• I tried every burger on In-N-Out's main and "not-so-secret" menu.
• My least favorite burger I tried from In-N-Out was the plain hamburger.
• The best fast-food burger was the flavorful, well-priced Double-Double "animal-style" burger.

On a trip to Austin, I ordered every burger at In-N-Out, a Californian fast-food chain famous for its well-priced, oversized burgers.

Harry and Esther Snyder opened their first In-N-Out burger stand in 1948. In 1963, In-N-Out began serving its famous Double-Double burger and added "animal-style" burgers to its menu two years later. The chain, which now operates in eight states, opened its 400th restaurant in 2023 and is a favorite of celebrities and world-class chefs alike. 

In-N-Out is helmed by Lynsi Snyder, the only granddaughter of Harry and Esther Snyder. At 42, she is one of the youngest billionaires in the US, with a net worth of $6.7 billion. The company has evolved under her leadership, but the menu at In-N-Out has remained largely unchanged over the decades. 

Here's every burger at In-N-Out, ranked from worst to best.

My least favorite burger at In-N-Out was, perhaps unsurprisingly, the plain hamburger.

It came on a warm toasty bun and cost $3.15. 

I knew it would probably be underwhelming compared to the menu's other burgers, which come with more exciting toppings.

I turned out to be correct.

The beef patty was crispy and had a nice flavor to it.

However, it definitely needed some kind of topping. This order is really only for children or people with picky palettes. 

The cheeseburger was slightly better.

It cost just $3.50, though I didn't think it was necessarily worth it considering you can get a much larger, more flavorful burger for a slightly higher price.

It comes with one beef patty and a slice of American cheese.

The bun was toasted and the melted cheese covered the entirety of the crispy beef.

However, despite being slightly better than the hamburger, I probably wouldn't order this again.

If I did, I would definitely ask for extra toppings like ketchup, mustard, onions, or pickles.

The 4×4 is the largest burger at In-N-Out and is part of the chain's "not-so-secret" menu.

Also called the "Quad Quad," the mammoth burger comes with four beef patties, four cheese slices, lettuce, tomato, spread, and the option to add onions. It costs $9.49, making it the most expensive burger I tried.

The ginormous burger was difficult to hold in one hand, let alone bite into.

Looking at it, it was just so much meat. You would have to have a really big appetite to get through the entire thing, I would imagine.

All of the elements of the burger were delicious, from the juicy beef patties to the layers of cheese and fresh lettuce and tomato.

However, it was much too large for me. I definitely couldn't, and wouldn't, eat this if not for this taste test. It was over-the-top filling, and the vegetables did little to balance out how much meat and cheese were in the burger. The buns also began to fall apart while I was eating it.

I also tried a Double-Double protein-style.

As part of the chain's "not-so-secret" menu, you can order any burger wrapped in lettuce rather than buns. The burger cost $4.50.

I was surprised that swapping out the buns for lettuce didn't affect the price at all. I would have thought it would be cheaper to get lettuce buns, but I guess that's not necessarily the case.

It came with two burger patties, cheese, tomato, lettuce, and spread.

I'm not usually a fan of lettuce-wrapped burgers, but I wanted to give this celebrity-favorite order a shot. Kylie Jenner reportedly orders her burger this way when she stops by In-N-Out.

I felt there was way too much lettuce on this lower-carb burger.

I thought the lettuce made the burger so watery that I couldn't really enjoy the other ingredients. It was definitely lighter than the other burgers I tried, but when I'm going to a fast-food joint, that's not usually my goal. 

It wasn't a "lettuce bun" — it was just lettuce.

The Double Meat burger, also on the chain's secret menu, is basically a Double-Double without the cheese.

It cost $4.90 at the In-N-Out I went to. 

It comes with two beef patties, lettuce, tomato, spread, and optional onions.

There was a generous serving of each of the ingredients, from the lettuce and tomato to the thick layer of spread on the bottom of the burger.

The absence of cheese allowed the other ingredients to really come through.

It tasted a little lighter and was definitely more manageable to eat than some of the other large burgers. The lettuce and tomato tasted really fresh, while the spread added enough flavor to make up for the lack of cheese.

This burger really impressed me, even though I do personally prefer cheese on my burgers.

My third-favorite burger on In-N-Out's menu was the 3×3.

It comes with lettuce, tomato, spread, and the option to add onions, plus three burger patties and three slices of cheese. It cost $7.30, which I thought was a pretty fair price for the huge burger I received. 

