Elise Hu

The tech giant announced it's working on putting technical intelligence inside our homes, getting us closer to the fabled Jetsons house where all our appliances are automated.

The evidence of a lack of gender parity in technology keeps stacking up; this week we saw the fraternity-day emails of Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel and the diversity and gender breakdowns that Google's been reluctant to share. Let's get right into your week in review:

ICYMI

Bros in The Valley: ...

When it finally published a demographic breakdown of its workforce this week, tech giant Google admitted, "We've always been reluctant to publish numbers about the diversity of our workforce at Google. We now realize we were wrong, and that it's time to be candid about the issues."

This is ...

We are in the midst of a realignment in the global economy, a new machine age in which technology is disrupting nearly every industry in the world. And who are the hot young stars of this great realignment? People like 23-year-old Evan Spiegel, the Stanford-educated, former Kappa Sigma ...

It's a really simple concept — underwear with a special pocket in the front. But Speakeasy Briefs have taken off in the past year, becoming way more popular than their designers ever expected.

"It was a pretty crazy year, and after year one, we're finding our legs," says co-creator Dan ...

Sick of doing the laundry? The latest hot Silicon Valley startup, Washio — the subject of a new profile in New York Magazine — lets you press a button on your phone and someone will come and pick up your laundry, or your dry cleaning.

If you actually prefer ...

Each week, we take a look back at the headlines at the intersection of technology, business and culture. ICYMI features NPR reporting, the Big Conversation includes the larger conversations in the space and Curiosities are any links we thought you should see.

ICYMI

Facebook Moms: The streams of baby photos ...

Today's babies are part of the first generation with their entire lives documented on social media. Researchers are finding lessons in the streams of their photos.

The selfie may be nearly over, but animated GIFs most certainly aren't. Now, making and sending GIFs can be easy as cranking a knob with a new retro-styled camera called OTTO. The bright blue gadget just launched a campaign on Kickstarter.

DesignTaxi explains how it works:

...

Lately, there have been so many billion-dollar tech acquisitions in the headlines that it's hard to keep them straight. We await Apple's buyout of Dr. Dre's Beats for $3.2 billion. YouTube is reportedly close to a purchase of the video game streaming service Twitch, for $1 billion. And ...

It's that time again! Just as we do every weekend, let's take a look back at the week's big technology headlines from NPR and beyond.

ICYMI

Drone Week, Part Two: Our tech reporting team's exploration of commercial drones continued this week, with a story from Aarti Shahani on how ...

Long before summer blockbuster films dazzled us with CGI-enhanced superheroes and villains, audiences got their dose of spectacle at the local opera house, where lavishly costumed singers have walked through monumental sets for centuries.

Now, operatic excess and computer-generated imagery are meeting on an Ohio stage as the Cleveland Orchestra ...

In case you missed it, Europe's highest court has set a new precedent: Individuals in 28 European countries can now request the removal of search results they consider harmful. Is this ruling a big win for the individual? Or does this break the Internet?

Companies like Google already routinely ...

Another week in tech is wrapping up with talk of another multi-billion dollar buy. Let's get to it with our roundup, starting with the ICYMI section, which features stories we've been telling on air and online, the Big Conversations in tech and closing with our Curiosities — other fun links ...

Oscar-winning actress Diane Keaton's new memoir, Let's Just Say It Wasn't Pretty, tackles classic menswear, her insecurities about aging, and the new places she's learned to look for beauty.

Unmanned aircraft offer spectacular bird's-eye views, and news organizations are eager to deploy them to get that perspective. But U.S. regulators currently prohibit drone use for commercial purposes.

It's the weekend, which means it's time for your review of the technology and culture headlines from NPR and beyond.

ICYMI

Eggcellent: Our most popular post this week was our Weekly Innovation choice — a kitchen tool that scrambles the egg inside its shell, making for a unique culinary ...

The National Radio Quiet Zone is a 13,000-square-miles area in West Virginia where cell phones and WI-FI are banned. (This piece originally aired Oct. 8, 2013 on Morning Edition.)

This new kitchen tool promises to scramble egg whites and the yolk to create delicious culinary creations, and save you from washing a whisk. A soft cradle keeps the egg from breaking.

I don't know how I missed this (yes, yes I do) but the life-size wax figure of Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg was unveiled last week.

As you can see here, the wax Zuckerberg is dressed in his signature hoodie, sitting barefoot with his legs crossed and his laptop ...