1. Bain - 2026년 미국 연말 쇼핑 전망: 사상 첫 1조 달러 돌파와 4.5% 성장사상 첫 1조 달러 돌파 및 4.5% 성장 전망: 미국 연말 쇼핑 시즌 매출이 역사상 처음으로 1조 달러를 넘어서며 전년 대비 4.5% 성장할 것으로 전망. 매장 매출(전체의 약 70%)은 2.5% 성장하는 반면, 이커머스 등 무점포 매출은 9%로 가파른 반등 예상.소비 회복력과 가계 압박 간의 상반된 신호: 주식 시장 상승(S&P 500 +23%)과 세금 환급 증가, 리테일러들의 가격 인하가 호재로 작용하지만, 높은 유가($4.21/갤런), 저축률 하락(2.7%), 신용카드 연체율 상승 등 재정적 부담 공존.AI 쇼핑 에이전트의 대...

Bain Forecasts US Holiday Sales Will Top $1 Trillion For The First Time, Growing At 4.5%.Will Holiday Growth Keep Giving?Bain forecasts 4.5% growth in US holiday sales, slightly above the last few years. The firm expects in-store sales to grow by 2.5%, in line with the last two years, while nonstore sales are expected to grow by 9%, returning to higher growth.Sales Are Set To Exceed $1 Trillion For The First TimeNearly 70% of the holiday season total will come from in-store sales, but e-commerce continues to gain share.Holiday Spending Faces...

That old phone gathering dust in a drawer could have a second life far more entertaining than being a paperweight. UCLA researchers have created PhoneBot, a little humanoid that puts your smartphone to work as the brains of a walking robot companion.The little walker comes from the Robotics and Mechanisms Laboratory, or RoMeLa, at the University of California, Los Angeles. In a preprint posted to arXiv, the team describes a bipedal robot that uses a smartphone as its torso, eyes, and brain.The idea is to skip the costly extras. Small researc...

Genuinely Impactful Sports Marketing Has Become Harder To Come By As Fashion And Beauty Companies Have Saturated The Marketplace. But There Are Still Valuable Opportunities Available For Brands That Can Find The Right Partners And Forge Real Connections To Sports Culture.Finding success in sports marketing has gotten exponentially harder.Over the past few years, as sports have become a more prominent part of popular culture, countless brands in fashion and beauty have rushed in, seeking to reach new audiences and widen their footprint in the...

Exactly a month and 2 days ago, John Ternus unveiled Apple’s first foldable phone. It’s been a decade in the making, Apple’s done a whole bunch in the interim, hit $1 trillion in 2018, and subsequently grown to a $3 trillion brand, shifted from a hardware company to a hardware AND services company, launched a spatial computing headset, pretty much worked on and shelved their Apple Car. Rumors are tracking a few more devices that Apple’s been secretly working on. A smart ring that does the same job as a watch, or alternatively a screen-le...

High social media use linked to lower life evaluations in high-income countries, but not in other countries.Most adults worldwide use social media, and among younger adults, usage is nearly universal. Across 97 countries surveyed by Gallup in 2026, a median of 81% of adults reported using social media in the previous seven days, rising to 95% among those aged 15 to 29.Findings from Gallup’s latest State of the World’s Emotional Health report challenge common assumptions about social media’s effects on wellbeing. The relationship is modest...

IBM Spin-Off Anderon Wins CHIPS R&D Award For Wafer Production Scale-Up.The U.S. Department of Commerce has finalized a CHIPS and Science Act R&D award of up to $1 billion for Anderon, a quantum foundry IBM established earlier this year. The 16 September announcement backs a manufacturing service for IBM and other quantum-hardware developers.IBM is matching the award with US $1 billion in cash and contributing intellectual property, assets, and skilled workers. Headquartered in Albany, N.Y., Anderon builds on an existing operation at...

As AI has quickly become more capable and human-like in the way it responds to questions, many people are turning to chatbots as an accessible, non-judgmental way to discuss personal issues or mental health problems.Ahead of World Mental Health Day on October 10, data suggests that millions of Americans are already using AI tools to navigate personal dilemmas and emotional challenges.According to a recent Statista Consumer Insights survey, getting personal advice or guidance is by far the most popular AI use case related to personal concerns...

Any bookworm worth their salt has experienced reading a book under the covers with a flashlight after their parents said it was time for lights out. When we got older and no longer had to follow a bedtime, we switched to bedside lamps or clip-on reading lights. Those two options, however, come with their own set of problems. A bedside lamp isn’t always the most comfortable option, especially when you need to change positions while lying down. A clip-on light, meanwhile, adds extra weight to the book, and you may have to keep adjusting it as...