This burger was much easier to eat than the 4×4.

Each beef patty was coated in tangy, gooey cheese. It had a perfect amount of crisp lettuce and tomato to balance out the meat and cheese.

The burger was easier to hold and eat than the larger version.

The buns held up better. Overall, despite the generous portion of meat and cheese, it tasted balanced.

I also ordered a plain Double-Double, which is In-N-Out's version of a double cheeseburger.

Most Double-Double burgers come with lettuce, tomato, onions, and spread. Since I would also be trying another Double-Double with those ingredients, I ordered it without lettuce and tomato. I ordered it with just onions, pickles, and spread. The burger cost $4.90.

 

The patties were incredibly juicy but had a nice char on the outside.

The cheese slices were perfectly melted and coated each part of the burger, something I couldn't say about any other burger I tried.

The bun was perfectly soft and held everything together perfectly, while the special spread had my mouth watering for another bite.

The burger was beyond flavorful, the perfect size, and shockingly inexpensive.

It was by far the best double cheeseburger I've ever had from a fast-food restaurant.

By far, the best burger I tried at In-N-Out was the Double-Double "animal-style."

The Double-Double usually comes with two beef patties, two slices of American cheese, lettuce, tomato, onions, and spread, but animal-style is slightly different.

However, it doesn't affect the price. My burger cost only $4.90, which I thought was a really good deal for the huge, flavorful burger I received.

If you order your burger animal-style, the beef patties will be cooked in mustard and come with all the aforementioned toppings, plus pickles and extra spread, and the onions will be grilled.

The burger was not only picture-perfect, but it was probably the best fast-food burger I've ever eaten.

The pickles were tart and crunchy, the beef patties were over-the-top juicy and flavorful, and the cheese-to-meat ratio was perfect.

The onions came through and added a lot of flavor and I really liked the spread. It was super savory and unlike any other sauce I've had on a fast-food burger before.

The burger itself was also very large, and all the ingredients tasted fresh. The cheese was also flavorful and thick. For less than $5, this was my favorite burger, by far.

After eating my way through the entire In-N-Out burger menu, I could really understand why the fast-food chain has such a cult following.

None of the burgers I tried were bad — some just had more exciting elements than others.

The next time I'm at In-N-Out, I'll definitely order a Double-Double animal style, but I wouldn't hesitate to order a double cheeseburger, 3×3, or even the Double Meat again.

• Donald Trump invoked Mother Teresa as jurors began deliberations in his Manhattan criminal trial.
• "Mother Teresa could not beat these charges," the former president said.
• Trump is accused of helping falsify business records to cover up a hush money payment to a porn star.

Former President Donald Trump on Wednesday said that the Manhattan District Attorney's case that he falsified business records to cover up hush money payments to a porn star is so "rigged" that not even one of the most famous modern Catholic saints could not get acquitted.

"I would say listening to the charges from the judge, who, as you know is very conflicted and corrupt, because of the confliction, very, very corrupt, Mother Teresa could not beat these charges," Trump said flanked by his attorney Todd Blanche.

Trump was addressing reporters just moments after Justice Juan Merchan gave his final instructions to the 12 jurors who will now weigh whether to render a verdict that could make Trump the first former president to become a felon.

The former president has repeatedly attacked Merchan over the justice's $15 donation to Biden's 2020 campaign. Trump also criticized Merchan's daughter to the point that the justice added her to the gag order that prohibits Trump from criticizing witnesses or the jury during the trial.

The crux of the criminal case is that in the wake of the publication of the Access Hollywood tape, Trump's presidential campaign was extremely worried about additional stories about the then 2016-Republican presidential nominee's treatment of women. On the 2005 tape, Trump told Billy Bush, then a co-host of Access Hollywood, that he could "grab" women "by the pussy" because he was a star.

Adult film actress Stormy Daniels was considering going public with her claim that she had sex with Trump after they met at a 2006 celebrity golf tournament. Michael Cohen, a Trump Organization attorney, testified that he orchestrated a $130,000 payment to Daniels to keep her quiet after the tape's publication and before the 2016 election. Cohen, Trump's former self-described "fixer," also claimed that Trump was aware that he was really paying Cohen back for the hush money when the then-president cut him a series of checks after the 2016 election for legal expenses.

Pope Francis formally canonized Mother Teresa as a saint in September 2016. He praised the Calcutta nun as an "emblematic figure of womanhood and consecrated life."

