From mobile phones to computers to televisions or fans: every electrical device is supplied with electricity. Cable spaghetti that looks anything but “tidy” quickly arises. But there are ways to gallantly hide the cables.

Avoid cable clutter

The more electronic devices there are in a household, the more cables there are. If there are enough sockets, the “cable salad” is actually not tragic.

But the more cables blocking the walkways, the greater the risk of tripping.

It therefore makes sense to hide the cables in such a way that they do not interfere and disappear from view. These measures not only ensure more security, but also look more attractive.

First solution: cable duct

A cable duct offers several advantages. Because the cable ducts are self-adhesive, the cable protection can be easily attached to the wall, under the floor covering or above the baseboard.

With some floors it is even possible to place the cable ducts under the floor. Another advantage is that hobbyists can even paint the cable duct. Thus, this cable protection fits seamlessly into any room concept.

Second solution: cable hose

Chaotic conditions prevail when several cables are connected to the same socket. A cable hose that bundles several cables is useful for this problem.

The cable hoses are available in several sizes, variants and colors.

With this system, it doesn’t matter how many cables you want to hide. However, the cables are still lying on the floor with a cable hose.

Third solution: cable clamps

So-called nail clamps are the most uncomplicated and cheapest. An advantage of the cable clamps is that these components are only intended for fixing cables.
A skirting board is particularly suitable so that the cables disappear from view. On the other hand, the small and thin terminals are only suitable for thin cables.

Fourth solution: cable box

A cable box is a box made of wood or plastic that contains a collective socket with a cable. The cable boxes are designed with special slots or holes suitable for sockets for desk lamps, computers or mobile phones. With this concept, the tangled cables are located inside the cable box.

The snooze function has long been considered an innovative feature on smartphones. But studies show that snoozing is bad for your health. Disabling the snooze function can help bring stability to the sleep cycle. We will show you how to do this in today’s “How to”.

“Only ten minutes left”: how good it feels when the snooze function allows us to turn over and snooze a little longer after the first alarm clock rings. What was initially celebrated as an innovative feature was repeatedly criticized over time.

According to science, snoozing disrupts our sleep cycle. The constant waking up and going back to sleep can be dangerous, says US sleep disorder researcher Robert Rosenberg in a GEO report.

How to disable snooze on your iPhone

Someone who is used to allowing themselves another ten minutes of rest with the snooze function messes up their brains. It then no longer knows whether it should be awake or tired. This can permanently lead to exhaustion and chronic fatigue.

According to Rosenberg, however, it can help to simply switch off the snooze function and get up mercilessly. In today’s “how-to” we explain step-by-step how you can disable the snooze function on your iPhone.

The first step is to pick up your iPhone and open the clock app. It should be installed on your home screen by default. Alternatively, Siri can help you find the application.

The streaming service had actually expected significantly worse numbers. Also: 1: 0 for Twitter in the legal dispute against Elon Musk and VW starts again in the USA with fully electric pick-ups.

Good morning! While you slept, work continued elsewhere in the digital scene.

The top topics:

Netflix lost two consecutive quarters of subscribers for the first time in the streaming service’s history. In the past three months to the end of June, 970,000 users dropped out. Although this was bad news, the US group, which has a total of over 220 million subscribers, had actually expected an even higher loss of around two million. Netflix is ​​now hoping to add a million new subscribers in the current quarter.

