming to set anyway.”
On the value for the brands: Some of the criticism that I’ve seen has been like, “Oh, it’s gonna be like one big infomercial.” And I guarantee you it’s not. I compare this to finding a new music star shows entered, whether it was American Idol or The Voice. All of us became experts. You sat on your couch, you watched somebody sing. All of a sudden you knew terms like “pitchy.”
Nobody had ever said pitchy outside of the studio. This is similar, which is that the audience who’s going to watch this, and I believe are going to be as invested as the contestants.
Taylor Swift sold 2.7 million copies of her new album The Life of a Showgirl on its release day Friday, and luckily for Swifties buying up multiple copies to help their idol on the chart, they didn’t have to pay any tariffs on their purchases.
U.S. consumers now face a 18.6% overall average effective tariff rate, according to Yales Budget Lab, and one music professor estimated that if tariffs were applied to physical music, they could have hiked the price of a vinyl record to as much as $40 to $50 a pop.
They’re not, though, thanks some recently relevant Reagan-era legislation. Instead, Swift fans have to cough up $35 for the Target-exclusive “Summertime Spritz Pink Shimmer Vinyl” version of the album, which is imported from Mexico, limited-edition, and comes with a poster (the standard version is $30).
[Photo: Target]
President Donald Trump tariffs were imposed under emergency economic powers that the Brennan Center for Justice say constitute a misuse of power, and they’ve faced legal challenges. The Supreme Court is planning to take up the case, but already, media like books, movies, and physical music are except from the extra cost because of the Berman Amendment.
Named for Howard Berman, a California Democrat who represented a district in the Los Angeles area in the U.S. House from 1983 to 2013, the law revised the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, the same law that Trump used as justification for his tariffs. Berman’s amendment prohibits the president from directly or indirectly regulating or prohibiting the importation of an “informational materials,” including publications, films, posters, photographs, and records.
The Berman Amendment protects cross-border speech from presidential overreach, and it attracted new interest when Trump said in May he would impose 100% tariffs on movies and TV shows produced outside the U.S.
Passed in 1988, the Berman Amendment is welcome relief for companies that sell physical media across national borders, like book and magazine publishers, as well as the music industry, which saw vinyl sales grow from 13.1 million in 2016 to 49.6 million in 2023, according to Luminate Music Consumption Data.
Domestic vinyl record production in the U.S. is ramping up (in Tennessee, Nashville’s United Record Pressing, which is the nation’s oldest record maker, is busier than ever, and one local company that supplies vinyl makers announced a $10 million expansion in the state in January), but currently, supply can’t keep up with demand.
For Swifties whose fandom would otherwise be caught up in Trump’s trade war with the rest of the economy, the law protects their imported vinyl purchases from an extra fee courtesy the president.
Gap just released an animated ad to promote its collection with designer Sandy Liang, and we need it to become its own TV show ASAP.
Created by animator Annie Choi, who has a history of illustrating campaigns for luxury fashion labels, the ad stars a young girl modeled after Liang herself. While dreaming up new clothing designs inside her childhood bedroom, the girl discovers that her closet has been imbued with magical powersand when she opens its doors, shes transformed, Sailor Moonstyle, into a new version of herself dressed head-to-toe in Gap x Sandy Liang.
The Gap x Sandy Liang ad, titled Sandys Dream Closet, is part of the roll-out for Liangs biggest-ever collaboration with Gap, launching online and in select Gap stores October 10. The collection includes jackets emblazoned with Liangs iconic bow symbols, structured-yet-feminine denim, and even a line of baby clothes. Everything ranges from just $15 to $268.
Chois fantastical animation embodies the sweet, youthful spirit of the collection, which, Liang told Fast Company, was made for your inner child. I love that we’re telling the story through animation, Liang says. I think it’s the perfect way to express the energy that I’m trying to convey with the collection.
“Creating universes that invite people to imagine more
Within Chois oeuvre, anything is possible. An ordinary loaf of bread can transform into a fashionable shoe; a Parisian office building can morph into a puzzle box; and the stars in the night sky are pretty enough to literally eat like candy. Over the past several years, her creative, surrealist animations have become a sought-after asset for fashion brands including Herms, Burberry, Dior, and Loewe.
When I started collaborating with fashion brands, it felt like a natural extension of what I already loved doing: creating universes that invite people to imagine more, Choi says. Fashion gives me a language of texture, form, and transformation, and animation gives it motion and life. Together they create something that feels both tactile and surreal, which is exactly the space I love to work in.
