The traditional model of leadership, where a single individual is expected to provide all the answers, is becoming obsolete. In a world of accelerating complexity, hyper-specialization, and rapid change, no leader can single-handedly navigate the full spectrum of challenges facing modern organizations.  The future of leadership is about curating the best insights, talent, and ideas, not dictating the direction. The best leaders will be those who act as architects of collaboration, assembling diverse perspectives and fostering an environment where expansive thinking thrives. This shift in leadership isn’t just about delegation—it’s about creating conditions for continuous learning, adaptability, and innovation. Leaders who embrace a curation mindset are best equipped to drive organizations forward in an unpredictable world. Why Curation is the New Leadership Superpower In a world overflowing with expertise, no single leader can master every domain. The leaders who thrive are those who: Curate Talent. They don’t just hire smart people; they intentionally build diverse teams with complementary skills and perspectives. Studies show that diverse teams outperform homogeneous ones by 39% in problem-solving efficiency. Curate Ideas. They create spaces where unconventional thinking is not only encouraged but strategically leveraged. Google’s 20% time policy, which allows employees to spend part of their workweek exploring passion projects, has led to breakthroughs like Gmail and Google Maps. Curate Innovation. They design environments where experimentation, iteration, and cross-disciplinary collaboration drive meaningful breakthroughs. IDEO, a global design consultancy, uses cross-industry ideation sessions to unlock unexpected solutions, from healthcare innovation to urban design. Rather than positioning themselves as the ultimate expert, these leaders act as orchestrators, ensuring that the right voices are heard at the right moments. How Leaders Can Adopt a Curation Mindset The shift from traditional leadership to curation requires intentional practices. Here’s how leaders can start: Seek Out Outliers.Conventional wisdom often leads to conventional results. The best leaders actively engage with voices outside their immediate circles—contrarians, industry outsiders, and emerging thinkers who challenge the status quo. For instance, Netflix’s early decision to pivot from DVD rentals to streaming came from its leadership’s ability to absorb trends from tech, media, and consumer behavior research. Design for Collaboration, Not Just Efficiency.Many organizations optimize for productivity at the cost of creative collision. Leaders must create structured serendipity, allowing ideas from different disciplines to intersect in unexpected ways. Pixar’s open office architecture, where animators, writers, and tech teams share communal spaces, has fostered storytelling innovation. Facilitate, Don’t Dictate.Instead of being the sole decision-maker, adopt a facilitator’s mindset—guiding discussions, posing better questions, and allowing collective intelligence to emerge. Jeff Bezos’s “Disagree and Commit” principle at Amazon encourages debate, ensuring that the team moves forward with informed risk-taking even if consensus isn’t reached. Champion Psychological Safety.The best ideas often come from environments where individuals feel safe to challenge, experiment, and even fail. Research from Google’s Project Aristotle found that psychological safety was the top predictor of high-performing teams. Unlocking Cross-Disciplinary Breakthroughs History’s most significant breakthroughs didn’t come from isolated silos but from cross-disciplinary collisions—where physics met art, where biology informed engineering, and where technology reshaped storytelling. Here are a few inspiring examples: NASA & The Sports Industry: NASA’s space suit advancements have directly influenced sportswear technology, improving gear used by Olympians. Bioengineering & Architecture: The Eastgate Centre in Zimbabwe was designed using biomimicry principles based on termite mounds, leading to a 90% reduction in cooling costs compared to conventional buildings. AI & Music Composition: IBM’s Watson has been used to compose symphonies, merging artificial intelligence with classical music expertise to create never-before-heard compositions. Organizations that embrace curation-minded leadership will be better equipped to solve complex, multidimensional challenges.  The organizations that thrive in the future will not be those with leaders who know the most—it will be those led by individuals who know how to bring the right minds together to figure things out.  The ability to curate talent, ideas, and innovation will define the next generation of transformational leadership.  So, as you reflect on your own leadership approach, ask yourself: Are you accumulating knowledge, or are you assembling the right people and perspectives to unlock something greater?  The future belongs to curators. Are you ready to lead like one?