"May she be your model of holiness," Francis said, addressing volunteers around the world who seek to carry on Teresa's spirit of charitable giving.

Teresa was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979. She has faced criticism over the true intentions of her missionary work.

• Dick's Sporting Goods has something unusual for a retailer: an app to manage youth team sports.
• The service now boasts 5 million users who spend a half hour per day on the platform.
• Dick's says the business will bring in $100 million this year, in addition to driving retail sales.

Dick's Sporting Goods has long offered youth athletes and coaches a number of spiral-bound ways to organize teams and keep score.

But in recent years, the company has been investing in something unusual for a retailer: an AI-powered app to manage youth team sports, with livestream video and auto-generated highlight reels from games.

Now, the aptly named Game Changer platform is driving real revenue with some notable engagement, Dick's CEO Lauren Hobart told investors on the company's earnings call Wednesday.

Hobart said last quarter saw 5 million users who spent a half hour per day on the platform, and Game Changer says it supports over a million teams and over 7 million games per year.

Dick's CFO Navdeep Gupta said the business segment will bring in a highly profitable $100 million in revenue this year, but the real kicker for the company is the lift for retail sales online and in-store, especially among loyalty program members.

"Athletes that are both GameChanger user and a Scorecard user have 2x the revenue profile for just a Scorecard user," the CFO said. "That indicates also that the level of engagement that we have with these multi-channel athletes is actually really, really exciting and interesting to us as we look to the long-term opportunity for this platform."

Initially developed for so-called "diamond sports" like baseball and softball, Game Changer has been rolling out new AI-powered features to better support sports like basketball, soccer, volleyball, and more, bringing a kind of ESPN+ viewing experience to far-flung family members and fans.

• PwC has a new deal with OpenAI as the largest user and first reseller of ChatGPT Enterprise.
• The deal comes amid surging interest in GenAI, with 950 of its top 1,000 clients engaging with it.
• "Your business strategy and your AI strategy in this world need to be intertwined," said a PwC exec. 

Big Four consultancy firm PwC has a new deal with OpenAI to help its staff and clients leverage generative AI.

The companies announced Wednesday that PwC will now be the largest user of ChatGPT Enterprise, the most powerful tier of ChatGPT geared toward businesses. According to OpenAI, it offers higher-grade security, longer context windows to process longer inputs, and more advanced data analysis abilities than the consumer version of ChatGPT. PwC will deploy the product across 100,000 of its employees between the US and UK.

As part of the deal, PwC will also be the first reseller of ChatGPT Enterprise — meaning that clients can now purchase the product from both OpenAI and PwC.

The deal formalizes the surging interest in generative AI that PwC has seen from clients over the past year. Around 950 of the firm's top 1,000 consulting clients in the US are actively engaged with generative AI, and many more are discussing the use and implications of the technology, according to its press release.

PwC announced last year that it would invest a billion dollars in generative AI over the coming three years to provide AI training and tooling for its employees — like its conversational AI assistant ChatPwC. Since then the firm has documented over 3,000 use cases for the technology, Joe Atkinson, PwC's US Chief Products & Technology Officer, told Business Insider. "We were our first client, so we would work through our client zero strategy," Atkinson said. Under the new deal, "we're bringing all of those capabilities and skills to our clients who are really, really eager to take their own strategy from where they are today to where they think they can be with generative AI."

He said the biggest questions the firm gets from clients are about the risks and biases of AI models and the accuracy of their outputs. So, it's clear they still need human oversight.

But Atkinson contends that businesses need to embrace AI if they want to survive.

"One of the things we keep telling our clients is, look, your business strategy and your AI strategy in this world need to be intertwined. That understanding, I think is really starting to make itself known in the C-suite and the boardrooms," he said.

• North Korea floated hundreds of balloons filled with garbage and feces across the border south.
• North Korea had vowed retaliation after South Korean activists sent anti-Pyongyang leaflets.
• The North's balloons contained fertilizer, NBC reports, but not human excrement.

North Korea floated balloons carrying garbage and feces into South Korea last week, officials in Seoul said.

The obnoxious floating orbs were an apparent retaliation against South Korean activists who'd previously flown anti-Pyongyang leaflets and USB drives containing K-pop music over the border.

Days before the balloons landed in South Korea, a North Korean official vowed retaliation via "paper and filth," The Wall Street Journal reported.

South Korea's military discovered the balloons near the border Tuesday and warned residents to stay inside, according to the Journal.

