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The line had just died down at Hong Kongs Apple flagship store on Canton Road when I arrived on what happened to be the release day for the iPhone Pocket, the companys new and very buzzed-about design collaboration between Apple and Issey Miyake Design Studio. I purchased it immediatelya short one in Sapphire blue, as the cross-body version was already sold out. I observed neither pomp nor circumstance with the overwrought packaging, which I shed on the spot despite its velum-bound elegance and prominent Miyake branding. I was on a working vacation after all, and so I simply looped the Pocket around the strap of my nylon cross-body bag and went about my day in a city whose entire experience is all but governed by smartphone technology. I was going to have to use the thing, not just look at it. Awkwardness ensued. Bouncing around on my thigh beneath the weight of my phone, the Pocket felt like a surprising, unwanted appendage. An attempt to access the Mass Trasnsit Railway (MTR) system by tapping my phone through the Pocket failed, which meant I had to remove the phone from the pocket altogether. (I accidentally dropped my phone while trying to quickly slip it back into the Pocket amidst the throngs of fellow passengers hustling past me.) [Photo: Apple] On a quick trip to Shenzhen, China the following day, I experienced a moment of panic before I realized that my Pocket hadnt been pickpocketed, but rather I had simply intuitively placed my phone in my bag, its familiar location, rather than fiddling with my newest accessory. [Photo: Apple] At an eyebrow-raising $229.95 for the crossbody version and $149.95 for the shorter version, the limited-edition iPhone Pocket might simply be dismissed as an overpriced marketing gimmick, despite Apples long history of collaborating with luxury fashion brands. In my case, I am an inveterate fan of the late Issey Miyakes work, which I collect in various vintages and frequently wear. I can simply look at the iPhone Pocket and see its potential for abject failure as a functional design object, and yet the Issey lover in me deeply appreciates the way his studios clothing and accessories challenge commonly held notions around how a piece of cloth should behave. Miyakes designs are infamous, in part, for the way they play against the body, allowing the wearer exceptional freedom in how they position the garment. There is no right way to wear Miyake. The iPhone Pockets pleats not only allow the accessory to morph in shape according to its contents, but it allows that alteration to remain visible. (Similarly, the shape of the ubiquitous Lucent bag, for example, is designed to distort as the bag is filled with objects.) [Photo: Apple] The relationship between Apple founder Steve Jobs and Issey Miyake himself is the stuff of legend: Miyake personally designed the black, mock-neck turtleneck that Jobs infamously paired with his Levis 501 jeans and New Balance shoes. Jobs, like many tech executives since, preferred to adopt a uniform as a means of reducing the cognitive load associated with choosing ones clothing on a daily basis. Indeed, many Miyake megafans, myself included, are drawn to the kind of strangely unique uniformity one may achieve in wearing his clothing. The Pleats Please line, in particular, can be styled endlessly and sits effortlessly against the body in a way that begs for common wear. [Photo: Apple] The iPhone Pocket, in contrast, offers frictionand a lot of it. The Miyake Design Studio team knows it, too: Recently quoted in The New York Times, Yoshiyuki Miyamae, the studios design director, said that design should be leaving things a little bit less defined to allow more creativity from the user side. He also questioned whether the American market was ready for such a development. While its true that Americans are less likely to follow the trend of wearing their phones across their bodies, as is commonly seen in Asia, the iPhone Pocket simply looks strange in a way that may brstle against more practical sensibilities. [Photo: Apple] The sensationalization of the iPhone Pocketit has already been panned by the popular press and meme-ified across the internetposes a stranger version of the initial fervor that surrounded the iPhone itself. (The last time I waited in line to purchase something from Apple was in San Francisco, the day the first iPhone was released!) People dont quite know what to make of it yet, even though Apple does hold a precedent in its 2004 iPhone Sock, a much cheaper and similarly intentioned, if less intentionally designed object. As Miyake Design Studio apparently planned, the onus for the design success of the iPhone Pocket seems to be placed squarely on its owner, which isa risky proposition given the tension it poses, as an object, with the sleek minimalism of Apples design philosophy. In terms of branding, it could be argued that the heavier lift lies with Miyake over Apple, as Miyake holds strong name recognition in Asia, where the iPhone Pocket sold out immediately and where the demand for phone accessories is markedly higher. Its 1994 Pleats Please line has enjoyed a recent surge in popularity in the United States, yet Miyake is a far cry from a household name in America. Apple, on the converse, has a built-in, global audience for everything it produces. [Photo: Apple] Will the iPhone Pocket catch fire, or will it slip into design obscurity alongside so many other tech accessories gone by? Now freshly arrived back in New York City, Ive looped my Pocket yet again onto a sturdy leather bowler handbag along with a few other small charms for added flair. Im willing to give it another try, and am ready for the conversation (and the criticism) that will inevitably follow me.
