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As the “fourth wave” of coffee begins to take shape, companies that are embracing modernand, increasingly, automatedcoffee making are working to balance their tech with the craft of brewing. Terra Kaffe is one of them. The companyknown for its pricey, hypermodern automatic espresso machine TK-02revealed its first brand expansion with the August launch of Demi, a miniature version of its flagship product. Now, it’s launching a slate of accessories to complement its machines and to move the brand out of startup mode and help establish itself as a serious competitor in the world of coffee gadgets. [Photo: Terra Kaffe] The accessories, which will be rolling out into early 2026, include a countertop milk frother with a matcha setting, a line of double-walled conical glassware, tumblers for taking your coffee on the go, a quick-brewing cold brew maker, an ice cube tray, and a drip coffee potall of which are meticulously designed in the brand’s signature modern style to integrate seamlessly into the entire Terra Kaffe ecosystem. The accessories give existing Terra Kaffe owners a way to enhance their experience with the machine while providing newcomers a wider entry point into the brand. We’ve evolved into the next stage in this company’s life cycle. Now were a true lifestyle brand offering a myriad of options to serve all coffee lovers, Terra Kaffe founder and CEO Sahand Dilmaghani says. Every product has a foundation of seamlessness in the experience, elevating the way you go about your morning ritual. [Photo: Terra Kaffe] Creating an Ecosystem When Terra Kaffe released Demi, the compact machine delivered on size for those with minimal counter space, as well as cost, coming in at $795, less than half the price of the TK-02. But the machines smaller profile requires a trade-offnot being able to produce a milk-based drink (the TK-02 can produce lattes, cappuccinos and flat whites). Thats why the company saw an opportunity for its standalone Aero milk frother. The stainless steel Aero enables users to do one thing better than even the TK-02: make matcha. Its spinning technology whisks the matcha if you pour in the powder and place it under the machines spout for hot water. A built-in setting automatically stops whisking at the ideal time. (If youre old-school, you can still whisk your matcha with a bamboo whisk, then add milk from the Aero, which has a built-in temperature setting for the beverage.) [Photo: Terra Kaffe] Everything is complementary, Dilmaghani says. Were creating things to constantly improve the whole experience and tie a bow around it.’ With the new accessories line, the company was also able to broaden the scope of its machines beyond making single-serve drinksand do it in style. For Terra Kaffe users serving a crowd, it added a Drip Coffee Carafe, and while the Demi can brew a pot out of the box, the company is pushing a new setting that will enable the TK-02 to do so as part of the machines first major software update. [Photo: Terra Kaffe] While the TK-02 has an option that creates coffee optimized for iced coffee, it does not have an option to dispense the coffee cold, creating an opportunity for the Ripple ice tray, which makes four ice pucks that fit into the new line of tumblers. In early 2026, Terra Kaffe will roll out a way to make cold coffee quickly with a cold brew maker that it says will cut the roughly 18- to 24-hour process into minutes, and could be a way into the Terra Kaffe ecosystem for people who prefer cold drinks. The product uses a rotating force to rotate water through the coffee bed quicker. There’s no pressure associated with it, so it’s the same brewing methodology, Dilmaghani explains. But the technology we’re building actually accelerates the cold brew extraction process. [Photo: Terra Kaffe] Form and function A child of two architects, Dilmaghani says he places design on an equal pedestal as functionality, and time spent living in Berlin brought German design inspiration to his work. He channelled all of those inspirations for his coffee brand. Terra Kaffes brand identity and design language have a consistent throughline of geometric modernity, pulling from Bauhausian design principles, he says. Every single millimeter of the products are intentionally designed. The dials, the proportion to the base, how you engage with itthose are the details people subconsciously enjoy even if they don’t consciously acknowledge. With its name that means “earth” and its water droplet logo, Terra Kaffe is working to evoke nature with its products as it expands. The TK-01 is only available in black and white, while the Demi is sold in brownish Dune, Slate grey, Forest green, and Cloud blue earth tones. The ice trays are also available in Dune and Cloud, its Aeris tumblersavailable in three sizesrange from grey Smoke to amber Mairgold and burnt orange Sienna [Photo: Terra Kaffe] Minimalism doesnt mean plain, Dilmaghani says. Everything that you engage with stems from a place of evoking a certain feeling. That’s why, for us, everything goes back to precision, modernity and warmth. Despite releasing nearly two dozen products of different sizes and colors just this year, Terra Kaffe has more significant plans in the next year and beyond to mark its rising dominance in the home coffee tech space. We make sure that every touchpoint you engage with is inviting, Dilmaghani says. The expansion of the peripheral products continues that thread.
