Two Mexican architects designed a modern, sustainable tiny home, and it barely shows its shipping container roots.

Rodrigo Alegre and Carlos Acosta, founder of the Mexico City studio StudioRoca, spent the last few years focusing more and more on environmental impact, and eventually developed the idea for Vivienda Minima de Descanso (VMD), or Minimal Leisure Dwelling.

VMD is a prefab one or two-bedroom home made out of repurposed shipping containers, with customization options throughout. The one-bedroom designs are about 322 square feet, and two-bedroom designs are about 645 square feet.

The basic VMD starts at $49,000 and is constructed in Mexico, then dropped by a crane into whatever location is chosen by the buyer. With the philosophy of minimizing environmental impact, VMD can be used totally off-grid, with solar panels and a rainwater tank. Specialized materials minimize energy needs throughout to keep the home as low impact as possible.

See inside here. 

Moving into a house together has become a rite of passage for online creators, from YouTube to Vine, to most recently, TikTok. 

Six YouTube gamers, formerly from the Luminosity Gaming esports group, created One Percent, a new organization. The new channel has nearly 800,000 subscribers, and between them they have millions. After bragging that they bought the house with their earnings from YouTube and "Fortnite," they took viewers on a tour of their new house, focusing on gaming areas and the pool. 

The mansion is full of contrasts, like a kitchen that would make a Nancy Meyers fan swoon while the gamers have mini fridges and snack drawers in their rooms, or a baby grand piano possibly played by Frank Sinatra and rooms adorned with Funko Pops. 

Take a look inside.

"Crucial Combo" sounds like a special lunch offer at a fast-food joint, but according to financial analysts at RBC Capital Markets it's the recipe for a special class of tech stock. 

RBC Capital Markets likes to use a metric called Crucial Combo when evaluating company stocks — and it says those with high scores are proving to be some of the most resilient stocks during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Crucial Combo scores are calculated by simply combining the company's revenue growth and earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) margin each quarter.

In a note published on Thursday, RBC shared the Crucial Combo scores for the 17 largest tech company stocks it follows. Based on this metric, 9 of the following companies are expected to have a positive score from their upcoming second quarter earnings results: Alibaba, eBay, Akamai, Shopify, Facebook, Netflix, Amazon, Google, and Spotify.

Audiences are catching on to how good Netflix's sci-fi series "Dark" is in its final season, as the series surged up the demand carts this week. 

Every week, Parrot Analytics provides Business Insider with a list of the nine most in-demand TV shows on streaming services in the US.

The data is based on "demand expressions," Parrot Analytics' globally standardized TV-demand measurement unit. Audience demand reflects the desire, engagement, and viewership weighted by importance. The list is ranked by how much more in demand the top series are than the average TV show in the US.

More than a year after season three debuted last July, Netflix's "Stranger Things" is the top series in the US and has rarely given up that title in that time period.

Below are this week's nine most popular original shows on Netflix and other streaming services:

Last week in China, Tesla CEO Elon Musk revisited his enthusiasm for the carmaker's prospects of delivering fully-autonomous vehicles, and soon.

"I remain confident that we will have the basic functionality for level five autonomy complete this year," he said, as reported by Bloomberg.

"I think there are no fundamental challenges remaining for level five autonomy. There are many small problems, and then there's the challenge of solving all those small problems and then putting the whole system together, and just keep addressing the long tail of problems."

"Level five" is industry terminology for vehicles that can drive themselves with no human interaction. The conventional wisdom is that there are no true level five vehicles yet. Even Tesla's main competitors in this space, Waymo and Cruise (the former is part of Alphabet, and the latter is affiliated with General Motors), admit that they have a long, long way to go before they can completely take the driver out of the picture.

Is Musk justified in being so confident? Skeptics say no way. While Waymo has been working on autonomy for over a decade, going back to the original "Google Car" project, and Cruise started out as a dedicated self-driving company before GM acquired it in 2016, Tesla has been adding its own autonomous tech while thus far delivering mainly advanced cruise control to customers.

On top of all that, Tesla's approach to self-driving is radically different from Waymo's, Cruise's, and others in the burgeoning area. 

Here's what it's all about, plus a rundown of its advantages and drawbacks:

Architects Massimo Gnocchi and Paolo Danesi started The Mountain Refuge to deliver their concept for a tiny, modular cabin at affordable prices around the world. 

The startup is working towards finding a balance between sustainability and design. The architects told Business Insider that they are actively looking for partnerships with prefab construction companies in the US, Europe, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand to manufacture the cabin on a large scale. They say that they already consider the project a success based on requests and inquiries coming in, and they plan to design more tiny homes in the future.

The tiny cabin with wood finishes and a front deck looks rustic at first, but the slanted roof and minimalist interior give it a modern look, too. It can be hooked up to utilities, or used for an off-grid lifestyle, with some minor adjustments.

