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I still remember the first time I tried on Google Glass. I was 12, and a friend of my parents had just gotten oneI was completely mesmerized. It felt like a glimpse of the future. More than a decade later, that future never arrived. Instead, were surrounded by a graveyard of clever wearables that never quite stuck. So whats actually missing? Today, a new generation of AI-enabled wearables is emerging with devices that promise to embed intelligence directly into the objects we carry and wear every day. And yet, most of what were seeing still feels like déj vu from the early smartwatch era: a mic, a board, and a vague promise of productivity. The focus is on what the device does, not how it lives in the world. Minimalism Isnt Enough Apples clean, brushed-aluminum aesthetic dominates tech for a reason. And yes, it even works in wearables. The Apple Watch proved that minimalism can cross over when its paired with personal expression. It wasnt just a mini-iPhone on your wrist; it came with metal, leather, and fabric straps, Herms collaborations, and countless ways to signal identity. In other words, it worked because it became part of peoples personal style, not in spite of it. The moment you ask someone to wear something, the rules change. It stops being a tool and becomes a reflection. Youre not just shipping a product, youre asking someone to let the world see them differently. The Adoption Equation The winning AI wearable solves two problems simultaneously: Functional utilitymaking life meaningfully easier Social acceptanceblending seamlessly into the world so it stops being a gadget and starts being part of you Most devices today are designed for tech reviewers and hackathons, not actual people. Theyre clunky, obvious, and force users to justify their presence. Adoption dies the moment someone has to explain a device to everyone around them. If we look at the Oura Ring, it doesnt just track sleep, it fits into peoples jewelry stacks. It passes the real test: Would you still wear it if it ran out of battery? Most gadgets fail that test. Cultural objects dont. Why This Moment Matters Apples September event will unveil the iPhone 17, Watch Series 11, and Watch Ultra 3. Early reporting suggests new AI-driven health features. But as powerful as these may be, the form remains rugged, utilitarian, and unmistakably tech. That opens space for new entrants to redefine the categorynot as gadgets, but as personal objects of meaning. At the same time, Gen Z is leading a wave of hyper-personal style, curating every detail of their aesthetic to signal identity. Fashion-tech in 2025 is becoming more human and more automated, blending physical expression with digital layers. If wearables are going to matter, they must live at this intersection of culture and intelligence. The Missed Opportunity Marshall McLuhan once wrote that that media and tools are extensions of ourselves. Glasses extend our vision. Clothing extends our skin. Cars extend our legs. In that sense, a truly personal AI wearable extends memory, attention, and presence. Invisible AI isnt about stealth, its about blending into life seamlessly. Thats not an afterthought; thats the goal. AI wearables could be the most personal consumer tech ever. Devices that know your context, understand preferences, and anticipate needs in real time. Most of todays devices miss that opportunity. Theyre function-first, culture-last. They have to exist where people already express themselves: in clothing, jewelry, glasses, and watches . . . objects that have meaning before they have circuitry. The Real Challenge For those of us building in this space, the goal isnt just better features or faster chips. Were being asked to design something that people are willing to wear, which means it has to reflect who they are, not just what the tech can do. Thats the real test for an AI wearable: would someone still wear it even if it ran out of battery?
