Apple Gets Heat from iPhone Addiction
Two large Apple shareholders are demanding Apple respond to a perceived “growing public health crisis” of smartphone addiction in young people. Jana Partners and the California State Teachers’ Retirement System (CalSTRS) pension fund own $2 billion worth of Apple shares. They wrote a letter to Apple seeking to help parents limit phone use by developing new software tools and to start researching the impacts of phone use on mental health.
In the short term, this probably isn’t going to help the bottom line. Long term, it might force Apple to pioneer a revolution of companies being socially aware of the potential negative impact (see Zuck’s resolution here #FakeNews) their products might produce. Proactively helping to resolve these issues should not only help users but also help the long-term bottom line.
(Source: TheVerge)
Workout and Virtual Reality Collide?
Start-up Black Box VR has developed a full-body workout in the form of a 30-minute virtual reality experience. It uses a resistance training machine and an HTC Vive headset. The entire set-up is about the size of a family bathroom. It is one of several innovations at CES this year mixing VR and fitness training.
The VR meets fitness market has the potential to “pump you up,” but the two major hurdles right now are safety concerns and high cost. (Source: BBC)
GoPro’s Drone Division Crashing
GoPro has announced that it’s exiting the drone business. The company revealed today that the Karma drone will be its last. The company is also laying off hundreds of staff while reducing the pay of Founder and CEO Nicholas Woodman to $1, as the company’s financial woes continue. Shares of the company were halted in pre-market trading, before plummeting 26%. They have lost a fifth of their value in the last twelve months.
The company was once a high flyer (#pun) has struggled to expand beyond being “one-trick-pony” and adrenaline junkies. This holiday it was forced to slash the prices on cameras and drones. Apparently, there was no Santa Cam. (Source: Forbes, TheVerge)