Roughly 260 balloons were ultimately found — the largest number ever sent, the Yonhap News Agency reports, citing South Korea's joint chiefs of staff. The countries have been feuding with messages sent back and forth via balloons for years.

North Korea's latest barrage of balloons contained plastic, batteries, parts of shoes, and manure, a JCS official said, according to Yonhap.

South Korea's defense ministry confirmed the presence of fertilizer to NBC, not human excrement — though the outlet noted that human feces was sent by North Korea in 2016.

The latest skirmish comes as North Korea on Monday failed to launch a spy satellite, which exploded midair.

South Korean media reported Russia was helping with the effort, with a number of its technicians entering the country before the botched launch.

• Another Tesla owner reported an injury from the Cybertruck's sharp edges.
• The owner said he ended up in the hospital after accidentally slicing his wrist during delivery.
• Previous Cybertruck injuries involved the sharp frunk and door edges. 

A Cybertruck delivery ended up a bit bloody, a Tesla owner wrote in a forum post.

While there's been past coverage of Cybertruck-related injuries from people testing out the frunk's sensor on their fingers (don't do that), or the guy who needed stitches after clipping his leg on the door's edge when exiting, this Cybertruck owner wrote that they accidentally sliced their wrist while inspecting their brand-new vehicle upon arrival.

The Tesla owner posted on the Cybertruck Owner's Club that he had been anxiously awaiting the arrival of his vehicle. But when it finally arrived, the Cybertruck was in "sloppy, sloppy condition at delivery," with a "disastrously dirty" windshield with a smeary film over it, and a hood covered in rust spots, he wrote.

The owner said that he noted several issues with the vehicle: an overspray on the body panels that he couldn't easily wipe off, a loose rubber seal along the tonneau cover, and a large upper panel on the driver's side in the bed that flew off while driving on a main road. He posted photos of some of the issues.

But they weren't enough to deter the Tesla owner from enjoying his new ride.

"Otherwise, it's great," he wrote on the forum. "Heck, it's great even with these issues. The tires and wheel look GREAT in person."

But things took a turn when the owner walked around to inspect the truck and noticed a small pit or divot on the tailgate, he wrote. When he tried to rub the spot with his thumb to see if it was a divot or stray adhesive, he ended up slicing his wrist, the owner said.

"I jerked my arm back and the employees chuckled jokingly saying this thing can be dangerous," he wrote on the forum. "I, too, thought it was a little slice like a paper cut…Until the blood started pouring."

The owner said there was "a lot of blood," and uploaded a graphic image of injury. We'll spare you the details — but it's safe to say he wasn't exaggerating: the cut looks pretty deep.

He said the two employees scrambled to find something to stop the bleeding, and he was eventually able to apply a bandage. He still managed to wash off his wrist, wrap it up, and complete delivery, the owner wrote.

Several hours later, he said that he assumed the gash had closed up and he could take off the bandage.

"I unwrapped my wrist and BOOM – spurts of blood all over the kitchen island…" the owner wrote on the forum. "Which leaves me here, at the ER."

The owner also posted a photo of a hospital waiting room. He did not return a request for comment ahead of publication.

The incident is one of the latest reported injuries tied to the sharp edges of the Cybertruck's angular stainless steel design. Some, however, have been seemingly playing with fire. Multiple owners reported hurting themselves after purposely closing the vehicle's frunk on their body parts to test out the hood's safety sensor, with one user ending up with a deep cut that appeared to extend down to his tendon.

Another owner had to get stitches after he accidentally cut his leg on the edge of the door while exiting his vehicle, according to a post on the Cybertruck forum. Yet another forum user commented on the post saying he had also cut himself accidentally while washing his car.

Tesla warns in its manual to "use caution around the panel edges on Cybertruck, including the doors, powered frunk, tailgate, and surrounding panels." The manual also states neglecting to follow proper procedures can result in injury.

Tesla did not respond to a request for comment about the driver's account.

• Trump's 7-man, 5-woman jury will have only the verdict sheet with them in the deliberations room.
• They must check the boxes for "Not Guilty" or "Guilty" on 34 counts of falsifying business records.
• They will not have a copy of the judge's hour-long, spoken instructions on the underlying law.

After four weeks of testimony by nearly two dozen witnesses — plus hundreds of exhibits and eight hours of closing arguments — the first-ever criminal trial of a former US president now has a deliberating jury.

Donald Trump's potential criminal record rests in the hands of seven men and five women, a majority white-collar group that includes three men with finance backgrounds and two men who are lawyers.