Freedom Communications is an American manufacturer of communications gear. To create their R-9000 analyzer, they turned to industrial design consultancy Mixer Design. Freedom R-9000 Communications AnalyzerThe Freedom Communications R-9000 brings together a wide range of radio equipment testing capabilities--whether out in the field or on the test bench. The rugged R-9000 high-performance device allows for multiple orientations and configurations. Our Industrial Designers developed a benchmark visual language for the Freedom Communications brand while our Mechanical Engineers tackled high power thermal dissipation, durability and manufacturability. Users First The User Experience of this device addresses the many environments where it operates. This could include an electrical bench in a lab or high atop a communications tower. The Mixer team built many weighted prototypes to experiment with strap locations and adjustable feet until they came upon a just-right mix of features. Build - Learn - RepeatOur designers and engineers have direct access to our well-equipped shop to discover new ideas, build complex assemblies and trouble-shoot designs. We are open to many sources of inspiration and believe that if a picture is worth a thousand words, a prototype is worth a thousand pictures. Beyond the BoxThe Mixer Design team helped Freedom set the benchmark with the R-9000's new brand look. We also helped them project their new brand with the design of a trade show booth, product graphics and digital assets for their marketing team. You can see more of Mixer Design's work here.

The romance of the flip phone has never quite faded for those who value a touch of nostalgia and sophistication. With the resurgence of foldable phones, the clamshell silhouette has returned, not just as a nod to the past but as a canvas for bold innovation and high style. For the fashion-minded, the latest Motorola Razr Ultra 2025 promises a marriage of cutting-edge tech with opulent materials. Motorola’s newest foldable is making waves for more than its flexible screen or sleek hardware. The Razr Ultra 2025, also known as the Razr 60 Ultra in certain regions, reimagines the iconic flip phone as a bona fide fashion accessory. Rather than relying on aftermarket cases for personality, Motorola has opted for materials and textures that turn the phone itself into a statement piece right out of the box. Designer: Motorola This year’s Razr Ultra arrives in four distinct Pantone-validated finishes, each one offering its own tactile and visual allure. For those drawn to understated elegance, PANTONE Scarab wraps the phone in Alcantara, a fabric beloved by designers for its refined softness and subtle sheen. PANTONE Mountain Trail delivers a natural twist, featuring FSC-certified wood that gives the device an organic warmth and a one-of-a-kind grain pattern. PANTONE Scarab PANTONE Mountain Trail For those who prefer a pop of color, PANTONE Rio Red is inspired by the classic luxury of leather, while PANTONE Cabaret boasts a silky, satin-like surface that perfectly captures the energy of its name. Each variant is crafted to turn heads, inviting touch and admiration, and offering a level of personal expression rarely seen in mobile devices. PANTONE Rio Red PANTONE Cabaret Underneath the refined exterior, the Razr Ultra 2025 doesn’t miss a beat in performance. It runs on the latest Snapdragon 8 Elite processor, promising smooth multitasking and lightning-fast responsiveness. The hinge mechanism has been upgraded as well, now constructed from titanium rather than stainless steel, enhancing both strength and longevity. An IP48 rating offers some reassurance against splashes, though keeping out dust remains a challenge for most foldables. Priced at $1,299, the Motorola Razr Ultra 2025 is aimed squarely at those who see their phone as an essential part of their personal style. It stands shoulder to shoulder with luxury flagships like Samsung’s Galaxy Ultra, unapologetically premium and unabashedly fashionable. For anyone who believes that technology should be as beautiful as it is powerful, this Razr is ready to be shown off as the accessory of the season. The post Motorola Razr Ultra 2025 flaunt Wood and Alcantara fabric finishes first appeared on Yanko Design.

Dear Nintendo, stop trying to make Game-Key Cards happen.

Upgrading your wine glass game is a window into the finer things in life. These are our WIRED-tested favorites.