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E-Commerce
Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes announced Tuesday that Arizona is the latest state to sue Temu and its parent company PDD Holdings Inc. over allegations that the Chinese online retailer is stealing customers data. Mayes said the app deceives customers about the quality of its low-cost products and collects what she described as a shocking amount of sensitive data without the consent of users, including GPS locations and a list of other apps on users’ phones. According to the lawsuit, prosecutors are concerned about Temu being subject to laws in China that require Chinese companies to hand over data requested by the government, and that its code is designed to evade security reviews. It can detect everywhere you go, to a doctors office, to a public library, to a political event, to your friends’ houses,” Mayes said during a news conference. So the scope of this invasion of privacy is enormous, and thats why I consider it possibly the gravest violation of the Arizona Consumer Fraud Act that we have ever seen in Arizona. Arizona’s top prosecutor also said the state wants to protect businesses from being ripped off by the online retailer, alleging the company has copied the intellectual property of brands that include the Arizona Cardinals and Arizona State University. In a statement early Wednesday, Temu denied the allegations. We help consumers and families access quality products at affordable prices, the company said. We work to keep costs down and maintain reliable supply so people can meet their needs without stretching their budgets. Attorneys general in Kentucky, Nebraska, and Arkansas have filed similar lawsuits in recent years. There have been legislative efforts at the federal level to counter Chinas influence, especially when it comes to technology and intellectual property. But Mayes suggested there should be greater intervention by the federal government to protect consumers. Mayes called the allegations against Temu more egregious than those that have been made against TikTok. Through a forensic review, investigators in Arizona found the apps code has portions recognized by experts as malware or spyware and allows exfiltration of data from a users mobile device while concealing that the app is doing so. The review also found in the app large swaths of previously banned code from the platforms precursor version. Mayes urged Arizonans to delete their Temu accounts, uninstall the app, and scan their devices for malware. Sejal Govindarao, Associated Press
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E-Commerce
Hit-Boy has made chart-topping beats for the likes of Beyoncé, Jay Z, Nas and Doechii but behind the scenes he was stuck in a restrictive publishing deal. In this interview, Hit-Boy talks But now he’s in full control of his art and his story. He’ll also dive into his creative process and how he’s walking the line of AI and art.