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E-Commerce
In 1827, in the small Tuscan town of Sansepolcro, Italy, Giulia Buitonia mother and home cookbecame so well known for her starchy noodles that she decided to launch a pasta business. She didn’t have much money, so she traded her most valuable necklace for a pasta machine. The trade was well worth it. Buitoni pasta was an instant success in Italy, and within the century, the company was selling its pasta around the world. Giulia’s children went on to build high-tech pasta-making factories that could churn out hundreds of tons of pasta a day. Today, Buitoni is the second-largest fresh pasta brand in the U.S. It’s dozens of productsincluding four cheese ravioli and Italian sausage tortelliniare sold in grocery stores across the country. But Buitoni is about to embark on a new chapter. Joe Faro [Photo: Tuscan Brands] Joseph Faro, a serial entrepreneur from New Hampshire, purchased the company last year, and is transforming it for the modern American market. Faro believes that the key to Buitoni’s continued success in the U.S. is to focus on returning to the artisanal flavors that first made the product successful, from ultra-fine milled flour to chunky fillings for ravioli to aged Parmigiano Reggiano from Italy. “Americans are more discerning now than they were in the past,” says Faro. “The way that we can stand out is by focusing on quality.” As a sign of Buitoni’s new era, Faro has given the brand a facelift. The next time you pick up some pasta at the grocery store, you’ll notice that the logo has changed from its previous cursive font to a new bold, all-caps serif font. The aesthetic is more in line with retro art deco posters than with today’s branding trends. But that’s the point. Faro was inspired by version of the Buitoni logo that was used when it landed in New York in 1941 at the Buitoni’s Time Square Spaghetti Bar. [Image: Buitoni] An Italian empire For Faro, acquiring Buitoni was a full circle moment. Faro, much like Guilia Buitoni, is a pasta innovator. In 2006, he sold his first companyJoseph’s Gourmet Pastato Buitoni’s parent company, Nestlé. In the following decades, using the money from that sale, Faro became a prolific entrepreneur, launching a portfolio of Italian restaurants, factories, a hotel, and a retail development. But last year, Buitoni came back on the market. In the midst of the pandemic, Nestlé decided to sell Buitoni to focus on its higher performing brands, like Lean Cuisine and Stouffer’s, and sold it to the private equity firm Brynwood Partners. When Faro heard it was for sale, he was intrigued, and decided to acquire it for an undisclosed sum. [Image: Buitoni] Over the past year, Faro and his team of chefs have completely reformulated Buitoni’s products to improve the quality of ingredients, including ultra-fine milled flour and Parmigiano Reggiano imported from Italy. They’ve also shifted their production to Faro’s own factories in Massachusetts and Virginia, which are focused on making artisanal food products, including stone hearth baked bread and sauces. Thanks to more sophisticated machinery, they can now create ravioli fillings that are chunkier, and more like hand-made pasta. Faro is betting that Buitoni will beat out the competition by focusing on quality and craftsmanship. And so far, the strategy seems to be working: Buitoni became cash positive within four months of the acquisition. Now, the goal is to gain more market share. [Photo: Tuscan Brands] An Accidental Pasta Machine Designer In the late ’80s, Faro was failing out of the University of New Hampshire to the disappointment of his parents, who had immigrated to the U.S. from Sicily several decades earlier. In a last-ditch effort to get his degree, he begged his dean to let him switch from the liberal arts college to the business school. And in his senior project, he came up with a business plan to transform a shoe factory into a pasta factory. It was so comprehensive, it came in second place in a business school contest. “My professor saw that this wasn’t just a school project, it was something that could really work,” Faro says. “He spent hundreds of hours with me that summer helping me execute the plan.” In 1991, with a $950,000 loan from the Small Business Administration, and $50,000 fro friends and family, Faro bought a shoe factory in Massachusetts and retrofitted it with pasta-making equipment. He launched Joseph’s Gourmet Pasta with the goal of manufacturing at scale the kind of hand-made pasta that his grandmother would make. There was one big problem. When you make ravioli by hand, you can incorporate chunkier fillings, like pieces of beef or lobster. But, at the time, pasta machines could only pipe soft fillings into the ravioli; meat would need to be mashed to