Business, Spoken

Fourwords sum up the Silicon Valley hype machine at the end of 2016: “squirrels and sea monkeys.” That was the repeated responsefrom Magic Leap founder Rony Abovitz when Reed Albergotti ofThe Informationasked about the technology behind the startup’s augmented-reality glasses. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

In the center of Boston rises the small neighborhood of Fort Hill, on top of which sits Highland Park, designed in the 1700s by Frederick Olmsted. Patriots stored gunpowder here during the Revolutionary War, and a tower fit for Repunzel commemorates their efforts. The abolitionist writer William Lloyd Garrison fought against slavery from a house on this hill. And now the battle for urban housing affordability rages on these streets. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

2016 was the year tech got “fangs.” Well, not literally. FANGs wasa term coined by CNBC business guru Jim Cramer in 2015 to describe the high-performing stocks of the massively successful tech companies Facebook, Amazon, Netflix, and Google (now called Alphabet). Today, it’s not these particular companies that are technically at the top of the Wall Street leaderboard—that distinction falls to Apple, Alphabet, Microsoft, Amazon, and Facebook. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Streaming music and movies over the internet may seem more eco-friendly than stocking up on CDs and DVDs. After all, you’re saving the plastic needed to make the physical media, the trees needed to print the liner notes, and the gasoline needed to ship all those discs across the country. But there’s a hidden cost to online streaming: the coal needed to power the computer data centers that deliver all that content. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Online retailer Overstock.com has became the first publicly traded company to issue stock over the internet, distributing more than 126,000 company shares via technology based on the bitcoin blockchain. Through a subsidiary called tØ, the Salt Lake City-based Overstock has spent the past two years building the technology that facilitates this new way of trading financial securities. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

It’s office holiday party season again, and as usual that means alcohol. Lots and lots of alcohol. For many employees, the holidays are the one time of year that it’s appropriate to have a drink at work. But for tech workers, the annual Christmas party is just another boozy day in the office. Kegerators, or at least well-stocked beer fridges, are standard fixtures at tech companies, right up there with ping-pong tables and beanbag chairs. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

After coming under heavy public criticism for not taking full responsibility for how it may have affected the outcome of the 2016 presidential election, Facebook has finally laid out how it plans to crack down on fake news. The social network’s corrective updates are starting to roll out right now, and while they won’t solve the problem overnight, they’re an important first step. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

This week, Amazon Video, the commerce giant’s answer to Netflix, invaded 200 countries. That expansion, too, was itself a sort of response: Netflix had pulled a similar globe-spanning stunt in January. Both moves were audacious, expansive, and potentially highly profitable. An neither would have been remotely possible had each company not spent the last several years investing heavily original content. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Microsoft is joining Google and Amazon in the race for your home. This week, at an event in China, the venerable tech giant trumpeted the arrival of Project Evo, a sweeping plan to build hardware devices that work a lot like Google Home or the Amazon Echo. But this race is much bigger than some gadgets that sit on your coffee table. It’s a race not only for the hearts and minds of consumers, but for a world of business customers, too. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Bill Cosby has been accused of drugging and raping dozens of women over several decades. Roger Ailes is accused of harassing multiple women as far back as the 1960s. And then there’s all those Catholic priests. Indeed, when sexual predators, especially those in positions of power, get away with such crimes once, they often do it again and again until an overwhelming preponderance of accusations, evidence, and outrage brings them down. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices