If you’ve called a hotel or airline lately, chances are your first “conversation” wasn’t with a person. It was with a chatbot or voice bot programmed to answer questions, process simple requests, and—if you’re lucky—eventually hand you off to a human being. Hotels, airlines, banks,… Read More »The Bots Are Winning—And We’re Losing
Hands-On Review: iPhone 17 Series – Hype, Reality, and a Few Concerns I spent some time with the iPhone Air, iPhone 17 Pro, and iPhone 17 Pro Max this week at an Apple Store and have been following the global wave of teardowns and torture… Read More »Hands on with the iPhone 17 Series
Credit cards continue to promise luxury perks, travel credits, and dazzling rewards, but for many of us the real question is simpler: Which of these benefits will I actually use and how much will I really save? Marketing always highlights the maximum possible value, assuming a perfect… Read More »Amex Platinum vs. Chase Sapphire Reserve: Which Delivers the Best Value for my use?
Amazon seems to be a well-oiled machine that magically delivers any of its millions of products to us in a day and sometimes in just a few hours. But there are a few questions that have recently surfaced that makes me question the company’s operations.… Read More »What’s going on with Amazon?
Here are a few thoughts on the new iPhones and considerations for those thinking of upgrading, based on yesterdays Apple’s presentation. As I describe below, this was a presentation filled with oldies but goodies. Things that worked in the past, such as another AIr product,… Read More »First thoughts on buying a new iPhone
Two things I saw today perfectly captured the widening gap between American and Chinese innovation. One was Apple’s rollout of new iPhone 17 models and watches. The other was a short video on Instagram of a massive Chinese ship that was built by BYD just… Read More »We’ve lost the product development lead
If you believe the ads, you’d think U.S. airlines were in the hospitality business. Watch a TV spot or browse their websites and you’ll see smiling flight attendants, promises of more legroom, and perks designed to make us feel like honored guests. They shower us… Read More »Airlines’ Two Faces: Courting Us With Smiles, Lobbying Against Our Rights
Apple’s big phone event is Tuesday, September 9, at 10:00 a.m. Pacific Time. They named the event “Awe Dropping,” whatever that means. It’s now the seventeenth year when Apple makes a big effort to convince us their new phones are better than ever and try… Read More »Apple Bingo
While there’s an enormous assortment of tech accessories for travel that work well, as a product designer, I’ve admired many of the products from Twelve South, a design-driven company from Charleston, South Carolina. In a space crowded with me-too products from unknown Chinese companies, Twelve… Read More »A collection of clever, well-designed travel accessories
Some of the largest companies in the world are spending like they’ve already seen the future — a future where machines think, reason, and create as well as any human. Microsoft is pouring billions into AI data centers. Google is buying chips by the ton.… Read More »AI Can Do Amazing Things — It just can’t think