When robots invade the kitchen

Burger flippers, pizza tossers, and latte frothers, watch your backs: Gordon, Sally, and Kona are coming for you. (And they never need to take a sick day.) Over the last few years, a growing army of efficient cost-cutting robots has arrived to automate a range of food prep tasks. [Wired]


Apps that make every day a payday

Uber Technologies and McDonald’s are among a growing group of employers giving workers near-instant access to their wages through payday apps. Daily payments can help some workers smooth out the financial volatility of fluctuating work schedules, but could impair saving. [WSJ]


The home where ‘Alexa’ comes before before ‘Mama’

In Yana Welinder’s house, her son will say “Papa’ to either her or her husband. “Mama” isn’t in his vocabulary yet. But her child, who just turned one, does have a name for another prominent figure in the household: “Aga.” Or, as the rest of us know her, Alexa – Amazon’s voice assistant. [LA Times]