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Taraji P. Henson is knocking out the levels of self-care with her brand TPH. According to WWD, the actress and entrepreneur is now making her mark in not only products for hair care, but also body care so customers can glow all over. View this post on Instagram A post shared by taraji p henson (@tarajiphenson) “When we thought about taking care of self, I wanted to go from scalp to toe,” Henson said, according to WWD. “I always had that vision in mind. We wanted to give spotlight to products at an affordable price, luxurious-looking packaging, and spa-like scents to feel like you’re in a spa.” She added: “People are a little traumatized after the pandemic, they’re afraid, and they’re not all going to the places they would normally go. We wanted to bring luxurious products to those people, at an affordable price and with an emphasis on self care.” A prime focus on caring for oneself on a budget has been TPH’s goal since its launch in 2020 under Maesa — a company that incubates beauty...
Imagine getting paid just for using your phone? Now you don’t have to with ZmBIZI’s new device. The Z2 is the next evolution in smartphone technology, which allows users to be rewarded in the form of ZmBIZI Coins for using partnering applications, shopping, sharing, and searching on the device. When a user has garnered enough data on their smartphone they can redeem their funds. Each ZmBIZI Coin is valued at $0.01 USD and once users reach $20, the funds will be funneled to the MBZ digital Visa Card, where they can enjoy their earnings freely. “Just being able to look at your phone and get paid is not what is happening today. What is happening today is you are looking at your phone three to 400 times a day, but Apple, Samsung, and everyone else is not giving anything back to you and they have no intention to,” Alpesh Pate, Co-founder of ZmBIZI, told AfroTech. He continued: “What we have created is a device that empowers people to become better than what they are today. We put power...
Bouncing off the plan to create a modern-day Green Book, a guide for African Americans who were seeking places they could safely reside during the Jim Crow period, ANJEL Tech was bloomed. Designed by James A. Samuel, Jr. alongside his wife Evelyn Samuel in October of 2020, the powerful body camera is designed to turn one’s smartphone into a lifeline. As a Black woman, when ANJEL Tech was brought to my attention, I was automatically intrigued. Every day, when I scroll through social media, another Black woman is missing and there appear to be no traces of her whereabouts. According to reports, last year alone nearly 183,000 Black individuals went missing and of those nearly 100,000 Black women vanished. These statistics are frightening when you consider the cries of these individuals are often met with silence and their families left with unanswered questions. ANJEL Tech puts the power back into the hands of victims and their families by storing live streams of the incident into a...
A new survey released by Bank My Cell studied the bathroom habits of smartphone users across the country. The results: most Americans are toilet texters. The data shows 96 percent of Gen Z—people under 23—phone users take their phone in the bathroom compared to 90 percent of millennials, demonstrating (and confirming) the overwhelming dependence younger generations have to smartphones. Nearly 43 percent of generation X confess to using smartphone apps in the bathroom while 11 percent of the silent generation are taking their cell phones The study also found that 80 percent of men use their phone on the toilet, compared with 69 percent of women. The study surveyed 2,114 people in the U.S. between June 1 and Aug 31. Fifty-four percent of bathroom cell phone users admitted to scrolling through social media and an average of 40 percent of people admitted to responding to text messages. The study revealed some additional interesting facts about what smartphone users are doing to occupy...
Nagging parents and teachers aren’t the only ones concerned with our culture’s obsessions with smartphones and social media. A recent study by Pew Research Center shows that teens are consciously logging off and stepping back from using their phones nonstop. In fact, 52% of teens say they’re trying to limit their phone use. And 54% recognize that they spend too much time on their phones in general. With smartphones becoming more accessible and widely used than ever, 72% of teens say they have a habit of grabbing their phones when they first wake up. We’ve seen how checking our phones in the morning can lead to unhappiness, stress and feeling like you’re never fully caught up. So young people already thinking about ways to curb their smart phone use could be a good sign for their future mental health. It’s not only young people who are affected. More than half of teens polled believed that their parents are distracted by phones during their conversations and 72% of parents believe...
Who gets to participate in the conversation online? For a long time, the conversation has been primarily limited to rich, white families that had home computers. Even today, the racial disparity between who owns a computer with internet connection at home persists, with white families significantly more likely to own a computer and an internet connection than minority families. However, the advent of the smartphone is quickly closing that gap. These multifunctional internet-connected devices tend to be more accessible for families than an internet connection — for example, families that can’t afford both a cell phone bill and an internet bill can pick the former and essentially get the latter through their plan. Minorities are most likely to report being almost entirely dependent on their phones for internet connection. But even as minorities use their smartphones to bridge the gap between them and richer, white families, they are still hindered by websites and programs that aren’t...
It has been four long years for British-Nigerian engineer Silas Adekunle. His company, Reach Robotics , has worked tirelessly to develop MekaMons, a line of agile robots that can be controlled by a user’s smartphone. Smartphone-controlled robots may sound like all fun and games, but these robots are no child’s plaything: they can do battle with other MekaMons at a drop of the dime. If that sounds dope to you, you’re in luck. According to TechCrunch , Adekunle’s robots will be sold at Apple stores starting this week. Although a variety of robots are available, the entry-level device starts at $300. “One of our investors set up a meeting [with Apple], and they loved it,” Adekunle said. The Apple team was especially excited to see Adekunle’s plans to incorporate augmented reality in his product. The tech giant has recently doubled down on AR development by releasing a special AR toolkit (ARkit) that Adekunle plans to use in future versions of his technology. In part thanks to that...