See inside. 

The coronavirus pandemic has forced even those most resistant to digital change to give ground, and e-commerce is burgeoning like never before.

Trapped at home, or faced with hours waiting only to find empty shelves, more people than ever are turning to online grocery shopping.

"There is pretty strong evidence that that is here to stay," Luke Jensen, executive director of the Ocado Group and CEO of Ocado Solutions, told Business Insider.

Ocado is a household name in British cities, but its business is largely unknown elsewhere.

A British success story

The company's work is twofold. There is Ocado Retail, which sells groceries and other supermarket products to consumers online. The second aspect is Ocado Solutions, which provides technology to the online operations of major global supermarkets like Kroger in the US, Sobeys in Canada, and Waitrose in the UK.

The company, which was founded in 2002, does not expect to turn a profit until 2024. It has high running costs, a sky-high share price, and a price-to-earnings ratio to match. 

In short, it's now acting like less an online retailer and more like a tech giant.

Its share price hit a record £22.36 ($28) on June 1, and the company has turned out to be the best performing stock on the FTSE 100 in the second quarter of 2020, boasting a 66% rise.

Ocado first set out as an online grocer, boxing and delivering orders for Waitrose, the UK's deluxe supermarket. But it has now established itself as the guardian of online grocery delivery in its own right.

It now has operations in the US, Canada, Britain, Sweden, France, and Japan.

The pandemic has wreaked havoc on many industries, and businesses around the world are struggling to stay afloat. National economies are sliding into recession, as global unemployment rates are inching upward.

But Ocado, and the grocery sector at large, have found themselves booming in light of astronomical demand. 

The future of food is online

The pandemic has left companies around the world reassessing how the habits of their customers will change. Nowhere has this been more apparent than in grocery shopping.

"When you see people try grocery online for the first time, there's a high proportion of people who stick with it and make it part of their repertoire," Jensen said.

There are many signs that online grocery shopping is growing.

Online grocery sales in the US boomed to $7 billion in May 2020, up from $5.3 billion in April, according to a Brick Meets Click/Mercatus Grocery Shopping survey. For reference, this number was $1.2 billion in August 2019.

A 2018 Nielsen study also predicted that 70% of US consumers would be grocery shopping online by 2024.

Before the pandemic, online grocery shopping made up only 4% of the US market, but that is set to change.

"The US has seen an enormous boom," Jensen told Business Insider. "We expect a lot of that to stick."

Back in the UK — where, pre-pandemic, 7% of grocery shopping was online — Ocado said in May that "a simply staggering amount of traffic" meant they had to turn away new customers. 

"They could be doing even better than they are because they deliberately limited their growth," Matt Botham, a strategic insight director at the Kantar data consultancy, told Business Insider.

The elevated demand for online grocery shopping won't last forever. Shops will reopen, and constraints on freedom of movement will end.

But what is expected to remain — and what Ocado is betting its bottom dollar on — is the knowledge that online grocery shopping is possible, and may even be preferable.

'The share price is what it is, but we're not going to ... go all Elon Musk'

"Ocado has been absolutely smashing it during lockdown," Fawad Razaqzada, a financial market analyst, told Business Insider. 

Daniel Coatsworth, the editor of the Shares financial-news magazine, also told Business Insider: "Any grocery company with either an inferior service, or without one at all, will be seriously looking at how they can up their game. And that's where Ocado's strengths lie."

"It's easy to see why Ocado has done so well on the stock market this year."

But as a result of Ocado's extraordinary rise, some wonder whether the company is overvalued.

Ocado's price-to-earnings ratio — how many years of annual earnings it would take to make up its valuation — is way higher than its competitors, a common trait of tech stocks. 

"The share price is what it is, but we're not going to worry about it and go all Elon Musk," Jensen said, referring to the view taken by the Tesla CEO that investors are overvaluing his company. 

"We're delighted the world is seeing that opportunity, and we're embracing it vigorously and going after it.

On June 11, Ocado announced it was raising £1 billion ($1.24 billion) from investors to expand its services.

"The opportunity for Ocado is massive in what we do," Jensen said. "There will then will be opportunities beyond what we do."

Grocer or tech firm?

Ocado's cash cow is not its grocery business, but in its technology.

The company owns hundreds of patents for the machinery and software that power its warehouses, from product-picking robots to item scanners that members of staff can wear on their heads.

This software, and future products, can be leased to supermarkets across the world. That's where Ocado's value lies.

"Investors bidding up Ocado's shares are effectively saying that its services as a provider of solutions to automate online grocery orders will be in greater demand," Coatsworth said.

"There is merit in the market valuing it as a technology stock rather than as simply a grocer or delivery business."

The future of online grocery shopping

"At the heart of it all," Ocado says on its website, "lies our technological know-how and unparalleled IP."