Jurors listened intently for just over an hour Wednesday morning — with several taking brief notes — as the judge described the law to them before sending them to a deliberations room adjacent to the courtroom.

Jurors had to surrender their cellphones to the safe-keeping of court officers before beginning their work.

"I'm going to ask you to step out now and begin your deliberations," New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan told the jury as parting words at 11:28 a.m.

Two jurors — a man who works as a security engineer, and a woman who works as a software engineer — volunteered to learn to operate the laptop on which they can view trial exhibits while deliberating.

The laptop contains no other data and is not connected to the internet.

Finally, six alternates — five women and one man — were asked to wait in a separate room. "There might be a need for you at some point in the deliberations," the judge told them.

Here are the documents that will guide the Trump jury's decisions in New York's historic hush-money trial.

The verdict sheet

The verdict sheet is the only document the jurors will have with them in the deliberations room. It instructs them to check "Not Guilty" or "Guilty" on each of 34 counts of a single charge: falsifying business records in the first degree.

The court staff has promised to give us a blank copy of the verdict sheet. We'll update this post once we have it.

Each of the 34 counts pertains to a different invoice, check, and ledger entry that Trump allegedly caused to be entered into the Trump Organization's business records throughout 2017, his first year in office.

Falsifying business records in the first degree

Prosecutors say Trump caused 34 business records to be falsified as part of an illegal conspiracy to influence the 2016 election.

The records, prosecutors say, disguised the true purpose of $130,000 in "legal fee" reimbursements paid throughout 2017 to Trump's then-lawyer, Michael Cohen.

In reality, Cohen was being secretly reimbursed for his hush-money outlay to Stormy Daniels, a payment that silenced the porn star just 11 days before the 2016 election, prosecutors allege.

Merchan read to jurors from the standard jury charge for felony falsifying business records.

The jury charge

New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan spent more than an hour Wednesday morning speaking to jurors, slowly describing to them the laws that will underpin their verdict.

Read the judge's "jury charge" here.

During the charge, Merchan warned jurors to be on guard against any "implicit bias" about groups of people and the defendant himself.

They were also reminded that prosecutors bear the burden of proving guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, and that they must consider only testimony, exhibits, and attorney stipulations in reaching a verdict — not the potential for punishment.

"The defendant is not required to prove that he is not guilty," he reminded jurors. "The defendant is not required to prove or disprove anything."

Finally, the jurors were instructed on the underlying laws, and their definitions.

Key among these laws is section 17-152 of the New York election law. Business Insider described this important but rarely-used state election-conspiracy law last month.

To convict, jurors must find that Trump falsified business records to conceal an attempt to violate 17-152.

And to find that Trump attempted to violate 17-152, jurors must find he attempted to commit any of three additional underlying offenses. These are the federal election campaign-finance law, an additional New York business-falsification law, and a violation of tax laws on either a city, state or federal level.

The judge told jurors that they could not take a written copy of the charge with them to the deliberations room.

"You may however request I read them back to you in whole, or in part, as many times as you wish," he told them. "And I will be happy to do so."

The defense lawyers, prosecutors, and Trump himself were instructed not to leave the courthouse during deliberations.

Trump sat still during the judge's instructions, leaning back in his chair and closing his eyes, leaving his hands in his lap. On at least one occasion, he appeared to stretch in his seat.

Once Merchan sent the jurors to the deliberation room, Trump appeared relaxed — even jovial — joking with his son, Donald Trump, Jr., as he left the courtroom to await his verdict.

Once in the hallway, he huddled with his aides outside the courtroom for three minutes before walking up to the cameras and complaining about the judge.

• Some products feel like they've been around forever, but they're actually fairly recent inventions.
• Sliced bread, a kitchen staple, has been around for fewer than 100 years. 
• It's tough to imagine life without the MacBook and iPhone, but they've only been around 20 years.

Certain products have become integral to our daily lives — it seems like there was never a time that we lived without them. 

However, even some that seem as old as time have been created fairly recently. Sliced bread was put on the market for the first time in 1928, after a Missouri-based jeweler, Otto Rohwedder, invented the bread slicer. 

More than a third of the US population, 136 million people, were iPhone users in 2023, and the company has a particularly strong hold on Gen Z: Research released by Piper Sandler in October found 87% of teenagers surveyed said they had an iPhone, and 88% of them anticipated getting an iPhone as their next phone, too.

