This millennial women’s health brand is expanding with a controversial partner

Posted onAuthoradmin

Carolyn Witte says she’s building the future of women’s healthcare. Her company, called Tia, is a beefed up primary care clinic with gynecological services and mental healthcare that’s been called a “ gynecologist for the self-care generation. ” Now, it’s partnering with Catholic healthcare system CommonSpirit in order to go national. Tia doesn’t currently perform elective abortion or in vitro fertilization, two services the relationship would bar. But the partnership begs the question: Can Tia be the future of women’s healthcare if it partners with entities that actively limit women’s health choices? Carolyn Witte [Photo: courtesy of Tia] Tia, which Witte cofounded in 2017 with Felicity Yost, offers a blend of primary care, gynecological care, nutrition, acupuncture, and mental health services. It charges an annual fee of $150 in addition to the cost of services, the latter of which is largely covered by insurance. Its services include IUD insertion and removal, colposcopies for abnormal pap smears, myomectomies, and biopsies Read More …

How remote work helped us move past old-school ‘professionalism’

Posted onAuthoradmin

Over the past year, much has been made of where, when, and how we work. But the sweeping shift to working remotely has raised a deeper question that we’re still not sure how to answer: Who are we at work?   The pandemic has scrambled so much of the “normal” professional experience—commutes, workspaces, business hours, childcare, business travel—that it’s also rewiring our concept of professionalism itself.   For me, “professionalism” began 18 years ago when I started as an intern at Microsoft. Today, I lead a team of more than 500 designers and researchers creating the next generation of communication and creation experiences for Microsoft 365, across both work and life. As you can imagine, design at Microsoft has changed dramatically over the years, and that includes how people collaborate.   When it comes to traditional modes of expression, both Microsofties and our customers typically drew a clear line between work style and personal style. Take emoji or reactions as an example. I use them freely in texts or on social media, but on a productivity platform like Microsoft Teams? As much heart as I put into my work, I never thought I’d “heart” things there. I do that at home, where my guard is down. But now that the office is my home, there are hearts all over the place. I heart everything (unless I’m giving it a thumbs down). Read More …

This iPhone app lets anybody mint an NFT for anything—for free

Posted onAuthoradmin

Musicians and visual artists have long registered their work with the U.S. Copyright Office to prove it’s theirs. But doing so is really little more than a person in a government office “witnessing” that a creation is associated with a person’s name on a certain date. And the process takes weeks or months to complete. In the 21st century, creation happens on digital platforms. It happens far faster than ever before, and in many ways. Inspiration for a vocal line or a beat can happen spontaneously during a TikTok duet, for example. A GIF can be created on a phone and uploaded to social networks. It’s a good thing, then, that the blockchain can also “witness” the creation—and the creator—of a digital thing, and record it for perpetuity. A new, free app called S!ng lets pretty much anybody do this in a few seconds by minting an NFT ( nonfungible token ) of a work on the Ethereum blockchain. An NFT is a type of cryptographic token that signifies true ownership of a digital asset, such as a piece of digital artwork. Creators can upload images (JPEG, BMP, or TIFF files) or audio (WAV, MP3, MIDI, PTX, PTF, or M4A) to the S!ng app, or record audio directly via the phone’s microphone. Once creators have minted an NFT for their work, it can be sold or licensed to others online if there’s a market for it. Read More …

Apple sidesteps bias debate by leaving Siri’s gender up to you

Posted onAuthoradmin

For a long time, Apple’s Siri voice assistant used a female voice. It was originally the voice of the voice-over artist (and former Roy Orbison backup singer) Susan Bennett. Later, Apple began adding both male and female voice options that the user could select, and in some countries the default was male. But in the U.S., the default has always been female–until now. In a new beta version of iOS, Apple leaves it up to users who are setting up Siri to decide what gender and accent they’d like in their assistant, reports TechCrunch ‘s Matthew Panzarino. This move could deftly sidestep the debate about the inherent gender bias that the default-female Siri has stirred up in the past. (The UN called the default-female Siri “sexist” in a 2019 report called “ I’d blush if I could .”) Why have Siri and other assistants defaulted to a female voice? Fast Company ‘s Katharine Schwab explored the subject in a  2019 article . Among other reasons, AI assistants may have originally used female voices because the available synthesized female voices were of higher sound quality. But that hasn’t been true for years Read More …

I run Google TV. Here are my secrets for leading a team remotely

Posted onAuthoradmin

Even before COVID-19 led people to turn their dining rooms into makeshift offices, remote work was on the rise. Perhaps unsurprisingly, many businesses have found that remote work makes it increasingly difficult to preserve their company culture. After all, perks such as childcare, happy hours, and social lunches don’t mean much if you’re not on-site. What’s more, remote work has the potential to throttle the kind of free-flowing collaboration and brainstorming that happens when people are in the same space. That said, remote work is not without benefits. In fact, when done right, it’s a win for companies and employees Read More …