a thick, creamy consistency to be squeezed in. Without the money to design a custom machine, Faro took apart the machines he had to see if he could improve them. Faro borrowed piping bags from a nearby bakery to find one that could squeeze out thicker fillings. He also changed the process of making the ravioli. Rather than squeezing the filling into premade shells, he creating a moving table full of slices of flat pasta, filled them, then put another pasta piece on top before the machine squeezed the edges together. “This is much more like the way you make ravioli by hand,” Faro explains. “It always happens on a flat table. We just automated it.” This innovation proved to be game-changing. Restaurants lined up to buy the pasta. Specialty shops and groceries stocked their fridges with it. By 2006, Joseph’s Pasta was a $50 million business. And that’s when Buitoni, which was then owned by Nestlé, came knocking with a nine figure offer. They wanted to buy Faro’s companybut more importantly, they wanted access to Faro’s innovative manufacturing process. [Photo: Tuscan Brands] Full Circle Moment Faro sold the company reluctantly. After spending three years at Nestlé helping to run Buitoni and Joseph’s, Faro left altogether. “I admit I was terrible at being at a big corporation,” he says. “I was used to being in charge of every detail of how the pasta came out, and this didn’t work within the corporate structure.” Over the next 17 years, Faro became a serial entrepreneur. He launched Tuscan Kitchen restaurants all over New England, followed by Tuscan Market, a more casual eatery. Then, in 2015, he purchased an old horse racing track in New Hampshire called Rockingham Park and transformed it into a mixed-used development called Tuscan Village, anchored by his restaurants and a hotel. Now, his portfolio of brands hires more than 3,000 employees and generates more than $315 million in annual revenue. Both of Faro’s sons now have leadership roles at the company. [Photo: Tuscan Brands] In 2020, during the pandemic, when his restaurants were forced to shutter, he poured his energy into a new venture, the Artisan Chef Manufacturing Company, which opened factories in Virginia and Massachusetts. The idea was to manufacture Tuscan Kitchen breads and frozen pizzas and pastas for customers to buy at grocery stores and make at home during lockdown. When Buitoni cameup for sale last year, Faro believed he had the infrastructure not only to manufacture Buitoni pastas, but innovate on the products. [Photo: Buitoni] Creating a Better Pasta Now, much like with Joseph’s, Faro is focused on the nuts and bolts of making high-quality pasta. For one thing, he’s reformulating the pasta with better quality ingredients. It now uses “00” flour, which is an Italian classification of flour that is extremely finely milled, to create a lighter and more delicate dough that has a higher gluten development, which results in chewier dough (what Guilia Buitoni was famous for). It also sources Denominazione di Origine Protetta (DOP) Parmigiano Reggiano which comes from Italian provinces that follow strict traditional methods. Even though these ingredients cost more, Buitoni is not raising the price. Instead, the company is pouring millions of dollars into automating more of the process, using custom machinery, which reduces the cost of labor. [Photo: Buitoni] Once again, Faro is interested in tweaking the machinery to improve the pasta. His new factory makes shapes of ravioli and tortellini that are more similar to handmade pasta, including the thumbprint texture around the edges to close the pasta. And importantly, the equipment ensures fillings are chunky rather than creamy. As a result, you can taste chunks of diced mushroom, butternut squash, or large sausage crumbles, much like you would in pastas that are hand-made on a kitchen counter. Soon, the factory will have the technology to put a full meatball inside a ravioli, which hasn’t been done before by machine. Faro is also thining about expanding Buitoni’s product selection, since his factories are already equipped to make other products. He’s contemplating making frozen pizzas, calzones, or other prepared meals under the Buitoni name. In a sign of how committed Faro is to Buitoni, he recently purchased the Buitoni family villa in the town of Sansepolcro, Italy, where Guilia first launched the company. It was previously owned by Nestlé, which had turned it into a food research center and cooking school. Faro is currently renovating it, and hopes to transform it into a culinary destination for visitors, where they can take cooking lessons and sample the local cuisine. “For much of Buitoni’s history, it was a family business, not part of a larger corporation,” says Faro. “I want to turn it back into a family business.”