Carmelo Anthony’s intro into solo investing paid off big time. In 2006, Daniel Huang and Shawn Dougherty bootstrapped mStation with a $250,000 investment, developing speakers and cases for iPods and MP3 players, according to Forbes. Within their first year, they generated $1 million in revenue, most of the earnings coming from North America. The founders went on to make some power moves with the help of Carmelo Anthony, who was an active NBA player at the time. Here’s how. The Carmelo Anthony Effect In 2007, Huang and Dougherty acquired Mophie, which was responsible for creating the OG portable battery for iPhones. Forbes notes the pair created a battery-powered case, and Mophie’s revenue scaled from $2.6 million in 2008 to $200 million by 2013. Mophie’s revenue was predicted to reach $1 billion within the next five years. “What we got from them that we didn’t have was a global Apple retail presence, customers in 60 plus countries, and a diversification into the case business,”...
Unrivaled, a 3-on-3 women’s basketball league, is leveraging technology to improve the health and wellness of its players. The 3-on-3 league founded in 2023 by WNBA stars Napheesa Collier and Breanna Stewart has been backed by Samsung, its official technology and presenting partner. According to a press release, Samsung is providing the league with technologies such as its Galaxy S Series, Z Series smartphones, headphones (Galaxy Buds), tablets featuring Galaxy AI, monitors, and wearables (Galaxy Watch and Galaxy Ring). “We’re a new league,” Unrivaled President Alex Bazzell told AFROTECH™ . “There’s a lot of innovation involved. There’s a lot of unknowns involved, and we’re trying to kind of push the envelope forward and having Samsung be a part of that innovation with what they’re already doing. Obviously, it’s a pretty seamless partnership for us.” Collier’s Most-Used Technology As An Athlete Collier — who was named Unrivaled’s first MVP — said she mostly utilizes the Galaxy Ring,...
Editorial Note: Opinions and thoughts are the author’s own and not those of AFROTECH™. Peter Drucker, the Austrian management consultant whose writings helped shape modern management theory, once said, “If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it.” This quote aptly describes the impact of the U.S. Justice Department’s decision to delete the National Law Enforcement Accountability Database. Created under the Biden administration and initially proposed by Donald Trump during his first term, the database was designed to hold federal police accountable for infractions and prevent bad officers from moving between jobs without oversight. By maintaining a record accessible to hiring authorities, the system aimed to improve transparency and accountability. However, the U.S. Justice Department provided no rationale for why it was decommissioned. The reasoning behind this decision may lie in the leadership of the U.S. Justice Department. Pam Bondi, a former Trump’s campaign official and the...
Last week, Apple announced plans to launch the latest product in their long-running line of budget-friendly phones . The device, which many consumers tentatively titled the iPhone SE 4, is expected to release later this month, with a presale kicking off on Feb. 21. The initial announcement came jam-packed with surprises and updates, leaving Apple loyalists with plenty of new specs to pour over. If you’re interested in learning more about the iPhone SE 4, we’ve got you covered, with a brief but thorough deep dive into the latest Apple announcements , and a look ahead at what we can expect from the actual smartphone hardware. What Is The iPhone SE 4? The iPhone SE series dates back to 2016, when Apple execs decided to offer a budget-friendly alternative to their standard numeric line of smart devices. Unlike its contemporaries, including the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, the SE would offer the latest in iOS services crammed into the outdated body of a previous model. While the device...
Several Philadelphia, PA , businesses have been passed down through generations, including Paul Beale’s Florist. According to our sister site, Travel Noire, the florist shop, founded by Paul and Altermese Beale in 1971, has spent nearly five decades cultivating a loyal customer base. For Paulette Beale Harris, the second-generation owner, carrying on the family’s legacy isn’t a responsibility she takes lightly. She emphasized that she doesn’t want her parents’ hard work and sacrifices to be “in vain.” In honor of Black History Month , Visit Philadelphia has launched a four-part video series titled “Legacy & Love.” The series highlights Black-owned businesses that span generations and the families behind them, as well as businesses launched to honor loved ones, Travel Noire highlighted. The videos, available on visitphilly.com , feature the stories of the Beale family, Lori Thomson and her mother, Vera Doyle from Vera Doyle Boutique, Yvonne Blake and her granddaughter Alana Rambera...
We’ve all left a grocery store and saw someone pushing a shopping cart. One group pushes the shopping cart into cart corrals or marches over to the store employee who is collecting carts in the area. The other group pushes the shopping cart far enough away from them to be able to back their car out of the parking space and drive away. The latter group couldn’t care less whether the wind moves that cart along, denting someone else’s car, running over someone’s foot or causing a car accident by an unsuspecting driver. They’ve gotten what they needed, and they’re going about their day. In their mind, it’s the store employee’s problem to fix the shopping cart havoc. Observers watching this person are often participating in the shopping cart theory , judging those who don’t return carts as vigilantes who don’t care about others. How Does The Shopping Cart Theory Relate To A Business Owner Or Employee? The shopping cart theory is often brought up with the phrase, “If no one was looking.”...
South African billionaire Elon Musk is known for his desire to swallow up companies and rebrand them with his own trendy vision. The Tesla CEO previously used his familial wealth to purchase stakes in such businesses as PayPal, SpaceX and of course, X (formerly Twitter). Now, according to official statements made by the Trump administration cabinet pick, the emerald mine profiteer is considering buying the rights to Vine, a defunct app which predates TikTok . This would be a major development in the world of social media, since the latter is still potentially facing a long-term ban within the United States, unless the app’s parent company ByteDance can agree to divest to American financial interests. When prompted by a fellow X user about bringing Vine back into the fray to fill in the power vacuum left by TikTok, Musk simply responded, “We’re looking into it.” So, now seems like as good a time as any to examine what Vine is (or was), how Elon could bring it back to compete with...