Macworld Apple’s newest MacBook Air is already a great value at $999, but thanks to its current discount over at Amazon, it’s even more affordable as its price drops to $909, the lowest we’ve ever seen. This laptop features the super speedy M4 chip and a gorgeous 13.6-inch Liquid Retina Display that will make everything look gorgeous, whether you’re working, doomscrolling, or watching Netflix. We reviewed the 15-inch version but loved it just the same. We gave the M4 MacBook Air a perfect 5-star review, appreciating the performance boost delivered by the new M4 chip. The fact that its Thunderbolt 4 port lets you finally hook up two external displays at 6K and 60Hz is pretty much the cherry on top. The laptop comes with 16GB memory and 256GB of storage space, which is the minimum nowadays, enough for whatever you want to do with it. Plus the new MacBook Air is perfectly ready for any Apple Intelligence tasks you need to complete, from getting help writing emails to summarizing content, playing around with image editing, and more coming soon. So stop wasting time and get your very own M4 MacBook Air for $909 at Amazon while this deal still stands. Get the best MacBook Air for its best priceBuy now at Amazon

Apple is on track to source all the iPhones it sells in the US from India by the end of next year as politically driven tensions drive a wedge between the US and China. This is a major move that the company has been building toward for some time, but the recent tariffs announcements may have accelerated the plan. Designed by Apple in California, Made in India If you’ve been following my work you’ll already be aware of the importance India now has for Apple. India is expected to be the manufacturing hub for 25% of all the iPhones sold globally by the end of the year, and now the Financial Times reports that Apple aims to make 60 million iPhones in India “as soon as next year” — though other sources suggest that target may prove too ambitious. To support this transition, Apple and its partners have invested billions in building their businesses there. Foxconn is currently building its second-largest factory outside China in India. At a cost of $2.5 billion, the facility will create 40,000 jobs and double its manufacturing capacity in India. India’s biggest conglomerate, the Tata Group, also makes iPhones for Apple using facilities formerly owned by Pegatron and Wistron. To support the project, Apple is also encouraging component manufacturers to set up shop in India, with India’s government recently announcing a range of incentives to help encourage them to do so. The idea behind this is, of course, to ensure that the iPhones assembled in India make use of components that are also manufactured there in order to minimize the cost of any tariffs. These investments are accompanied by a range of external improvements, including improved infrastructure. While there have been no major signals to this effect as yet, it is becoming increasingly likely that Apple will eventually commence manufacturing other products in India at some point. This didn’t — and couldn’t — happen overnight What’s important to note is that none of this is happening suddenly. This has already taken years. Apple has been working on its journey to India for almost a decade, presumably since before Apple CEO Tim Cook made his first disclosed visit to the nation. During that visit, Cook stressed that his company intended taking position in India, saying: “We’re not here for a quarter, or two quarters, or the next year, or the next year. We’re here for a thousand years.” Apple had originally intended simply to set up retail stores there and build a business from India’s burgeoning middle class, but very swiftly saw the sense of transitioning some production to the nation, accelerating these plans once the Covid plague threw international supply chains into chaos. In other words, while the company’s move to make iPhones for US market in India may seem sudden, it is something that has taken years. That effort proves that shifting manufacturing to new nations is not an overnight task; it takes time, a lot of investment, an available and accessible skilled workforce, and more. With that in mind, it is foolish to expect manufacturing infrastructure to migrate across territorial boundaries any faster than Apple — with all its advantages — has been able to achieve in India. The overall impact of Apple’s more diversified approach is a decreased reliance on its former manufacturing partner, China, from which India and other nations, including Brazil, Vietnam, and Thailand, are seeing some benefit as Apple is also increasing its manufacturing capabilities in those countries. Doing the business The company’s moves into India aren’t just about tariff avoidance. The decision to base more manufacturing there has helped Apple capture hearts and minds among consumers there, translating into accelerating business results. Driven by the iPhone 16 series, Apple sold three million iPhones for the first time in India in Q1 2025, according to IDC, its largest-ever shipment in the nation. “Apple achieved its best-ever Q1 in India, driven by strong iPhone 16 series momentum,” said Canalys. In other words, it looks as if Apple’s shrewd decision to create business in India will pay a double benefit, giving the company access to a growing and developing economy even as the so-called ‘First World’ economies tumble into existential decline. You can follow me on social media! Join me on BlueSky,  LinkedIn, Mastodon, and MeWe. 