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E-Commerce
When it comes to the battle of the prediction markets, which player are you betting on? Fanatics, the global sports platform, is out to prove that sportsbooks will be the emerging industry’s biggest winners. Today, Fanatics is launching a stand-alone predictions market app designed to appeal to the fans who already buy its apparel and collectibles. It’s the first of the major sportsbooks to move into prediction marketsand almost certainly won’t be the last. Prediction markets are one of the top things that fans want to do these days, says Matt King, who leads betting and gaming for Fanatics. People want to be able to express their opinions on not just sports, but entertainment, culture, and everything under the sun. King, the former CEO of FanDuel, oversaw Fanatics expansion into sports betting in 2023 with a sportsbook that now operates online in 22 states and Washington D.C. With prediction markets, King sees a way to give people the ability to speculate on different asset classes, different trades, all in one place. The demographic that is core to both Fanatics and prediction marketsmen in their 20s and 30s, who likely watch sports and trade cryptoare seeking the ability to profit if theyre right, King says. Fanatics Markets will be available to users aged 21 and up in 10 states this afternoon, and an additional 14 by the end of the weekall places where Fanatics Sportsbook & Casino is currently unavailable. The trading categories featured in the app include live games, major league matchups, economic indicators, and elections. (Later releases will include crypto, pop culture, movies, and more.) Fanatics designed the apps user experience, partnering with Crypto.com to operate the derivatives exchange that powers the underlying market and its pricing. The Android app will go live first, followed by iOS. Prediction markets are an adaptation of traditional futures markets, which allow traders to buy and sell contracts associated with future events. Originally a hedging tool designed to protect farmers in the event of a poor harvest, the contracts have been repackaged as an internet-era way to bet on news. Since winning greater regulatory clarity last year, prediction markets have been growing at a breakneck pace. Weekly trading volume now extends into the billions of dollars, with a significant portion of those dollars dedicated to sports. In late October, for example, industry pioneer Kalshi posted weekly notional trading volumes of more than $1 billion in sports, making the category its most popular by far. For those arguing prediction markets are a positive because they can generate meaningful signal… volume on Kalshi is *overwhelmingly* just sports gambling: pic.twitter.com/jh1Z22DsRh— Jason Mikula (@mikulaja) December 2, 2025 Numbers like those have convinced sportsbooks to get off the sidelines. If you look at the inherent customer base, the experience that we have in this business, its super exciting for us, Fanatics CEO Michael Rubin told CNBC last month. Customers want this product, and we want to give it to the customers. GROWING COMPETITION Meaningfully, prediction markets also give Fanatics an opportunity to try to leapfrog U.S. sports betting leaders FanDuel and DraftKings, which together control roughly 80% of the market. Fanatics sports betting operation generated $300 million in revenue in 2024; its market share, while growing, is in the single digits. Structurally, prediction markets are vastly different to operate than sportsbooks, in which the operator serves as the house. But to fans, the underlying impulse is the same: putting money on a predicted outcome. While Fanatics is making the first move, FanDuel has teamed up with CME Group and has a product in the works. DraftKings says it is watching how things unfold, according to CEO Jason Robins. Stock and crypto trading platforms see prediction markets as an opportunity, too. Robinhood unveiled its prediction markets feature last fall, just in time for the presidential election. Leaked screenshots suggest that Coinbase, in pursuit of its goal of becoming an everything exchange, could unveil a prediction market offering, in partnership with Kalshi, later this month. Meanwhile, Kalshi and Polymarket are attracting significant investor interest. In October, Polymarket raised up to $2 billion in strategic capital from ICE, parent company of the New York Stock Exchange, and Kalshi followed suit with a $1 billion round on Tuesday, led by Paradigm. As Fanatics prepares to go head-to-head with existing exchanges, King says he sees Fanatics strong brand as an essential asset. We think a combination of the brand, a good product experience, and our rewards proposition means that well have a big chunk of customers that play with us, he says. But we don’t think its winner take all. We recognize it’s going to be a competitive industry. PLACING BETS, AMASSING REWARDS Fanatics has positioned itself at the center of sports fandom in recent years. In addition to selling licensed apparel, it now offers trading cards, collectibles, and memorabilia. Its live events arm produces the annual Fanatics Fest in New York City, which has become something of the Comic Con of sports. The companys Fanatics ONE rewards program, meanwhile, knits together these disparate arms, offering users rewards for betting and shopping. In the coming months, King expects to integrate Fanatics Markets with Fanatics ONE. Users might earn rewards points the more they trade, for example. You’ll also see traders, the more they trade, unlock benefits that are really only available to our best users, whether thats access to exclusive merch drops, or free tickets to Fanatics Fest, or other things like that, he says. It’s a formula weve seen work in the other categories that we operate in, and so we know there’s a huge overlap between the customer demographic, trading and prediction markets, and some of our other core businesses. Spots is emerging as a prediction markets linchpin because of the frequency and regularity of the events it comprises. Month in, month out, theres always something going on, says Travis McGhee, global head of predictions at Crypto.com. Prior to its Fanatics collaboration, Crypto.com launched sports event trading last December. The trading platform also announced a prediction markets partnership with Underdog, a fantasy and sports gaming company, in September. But even sports-first Fanatics sees potential in a broader realm of trading possibilities. Sports is the most intuitive [category] to net-new users, King says of prediction markets. But he expects to see sports fans expand their trading activity to new categories as they get more comfortable with the format. If you think about the papal election, when there were a lot of Chicagoans rooting for our man, that was incredibly popular on a relative basis, he says. And I think if that were to happen again today, it would be orders of magnitude more popular, because you have so many more users that are on these platforms and aware that they can now express an opinion. Sports leagues have their offseasons. But if Fanatics has its way, there will always be a reason for fans to log on and put money down.