The group also announced that it plans to introduce a lower-cost, ad-supported version in early 2023. This follows news that Netflix has partnered with Microsoft for this ad-supported offering. Overall, the streaming service posted $7.97 billion in revenue last quarter. Analysts had expected just over eight billion. [Mehr bei CNBC und Wall Street Journal]

on Founder Scene: Imagine slipping into the body of the opposite sex. The idea: A change of consciousness. Especially when it comes to issues like discrimination. The startup Wondder has developed VR glasses that offer such scenarios as training for specialists. Our editor Georg Räth has written down for you what exactly is behind it and how it works. [Mehr bei Gründerszene+]

And here are the other headlines of the night:

Twitter won its first small victory in the lawsuit against Elon Musk on Tuesday. A judge in the US state of Delaware granted the company’s request to speed up its lawsuit in which the short message service wants to force the Tesla boss to close his $44 billion purchase after all. The hearing has now been set for October after the court upheld Twitter’s contention that the current uncertainty could harm the public company over the long term. Musk’s lawyers actually wanted to delay the trial until February. [Mehr bei Wall Street Journal]

Volkswagen (VW) wants to revive the Scout brand in the USA and win back the hearts of Americans with new sporty electric pickups and SUVs. This is what the new head of Scout, Scott Keogh (previously President and CEO of Volkswagen Group of America), said in an exclusive interview with the US medium “Axios”. Despite its global position, the world’s second largest automaker has been underrepresented in the United States. The scandal surrounding the diesel emission standards had also done great damage to the reputation of the Germans. [Mehr bei Axios]

Investment: Google and Chevron are part of a $250 million financing announced Tuesday for TAE Technologies. The California-based nuclear fusion startup, which has now raised around $1.2 billion, aims to create emission-free energy without harmful radioactive waste like nuclear fission does. Japanese investment company Sumitomo Corporation of Americas also participated in the round and wants to help TAE bring its fusion technology to the Asia-Pacific region. TAE, led by Austrian-American physicist and entrepreneur Michl Binderbauer, was founded in 1998. The company’s goal is to have a commercial-scale fusion reactor supplying power to the grid by the early 2030s. [Mehr bei CNBC]

Amazon sued the administrators of around 10,000 Facebook-Groups for allegedly fake product reviews. The e-commerce retailer had previously taken action against manipulated reviews on its own platform. At the same time, Amazon is facing headwinds from Google: The tech group is building Youtube is increasingly turning to the shopping channel and is thus positioning itself as an Amazon rival. This is how Google builds the partnership with the software provider Shopify off – a click on a product video on YouTube will allow users to buy products directly in the future. [Mehr bei Wall Street Journal, Spiegel und Handelsblatt]

More tech news: Samsung introduces its latest foldables on August 10th and Apple has agreed to pay $50 million to settle a lawsuit relating to faulty keyboards on its computers. Google and Oracle on the other hand, are struggling with the unexpected heat wave in Great Britain. Faulty cooling systems in the companies’ London data centers led to a temporary loss of services. [Mehr bei The Information, Reuters und Techcrunch]

Our reading tip on Gründerszene: E-commerce business models are under pressure because of the economic crisis. Now the Berlin shop buyer has SellerX reduced its staff. Dozens of employees have to go. [Mehr bei Gründerszene]

Don’t want to miss anything? Then subscribe to our Gründerszene newsletter! It appears every morning at 8:30 a.m. and brings you all the important news straight to your inbox.

Happy Wednesday!

Your Gründerszene editors

More and more people are still surfing the Internet late in the evening and are thus delaying going to bed even longer – even though many are already in bed. Scientists call this phenomenon “bedtime procrastination”. But why do you do that? And: What consequences can this have?

Just a quick check of Instagram and then I put the smartphone away because it’s actually already bedtime. Although: If I ever hold it in my hand, I could quickly do the overdue update and answer a few WhatsApp messages. And what’s actually going on on Twitter?

Many people feel something like this when they go to bed – although perhaps not quite as extreme. There has been a name for this phenomenon in science for several years: bedtime procrastination. The term stands for delaying bedtime, which in turn causes sleep deprivation.

Bedtime procrastination: when the smartphone robs us of sleep

The Dutch social and behavioral researcher Floor M. Kroese from the University of Utrecht probably coined the term for the first time in 2014. In the meantime, bedtime procrastination has found its way into many other scientific articles.