This stands for intellectual property — one of the most lucrative assets a tech company can own.

Ocado has registered at least 350 patent applications in Europe alone, according to IP law firm Reddie and Grosse.

Half concern "storing articles, individually or in orderly arrangement, in warehouses," the firm said. Dozens entail "systems and methods ... relating to logistics."

Coming to America

Nowhere has online grocery shopping boom been more apparent than in the US.

Americans weren't big on online grocery shopping before the pandemic, with it making up just 4% of the total market.

Kroger, the largest US grocer, appears keen to get a head start.

It struck an exclusive partnership with Ocado 2018, and the companies already have plans to develop 20 distribution centers across the country.

They have broken ground on three so far, with the locations of six more confirmed. 

Smart warehouses are underway in Monroe, Ohio, where Kroger is a mainstay, and Groveland, Florida, where rivals — Publix and Target — rule the roost.

"We see plenty of evidence that what we will be able to develop with Kroger will be able to push on quite an open door in terms of consumer demand," Jensen told Business Insider.

No mean feat

But getting Americans to shop for groceries online isn't as simple as it sounds. There has been a traditional reluctance to purchase fresh food online because people want to see what they are going to put in their mouths before they buy it.

At an Amazon Fresh distribution warehouse in Washington state, a third of bananas were thrown out because each banana had to be perfect to the naked eye, an MIT study found in 2015.

A 2014 Instacart training video seen by Quartz told its fruit pickers to "make sure there are no bruises, no cuts, no mold, it's not too soft, not too hard, just perfectly ripe."

And as consulting firm Oliver Wyman wrote in 2019: "Customers resist the idea of having someone else pick fresh food for their family."

The boom in online shopping during the pandemic could be a flash in the pan, rather than an inflection point for the industry. 

Another orthodoxy about online grocery shopping is that the US is just too big to cover with online delivery.

Ocado is less concerned about the challenge, however. Jensen concedes that the US is huge, but said "if you look at the distribution of the population in the US, you have about 75% of the population who live in urban or related-to-urban markets."

"In that respect the US is not terribly dissimilar from any other geography around the world."

Worldwide, Ocado has partnered with Kroger in the US, Sobeys in Canada, Aeon in Japan, Waitrose and Marks & Spencer in the UK, Groupe Casino in France, and ICA in Sweden.

In Japan, online grocery sales doubled during its coronavirus lockdown, which is remarkable for a country that obsesses over fresh produce and food presentation.

As Ocado proclaimed in its 2019 report: "We can change the way the world shops."

Leading the field at the right time

Coatsworth, the editor of Shares magazine, said: "What the market hasn't priced in is the likelihood of increased competition. If the opportunity is so clear for everyone to see, there will inevitably be other players entering the scene."

Several competitors already exist, especially in the US.

The main ones are Amazon Fresh and Instacart. Fresh Direct and Shipt, which is owned by Target, are also in the game.

Amazon has tried to get online vegetable and fruit delivery to stick for some years, but with little to no success.

When asked about the company, Jensen said it has been fascinating to watch.

"What's interesting with Amazon is they've been in grocery for over 10 years now and they've made multiple attempts at particularly getting into the fresh grocery market, and today their market share remains very, very small," he said.

"I think what that indicates is not that Amazon is not good at doing stuff, it indicates just how difficult and different grocery is."

'We don't do vanity tech projects'

The Ocado vans that ferry food from warehouses to homes still bear the slogan "the online supermarket," but the company is essentially a tech company. (It successfully applied to be un-designated as a grocer by the UK's Competition and Markets Authority in 2019.)

Nowhere has Ocado's performance as been more apparent than at its warehouses.

Inside these warehouses, known as Customer Fulfilment Centres, cuboid "Bots" whizz back, forth, and side to side on grids known as "The Hive," depositing supermarket produce from orders.

A 50-item order can be sorted by a bot, which travels through The Hive at a speed of eight meters per second, and is complete in a matter of minutes.

Ocado is also transitioning from a reliance on human produce-pickers to robots. 

"As we continue, we will see a greater proportion of the range picked robotically," said Jensen. He envisions "a tipping point where you get a payback with the cost of a robotic picking station versus the cost of a year of labor."

"We don't do vanity tech projects," Jensen said. "We do projects because they work and they pay back."

Here's what an Ocado warehouse in Andover, England, looked like in 2018:

Ocado has also invested in vertical farming, billed as a more sustainable and profitable way of growing vegetables indoors. 

He sees Ocado's warehouses ultimately being built alongside vertical farm facilities, which would dramatically lower costs and speed up deliveries of fruit and vegetables.

Botham, of Kantar, told Business Insider that the days of Ocado being a retailer are long gone.

"They see themselves as a solutions business," he said. "That's where they think their money is." 

In an uncertain economy where valuations are slipping, the 20 highest-valued venture-backed companies in artificial intelligence combined are worth about a staggering $120 billion, according to PitchBook, in a reflection of the promising innovation of the sector.

To put it in perspective, these 20 young companies — many that have yet to produce actual products — are worth more than Ford, American Express, and US Steel combined. 

Top startups also continue to close major fundraising rounds and command multi-billion valuations for technology ranging from automation tools to self-driving cars. And despite the economic headwinds caused by the coronavirus pandemic, expert studies and venture capitalists say the market remains steady. 

"All the fundamental parts of the innovation cycle that have AI broadly employed in it are somewhat untouched by a COVID-like pandemic scenario," said Rohit Sharma, a partner at early stage VC firm True Ventures. "We don't really see a slowdown or any kind of impact." 

But there are obstacles ahead for even the most valuable startups. Seven of the 20 top, according to data provided by PitchBook, are builders of self-driving car technology, which experts say is a sector that demands capital and patience — two things that could be in shorter supply in a jittery recession. 

"A lot of the business case assumptions and model assumptions, historically, have started to fall apart as people really started to realize just how challenging this robo-taxi problem really is," Austin Russell, CEO of Luminar, told Business Insider's Troy Wolverton recently. 

Most of the companies on this list are relatively small, independently-held startups.

Notably, however, a few of the companies on PitchBook's list are independent subsidiaries of larger organizations — at the top of the list is Waymo, which began as Google's self-driving car unit, and is now reportedly mulling a public offering at some point in the future after raising venture cash all its own.

Joining Waymo is Uber's own autonomous vehicle division – a separate entity from the ride-sharing firm with its own CEO and IPO possibilities. And Zoox may be the poster child for how challenging the market can be. Amazon reportedly bought the firm for far less than its previous valuation. 

Beyond the parking lot of autonomous cars are a variety of interesting companies, all using the tech in different ways. The one thing they have in common, however, is they are backed by wealth many other of tech would  envy.

Big-data company Palantir is beginning the process to go public. Other standouts on the list include AI farming startup Indigo Ag, hiring firm Checkr, and AI writing company Grammarly. 

All valuation data is from PitchBook. All companies asked to verify valuation, and where they did it is noted. 

Business Insider unpacked the top 20 most valuable, VC-backed AI companies below:

Peter Rawlinson worked for Tesla CEO Elon Musk from 2009-2012 as he led the development of the electric-car maker's groundbreaking Model S sedan. Now the chief executive of the electric-vehicle startup Lucid Motors, Rawlinson learned from Musk the importance of relentless optimism.

"I really believe that success can beget success," Rawlinson said in an interview with Business Insider. "It can be a self-fulfilling prophecy if you're really committed and you're all in, and everyone at Lucid knows I am. And that's the leadership I hope I provide."

If you focus too much on what might go wrong, it can decrease your odds of achieving your goals, he added.

"Sometimes you have to put all your chips in," he said.

Musk, Rawlinson said, demonstrated his commitment to success "on an hour-by-hour basis." Rawlinson has taken that attitude to Lucid, which he joined in 2013 (he became the company's CEO in 2019). His confidence in the company and its debut vehicle, the Air luxury sedan, is driven by Lucid's in-house engineering and design efforts. According to the company, the Air will be able to drive over 400 miles between charges and accelerate from 0-60 mph in under 2.5 seconds. Those specs would make the Air competitive with the Model S, which, depending on the trim, has a maximum range of 402 miles and a 2.3-second 0-60 mph time.

"We're creating a car which is going to be the best car in the world," Rawlinson said. "People are going to want it."

Lucid will unveil the production version of the Air in September before beginning production next year. The vehicle's price will start "well north" of $100,000, Rawlinson said.

Are you a current or former Lucid employee? Do you have an opinion about what it's like to work there? Contact this reporter at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., on Signal at 646-768-4712, or via his encrypted email address This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Eight360, a startup in Wellington, New Zealand has a way of tricking your brain into thinking you're driving a racecar, riding a rollercoaster, or even flying a jet.

The company's VR motion simulator, NOVA, can turn 180 degrees in any direction in only one second, combining visual, audio, and physical elements to make the experience as realistic as possible. Eight360 even says that this scary-looking contraption makes motion sickness less of a problem, because it matches up what the user is seeing to what they're feeling.

At $150,000 per year for a lease, the Nova probably isn't going to show up in many homes, though it could become standard in esports lounges. Instead, Eight360 is promoting the device as a way for racecar drivers to put in extra practice time off the track, or to practice esports, and for military training for pilots.

Here's how it works. 

At the halfway point of every year, I like to pause for a moment and reflect on all the vehicles I've driven, savor the great experiences and roadway thrills and ... amass a list of complaints!

Actually, I usually do this at the end of the year, but in 2020 I've decided to up my timetable. Part of this is because I've gotten behind the wheel of A LOT of cars at this point. 

A caveat: These days, most cars are wonderful, at least compared to the dreadful sets of wheels that we routinely had to deal with in past eras. The auto industry has done a very good job of giving customers what they want and improving reliability and performance.

But there are still some fails. 

Here's a rundown of everything that's annoyed me so far:

Streaming superstar Tyler "Ninja" Blevins announced on Thursday that he's ditching TikTok, the video-sharing app beloved by Generation Z, over privacy concerns.

"I have deleted the TIK TOK app off all my devices," Blevins tweeted to his 6 million followers. 

"Hopefully a less intrusive company (data farming) that isn't owned by China can recreate the concept legally, such funny and amazing content on the app from influencers," he added.

Blevins was the most-watched game streamer on Amazon-owned streaming platform Twitch before he signed an exclusivity deal with Microsoft's streaming service Mixer in August 2019. Microsoft shut down Mixer on June 22, releasing Blevins from his contract. Blevins indicated this week that he might return to YouTube.

Blevins did not elaborate on why he thought TikTok was more intrusive than other social media apps like Facebook and Twitter. But his announcement is indicative that growing US political hostility towards the app may be filtering down.

TikTok is owned by Chinese tech company ByteDance, a fact which has made it a target for US politicians.

And Blevins' announcement comes the same week the Trump administration said it is considering banning the app.

Secretary of state Mike Pompeo told Fox News on Monday the US government was "certainly" considering banning TikTok on the grounds that it could constitute a national security threat. Pompeo said US citizens should be wary of downloading the app or else he thinks their data could end up "in the hands of the Chinese Communist Party."

On Tuesday President Trump weighed in, saying a TikTok ban could be a way for him to punish China for the coronavirus pandemic.

TikTok denies that it is a security risk, and has sought to distance itself from its Chinese roots. 

"TikTok is led by an American CEO, with hundreds of employees and key leaders across safety, security, product, and public policy in the US," a TikTok spokesperson told Business Insider on Wednesday following Trump's remarks. "We have no higher priority than promoting a safe and secure app experience for our users. We have never provided user data to the Chinese government, nor would we do so if asked," they added.

TikTok itself does not operate in mainland China, but is the international version of its sister app Douyin, which is live in China.

On Friday TikTok confirmed its withdrawal from Hong Kong after China implemented a sweeping new national security law in the previously semi-autonomous region.

In June, a Picasso painting was sold for cryptocurrency for the first time.

Swiss luxury goods firm Idoneus acquired the painting "Danse du ventre devant homme impassible" (or "Belly dance before impassive man") for an undisclosed amount. Idoneus used its own "IDON" token to make the purchase, and said it is pioneering the use of its cryptocurrency for luxury purchases.

The sale of a Picasso for cryptocurrency exemplifies its widening acceptance in the art world, estimated to be worth $64 billion globally in 2019 by Art Basel and UBS.

Now, artists and collectors are not only trading in cryptocurrencies but using the blockchain tech that underpins them to try and determine authenticity and ownership.

Reduce fraud in the art world

One platform trying to digitally guarantee the provenance of art is the Blockchain Art Exchange.

Launched by crypto enthusiast and art curator Sascha Bailey, son of the famous fashion photographer David Bailey, at the end of 2018, the platform allows artists to tokenize their digital artwork.

The theory goes like this: By tokenizing the work using blockchain's distributed ledger technology, the transaction is permanently recorded on a shared database without any need for third parties to authenticate it. Once recorded, no one can alter the entries. 

This means that collectors are not just trading a digital image, but a virtual certificate of authenticity, according to Bailey. The main appeal of this is that it helps to protect buyers against fraud. Experts estimate that around 20% of the paintings in major galleries could be fraudulent. 

Another potential advantage is protection of the ownership of the artwork beyond the lifetime of the platform. 

"Even if the gallery that you bought it from shuts down, then you still own the artwork," explained Bailey. "You wouldn't expect a gallery to come to your house and burn your artwork after they close down. Whereas, with digital artwork, until now, that's kind of what happened."

This is currently only around a million-dollar industry, according to Bailey, but it has grown rapidly and he expects this to continue.

The pandemic has accelerated adoption.

The Blockchain Art Exchange saw month-on-month growth in sales of 400% in June, compared with only 47% pre-pandemic.

Many people in the traditional world of fine art who were previously on the fence about the technology have now decided to buy in, according to Bailey.

Contemporary artist Lincoln Townley is creating his own 'art coin'

Contemporary artist Lincoln Townley, who is famous for his figurative portraits of Hollywood stars like Meryl Streep, also sees potential for blockchain in the art market. 

"This hasn't even scraped the surface yet," Townley told Business Insider. "It's very, very deep waters that no one seems to be that happy to set sail in. Well, I certainly am. I look at myself as having the biggest ship out there."

He added: "There's a very big market for people that are looking now into alternative investment, but asset-based. The ones that take on the cryptocurrency as an investment are, I wouldn't say they were gamblers as such, but they take on more risks."

Townley first sold a painting for bitcoin in 2017 and is working on his own blockchain-encrypted 'art coin'. His entire new collection, Universe, can be bought using cryptocurrency.

Embracing blockchain has been part of a wider digital transformation undergone by Townley's studio. He is about to launch a virtual reality gallery that will exhibit his works and studio online in their entirety, with information on the process of creating and curating his art.

This way, he can cut out the middle man — the art agents and galleries — who take 50% commission on sales and are often responsible of upwards of 40 artists. When he wants to sell a piece, he sends the details to curated WhatsApp groups of his collectors. From the first message to receiving payment, it can take less than 24 hours. 

According to Townley, this is all evidence that the traditional "stuffy" art world is in decline. He said: "The model doesn't work anymore; it's dead, it's over, it's gone."

Opening it up to a new wave of investors who are interested in the tech as well as the art, is transforming the industry. 

Crypto is highly risky, highly variable and not regulated

As with much of the wider crypto space, the people advocating for blockchain-led change in the art world are often driven by an ideological affinity with the movement.

For crypto artist Vesa Kivinen, his initial interest in blockchain came from a disillusionment with the handling of the global 2008 financial crisis and what he sees as the failure of the existing monetary system.

Like most crypto adopters in the art world, he sees blockchain technology as a way of democratizing art. 

"It's giving an opportunity to new voices to come into the industry that would otherwise have a very terrible time trying to get in with their expression into the legacy art world," said Kivinen.

Bailey, Townley, and Kivinen are all aware of the risks of relying on a technology that is largely unregulated. With the market still very much in its infancy, it's a "bit like a gold rush of the Wild West," said Kivinen.

As with cryptocurrencies, buyers using these platforms put themselves at risk of being scammed.

"At the moment, everyone in the industry is incredibly well-behaved because everyone is early adopters," said Bailey. "I do think there is a potential for misuse as with all technology. But I think the pros for the people who want to use it legitimately outweigh the cons massively."

Bailey says platforms like Blockchain Art Exchange are still accountable to customers. "We still hold the responsibility of what comes on [the platform]," he said. "Unlike with bitcoin, where there is no party to hold accountable."

And traditional art institutions are buying in.

In December 2018, British auction house Christie's auctioned the Barney A. Ebsworth Collection, the first art auction of its price level to be recorded on the blockchain.

"Christie's leadership is reflected and supported by continued investment in digital platforms and initiatives that work for our clients," a Christie's spokesperson told Business Insider. "It is early days and this was a pilot blockchain project for this reason. We'll see where this might lead but this sale has been a great starting point for us all."

NOW WATCH:

Quibi — a new streaming video subscription service — offers a lot of short-form content intended to be watched on your phone while on the go. 

However, it's also possible to stream Quibi to your TV using Chromecast and AirPlay. If you know you're going to be somewhere that you don't have access to the internet, you can download Quibi videos for offline viewing. 

When it comes to downloading on Quibi, there are a couple of caveats. First, not all videos are available for download. If you tap the three dots and don't see a download option, that content can't be downloaded.

Second, not all videos will remain permanently on your phone after downloading. Some videos will expire and disappear from the Downloads folder, so don't wait too long to watch anything you've downloaded. 

If you're on an ad-supported Quibi subscription, you may need to watch a short ad before the download begins. Otherwise, the video will download right away.

When you're ready to download on Quibi, here's how to do it. 

Check out the products mentioned in this article:

iPhone 11 (From $699.99 at Apple)

Samsung Galaxy S10 (From $699.99 at Walmart)

How to download episodes on Quibi

1. In the Quibi app, find a video you want to watch (but don't tap it to start playing).

2. Tap the three dots in the corner of the video. 

3. When a pop-up menu appears, tap "Download Episode."

4. Close any video that is playing and go to Quibi's home screen. 

5. Tap "Downloads" in the toolbar at the bottom of the screen to see a list of now downloaded videos. 

6. Tap the title you want to watch. 

It's pretty common to have to delete a slide in PowerPoint. Maybe your presentation is going on a bit too long and you need to cut content. Or maybe you were keeping a slide for notes that you don't want to appear in your presentation.

Regardless of the reason, there's good news: PowerPoint makes it very easy to delete slides, no matter what version of it you have. 

In fact, the solution is so intuitive, you may have missed it altogether while looking for a delete button or a trash bin somewhere in the application.

If you need to delete a PowerPoint slide, here's how you do it, using any version of PowerPoint on your Mac or PC.

Check out the products mentioned in this article:

Apple Macbook Pro (From $1,299.00 at Apple)

Acer Chromebook 15 (From $179.99 at Walmart)

How to delete a slide in PowerPoint

1. Open your PowerPoint presentation and right-click (or hold Control as you click) any slide you want to delete in the left sidebar.

2. From the drop-down list that appears, select "Delete" or "Delete Slide."

Once you rent or buy a movie or TV show on Amazon Prime Video, it should be immediately available for you to watch. 

Purchased shows and movies are yours forever, though you only have 30 days to start watching rented content; After that, the rental expires and the video disappears from your queue. 

But no matter what kind of device you are using, the process for finding and watching these purchases is basically the same. 

Check out the products mentioned in this article:

Amazon Prime (From $99.99 a year at Amazon)

Samsung 50-inch Smart TV (From $399.99 at Best Buy)

How to see your Prime Video purchases on the mobile app

1. Start the Prime Video app on your mobile device.

2. At the bottom right of the screen, tap "My Stuff."

3. At the top of the screen, tap "Purchases."

4. You should see a list of all purchased and rented TV shows and movies. To start watching, just tap the one you want. 

How to see your Prime Video purchases in a web browser 

1. Open the Prime Video website in a browser. 

2. At the top of the screen, in the row of links that starts with Prime Video, click "My Stuff."

3. Click "Purchases & Rentals."

4. You should see a list of all purchased and rented TV shows and movies. To start watching, just click the one you want. 

Uber's quiet involvement with a group trying to shape public debate around cities' use of scooter and e-bike trip data has scared off several of its big-name supporters, WIRED first reported Thursday.

The group, Communities Against Rider Surveillance, is backed by 25 organizations including Uber and aims to "raise awareness of real-time location tracking and encourage a public dialogue before cities implement surveillance tools that put people at risk," CARS spokesperson Keeley Christensen told Business Insider.

But despite sharing some of the same worries about data privacy, advocacy groups Fight for the Future and Algorithmic Justice League withdrew from CARS after learning that Uber is one of its main backers, according to WIRED. Racial equality group MediaJustice told Business Insider it similarly "immediately pulled out" after becoming aware of the connection.

"It was frustrating to have to pull out of this coalition," Fight for the Future deputy director Evan Greer told Business Insider.

"We share their concerns about the ways that transportation data, even when anonymized, could be abused by government agencies, law enforcement, and others," Greer said, "But Uber's involvement and backing of the effort was not clearly disclosed to us. We think companies should engage in advocacy transparently."

Uber and CARS both refused to disclose the sources of the coalition's' funding. Christensen referred Business Insider to her statement to WIRED, which said that CARS "is grateful to have support from a wide and diverse group of organizations" and that Uber had been listed on its website "since day one."

"Any suggestion by proponents of real-time location tracking that there is some sort of sleight-of-hand here is both misleading and an effort to cloud the serious privacy issues at stake," Christensen told Business Insider.

Other members of CARS contacted by Business Insider raised similar worries about Uber's track record as a company, but said they would continue to support the coalition's work around privacy.

"I have concerns about Uber, of course (rotten pay for drivers, horrible corporate environment, etc, etc)," said Patient Privacy Rights President Dr. Deborah Peel, but she added that "the rest of the coalition is organizations that speak for the public's best interest."

Tracy Rosenberg of Oakland Privacy said she took issue with Uber's "corporate performance in many aspects" but that she was aware of its involvement in CARS. "On the limited issue of whether raw mobility trip data should be transferred to cities directly or to third parties, we believe unequivocally that it should not be."

An Uber spokesperson told Business Insider that the company is glad to be a founding member of CARS and to see more organizations speaking out on the issue, saying Uber believes government demands for trip-level data violate riders' privacy.

CARS' advocacy is focused specifically on Mobility Data Specification, a data-sharing standard developed by the Los Angeles Department of Transportation that is used by cities to track scooter and e-bike locations. As urban streets have become increasingly crowded with ride-share companies' vehicles, cities like Los Angeles have passed regulations on their use, some of which have included requirements that companies like Uber — which until recently owned scooter and e-bike startup Jump — share anonymous, near-real-time data on individual trips.

That approach has prompted concerns from the ride-hail companies, citing rider privacy and, implicitly, the potential it will expose their trade secrets. In March, Uber sued LADOT over its collection of trip-level data.

"Some cities are taking a responsible approach to transportation planning. They're starting by asking what problems they want to solve, and what information they need to get there," Christensen said. "But Los Angeles is moving in the wrong direction" by not being more transparent about how it will use, store, and secure data.

Meanwhile, privacy advocates ACLU and Electronic Frontier Foundation filed their own lawsuit against the city in June, saying it was an overreach of government surveillance and could lead to misuse of the data by law enforcement agencies. (Los Angeles city officials have released "data protection principles" that discuss how they intend to ensure people's privacy).