However, the product was brought on the market just 17 years ago. 

Take a look at all the products that haven't been around for as long as you would think.

A pantry staple today, sliced bread was first sold in 1928.

The first loaf of automatically sliced bread was produced by Otto Rohwedder in Chillicothe, Missouri, in July 1928, according to History.com. Rohwedder was a jeweler, and faced criticism by bakers for his idea; they thought that sliced bread would go stale too quickly.

Cans with pull-tab tops became popular after being patented by Ermal Fraze in 1977. He had designed the mechanism about a decade earlier.

According to Slate, the pull-tab top on cans became standard after removable tops were deemed a health hazard — they could be accidentally swallowed or cut people's feet on beaches.

Post-it Notes were introduced around the world in 1980.

Arthur Fry was a new product development researcher at 3M when he learned of the adhesive microspheres that his colleague Spencer Silver had developed, according to the National Inventors Hall of Fame, of which Fry is a member.

He then coated the adhesive to paper and the Post-it Note was created.

Sriracha hot sauce is also a relatively new product. It was first put on the market in 1980.

Huy Fong Foods founder David Tran created Sriracha in 1980.

Sriracha is the eighth-most-popular hot sauce in the United States, according to 2023 data from Instacart. But before a worldwide Sriracha shortage, it was in the No.2 spot, per Instacart data shared by AllRecipes.

Battery-operated car keys have only been around since the 1980s. Before, each car door had to be locked and unlocked with a traditional key.

Car and Driver reported that one of the earliest iterations of a remote-entry locking system could be found in the 1983 AMC-Renault Alliance. Then, in 1987, Cadillac released the Allante car key, and by the early 1990s, the device was more widespread.

Though inline skates have been around since the 19th century, rollerblades were first sold by their teenage inventor, Scott Olson, in 1981.

Olson was 19, living in Waconia, Minnesota, and dreamed of joining the NHL when he saw a pair of inline skates in a sports catalog and thought they'd help him train. Even though they were not a popular item at the time, he knew immediately they had potential — they just needed some updates to appeal to a broader audience.

He told Marketplace he didn't invent the concept, only the product. "The inline skate started back before roller skates were even invented, back in the early 1800s," Olson said.

The Coca-Cola company was founded in 1892, but Diet Coke wasn't for sale until 1982.

Diet Coke was unveiled on July 8, 1982, and introduced in the United States on August 9, according to the company. It quickly overtook sales from the brand's previous diet cola, Tab. 

Built-in GPS for cars was first unveiled in 1990 by Mazda in Japan, but it took a decade before it was widely available in American cars.

Though there were earlier models of map guidance tools introduced as early as 1930, the Mazda 1990 model was the first that had a true GPS built in to a commercially available car. It took another 10 years after its release to become available in the United States, Popular Mechanics reported. The US military had to allow for its commercial usage, since they had launched the GPS satellites.

Though many households have them now, Sony PlayStations have only been around since 1994.

PlayStations revolutionized gaming, with graphics that were far more advanced than anything else on the market at the time.

Starbucks' famous Frappuccinos have only been available since 1995. Vanilla Bean and Strawberry Creme flavors were introduced in 2002.

Dina Campion, a Starbucks employee, helped launch the Frappuccino.

She told Starbucks, "It was the summer of 1993, and Los Angeles is very hot in the summer. We noticed there were some smaller coffee shops that did some sort of blended coffee beverage. A couple of store managers and I felt there was a huge opportunity for Starbucks."

It has certainly paid off for the chain.

In August 2023, Starbucks said 75% of its drink sales the previous quarter were for cold drinks, QSR reported. Even over the winter — between January and March 2024 — cold drinks accounted for 63% of drink sales, Starbucks reported in April.

In 2021, an employee told Business Insider that Starbucks was becoming a "frappuccino factory."

Though it's now become a household staple, Febreze was first introduced in 1996.

Febreze was invented by Procter & Gamble. The Washington Post reported Febreze and other similar sprays have ingredients called cyclodextrins that can actually trap odor molecules.

A popular item on the McDonald's menu now, the McFlurry was only introduced in 1997, two years after it was invented by a franchisee.

The McFlurry was invented by a Canadian franchisee, Ron McLellan, at his McDonald's in Bathurst, New Brunswick. 

"I never expected that my creation would circle the globe with countries mixing together their own unique flavours," McLellan told CTV News in 2015.

You might see them in almost every house now, but plasma flat-screen TVs were first sold by Panasonic in the 1990s.