A relatively general definition has been established. Accordingly, bedtime procrastination occurs when falling asleep is firstly actively delayed, secondly, there is no good reason for it, and thirdly, people are aware of the negative consequences of this behavior.

However, the phenomenon is not always unique to smartphones. Video games, televisions or computers can also rob us of sleep. The same applies to analogue activities such as sports or reading. However, researchers have only registered bedtime procrastination since technical devices have become socially acceptable and have come to dominate our everyday lives.

A common phenomenon

As Kroese’s remarks suggest, smartphones and the like ultimately even contributed to the emergence of the phenomenon. Classic procrastination is the basis for bedtime procrastination and lack of sleep due to technical devices.

But why are we doing this? The answer and thesis of the researchers: From a lack of self-control and because we don’t have ourselves under control. In an interview with the specialist magazine National Geographic said the stress management expert and psychotherapist Anna Höcker:

People who have a lot of freedom of action in their job – i.e. executives, managers, students and freelancers such as lawyers, architects or journalists – are particularly at risk of procrastination in general.

So far there have been few studies on the sub-topic of bedtime procrastination, but a study by Floor M. Kroese and his colleagues suggests that the phenomenon is relatively widespread.

According to the study, 25 percent of 2,637 respondents said that they went to bed later than originally planned at least once a week – even though there was no good reason for it. Again, more than two-thirds said they found this behavior problematic because they suffered from fatigue.

Bedtime Procrastination: Reasons, Causes and Solutions

But why do we allow ourselves to be tempted to do this anyway? Some scientists believe that the phenomenon is not solely due to a lack of self-control. According to an in Frontiers of Psychology According to a published study, so-called night owls are more prone to bedtime procrastination than people who are generally considered to be early risers.

As opposite to psychotherapist Anna Höcker National Geographic expressed that the phenomenon was a learned one that could also be discarded again:

If you find that you are often stuck on your cell phone, internet, Netflix and Co., avoid them from about half an hour before bedtime.

Höcker’s tip: Reduce the time of possible “procrastination dangers”, fight the supposed danger and, for example, do not take the smartphone to bed at all. Certain relaxation rituals would also help to return to a healthy sleep rhythm.

Also interesting:

Until now, the messaging app Telegram was completely free. But this is set to change this month: As announced by founder Pavel Durov, he wants to introduce the paid subscription Telegram Premium.

Sooner or later, many digital offers will reach this point – now the time has come for the Telegram messenger service. As founder Pavel Durov announced in a blog post, Telegram wants to introduce a paid subscription later this month.

What is Telegram Premium?

According to founder Durov, Telegram offers an “unrivaled” range of limits for chats, media and file uploads. For example, users can send data with a size of almost two GB in the app. For comparison: competitor WhatsApp complains about videos that exceed a limit of 64 MB.

Nevertheless, Telegram users are apparently not satisfied with the existing limits. As Durov writes, many have asked for “the current limits to be raised even further”. That’s why Telegram “after careful consideration” decided to offer the increased limits via a paid subscription.

Telegram Premium is scheduled to launch later this month. Here users should be able to book “additional functions, speed and resources”. For all users who decide against the Telegram Premium payment subscription, nothing should change.

Durov writes that “all existing features remain free”. They can also view extra-large documents, media, and stickers from premium users

Telegram Premium: Why did Telegram choose an affordable one?

As is so often the case, the decision to go with Telegram Premium is also a question of money.

If we were to remove all limits for everyone, our server and traffic costs would have become unmanageable – then unfortunately the party would be over for everyone.

Telegram has experimented with “privacy-friendly advertising” in the past. And that was more successful than expected.

However, according to Durov, Telegram should “primarily be funded by its users and not by advertisers”. So the users would always remain the “main priority” of the messaging app.

How popular is Telegram?

In terms of user numbers, Telegram is far from being able to keep up with its competitor WhatsApp. In February 2020, the Meta subsidiary was able to break the mark of two billion monthly active users for the first time.