[Image: Annie Choi/Gap]
Bringing Sandy Liang’s fashion world to life
Before Liang even began designing the Gap collection, she says, she was already imagining an animation as a component of the campaigns rollout. Her initial moodboard included inspiration from favorite anime properties like Sailor Moon and the Studio Ghibli film Ponyo.
When Gaps marketing team told her that an animated video would be possible, she says, it was like a dream come true. Chois penchant for imagining designer brands through a playful lens made her the perfect compliment to Liangs perspective on fashion as a means of embracing her own girlhood.
Sandys Dream Closet is inspired by Liangs childhood in New York City. Its settingan apartment complex in the Lower East Side above a Cantonese restaurant called Congee Villageis pulled directly from Liangs own memories of her fathers restaurant of the same name. That backdrop is woven together with Liangs experience growing up wearing vintage Gap.
[Image: Annie Choi/Gap]
Growing up with a child’s sense of wonder
So much of Sandys world centers around imagination, nostalgia, and a sense of wonder, Choi says. I wanted the animation to carry that same feeling. I thought back to the shows I loved as a kid, especially the ones where transformation felt exciting and full of possibility, and used that energy as a guide. Since I also spent part of my early childhood in New York, the project felt personal to me, almost like layering my own memories on top of Sandys.
In the film, Liangs transformation represents, on a literal level, the idea of growing up. Symbolically, its also meant to capture the power fashion has to help us become who we are meant to be, Choi says. For her, bringing Sandys animated vision to life was an honor.
It was so fun to see her reaction to the animated Sandy for the first time, Choi says. I think the final product truly captures her essence and the Sandy Liang world in a way that her customers, and Gaps customers, can experience in a totally new way.
Kentucky’s attorney general claimed Tuesday that the online gaming platform Roblox has become a “playground for predators” as he announced a lawsuit accusing the company of lax child safety measures.The Kentucky suit, filed by his office Monday in a state court, is the latest action alleging that the wildly popular site isn’t doing enough to protect children on its gaming services.To bolster safeguards for children and teenagers flocking to the site, the company needs to install effective age verifications and content filters, Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman said. Added parental notifications also are needed, he said.Courtney Norris, a Kentucky mother of three who joined Coleman at a news conference, said she mistakenly viewed Roblox as a safe online gaming choice for her children.“I came to realize, later than I would like to admit, that it actually is the ‘Wild West’ of the internet, targeted at children,” she said.The company is facing a growing backlash. The Kentucky suit comes after Louisiana sued the company in August. A suit was filed in Iowa after a 13-year-old girl was allegedly introduced to an adult predator on the platform, then kidnapped and trafficked across multiple states and raped.Roblox on Tuesday pushed back against the allegations.“We have rigorous safety measures in place from advanced AI models to an expertly trained team of thousands moderating our platform 24/7 for inappropriate content,” the company said in a statement. “No system is perfect and our work on safety is never done. We are constantly innovating our safety systems, including adding 100 new safeguards, such as facial age estimation, this year alone.”Roblox says it has 111 million daily active users. The company said in an email Tuesday that it implements strict safety defaults for its youngest users. It said the platform’s users under 13 cannot directly message others on Roblox, outside of games or experiences, and cannot directly message others during games or experiences unless the default setting is changed using parental controls.The company said it has rigorous text chat filters to block inappropriate words and phrases, attempts to direct under-13 users off the platform and the sharing of personal information such as phone number or address. It does not allow user-to-user image sharing and prohibits sexual conversations, it said.The Kentucky lawsuit gives a starkly different portrayal of the platform.Despite assurances its site is safe, the company has failed to install basic safety controls, the suit said. Roblox also fails to inform its users and their parents about “dangers inherent” on the platform, it said.Coleman, a Republican, said the site’s “cartoonish figures and experiences” appeal to children, but he warned that “underneath this cartoonish, innocent veneer is something sinister. The platform has become a playground for predators who seek to harm our children.”The Kentucky suit alleges that children are exposed to “violent or sexual situations within the Roblox universe, with parents reporting children contacted by strangers using third-party chat apps that function as if they are part of the game.”Norris said that like many parents, she considered it a safe choice for her children.“I described it as a ‘fenced-in backyard’ for kids’ gaming,” she said Tuesday. “And that is the genius and the danger I found of Roblox the illusion of safety it gives parents like me.”“The reality is, Roblox makes it nearly impossible to police as a parent,” she added.The suit claims that Roblox’s lax protections violate Kentucky’s Consumer Protection Act and asks a judge to order the company into compliance. The suit seeks penalties of up to $2,000 for each violation of the consumer protection law.Coleman said his office is open to negotiating a settlement with Roblox.“Our goal is not to shut a platform down,” Coleman said. “Our goal is for Roblox to be safe.”Roblox said it shares the goal of keeping kids safe online, and said it would welcome discussions with Coleman’s office to “ensure they have a clear understanding of all Roblox is doing to keep users safe.”