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The search for extraterrestrial life represents one of humanity’s most profound scientific questsone that could fundamentally reshape our understanding of our place in the universe. Yet current telescopes face an almost impossible challenge: separating the faint glow of planets from stars that greatly outshine them. Now, a radical new telescope design solves this problem. Unlike current circular telescopes like the Hubble or the James Webb, this design is a long rectangle, about 66 feet long by 3.3 feet tall. According to a new research study published in Frontiers in Astronomy and Space Sciences, the new design will be able to detect a record number of habitable planets in a record time span, while being easier to implement and less expensive than current and future generation of space telescopes. The author of the study, astronomy professor Heidi Newberg and her team at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, NY, says its a bizarre shape that goes against centuries of telescope building. But Newberg believes the design will vastly improve the chances of discovering extraterrestrial life. Computer simulations detailed in the team’s research show the rectangular telescope could discover approximately 11 habitable exoplanets around the 15 closest sun-like stars in just one year of operation. Expanding to 46 target stars within 108 light-years, the mission could identify 27 potentially habitable worlds in 3.5 yearsmeeting NASA’s Habitable Worlds Observatory goal at a fraction of the cost and complexity. [Image: Leaf Swordy/Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute] Breaking the circle Newberg’s design abandons the centuries-old assumption that telescopes must be circular. Instead, Newberg’s team proposes a design that delivers the resolution of a massive circular telescope while fitting into existing launch capabilities for spacecrafts. To do so, the concept leverages an optical principle: resolution depends on the longest dimension of a telescope’s primary mirror. The technical specifications are deceptively simple and elegant. This is how it works: Imagine you’re trying to spot a firefly sitting next to a giant searchlight from miles awaythat’s essentially what astronomers face when hunting for planets around other stars. Stars are so blindingly bright that any planets orbiting them get completely washed out. To image the planet alone, the telescope uses a device called an Achromatic Interfero Coronagrapha well-known astronomical device that is basically a sophisticated light-blocking system that works like noise-canceling headphones, but for starlight instead of sound. It splits the incoming light into separate beams, then smashes them back together in a way that the star’s light cancels itself out while the planet’s light survives the process. The beauty is that this technique only needs to dim the star by about a million times (which sounds impossible but is actually pretty manageable with current technology), rather than the billion-times dimming required when looking at regular visible light. This makes planet hunting dramatically easier than previous methods. The proposed telescope would use a segmented beryllium mirrorsimilar to Webb’s successful hexagonal designfolded for launch aboard a Falcon Heavy rocket. And here is where the magic comes in: Unlike circular telescopes that provide uniform resolution in all directions, the rectangular design concentrates its resolving power along a single axis. To find planets at any angle around their stars, the telescope rotates 90 degrees between observations, effectively scanning the sky in two perpendicular orientations. This is done with a sensor that only looks at a specific type of invisible light called infrared (think heat vision) at a wavelength of about 0.0004 inches, which is where planets that could support life naturally glow the brightest from their own heat. The problem of this approach is that you need to keep the telescope in a perfectly still point in space at all times while it rotates. Think of the astronomer like a sniper who needs to hit a target the size of a pinhead from 20 miles awayexcept the target is keeping a space telescope perfectly still while it’s hurtling through space at thousands of miles per hour. The telescope needs to stay pointed in exactly the right direction with mind-boggling precision: if it drifts off course by even 1.25×109 radiansthe width of a human hair viewed from 500 miles awaythe whole observation gets ruined. This is actually four times more precise than the already incredibly steady James Webb Space Telescope, and the reason is simple physicsbecause this new telescope can see finer details along one direction, it’s like having a more powerful zoom lens that amplifies every tiny wobble, so the whole system has to be that much more rock-solid to compensate. It’s a challenge, Newberg says, but it’s doable. The design faces other technical uncertainties around structural stability, thermal control, and vibration management across its 66-foot span. However, these challenges are comparable to those NASA solved for Webb’s segmented mirror system. The space agency has extensive capabilities for “high-fidelity modeling and environmental test (cryovac and vibration)” that would apply directly to the rectangular design. Other engineering challenges, while significant, appear solvable with existing technology too. “I have asked scientists to be more expert in space telescope vibration, flexion, and thermal stability and have gotten responses ranging from ‘might be a problem’ to ‘not a problem.’ No one has seen an obvious reason that this would not work,” Newberg tells me. The race to find life and Earth 2.0 Multiple teams worldwide are pursuing other approaches to overcome the challenge of hunting planets with alien life, each representing billions of dollars in development costs and decades of technological advancement. All of them, however, stick with traditional round mirrors. The LUVOIR (Large UV/Optical/IR Surveyor), for example, proposes two concepts resembling James Webb, with segmented hexagonal mirrors assembled in a circle, one 26 feet in diameter, the other 49 feet. They will be equipped with an ultra-high-contrast coronagraph capable of blocking starlight by ten billion to one. This visible-light approach demands unprecedented precision in optical engineering. HabEx (Habitable Exoplanet Observatory) takes a different path: a 13-foot telescope paired with a massive 171-foot starshade that flies 47,600 miles away to physically block stellar light. Moving this enormous shadow between target stars would require immense fuel expenditure. Another radical approach is the European LIFE mission, which calls fr a swarm of small telescopes flying in perfect formation, always coordinated with each other. But if the position accuracy of Newberg’s design is a challenge, LIFE’s requirements are nuts. They need to maintain positioning accuracy “precisely calibrated to the size of a typical molecule,” as Newberg describes it to me. Its a requirement, she says, that remains “currently infeasible.” Newberg claims that her team’s design avoids all the pitfalls of its rivals. “I would argue that my concept is the ‘conservative’ one for identifying nearby, habitable exoplanets,” she tells me. “Neither the LUVOIR or HabEx proposals were selected in the National Academies Committee for a Decadal Survey on Astronomy and Astrophysics 2020 because they knew that the technology was not mature enough to develop a reasonable time and cost estimate for these missions” Engineering trade-offs That’s not to say that the design doesn’t have limitations. Its infrared sensor can only see a fraction of the spectrum, the one that serves to locate life, but it will not allow us to see the planet or get additional information about it. “This means that we would need to tune the coronagraph to different wavelengths at different times and take individual exposures to observe different molecules,” Newberg explains. She also told me that the new design will be perfect to quickly detect the alien life candidates for more detailed observations in the future: “These more complex observatories require more time to develop the technology, and would benefit from a curated list of very interesting targets to observe,” she says. One limitation of its rectangular design is that it produces elongated “cigar-shaped” point sources rather than round images. “If the Hubble Space Telescope was rectangular, all of those beautiful images would look smeared out in one direction, so that each of the stars would be cigar-shaped,” Newberg acknowledges. For exoplanet hunting, this limitation proves irrelevantseparating two point sources matters more than image aesthetics. So yes, the planets can be seen as separated from their stars, just not the way you’d see them with your naked eye (although the images will likely be processed into photos that look normal for public use). But as long as the evidence of life is visible, that’s all that matters. Cost and implementation This telescope redesign benefits both science and taxpayers. Newberg says the cost advantages of this design are substantial compared to any other. While still requiring approximately $1 billionmaking it a major space missionthe rectangular telescope would cost significantly less than alternatives demanding new technologies or multiple spacecraft. The simpler design reduces both development risks and operational complexity, potentially accelerating the timeline to first results by decades compared to more ambitious concepts. The rectangular concept could revolutionize high-resolution space astronomy beyond this single mission. The same principle could work at different wavelengthsa 66-foot rectangular mirror observing in visible light could theoretically detect Earth-like planets out to 650 light-years, though with far greater technical challenges. However, the reach of roughly 100 light-years is exactly whats needed for humanitys next dream. Within around 100 light-years of Earth lie the only stars we could realistically explore with robotic probes on human timescales. “The closer the exoplanet is, the more likely we could send a probe to investigate, establish communication with its residents, or possibly one day visit,” she says. Newberg says the telescope could enable a probe that could beam back images of the planet’s surface. “The rectangular telescope could provide a straightforward path towards identifying our sister planet: Earth 2.0, Newberg says.
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