Telegram, on the other hand, only had a quarter in January 2021. In that month, the app had 500 million monthly active users.

But if you look at the development of the numbers, a positive trend is clearly visible. Because since December 2014, the number of monthly active users of Telegram has increased tenfold.

However, it remains to be seen what influence the paid subscription plans will have on the development of user numbers.

Also interesting:

Five years ago, the ex-StudiVZ CEO developed a tool that trains call center employees. His startup i2x has now completed the next round of financing.

Three years after the last capital injection, the Berlin startup i2x has secured another investment. The tech company received eleven million euros from Michael Brehm. Only the venture debt fund Bridge to Growth from Berlin and entrepreneur Heiko Hubertz, who founded the company after the dot-com bubble and earned millions with browser games, are newcomers. Various old shareholders such as UVC Partners, HV Capital and Btov Partners increased their shares again.

The investment is not a bridge financing, emphasizes Brehm in an interview with Gründerszene. “We don’t need gigantic rounds for what we’re doing now.” His startup i2x has designed an artificial intelligence that is used in call centers. The tool records the conversations, transcribes them and sends the employees feedback on them in real time. For example, specific wording suggestions on how to lead to topics or which inquiries you no longer have to follow. People see the instructions in a small window on their computer screen. According to Brehm, the AI ​​also says how good the pronunciation is or how emotional and empathetic the caller received the caller. The aim is to optimize language and sales, to increase customer satisfaction and thus sales.

Annual sales in the single-digit millions

The startup charges a monthly license fee from the companies in which the AI ​​is used. According to Brehm, companies such as Vodafone, insurance companies and banks use the software. On the sales side, i2x recorded a “clear seven-digit amount” this year, according to the series founder. However, he will not be more precise. The aim is to have only “a slightly negative” annual result in the coming years. According to the latest balance sheet in the Federal Gazette, the loss in 2020 was 3.6 million euros. The year before, the Berlin startup posted a deficit of five million euros.

The former CEO of the former Facebook competitor StudiVZ has big plans: “It’s not just about improving call centers, but also about developing an AI in the medium term that is on the level of the human brain.” His vision is that intelligent language technologies will be everywhere apply where people talk to each other. His company wants to invest up to 100 million euros over the next five years to at least expand communication analysis and real-time coaching. The money should be taken primarily from sales.

read too

Founder explains why we need a German AI – and how covert racism can make founding more difficult

Google has agreed to pay $118 million to settle a class action lawsuit alleging gender discrimination. Around 15,500 female employees of the technology group had previously joined a class action lawsuit.

After about 15,500 female employees filed a class action lawsuit against Google, the company has now agreed to pay $118 million for gender discrimination. This comes from a report by the news agency Bloomberg out. Also published Business Wire the details of the court settlement.

In addition to the monetary compensation, an independent expert will also analyze Google’s hiring practices. In addition, labor economists will review Google’s equal pay studies. Settlement supervisors will oversee these actions over the next three years.

Class action lawsuit affects Google employees in 236 positions

As The Verge reported that in 2017 three women had already accused Google of paying female employees less than their male colleagues. The company violated the California Equal Pay Act. There was a wage gap of around $17,000.

The settlement with Google affects female employees in approximately 236 different positions in California, United States. A judge has yet to approve the settlement. A corresponding hearing is scheduled to take place on June 21, 2022.

“As a woman who has spent her entire career in tech, I’m optimistic that the actions Google has agreed to take as part of this settlement will ensure greater equality for women,” said Holly Pease, one of the plaintiffs.

Not the first criticism of Google for discrimination

Google has often been the focus of attention due to the unequal treatment of employees. Last year, for example, the search engine giant agreed to pay $2.5 million to settle a lawsuit.

In it, the company was accused of overlooking female engineers and Asian applicants. Google is also being watched for complaints of possible harassment and discrimination against women people of color. In a statement, Google announced that it was pleased to reach an agreement with the plaintiffs.