Flat-screen TV technology was pioneered by two University of Illinois professors, Donald Bitzer and Gene Slottow, and a graduate student, Robert Willson, according to the National Inventors Hall of Fame.

However, their model was not suitable for commercial use, and it wasn't until the 1990s that Panasonic engineer, Larry Weber, invented the modern flat screen we see in homes today.

Though they may seem like old technology now, DVDs were created in Japan in 1996 and first sold in the United States in 1997.

In 1997, Warner announced its first 30 DVD titles, which included "Blade Runner," "Casablanca," and "Twister," Variety reported.

The popular soft drink Sierra Mist has only been available since 1999, when it was launched by Pepsi.

Sierra Mist was rebranded to Mist TWST in 2015. A Pepsi spokesperson told AdAge, "We are working to highlight the lemon-lime credentials of the product."

The Universal Serial Bus (USB), also known as a flash drive, was first sold by IBM in 2000.

The first IBM USB was called the DiskOnKey, and held just 8 megabytes. However, within 10 years, the drive's storage capacity increased to 256 gigabytes.

Popular with both kids and adults, Razor scooters went on the market in 2000.

Razor scooters were invented by Wim Ouboter, a banker and amateur craftsman living in Zurich, Switzerland. He spoke to CityLabs in 2018 about how he came up with the idea.

"The problem is, if you're a big guy and you're riding such a small scooter, people will look at you weird. So you have to make it collapsible in order to bring it into a bar afterwards," he said.

The Toyota Prius, the first mass-produced hybrid car, was released internationally in 2000.

The car was first introduced in Japan in 1997. Today, Toyota is up to its fifth generation Prius.

Though you may see them in many public bathrooms today, Xlerator hand dryers have only been around since 2002.

Excel Dryer released the Xlerator in 2002, and they were marketed as being able to dry hands in about 10 to 15 seconds, much faster than other dryers at the time, which took about a minute.

The first camera phone was released in 2000.

Samsung's phone with a built-in camera, the SCH-V200, was released in South Korea in June 2000. Its camera was capable of taking 20 photos, but had to be hooked up to a computer for users to access them, per Digital Trends.

McGriddles are another relatively recent item on the McDonald's menu. They became available in 2003.

The McMuffin was introduced in 1972 and was McDonald's only breakfast sandwich until the McGriddle was released. 

Android phones were only introduced in 2003.

In 2022, the number of iPhone users in the US overtook Android users for the first time. Globally, however, the Android operating system is far more popular, according to StatCounter data.

Take 5 candy bars were first introduced by Hershey in 2004. Their popularity helped boost the company's profits 8% that year.

In 2019, Hershey announced Reese's was taking over the Take 5 bar, and it became the Reese's Take 5 bar. The company revealed that Reese's peanut butter had been an ingredient in the Take 5 bar since its 2004 launch.

Though energy drinks are ubiquitous today, the popular 5-hour Energy only went on the market in 2004.

The drink, created by American businessman Manoj Bhargava, made $1 billion in retail sales in its first eight years, Forbes reported.

Taco Bell's CrunchWrap Supreme is also relatively new. It was introduced in 2005.

After its launch in 2005, the CrunchWrap Supreme became Taco Bell's most successful product introduction. It was added to their permanent menu in 2006.

Stride gum has only been around since 2007.

Stride is made by Kraft and is marketed as "The Ridiculously Long Lasting Gum."

Though Apple is now one of the world's top laptop retailers, MacBooks were released relatively recently, in 2006.

Though MacBooks are popular, Windows still takes the lion's share of laptop sales.

Similarly, more than a third of Americans own an iPhone, but the devices have only been around since 2007.

There are more than 130 million iPhone users in the United States, accounting for nearly half of all smartphone users in the country, per Statista.

Krave cereal was released in the United States by Kellogg's just 12 years ago, in 2012.

Krave was first released in the United Kingdom in 2010 and came in six different varieties: chocolate hazelnut, milk chocolate, totally chocolatey, chocolate caramel, chocolate, and double chocolate.

Amazon Alexa was first released in 2014, but only for Prime members. It became available for general users in 2015.

Alexa long led the way in voice-assistant technology but has slipped into third place in the US in recent years. Google Assistant is pacing for 88.8 million users in the US in 2024, followed by Siri with 84.2 million, per 2022 Insider Intelligence data. Meanwhile, Alexa has a projected 75.6 million users this year.