As Thunderbolt 5 devices become more widely available, the CalDigit Element 5 Hub offers a compact, no-frills expansion option with only the essential ports.CalDigit Element 5 Hub review: The CalDigit Element 5 Hub adds more Thunderbolt 5 ports to your setupThunderbolt 5 was finalized in 2024, but it wasn't until January's CES 2025 show that we started to see devices get announced. CalDigit, known for its excellent peripherals, was quick as always with its Element5 Hub.It was soon followed by its more full-featured docks, but the Element 5 Hub is great for something more affordable and compact. Plus, it still has eight downstream ports to utilize. Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums

Austin-based firm Murray Legge Architecture has completed a new residence near Lake Belton, Texas, designed for a young family seeking sustainability and long-term livability. Nestled within a sloping, three-acre site in the oak and juniper woodlands of Central Texas, the single-story home seeks to balance ecological sensitivity with a refined architectural language rooted in the local ranch house vernacular. Image credit: Leonid FurmanskyImage credit: Leonid FurmanskyThe project, a recent winner at the Texas Design Award, comprises a primary residence and a separate guest suite, both arranged around a central courtyard. The outdoor space, defined by clean, geometric masonry walls, preserves several mature trees and includes a patio and swimming pool. The house offers constant visual access to this controlled internal landscape on one side and to the surrounding wilderness on the other, reinforcing the contrast between cultivated and natural environments. Image credit: Leonid Furman...

Ubisoft has released a new video revealing progress on the planned offline mode for open-world racing title The Crew 2. In the video, titled The Crew 2: Offline Mode Update, the company reiterates that it has been working on bringing the feature to the game. According to producer Gregory Corgie, has described the offline mode for The Crew 2 as a “hybrid way to play the game.” Check out the video below. When it comes to the company’s progress in bringing offline modes to both The Crew 2 as well as The Crew Motorfest, Corgie has said that the initial state of development of the feature has been going smoothly. “As you can imagine, developing an offline mode requires time and resources,” said Corgie. “We are pleased to confirm that we are aiming to deploy a new hybrid way to play the game before the end of 2025.” This hybrid way essentially means that the studio has been working on adapting the core gameplay of The Crew 2 – originally developed from the ground up as a multiplayer game – for offline play. “Some features will be maintained, others will be adapted,” explained Corgie. “For instance, specific parts of multiplayer modes will no longer be available when playing offline. The final list of those features will be published as soon as we can.” Corgie also said that the development team is currently focused on bringing the offline mode to The Crew 2 first. This is because The Crew Motorfest is still a currently-supported game, and its teams are focused on the live-service aspects of the racing title. While no timeline was given for when The Crew Motorfest would get an offline mode, Corgie said that Ubisoft plans to release the offline mode for The Crew 2 in 2025. “The Crew 2 will be first, allowing players to enjoy and switch between online and offline mode whenever they want,” said Corgie. “When we will deploy the cversion before the end of 2025.” Development of offline modes for The Crew 2 and The Crew Motorfest was announced back in September. This was done in response to fan backlash against Ubisoft having taken the servers for The Crew down, making the 2014 racing title completely unplayable for players that had bought the game. In the meantime, Ubisoft has also been the target of a lawsuit by fans of The Crew that believe that the company had falsely advertised the game, pointing to its download code being advertised as valid until 2099. As part of the lawsuit, Ubisoft’s lawyers have argued that players never had ownership of the game. The most recent game in the series, The Crew Motorfest, is available on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. The game has been supported with continuous updates since its 2023 launch. For more details, check out our review from back when it came out. And while you’re at it, also check out our reviews of the original The Crew, as well as the 2018 sequel The Crew 2.