The group feels absolutely obliged to pay, hire and treat all employees fairly and equally. In addition, Google will adjust salaries in the future if wage differences between male and female salaries should be determined.

Also interesting:

Footballer Kevin Prince Boateng almost literally reaches for the stars for his wedding. While the real wedding ceremony with Valentina Fradegrada took place in Italy, the couple also exchanged vows in the virtual metaverse – around 384,400 kilometers from Earth.

With his club Hertha BSC, the 35-year-old footballer Kevin Prince Boateng secured relegation in the Bundesliga – just about. However, his wedding went high: to the moon.

Kevin-Prince Boateng: Wedding in the Metaverse

Boateng married Valentina Fradegrada, who is known as an influencer and model – on June 11, 2022 in Radicondoli, Tuscany, Italy. That’s one part of the Boateng wedding. In addition, the marriage ceremony with digital avatars took place on the moon. The Metaverse makes it possible.

Even guests were allowed at the virtual wedding of Kevin-Prince Boateng and Valentina Fradegrada – without a personal invitation, but for a fee of 50 US dollars. Apparently the tickets sold out quickly.

The fans had to buy access, Metaverse-like, via NFTs, it is said. The proceeds will in turn go to Fradegrada’s foundation for families in need.

Welcome to the Metaverse

Everyone has been talking about the Metaverse since autumn 2021: On October 28, 2021, Mark Zuckerberg presented the virtual world to the public. However, the Facebook founder did not invent the word, because it appears in the science fiction novel “Snow Crash” (1992) by Neal Stephenson.

Zuckerberg’s vision goes beyond the new virtual reality. It is correspondingly difficult to explain the metaverse in which Boateng has now celebrated his wedding.

Especially since all this is far from mature. Ultimately, the physical, augmented (AR) and virtual (VR) reality should merge and thus enable completely new experiences.

Meta, was?

A recent survey by By battle shows that most Germans do not know what the metaverse is: only 4 percent of the people surveyed can explain the phenomenon. 75 percent have never heard of the Metaverse.

Tutoring is provided, as the manager of Digital for everyoneAnna-Lena Hosenfeld, declared:

The metaverse is still unknown to many people. To make digitization buzzwords understandable for everyone, we created the Digital Day – a day of action that makes it possible to discover and experience digitization in a very low-threshold way.

The day of action will take place on June 24, 2022.

Also interesting:

Scientists from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) have developed a robot skin that can independently detect explosives, viruses and neurotoxins. In the future, the system could help, among other things, with environmental protection and support the monitoring of health and public safety.

Robots and artificial intelligence (AI) already relieve us of many tasks in everyday life. Machines often master repetitive motion sequences better than humans. This is one of the reasons why robots could completely take over some jobs in the coming years. However, some aspects are not yet mastered by the technology.

Robot skin can detect explosives, viruses, and neurotoxins

The robot recognizes nerve toxins, the explosive TNT and various viruses through its skin. Built-in electronic sensors interpret the environment and send the results to a computer unit. Within three minutes it is apparently clear what kind of substance is involved and whether it is dangerous.

The areas of application are diverse. The robot could identify dangers to our health or be used to avert danger. There is also potential for environmental protection, because exposed to nature, the sensors can identify the origin of chemicals, for example.

Human can control machine remotely through artificial skin

If a human puts on the robot skin, he can even control the robot’s hand. For this purpose, the electrical impulses of the muscles are recorded and interpreted by an artificial intelligence. The robotic arm then performs the desired movements with minimal delay.

To ensure that the technology spreads quickly, the researchers pay particular attention to the production costs. Special printers apply the sensors to the surface using special ink. The lines consist of silver nanowires and are said to have a particularly high level of stability. So we may soon see the scanning robotic arm in practice.