Amazon is working on an upgraded version of Alexa, slated for a summer release.

• Reebok was once one of the NBA's leading brands.
• Legends of the game like Allen Iverson, Dominique Wilkins, and Shaquille O'Neal all sported Reeboks.
• The brand has now partnered with O'Neal to try to regain its status in the sport.

In the 1990s, Reebok was one of basketball's leading brands.

From Dee Brown's iconic slamdunk contest win in his Reebok Pumps to Allen Iverson's first signature sneaker, the "Question Mid," the brand was once at the center of the sport.

But fast-forward to 2024, and Reebok finds itself a long way behind the likes of Nike, Adidas, and Jordan.

The company has now embarked on a big push to change that, however.

In October 2023, former LA Lakers star and hall-of-famer Shaquille O'Neal, 52, was announced as the president of Reebok's basketball operations.

O'Neal, who originally signed with Reebok as a rookie in 1992, is leading the brand's return to the court alongside fellow NBA legend Allen Iverson, who joined the company as the vice president of basketball.

"Listen, we're getting back into basketball," O'Neal said at Reebok's annual brand summit in March, The New York Times reported. "Everyone needs to be 100 percent in on this, because I'm 100 percent in on this."

"I'm not doing this because this is a hobby. I'm doing this because we have a rightful place in basketball," he added.

Despite Reebok's success in the '90s, sales had begun to fall by the turn of the century, and the company was eventually acquired by Adidas for $3.8 billion in 2006.

But Reebok's fortunes did not fare much better under the German company's ownership, which moved the brand away from both basketball and ice hockey.

"Adidas really mismanaged the brand," Matt Powell, a footwear industry analyst and senior advisor with BCE Consulting, told The Times.

Following repeated calls from investors to offload the brand, Reebok was eventually sold to US-based Authentic Brands Group in 2021 for around $2.5 billion.

With O'Neal and Iverson on board, the company now hopes to regain its spot among basketball's elite and challenge the sport's top brands.

But the former stars will have their work cut out — in 2023, Nike reported gross revenue of around $51 billion, while Adidas pulled in roughly $23 billion. Reebok's annual revenue was just $2.3 billion.

As part of its strategy, Reebok is planning to launch a new basketball line in 2025. However, the company will be facing tough market conditions.

Sporting goods companies have faced lower demand while struggling with high inventories in the US, with Adidas reporting its first annual loss in more than 30 years in March and Nike announcing plans to cut around 2% of roles — over 1,600 jobs — in February.

The industry is hoping that the 2024 Paris Olympics and two major soccer tournaments — the Copa América and the UEFA European Championship — will help boost sales this summer.

O'Neal, at least, seems to know what's at stake for Reebok.

"If this doesn't work, everyone's leaving," he told The Times.

• OpenAI's board was as surprised as the public by ChatGPT's 2022 release, a former member claims.
• Helen Toner says the board was "not informed in advance" and actually learned about it on Twitter.
• She says CEO Sam Altman had been "withholding" and "misrepresenting" information with them.

The release of ChatGPT took the world by surprise back in 2022 — and a former OpenAI board member claims that was the case for the company's board of directors, too.

On November 30, 2022, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman tweeted a link to the chatbot, writing, "Today we launched ChatGPT. Try talking with it here." But Helen Toner said the board wasn't given a heads-up about the release and, in fact, learned about it from Twitter (now X).

"For years, Sam had made it really difficult for the board to actually do that job by withholding information, misrepresenting things that were happening at the company, in some cases outright lying to the board," she said in an interview with Bilawal Sidhu on "The TED AI Show" that aired Tuesday.

Toner said one example was the ChatGPT release, where "the board was not informed in advance."

In November 2023, Altman was briefly ousted, with OpenAI's board at the time saying a review showed he "was not consistently candid in his communications with the board."

But OpenAI reinstated Altman as CEO less than a week later after facing internal and external pressure. Nearly all of the company's staff had threatened to quit after Altman's firing, and Microsoft said it would hire Altman to lead an AI team.

Toner resigned from her role as an OpenAI board member a week after Altman returned as CEO.

OpenAI did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment, though current OpenAI board chairman Bret Taylor said in a statement to the podcast, "We are disappointed that Ms. Toner continues to revisit these issues."

An independent review of Altman's firing "concluded that the prior board's decision was not based on concerns regarding product safety or security, the pace of development, OpenAI's finances, or its statements to investors, customers, or business partners," Taylor added in his statement to the podcast.