Category:
E-Commerce
At 3:20 a.m. on January 8, Steve Gibson and his wife were jolted awake by a phone call: the Eaton fire was approaching their home in Altadena, California, and they had to evacuate. We left in about 15 minutes, Gibson says. So we only took our passports, our insurance papers, three pairs of underwear, and our little dog, Cantinflas. They thought that theyd be able to come back within a few hours. But they soon learned that their houseand their entire blockhad been destroyed. They spent the next few weeks moving from short-term rental to short-term rental, and finally moved into an apartment, though they knew that insurance would only cover the cost temporarily. Then they faced the next challenge: what would it take to rebuild their home? Cleared residential lots, with the San Gabriel Mountains in the background, in Altadena, California on August 21, 2025, [Photo: Robyn Beck/AFP/Getty Images] More than 10 months after the L.A. fires, the rebuilding process in the fire zone is painfully slow. In Altadena, where more than 5,000 houses burned in the Eaton fire, only a few hundred are currently being rebuilt. (Only one, an ADU, has been completed as of mid-November.) But someincluding Gibsonsare moving faster than others because homeowners have turned to prefab construction. Prefab companies like Villa, Cover, and Samara are all working on projects in the fire zone, as well as in the nearby burn areas in Pacific Palisades and Malibu. Some companies that initially focused on making backyard ADUs have expanded into full single-family prefab homes in the area, helping fire survivors rebuild more quickly. And as more homeowners choose prefab after the disaster, the approach could become a more mainstream option for new construction, even outside fire-prone areas. Before the fire, I had never thought of a prefab home, Gibson says. The small house that he and his wife lost, where theyd lived for 24 years, was built in the 1920s. Theyd always lived in traditional homes. But when they started to research the timelines for a new traditional build, they were told it would take two or three years. A prefab home, in theory, could take months. [Photo: David Esquivel/UCLA] A faster way to build The couple started working with a company called Cover, which builds components like wall panels in a factory in the nearby city of Gardena, and then assembles the pieces on the building site. After getting permits, building all of the parts for Gibsons house took roughly a month in the factory; assembling it on the lot is taking a little more than two months. Gibson and his wife hope to move in before the end of the year. Top left: Gibson’s house, under construction. Lower right: a rendering of the final construction. [Images: Steve Gibson, Cover] Prefab is much faster because we move most of the complexity into the factory, says Alexis Rivas, CEO of Cover. Our wall panels, floor panels, roof panels are made in the factory with insulation, with waterproofing, with a lot of the mechanical, electrical, plumbing, already fabricated. And then what’s happening on site is primarily assembly work. [Image: courtesy Cover] The design process can also happen quickly. While some companies, like Cover, offer more customization, others offer preset designs. And while traditional construction moves in a strict sequence, and a delay from one subcontractor slows down the whole process, factory-built homes run multiple production lines in parallel. [Image: courtesy Cover] Pouring the foundation and other site work can also happen at the same time. Insidethe factory, each step is also more efficient. Instead of having to reach at an awkward angle to install a duct in a ceiling, for example, a work station is set up ergonomically, and the work can happen faster. Right now, relatively few homes have started construction in the fire zone. But more than 2,300 are at some stage of the permitting process, and next year, building a traditional house will also face the additional challenge of trying to find construction crews. [Photo: Villa Homes] “If you fast-forward six months, nine months, 12 months down the road, with a lot of construction activity, the labor base of trades and subcontractors is going to be really, really, really stretched,” says Sean Roberts, CEO of Villa, another prefab company working with homeowners in Altadena and Pacific Palisades. [Photo: Villa Homes] “That’s going to make building traditionally on site really hard, if you can even do it. That will drive cost up. It will drive speeds way slower. It will create a lot of uncertainty. So our approach is do it in the factory. The benefit of that is the amount of labor that we need on site in Altadena basically acts as a force multiplier.” Villa takes a