In their heated battle with ride-hail companies over which data they should be required to provide, cities' distrust of the companies has been fueled in part by Uber's own checkered history around transparency and data privacy as well as its persistent opposition to regulation. In 2017, The New York Times revealed Uber was intentionally deceiving authorities by serving up a fake version of its app to local officials. Later that year, WIRED reported that Uber tried to cover up a data breach involving 57 million users by paying the hackers a $100,000 ransom.

Forgetting a password can feel like the end of the world, especially when it's the password to an account like your Apple ID. Your Apple ID gives you access to your iCloud, devices, and more, and without it, you're locked out of an essential part of your personal and even professional life. 

For those who have access to at least one of their Apple devices, the process for resetting your Apple ID is pretty straightforward on a browser. If you don't have your device, you'll have to use workarounds like the Find My iPhone app.

You can also download the Apple Support app onto someone else's device and try to reset your password that way. Any information you enter during the process will not be stored on the device. 

Here are a few ways you can reset your Apple ID password. 

Check out the products mentioned in this article:

iPhone 11 (From $699.99 at Apple)

Apple Macbook Pro (From $1,299.00 at Apple)

How to reset your Apple ID password with the Find My app on your own or someone else's device

1. Download the "Find My" app (previously known as Find My iPhone) if it's not already there, then open it on the iPhone, iPad, Mac, or iPod Touch you're using.

2. On the sign-in screen erase the Apple ID field if it isn't empty. 

3. If you don't see a sign on screen, choose "Sign Out," then clear the Apple ID field. 

4. Tap "Forgot Apple ID or Password" link. 

5. Enter the device's passcode. 

6. Enter your new password and enter it again to verify it. 

7. Select "Next" in the upper right-hand corner to confirm the change. 

8. Select "Next" and follow the prompts to receive confirmation of the password change.

How to reset your Apple ID password with the Apple Support App using someone else's iPhone or iPad

1. Download the Apple Support app.

2. After opening the app, tap "Products" at the top of the screen.

3. Scroll down until you see "Apple ID," and tap it. 

4. Select "Forgot Apple ID Password."

5. Choose "Get Started."

6. Tap the "A different Apple ID" link. 

7. Enter the Apple ID you want to reset the password for. 

8. Select "Next" and follow the prompts to receive confirmation of the password change.

How to reset your Apple ID password on your web browser using your phone number and one of your devices

1. Go to your Apple ID page. 

2. Click the "Forgot Apple ID or password?" link. 

Billionaire Jack Dorsey, the cofounder of Twitter, is spending millions to experiment with universal basic income.

Dorsey's experiment is part of a larger initiative called Mayors for a Guaranteed Income. On Thursday, the group announced the program could impact as many as 7 million Americans across 14 different cities, including Los Angeles; Atlanta; Newark, New Jersey; and Jackson, Mississippi. The involved mayors say they plan to launch guaranteed income pilot programs in their cities at an unspecified future date and lobby federal lawyers to consider a national one, too.

The coalition behind the experiment says giving people a guaranteed income could lift people out of poverty and cushion the economic and career blows of the coronavirus crisis.

Dorsey, who has built up a net worth of $7.5 billion, will sink $3 million from his nonprofit into the program, according to the announcement. The UBI program comes shortly after Dorsey's widely publicized pledge to donate $1 billion to coronavirus relief efforts.

The group did not specify who will be eligible for payments and how much they will receive each month under their plan. In a statement, it said that it envisions the basic income as a flexible supplement to existing social programs. At least two cities — Jackson, Mississippi; and Stockton, California — represented in the mayors' coalition already have working guaranteed income pilot programs, while Chicago, Newark, and Atlanta have task forces exploring programs of their own, according to the group's website.

Proponents and past research claim that a guaranteed income could be the best way to level the wealth divide between the richest and poorest Americans, a chasm that has grown even wider during the coronavirus pandemic. Critics of basic incomes say the economic effects of such proposals haven't been thoroughly researched and could stop recipients from working, Business Insider previously reported.

Still, Dorsey isn't the only wealthy American experimenting with universal basic income. Entrepreneur and former presidential candidate Andrew Yang announced in May that he will give $500 to 20 New Yorkers every month for the next five years through his nonprofit in an effort to test the effects of the policy.

Yang made his universal basic income proposal — a scheme, called the Freedom Dividend, that would pay every American adult $1,000 monthly — a central part of his presidential campaign. Once considered an unlikely policy proposal championed only by Silicon Valley titans like Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk, guaranteed income has since gained traction with lawmakers on both sides of the aisle.

UBI proposals can be traced back as far as the 16th century, but have been floated throughout American history by a wide range of leaders including Thomas Payne and Martin Luther King, Jr. The one-time $1,200 stimulus checks Americans received earlier this year as a part of the CARES Act were essentially an interim universal basic income, Business Insider previously reported.