Intuit Seeing Stable Environment for Consumers, Businesses While Tariffs Play Out
Sandeep Aujla, chief financial officer of the company behind TurboTax and Credit Karma, said that on the business side, a large majority of the businesses it serves tend to be services-oriented rather than being product-oriented, minimizing some of the tariffs' impact.
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Digital Trends
26 minutes ago
- Digital Trends
At last, a humanoid robot masters the chore we all hate
A couple of weeks ago, we watched in awe as Figure's humanoid robot grabbed clothes from a laundry basket before deftly depositing them in a washer. It was all very impressive. In a follow-up that offers a glimpse of a future where humans can finally ignore this wretched chore, Figure has shared another video showing the same robot folding freshly washed towels before placing them in a pile. Today we unveiled the first humanoid robot that can fold laundry autonomously Same exact Helix architecture, only new data — Figure (@Figure_robot) August 12, 2025 The California-based tech company said it's the first humanoid robot capable of folding laundry 'fully autonomously,' a statement that will surely cause millions of people around the world to call out at once: 'So where can I get one?' Well, more on that later. Recommended Videos To conduct the process, Figure 02 uses the same Helix Vision Language Action (VLA) model that the company has already deployed for industrial logistics tasks, but now with a new dataset for laundry folding. To be clear, the robot performs the laundry task without teleoperation or specialized hand-coded instructions, relying instead on an end-to-end neural network. As you can see, the robot uses multi-fingered hands to competently pick towels from a pile. It also performs different folding strategies, recovers from errors such as grabbing multiple towels at once, and carries out fine manipulations — just like a human. The video demonstrates real advances in one of the areas that robotics engineers still find extremely challenging: manipulation of objects, especially soft, flexible ones. Indeed, the robot's impressive ability to handle the humble towel looks like an exciting step toward such machines being able to cope with other non-rigid items, opening them up to a plethora of other tasks in a broader range of settings. 'Folding laundry sounds mundane for a person, but this is one of the most challenging dexterous manipulation tasks for a humanoid robot,' Figure said in a post on its website. 'Towels are deformable, constantly changing shape, bending unpredictably, and prone to wrinkling or tangling. There's no fixed geometry to memorize, and no single 'correct' grasp point. Even a slight slip of a finger can cause the material to bunch or fall. Success requires more than just seeing the world accurately — it demands fine, coordinated finger control to trace edges, pinch corners, smooth surfaces, and adapt in real time.' While Figure is currently focused on deploying its humanoid robot in industrial locations, it will — tantalizingly for all of those laundry haters out there — begin testing it in home settings this year. Figure has yet to mention pricing and other purchasing details for individual customers, so for the time being at least, the laundry will continue as a regular chore for most folks. But this humanoid robot certainly offers hope …
Bloomberg
27 minutes ago
- Bloomberg
Manhattan Apartment Hunters Face Record Rents and Bidding Wars
Manhattan apartment rents hit a record high for the fifth time in the past six months. New leases were signed at a median of $4,700 in July, up $75 from June, according to data from appraiser Miller Samuel Inc. and brokerage Douglas Elliman. Rents surged 9.3% from a year earlier, the second-biggest annual jump in the firms' data going back to 2008.
Forbes
27 minutes ago
- Forbes
Cyber Attacks Could Stifle Online Demand From The Under-35s
There was a return to very slight growth last year for U.K. retail sales volumes but concerns are widening that high-profile British and American cyber attacks targeting major retail chains will undermine the flaccid growth seen so far this year. Top retailers on both sides of the Atlantic—from Marks & Spencer (M&S), Coop, and Harrods, to Ahold Delhaize USA and jewelry house Pandora's U.S. operations—have been targeted by ransomware and other attacks, driving down consumer confidence as shoppers worry about their data being stolen. M&S, with sales of £13.9 billion ($18.9 billion) in the year to March 2025, issued a £300 million ($407 million) profit warning in May due to the impact of its cyber attacks, and has only recently restored its online services. Year-to-date, the retailer's share price is down by 7.7%. According to London-based data and analytics house GlobalData, it is younger, not older, generations that appear to be taking the threat of retail data breaches most seriously. A survey from the company, conducted in July covering 2,000 U.K. respondents, shows that four in every five (79%) of those aged 25-34 were most worried. Across all age groups the concern about personal data security dropped to 69% of consumers. That worry is driving action. One third of 16-34s told GlobalData they are considering 'cutting back or stopping' online purchases versus just 11% of over 55s. This puts retailers under increasing pressure to improve their systems and restore digital trust with younger shoppers. 'This is especially the case for online pure-plays, which cannot redirect sceptical consumers to stores,' said the company. Age differences are stark GlobalData's lead retail analyst Emily Salter, offered a nuanced take on the significant age disparity—and a silver lining. She said: 'Older shoppers have children and greater pressures on their time, or less ability to visit stores as they age. Younger shoppers also place more emphasis on experiential shopping, so this combined with security concerns could push them into stores. The convenience associated with the online channel will still trump security concerns for most consumers.' The resilience of older consumers for online shopping, while comforting to retailers, will not offset spending declines from younger consumers, even if they go into physical stores to make purchases. Given the current precarious U.K, retail market, the negative potential arising from cyber attacks could damage a newly recovering market. According to Britain's Office of National Statistics (ONS), retail sales volumes rose by 0.7% in 2024, following a fall of 2.9% in 2023, and 4.1% in 2022. And while this marked the first rise in three years, sales volumes have not returned to 2022 levels. In June, Matt Britzman, senior equity analyst at investment group Hargreaves Lansdown, said: 'U.K. consumers are starting to lose some steam, as retail sales in May grew at their slowest pace in six months and the labour market shows signs of cooling. A few factors are likely at play, ranging from the lingering effects of higher prices to growing uncertainty about the future. Low single-digit growth ahead 'Supermarkets are still holding up well, with food sales rising 3.6%, but non-essential items took a hit in May. One month doesn't make a trend, but in the current climate, modest, low single-digit growth is likely where retail sales are headed.' June ONS data suggest that online spending has not been affected yet. Sales values rose by 3.3% when comparing the second quarter with the first quarter. However, further data breaches could negatively affect the 'low single-digit growth' predicted by Hargreaves Lansdown. GlobalData's Salter said: 'Younger consumers are more concerned about retailers storing their payment details, and think they are not doing enough to protect their private information when shopping online. Paying with mobile wallets and third-party providers such as Apple Pay and PayPal is a way that consumers can avoid having to give their details directly to retailers.' Salter argues that retailers must therefore ensure their websites and apps are compatible with these payment methods as they are especially popular among under-35s.