different approach than Cover, building modules that arrive fully constructed rather than flat panels. “The blinds are on the windows, the appliances are init comes pretty much close to done,” Roberts says. [Photo: Christopher Nelson/courtesy LA4LA] A range of options There are a wide range of prefab options for homeowners to pick from, both in terms of style and price. Because many homeowners aren’t necessarily familiar with prefab housing, UCLA’s cityLAB, a design research organization, has temporarily installed a showcase of six different homes on an empty lot in Altadena. “Our sense was that folks are sort of arriving at this conversation with a bias,” says Ryan Conroy, cityLAB’s director of architecture. “Manufactured and prefab homes carry a sort of stigma often that doesn’t track with the quality of the building construction or the diverse architectural styles they come in, and really just the way technology has changed. In one sense, that needs to be seen for itself: folks need to be able to walk through. They need to understand the quality and the livability of some of the homes.” [Photo: Villa Homes] Many options, like Cover’s, have a modern aesthetic inspired by California’s Eichler and Case Study homes. Others, including some models that Villa designed specifically for Altadena, nod to the traditional 1920s Craftsman homes that were common in the neighborhood. Some are higher end. Villa’s are affordable, with the base cost before site work starting as low as $147,000. “These are simple homes,” says Roberts. “These are not high-end, luxury builds. But they are representative of what the neighborhood was.” [Photo: Villa Homes] The more affordable options can help homeowners who don’t have enough insurance coverage to rebuild an exact replica of the home they lost. In a couple of cases, prefab home companies are donating some homes to fire victims who couldn’t otherwise afford to rebuild. Many of the options are more sustainable than what was lost. Cosmic, a startup that uses a mobile “micro factory” to build homes with robots, is building ultra-efficient all-electric homes in the fire zone. Like other new construction in California, everything comes with solar on the roof to help reduce emissions and electric bills. The new builds are also safer in fires. Cover, for example, builds with steel instead of wood. Some projects are also using prefab to rebuild multifamily buildings. Beacon Housing, for example, recently got a grant from the Altadena Builds Back Foundation and Pasadena Community Foundation to build a small prefab bungalow court with 14 units for low-income residents. The bungalows will be built by Clayton Homes, which makes manufactured housingwhat used to be known in the past as a trailer home, though the quality is very different now. The UCLA team also created a guide that homeowners can use to learn about relative costs and timelines and how prefab construction works, including the fact that it can offer more certainty. “I think what’s as attractive as this sort of expedited format is actually just knowing exactly when it will be done, which doesn’t necessarily track with traditional construction,” Conroy says. [Photo: David Esquivel/UCLA] A long road to rebuildbut a turning point for the industry Even with faster construction timelines, prefab homes still face challenges. Although the local government has tried to streamline the post-fire paperwork processfor example, L.A. County set up a one-stop center for permitting in Altadenabuilders told me that they still face bureaucratic delays. On some blocks, depending on how much infrastructure was destroyed in the fire, homeowners might face other delays connecting to utilities. Others may need to do more work to remediate their lot to make it safe to build. But several prefab projects are underway in Altadena, and it’s likely that many more people will choose that path. “This is a multiyear effort here,” says Roberts. “But doing at least some portion of the rebuild with factory-built homes is going to help get the community back up on its feet a heck of a lot faster than doing everything traditionally and on site.” As it expands, it could help the industry become more mainstream. “This feels like a catalytic moment for the industry,” says UCLA’s Conroy. “More than anything, its a chance to pull prefab into a building scale that actually matches how infill gets built across Southern California. Before the fires, prefab was basically split: either a single ADU box, or big multifamily projects with enough repetition to justify the factory work. Now we’re seeing builders get comfortable using prefab for larger single-family homes and smaller multifamily projects, and that familiarity is what will push prefab beyond the burn area.”