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E-Commerce
Flying often first requires crawling, in a car, in slow or stopped traffic that eventually treats you to a view of airplanes soaring away from your ground-anchored vehicular misery. After decades of hype about flying cars, the past 10 years have seen a pivot to something of a car-plane hybrid: an electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft that provides taxi-like service. In conceptall we have to go by, since the only way to watch an eVTOL speeding somebody to LAX is in a computer-rendered videothis can look appealing. But after years of promising services that have yet to take off, eVTOL startups need to go beyond impressing investors. They need to prove to regulators that they can deliver safe, reliable service in already-crowded airspace. And then they need to earn the business of paying customers who have other transportation choices. Their basic bet that enough people will spend potentially large sums of money to save time is not crazy. But its hardly a sure thing, either. To understand the gap between a private demo and public service, consider Joby Aviation, a Santa Cruz, California, firm that says its within months of launching commercial operations. At Novembers Web Summit conference in Lisbon, Portugal, the company pitched its vision for the eVTOL future. This is not just a rendering, this is not just an idea, vouched Eric Allison, chief product officer. Joby Aviations Eric Allison at Web Summit 2025 in Lisbon, Portugal [Photo By Ramsey Cardy/Sportsfile for Web Summit via Getty Images] But the first use case he laid out did not involve whisking people to San Francisco International Airport. Instead, he talked up how Jobys six-rotor eVTOL aircraftwhich seats four passengers and a pilot, can hit 200 mph, and offers a maximum range of 150 miles on a chargecould replace the driving commute he endured from Mountain View to downtown San Francisco. That trip that took me one and a half hours on a daily basis could maybe take 15 minutes if we don’t go on the road but we fly, he said. Outside of the opening credits of Futurama, however, the idea of large numbers of people packing into air taxis to get to a crowded business district doesnt scale. Plus, we already know how to upgrade a commute like that: not with expensive aircraft transporting a few people each but with fast and frequent train service. Like, for example, the quick, quiet electric-powered trains now plying Caltrain routes up and down the peninsula. Product-market fits Allison expanded on Jobys plans for service to airportsdestinations that already feature landing facilities and have traffic spread more evenly throughout the dayand its partnerships with Delta Air Lines, Virgin Atlantic, and All Nippon Airways (ANA). Predicting passenger service in Dubai next year, Allison emphasized that Joby isnt flying vaporware: This is something that we are executing on. In an interview after his presentation, he offered a more grounded version of Jobys pitch for its S4 battery-electric air taxi. The companys ambitions for its eVTOL do include speedy aerial commutes for the well-heeled, something Joby is already exploring via the Blade Air Mobility helicopter service it bought in August in a transaction valued at $125 million. In November, Blade announced the start of weekday helicopter commuting flights between Westchester County Airport and Manhattan at fares of $125 to $225 per ride. Allison said the company aims to beat those rates with its eVTOL service and instead roughly match Uber Black pricing on a per-seat basis. We think there’s a ton of potential in most of the highly congested big cities, not just in the U.S. but around the world, he said. Uber isnt merely a comparison point but a partner; in 2021, Joby bought the ride-hail companys Uber Elevate division while Uber deepened its investment in Joby from $50 million to $125 million and agreed to integrate Jobys future services into its apps. Jobys business model doesnt assume software will replace a human pilot, although Allison allowed that in the long run, we think