Bruce Schreiner, Associated Press
Thirty paintings created by the bushy-haired, soft-spoken Bob Ross will soon be up for auction to defray the costs of programming for public television stations suffering from cuts in federal funding.Ross, a public television stalwart in the 1980s and ’90s, “dedicated his life to making art accessible to everyone,” said Joan Kowalski, president of Bob Ross Inc. “This auction ensures his legacy continues to support the very medium that brought his joy and creativity into American homes for decades.”Bonhams in Los Angeles will auction three of Ross’ paintings on Nov. 11. Other auctions will follow in London, New York, Boston and online. All profits are pledged to stations that use content from distributor American Public Television.The idea is to help stations in need with licensing fees that allow them to show popular programs that include “The Best of Joy of Painting,” based on Ross’ show, “America’s Test Kitchen,” “Julia Child’s French Chef Classics” and “This Old House.” Small and rural stations are particularly challenged.As desired by President Donald Trump, Congress has eliminated $1.1 billion allocated to public broadcasting, leaving about 330 PBS and 246 NPR stations to find alternative funding sources. Many launched emergency fund drives. Some have been forced to lay off staff and make programming cuts.The beloved Ross died in 1995 of complications from cancer after 11 years in production with “The Joy of Painting.” His how-to program was shown on stations around the U.S. and around the world. The former Air Force drill sergeant known for his calm demeanor and encouraging words enjoyed a resurgence in popularity during the lockdowns of the COVID-19 pandemic.Ross spoke often as he worked on air about painting happy little clouds and trees, and making no mistakes, only “happy accidents.”The thirty paintings to be auctioned span Ross’ career and include landscapes depicting serene mountain vistas and lake scenes, his signature aesthetic. He created most of the 30 on-air, each in under 30 minutes, which was the span of a single episode.Bonhams sold two early 1990s mountain-and-lake scenes of Ross in August for $114,800 and $95,750. The auctions of the 30 paintings soon to be sold have an estimated total value of $850,000 to $1.4 million, Bonhams said.
Associated Press
As the end of 2025 approaches, a viral TikTok trend is helping people achieve their wellness goals: “The Great Lock In” encourages participants to finish the year strong by fully focusing on their life goals from Sept. 1 through Dec. 31.Many people focus on exercise or eating healthier. But the trend can also help you achieve your financial goals.There are no set rules for “The Great Lock In.” The phrase “lock in” is popular on social media and it means to focus intensely on a task.“Something I like about this particular trend is that it’s like New Year’s resolutions’ little sister,” said Lindsay Bryan-Podvin, financial therapist and founder of Mind Money Balance, a financial wellness podcast and blog.For Julissa Mercedes, 28, one of her lock in goals is to build an $2,500 emergency savings fund.“Having some liquid cash will make me feel a little bit safer,” said Mercedes, a San Diego resident who works in finance. Aside from building an emergency fund, Mercedes has three other goals: making a new friend, creating a morning routine, and picking up a new hobby.“The Great Lock In” is meant to help people achieve New Year’s resolutions that might have fallen by the wayside. If you started your year planning to pay down debt by cutting unnecessary expenses, and have yet to follow up on that, this challenge might help you with that goal.“I think that’s appealing to a lot of people who are just tired of feeling stuck and like they haven’t been able to make any progress,” said Ben Markley, personal finance educator and host of Sketchy Advice by YNAB, a budgeting app.If you’re thinking of participating in “The Great Lock In,” or if you’re already doing it, here are some expert recommendations to make your financial goals stick:
Review your finances
To build a goal that will benefit you, it’s essential to review your finances, Bryan-Podvin said. She suggested that you review your bank account and spend some time figuring out how much you earn each month, as well as what you spend it on.If you made a New Year’s resolution around finances, this could be a good opportunity to check on your progress and see if you need to reassess your approach.