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E-Commerce
As I said in previous articles, executives like to say theyre integrating AI. But most still treat artificial intelligence as a feature, not a foundation. They bolt it onto existing systems without realizing that each automation hides a layer of invisible human work, and a growing set of unseen risks. AI may be transforming productivity, but its also changing the very nature of labor, accountability, and even trust inside organizations. The future of work wont just be about humans and machines collaborating: It will be about managing the invisible partnerships that emerge when machines start working alongside us . . . and sometimes, behind our backs. The illusion of automation Every wave of technological change begins with the same illusion: once we automate, the work will disappear. However, history tells a different story. The introduction of enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems promised end-to-end efficiency, only to create years of shadow work fixing data mismatches and debugging integrations. AI is repeating that pattern at a higher cognitive level. When an AI drafts a report, someone still has to verify its claims (please, do not forget this!), check for bias, and rewrite the parts that dont sound right. When an agent summarizes a meeting, someone has to decide what actually matters. Automation doesnt erase labor; it just moves it upstream, from execution to supervision. The paradox is clear: The smarter the system, the more attention it requires to ensure it behaves as expected. A new McKinsey report calls this the age of superagency, where people spend less time performing tasks and more time overseeing intelligent systems that do. The smarter the system, the more attention it requires to ensure it behaves as expected. The rise of the hidden workforce A recent analysis found that more than half of workers already use AI tools secretly, often without their managers knowledge. Similarly, another investigation warned that employees are quietly sharing sensitive data with consumer-grade chatbots, exposing companies to compliance and privacy risks. This is the new silent workforce: algorithms doing part of the job, unseen and unacknowledged. For employees, the temptation is obvious: AI offers instant answers. For companies, the consequences are dangerous. If those silent partners are consumer-grade models, employees might be sending confidential data to unknown servers, processed in data centers located in countries with different privacy laws. Thats why, as I warned in a previous article about BYOAI, organizations must ensure that any questions employees ask, and any prompts they use are directed to properly licensed, enterprise-grade systems. The problem isnt that employees use AI. Its that they do it outside the data governance. When intelligence goes underground Unapproved AI use creates more than data risk: it fractures collective learning. When employees each rely on their own AI assistant, corporate knowledge becomes fragmented. The company stops learning as an organization because insights are trapped in personal chat histories. The result is a paradoxical kind of inefficiency: everyone gets smarter individually, but the institution gets dumber. Organizations need to treat AI access as shared infrastructure, not a personal tool. That means providing sanctioned, well-audited systems where employees can ask questions safely without leaking intellectual property or violating compliance. The right AI model, as Microsoft knows extremely well, is not just the most powerful one: Its the one that keeps your data where it belongs. The hidden human labor of ‘intelligent’ workflows Even when AI use is authorized, it introduces a layer of invisible human effort that companies rarely measure. Every AI-assisted workflow hides three forms of manual oversight: Verification work: humans checking whether outputs are correct and compliant Correction work: editing, reframing, or sanitizing content before publication Interpretive work: deciding what the AIs suggestions actually mean These tasks arent logged, but they consume time and mental energy. They are the reason