Also interesting:

The Finch is hoping to become Europe’s answer to Robinhood. Also, Pinterest stock is climbing and Stripe is cutting its internal valuation by almost 30 percent.

Good morning! While you slept, work continued elsewhere in the digital scene.

The top topics:

Lightyear, a trading app, has raised $25 million in an investment round backed by British billionaire Richard Branson. The aerospace entrepreneur participated through his Virgin Group at the startup. The company exclusively told CNBC that Silicon Valley-based Lightspeed Venture Partners led the transaction. Lightyear was founded in London last year by Estonian entrepreneurs Martin Sokk and Mihkel Aamer. It offers commission-free trading on 3000+ global stocks and multi-currency accounts.

Lightyear has ambitious expansion plans: the company is currently rolling out its app in 19 European countries, including Germany and France. Next up is to continue expansion across the EU zone and in non-euro countries like Sweden and Norway. According to Nicole Quinn, General Partner at Lightspeed, the deal shows investors’ appetite for a Europe-focused investment app. Still, the cash injection comes at a difficult time for stock markets — Robinhood is currently trading around 78 percent below its IPO price. [Mehr bei CNBC und Techcrunch]

On Gründerszene you read today: Everyone wants ESOP, even if there are still regulatory hurdles that make it difficult to use. It is particularly difficult for freelancers to get employee participation. The lawyer and tax consultant Mirco Zantopp told us how the self-employed can still benefit and what startups have to do for it. [Mehr bei Gründerszene+]

And here are the other headlines of the night:

Die PinterestShares rose more than 20 percent in extended trading on Thursday after the Wall Street Journal reported that Elliott Management had acquired a stake of more than 9 percent in the company. Elliott is known for his activist investing. The Pinterest papers had collapsed by 75 percent in the past year. While revenue grew 52 percent to more than $2.5 billion in 2021, monthly active users worldwide fell 6 percent to 431 million. [Mehr bei Wall Street Journal, The Information und CNBC]

Stripe has lowered the internal valuation of its shares by almost 30 percent. According to The Wall Street Journal, the payments company told employees last week that their shares are now worth $29, up from $40. Stripe isn’t the first high-profile private tech company to downgrade its valuation this year. Stripe’s investor valuation, which reached $95 billion in the last round of funding in 2021, was one of the highest among startups. [Mehr bei Wall Street Journal, The Information und Techcrunch]

The NFT Marketplace Opensea laid off about 20 percent of its workforce. This was announced by CEO Devin Finzer on Thursday. “The reality is that we have entered an unprecedented combination of crypto winter and broad macroeconomic instability and we need to prepare the company for the possibility of a prolonged downturn,” Finzer wrote in a Slack message to employees. Several other crypto companies such as Coinbase, Gemini and Crypto.com have announced layoffs over the past few weeks. [Mehr bei Bloomberg, Techcrunch und The Information]

Amazon-Shoppers bought more than 300 million items during this year’s Prime Day sale. This makes the event the most successful Prime Day in Amazon history. The company said Prime members worldwide bought more than 100,000 items per minute during the two-day event, which took place on Tuesday and Wednesday. The top-selling categories in the US were Amazon-branded consumer electronics, housewares and gadgets. Almost 60 percent of orders were placed for items under $20. [Mehr bei CNBC]

Twitter was affected by a malfunction on Thursday afternoon. As the “Guardian” reported, it was one of the largest failures in years. According to Downdetector.co.uk, which tracks site outages, the short message service went down for 45 minutes worldwide at 12.55pm UK time. Meanwhile, the Securities and Exchange Commission has asked Elon Musk for more information on a tweet related to his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter, which he has since called off. [Mehr bei Guardian, CNBC und Wall Street Journal]

Our reading tip on Gründerszene: Peter Effenberg helps me tinker Transfermedia at a new source of income for struggling streaming platforms: shopping while watching. [Mehr bei Gründerszene]

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Happy Friday!

Your Gründerszene editors