Set attainable goals
When participating in a challenge, it’s best to set attainable goals, Markley said. Sometimes online challenges inspire people to make significant changes, but they can also lead them to create unattainable goals.“A lot of people can’t sustain that at all, so they drop off,” he said. “Or, they do sustain it, but then they go back to their normal life after the challenge, and their spending habits haven’t fundamentally changed.”Setting a goal that is realistic in relation to your budget and lifestyle is the best way to make sure you can achieve it by the end of the challenge. Bryan-Podvin recommends looking at “The Great Lock In” as a 5K race rather than a marathon.
Focus on habit-building
To continue achieving your financial goals into 2026, Markley recommends centering some of your lock in goals around building new habits or skills.For example, if your goal is to stop spending on takeout, focus on building a habit that’s related to cooking.“Find easy meals that you could cook at home with your skill level so that when you want to eat out, you have that to fall back on,” Markley said.A great way to help create a habit is to use a habit-tracking tool. It can be as simple as setting reminders on your phone or downloading an app that sends you regular notifications, Bryan-Podvin said.
Create community and accountability
Social media can be a good place to find community support for achieving your goals, whether it’s joining a Facebook group, commenting on creators’ videos, or posting your own content.As she started “The Great Lock In” challenge at the beginning of September, Mercedes also decided to document her experience on TikTok. Sharing her journey with followers helps with accountability, she said.“Seeing that people are still watching and keeping up with my content makes me feel like they’re part of the journey too,” Mercedes said.
Reflect on your relationship with money
As you use “The Great Lock In” trend to achieve your financial goals, take a moment to reflect on your overall relationship with money.“Give every dollar a specific job so that you’re not going on autopilot when you spend, you’re being intentional with your money and making sure that it’s going towards the things you need and the things you care about,” Markley said.Sitting down regularly, either by yourself or with your partner, and reviewing your spending habits can help with your long-term financial goals.
It’s OK if it’s not for you
If you try this challenge and you find out it doesn’t work for you, that is OK, Markley said.“You can find something else that works, and it’s no reflection on your character if you don’t pull off ‘The Great Lock-In,'” he added.While social media challenges can help inspire people to achieve their goals, it’s not worth adding unnecessary stress to your life because of a challenge. Not every trend works for everyone, and there are many other ways that you can achieve your financial goals, Markley said.
The Associated Press receives support from Charles Schwab Foundation for educational and explanatory reporting to improve financial literacy. The independent foundation is separate from Charles Schwab and Co. Inc. The AP is solely responsible for its journalism.
Adriana Morga, Associated Press
Gold has been having a very good year.
That sentiment couldnt have been clearer on Tuesday, October 7, as the precious metal hit a new milestone: $4,000 an ounce.
As of early Wednesday, gold was up over 53% year to date.
That’s significantly higher than the growth seen by major stock indexes over the same period The Dow Jones Industrial Average is up 9.93% this year, the S&P 500 is up 14.42%, and the Nasdaq Composite is up 18.19% as of the market close on Tuesday.
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As a so-called safe-haven asset, gold has benefited from a few things this year, including a weakened dollar and an unpredictable economy. The latter has been especially true since the U.S. government shutdown on October 1.
That Wednesday morning saw gold reach new all-time highs, with spot gold and U.S. gold futures reaching $3,894 and $3,922, respectively.
Gold has continued to trend upward over the last week, reaching a high of $4,050 today.
Yes, but will it last?
Clearly the U.S. government shutdown has, at least so far, been a coup for gold, but for how much longer? Of course, theres no guarantee either way, especially with no end in sight for the shutdown.
Financial experts have found themselves split on their predictions.
Goldman Sachs has taken a bullish approach, raising its estimated gold forecast from $4,300 to $4,900 per ounce for December 2026.
We see the risks to our upgraded gold price forecast as still skewed to the upside on net, because private sector diversification into the relatively small gold market may boost ETF holdings above our rates-implied estimate, Goldman stated during the Monday announcement, according to Reuters.
Meanwhile, Monday saw Bank of America take a much more bearish stance, Fortune reports. Bank of Americas technical strategist, Paul Ciana, warned of an elevated risk of correction. Ciana posited that factors like buying based on momentum and overbought signals mean that golds speedy rise could be coming to an end.
