"A" Is for App

Game On!

A look at some of the coolest devices, sites, and apps for kids to log on and learn.
By Zachary Wilson

Pod Star

Radio-and-TV personality Adam Carolla stumbled into podcasting and immediately became its No. 1 star. Now he's launching his own broadcasting network. Inside the messy birth of a new medium.
By Ellen McGirt | Photo: Jeff Minton

Cast of Millions

As the podcast universe expands, the business supporting it continues to mature.
By David Lidsky and Dan Macsai

Combustible

In their haste to tap Kurdish reserves, dozens of oil companies -- several fronted by former Bush officials -- have undercut U.S. policy and fanned sectarian tensions in Iraq. They may also lose a fortune.
By Joshua Hammer

Infographic: Combustible

Ford's Big Reveal

The next generation of Ford's Sync technology will turn its cars into rolling, talking, socially networked, cloud-connected supermachines. Introducing America's most surprising consumer-electronics company.
By Paul Hochman

Have You Talked to a Ford -- Lately?

The instrument panel for the 2011 Ford Edge, featuring the next iteration of Sync.
By Paul Hochman

Watch Your Back, Barbie!!!

How Spin Master Toys created the hit Liv dolls, a thoroughly modern marriage of tech, storytelling, and 21st-century marketing that has industry giant Mattel looking over its shoulder.
By Kate Rockwood

Spin Master's Hot Streak

The Toronto-based toymaker has inspired crazes with its tech-driven creations.
By Kate Rockwood

Valley of the Dolls

Big breakthroughs in the history of toys for girls.
By Kate Rockwood

Now: April 2010
By Fast Company Staff | Illustration: Deanne Cheuk

Slideshow: WPA Celebrates Its 75th Anniversary

When Bad Products Happen to Big Companies

Twenty-five years ago today, Coca-Cola execs tried to give their flagging brand a lift by replacing the original drink with New Coke. Turns out people preferred the old taste, and the reformulated soda quickly lost its fizz. Here's a look at other product launches that got lots of buzz -- and majorly flopped.
By Kate Rockwood

Watch: '80s Remake Month

Break out your yellow paisley power ties: The eighties are back -- at least at the multiplex, where three familiar titles return to the big screen.
By David Lidsky

Who's Next: Osama Bedier

VP of platform, mobile, and new ventures, PayPal.
By Zachary Wilson | Photo: Howard Cao

What's Next: Solar Flares
By Damian Joseph

Where's Next: The Great Pacific Garbage Patch
By Danielle Sacks

Hot Times in Home Energy

From startups to heavyweights, companies are betting that energy management will be the next big thing.
By Stephanie Schomer

Smart but Early

A sampling of the players jockeying for position in a nascent market.
By Fast Company Staff

Insurance by the Mile

Can an innovative pricing plan persuade Americans to drive less?
By Cliff Kuang

Do Something: Let's Hear It for the Little Guys

We glorify our leaders and praise our visionary entrepreneurs, but Nancy Lublin says we should focus on the followers -- the people who get things done.
By Nancy Lublin

Payday

Will Ustream's pay-per-view experiment forge a business model for live Internet video?
By Dan Macsai

Tech Edge: Hollow Point

Everyone from Google to HBO thinks 2010 is the year we embrace geolocation and tell friends and marketers our every move. Farhad Manjoo locates the problem with that idea.
By Farhad Manjoo

Hey, Bugs: Bet You're Feeling Slick Now

A nontoxic coating takes the feet out from under insects.
By Theunis Bates

Shape Shifters

Design guru Chuck Hoberman's latest venture: buildings that can adapt to the environment.
By Tim McKeough

Let There Be Light

Jason Miller's Roll & Hill wants to be that all-too-rare thing: an accessible maker of American design.
By Julie Taraska

Game Plan

One CAA agent wants the video-game business to be more like the movies. The first step? Set the talent free.
By Jamin Brophy-Warren

Made to Stick: The Birth of a Sticky Idea

After seeing a strikingly effective ad campaign, Dan Heath and Chip Heath wonder whether sodas will be the next cigarettes.
By Dan Heath and Chip Heath

Quiz: Ad Agency or Indie Band?

By Tina Dupuy

Opening the Black Box

Triodos Bank lets customers follow the money -- and it won't be going to weapons makers or cigarette companies.
By Danielle Sacks

Under Pressure

Americans are stressed. We stress about work, the economy, school, love, weight, Lost, even stress itself. Well, April happens to be National Stress Awareness Month -- and Stress Awareness Day is on the 16th. To mark the anxious occasion, here's a look at our angst in numbers.
By Stephanie Schomer

Infographic: Under Pressure