that productivity statistics often lag behind automation hype. AI makes us faster, but it also makes us busier: constantly curating, correcting, and interpreting the machines that supposedly work for us. The ethics of invisible labor Invisible labor has always existed: in care work, cleaning, or customer service. AI extends it into cognitive and emotional domains. Behind every smart workflow is a human ensuring that the output makes sense, aligns with brand tone, and doesnt violate company values. If we ignore that labor, we risk creating a new inequality: those who design and sell AI systems are celebrated, while those who quietly fix their errors remain invisible. Productivity metrics improve, but the real cost, the human vigilance keeping AI credible, goes unrecognized. Even executives experimenting with AI digital clones admit they dont fully trust their virtual doubles. Trust, as it turns out, remains stubbornly human. Managing the silent partnership When AI becomes embedded in everyday workflows, leadership must evolve from managing people to managing collaboration between people and systems. That requires new governance principles: Authorized intelligence only: Employees must use licensed, enterprise-grade AI systems. No exceptions. Every query sent to a public model is a potential data leak. Data residency clarity: Know where your data lives and where its processed. The cloud is not a place, its a jurisdiction. Transparency by design: Any AI-assisted output should be traceable. If an AI helped generate a report, label it clearly. Transparency breeds trust. Feedback as governance: Employees must be able to report errors, hallucinations, and ethical concerns. The real safeguard against model drift isnt a compliance checklist, its a vigilant workforce. AI without governance isnt innovation. Its negligence. The cognitive supervision era We are witnessing the emergence of a new human skill: cognitive supervision, or the ability to guide, critique, and interpret machine reasoning without doing the work manually. Its becoming the corporate equivalent of teaching someone how to manage a team they dont fully understand. Training employees in this skill is urgent. It requires awareness of bias, logic, and the limits of automation. Its not prompt engineering, its critical thinking. And its what separates organizations that collaborate with AI from those that merely consume it. The best companies understand this already. They are investing in education, not just tools, and treating AI literacy as strategic infrastructure. A recent profile of Vivens AI-employee clones revealed that the real question is not whether AI can replicate workers, but whether organizations can govern the replicas they create. What executives must do now If you lead a company, assume that AI is already part of your workflows, whether you approved it or not. The task ahead is not to prevent its use but to domesticate it responsibly. Audit your AI exposure: Map where your people are already using tools. Provide safe alternatives: If you dont, theyll use whatever works, secure or not. Recognize hidden labor: Build metrics that reward verification, correction, and interpretation. Make transparency cultural: No AI-generated output should hide its origin. Done right, AI can become a trusted colleague, one that accelerates learning and amplifies creativity. Done poorly, it becomes a silent, unaccountable partner with access to your data and none of your ethics. A quiet revolution AIs arrival in the workplace is not loud or cinematic: Its silent, gradual, and pervasive. It hides behind polished interfaces, automating just enough to convince us its working on its own. But beneath that silence lies an expanding layer of human effort keeping the system ethical, explainable, and aligned. As leaders, our job is to make that effort visible, measurable, and safe. The most dangerous AI is not the one that replaces people: its the one that quietly depends on them, without permission, oversight, or acknowledgment. When AI becomes your silent partner, make sure its one you actually know, trust, and license properly. Otherwise, you may discover too late that the partnership was never yours at all.