autonomy plays a big role in this. Competing costs But airport trips constitute the bulk of Jobys pitch. On that front, Allison acknowledged that the company will have to compete with existing tansit options. Thats a reality often left out of eVTOL pitches that pretend single-seat airport rides like Chicagos CTA Blue Line to OHare, San Franciscos BART to SFO, and Washingtons Metro to Dulles International Airport dont already offer traffic-immune service between city centers and international airports at fares as low as $2.50. We’re not looking to replace public transport, Allison said. Were creating a new option that has unique features that you can’t get through any of the other modes. [Photo: Joby Aviation] First among them is speed, but theres also the view that Blade passengers enjoy today: You just get this fantastic view of the skyline as you’re flying down the river and swinging over to go to the airport, Allison said. For what Blade chargesits site lists fares from $195 to $295 for flights from Manhattan to JFKthat view had better be exceptional. Uber, meanwhile, quoted about $145 for an Uber Black ride from midtown Manhattan to JFK and $100 for UberX early on the Tuesday afternoon of Thanksgiving week. Taking New Yorks subway or the Long Island Rail Road to the AirTrain that links those transit systems to JFK (a two-seat itinerary less convenient and pricier than the airport-rail options in Chicago, D.C., or San Francisco) costs $11.40 to $15.50 for most riders. Infrastructure weaknesses Efficient eVTOL rides will demand a long series of sign-offs from local infrastructure operators and authorities. The easiest looks to be agreements with airports to streamline a passenger connection apart from the usual passenger entrances. Joby is working with Delta and other airline partners on that, Allison said. He added that Joby is assuming airport transfers will need time for travelers to clear security at their departing terminal. Its eVTOL, meanwhile, will need time for a quick, 10-minute battery charge. Joby will also need to build out vertiports for its aircraft across its target markets, which will be a lot more involved than clearing space for its operations at airports. A lawsuit the company filed against its rival Archer Aviation offered a peek at one part of that strategy: exclusive deals with property developers, one of which Joby alleges its former executive George Kivork disrupted by taking sensitive data about that deal to Archer. Archer denied the allegations in a statement from Eric Lentell, chief legal and strategy officer, that read, in part: Joby alleges we used their trade secrets to win a deal with a developer but the reality is that Archer has no deal with this developer and Mr. Kivork did not bring any Joby confidential information to Archer. Joby, in turn, declined to comment beyond the details of its complaint, filed in Santa Cruz Superior Court on November 19. The regulatory road ahead Getting this far has not been cheap for Joby. On November 5, the firm reported a Q3 loss of $401 million, versus $144 million in the year-ago quarter, with $978 million in cash, cash equivalents, and short-term investments. Securing U.S. regulatory approval of its eVTOL will clear the companys path to revenue service. On the day of its earnings release, it announced that it had begun powered-up testing of the first aircraft built to the final design that the Federal Aviation Administration will need to certify. Joby aims to have test flights, conducted by its own and FAA pilots, start later this year. Allison declined to predict when the FAA will issue a type certification for its eVTOL. The company is exploring ways to launch pre-commercial operations in Dubai ahead of that certification. In the U.S. it plans to apply for a new eVTOL pilot-operations program announced by the FAA in Septemberthe latest in a series of moves by the air-safety agency to adapt its regulations for this new category of aircraft. [Photo: Joby Aviation] But overall, Jobys plans envisage FAA certification
Category:
E-Commerce
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