Design-Driven Charging Stations by Leon’s Electric Trout

Offering a little charm, character and warmth to a functional tech product

As our phones get slimmer, sleeker and more stylish, there are a few brands working on docking stations that keep up. Like many companies, Leon’s Electric Trout was born out of a simple, everyday dissatisfaction. David Stychno (who is design director at a software company during traditional work hours) explains, “My girlfriend and I were always fighting over charging cables at night. It was a mess. One of us was …

Lolo Zouaï: Lose Myself

On her new hip-hop-inflected tune “Lose Myself,” Lolo Zouaï details how she got to where she is—referencing her first car, stories of adolescence and the music that inspired her. But the singer also explores a deep fear of losing the people and things that made her who she is. “I don’t want to lose myself to this,” she sings. On the self-produced track, Zouaï showcases her talent and her …

Google Translate Employs Decades-Old Language Theory

Google Translate uses complex neural and numeric systems to find equivalencies in speech and text across languages. The tool is seemingly simple—at least for users. But on the backend, developers worked tirelessly to get the application to where it is now. One fascinating breakthrough came when Google employees applied Wittgenstein’s language theory: a posthumously published theory that words hold no supreme meaning and that meaning …