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E-Commerce
As a parent, shopping for holiday gifts for your kids can be a dilemma. Of course you want to surprise the little ones with exciting presents, but you also know that most flashy toys wont hold their attention for very long. Theyll likely lose interest in them within a few days and youll be stuck with plastic toy cluttering up their rooms, destined for the donation bin. In addition to being a waste of money, its terrible for the planet. What if you could surprise them with something thats both beautiful and practical? Heres some ideas for gifts that theyll be able to use for years. [Photo: State] A purse of their own State, $60 At some point, your child will need their own bag to carry a little bit of pocket money or a snack. But if you get them a purse or tote, theyre likely to leave it behind somewhere. The solution: a cute bag you can strap onto them. States fanny pack is thoughtfully sized for a childs body and comes in great designs like rainbow sequins. It is cleverly designed to go over their shoulder, so it is always in front of them. [Photo: Minted] New art for their room Minted, prices vary Why not upgrade your childs room with a piece of art they love? Minted offers a wide range of designs that are child-friendly, but wont make you cringe. You could have fun picking a design together. You can order it as a framed poster print, or a canvas. Its something that theyll always associate with their childhood bedroom. [Photo: Original Duckhead] A colorful, artistic umbrella Original Duckhead x Meri Meri Umbrella, $36 Kids love playing in the rain, and they love having their very own umbrella. Original Duckhead, a brand known for its durability and quality, has made a collection of kids umbrellas with the brand Meri Meri. The designs are fun, colorful, but also tasteful. Pick from cherries and smiley faces, dinosaurs, or rainbows. Theyll be perfect to stash in a backpack for a rainy walk back from school. [Photo: Away] A suitcase for all their adventures Away, $250 If you have upcoming travel, why not get them a suitcase theyll love. This one from Away is designed from the same durable materials as the adult bags, but theyre perfectly sized for the under 7 set. Your kid will love packing it and wheeling it through the airport themselves. For the holidays, it comes with a Paw Patrols design in pink and blue. [Photo: Petite Plume] Pajamas fit for a prince or princess Petite Plume, $60 Holiday pajamas have become a trend, but who wants to wear Santa jammies in January? Petite Plume offers gorgeous, high quality nightgowns and pajamas that are so soft and beautiful, your kid will be excited to see them under the tree. (Some of the nightgowns are pretty enoughthat your child might want to wear them to school.) They come in classic designs, like toile and stripes, that can be worn all year around. [Photo: Baublebar] A blanket for sleepovers and picnics Baublebar, $78 While you may not think your child will get excited about a blanket, wait till they see these. Theyre designed in child friendly patterns and colors, and you can customize it with their name. Its the perfect thing for them to bring to sleepovers or the park, or just to decorate their room.
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E-Commerce
More children are cashing in their Make-A-Wish requests to meet their favorite content creators, with creator wishes more than doubling in the past decade. Make-A-Wish Foundation has been granting life-changing wishes for children with a critical illness since 1980. Now, alongside A-Listers and sports stars, YouTubers and TikTokers are also flooding requests, Axios reported. Requests to meet content creators make up 32% of the wishes granted within the entertainment industry, per Axios, the second largest source of requests behind the music industry. Several of the creators say they’ve been granting wishes for years and more than 50 creators and influencers became first-time wish-granters in the last year to keep up with demand. As parents and children realize meeting their favorite streamer, TikToker, or YouTuber is an option, its becoming more and more common. In October, Make-A-Wish, Disney, and MrBeast hosted YouTube and some of the worlds top creators, at Disneyland Resort to grant wishes for 40 children. This shift is unsurprising given the growing influence of content creators. It used to be that if you asked a classroom of kids what they want to be when they grow up, youd get answers like pop star and football player. A 2024 survey of 910 U.S. Gen Alpha kids (ages 12 to 15) by social commerce platform Whop found that nearly a third want to be YouTubers, while one in five aspire to become TikTok creators. Given the chance, they also want to meet their heroes. “Digital creators have built strong, loyal communities based on authenticity and common interests, Jared Perry, chief revenue officer at Make-A-Wish America previously shared in a statement. When this connection is used to rally behind a cause like Make-A-Wish, it can generate significant donations and lead to long-term relationships with an entirely new audience.” Content creators also leverage their own platforms to engage followers in charitable causes. MrBeast, for example, is well-known for his philanthropy through his 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, Beast Philanthropy. Through his Beast Philanthropy channel, he has, in just the past year, given away $1 million of toys, donated $1 million worth of brandnew teeth, and funded a gym for adaptive athletes. The organization donates 100% of the revenue from its content and merchandise. Make-A-Wish relies on fundraisers, donors, and partners to make sick childrens wishes come true. “By becoming ambassadors of Make-A-Wish, and featuring our mission regularly in their content, creators can inspire sustained support and make a meaningful difference,” Perry continued.
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E-Commerce
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