This is a preview of The Smart Speaker research report from Business Insider Intelligence. Purchase this report. Business Insider Intelligence offers even more technology coverage with Connectivity & Tech Pro. Subscribe today to receive industry-changing connectivity news and analysis to your inbox. The smart speaker has been a runaway success in the handful of years since it hit the market, catapulting from obscurity to the peak of sales lists and cementing itself in the public consciousness. According to primary survey data from Business Insider Intelligence, as many as half of US respondents reported living in a home with a voice-enabled AI device. The prevalence of smart speakers is changing how companies in a range of spaces — media, e-commerce, smart home, banking, and more — interact with consumers. For companies looking to sell these speakers and brands looking to engage with their customers through the now-critical medium, it's important to understand how the voice ecosystem works in practice and how it's being used.  To learn more about adoption and habits, we surveyed 2,000 US consumers regarding factors like smart speaker ownership, what brands consumers use, and what they use the devices to do. Our survey data offers critical insights for key stakeholders at companies aiming to promote and use the smart speaker to reach customers. In The Smart Speaker Report, Business Insider Intelligence examines the fast-evolving smart speaker market. First, we provide a glimpse into smart speaker adoption in the US, both overall and by particular demographics. Then, we look at the characteristics of device owners, including how many speakers they own, which types, how often they use them, and what they use them to do. We also break down the top smart speaker use cases and the reasons why they are or aren't resonating with consumers, and advise brands looking to reach their users via this medium how best to do so. The companies mentioned in this report are: Amazon, American Express, Apple, Deezer, Google, Nest, Pandora, Samsung, Spotify, and TuneIn. Here are some key takeaways from the report: 5 years since the first device in its category launched, the smart speaker may be demonstrating one of the fastest rates of consumer adoption of any technology device in history, outpacing even the smartphone, per our data. More than half of US respondents who said that they live in households with a smart speaker reported having multiple speakers in their household, and nearly all living in households with speakers use them at least once a week. Media playback, general information, and communication are among the most commonly used features of smart speakers for device users. In full, the report: Provides a snapshot of the current state of smart speaker adoption. Highlights the most important ways that consumers are using the devices and looks at what will come next in key segments. Identifies key trends in smart speaker and voice assistant design and usage and offers guidance for companies and brands looking to use the platform moving forward. Interested in getting the full report? Here's how to get access: Purchase & download the full report from our research store. >> Purchase & Download Now Join thousands of top companies worldwide who trust Business Insider Intelligence for their competitive research needs. >> Inquire About Our Enterprise Memberships Current subscribers can read the report here. Join the conversation about this story »

A cable broke and tore a hole in the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico on Monday. The telescope had just reopened to study a potentially dangerous asteroid, shortly after Tropical Storm Isaias passed over the island. It's unclear why the cable broke, but the facility is closed again as engineers assess the damage. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. One of the world's most prominent astronomical observatories has a hole. On Monday, a 3-inch-thick cable at the Arecibo Observatory broke, tearing a gash 100 feet long in the reflector dish of the 20-acre radio telescope in Puerto Rico. The observatory had just reopened after a temporary closure due to Tropical Storm Isaias when the cable, which helped support a metal platform, snapped at about 2:45 a.m. ET. Now the facility is closed again as engineers assess the damage, according to the University of Central Florida, a co-operator of the telescope. It was not immediately clear how the cable broke or whether the damage was related to Isaias. Astronomers use the telescope to study hazardous asteroids as they fly past Earth, in hopes of identifying space rocks on a collusion course early enough to intervene before they strike. Scientists have also used Arecibo to search for signs of intelligent extraterrestrial life. In 1974, Arecibo beamed out the most powerful broadcast Earth has ever sent to communicate with potential aliens. Then in 2016, the telescope detected the first repeating fast radio bursts — mysterious space signals of unknown origin.  The cable's fall also damaged six to eight panels in the telescope's Gregorian Dome: the part that focuses its radiation to the points in space that astronomers want to study. It twisted the platform used to access the dome as well. "We have a team of experts assessing the situation," Francisco Cordova, the director of the observatory, said in a statement. "Our focus is assuring the safety of our staff, protecting the facilities and equipment, and restoring the facility to full operations as soon as possible, so it can continue to assist scientists around the world." Tropical Storm Isaias passed over Puerto Rico on July 30, before it developed into a hurricane, leading observatory operators to shutter the facility for a few days. They turned it back on earlier this month to study a potentially dangerous asteroid the size of five football fields, which was passing Earth at an optimal distance for the observatory to check it out. NASA had previously calculated a 1 in 70,000 chance that the space rock could impact our planet between 2086 and 2101, so astronomers wanted to track it more closely to better calculate the odds of an impact. But when a team at Arecibo trained the telescope at the asteroid to determine its shape and orbit, they discovered that it likely won't pass close enough to Earth to pose a threat in the future. During those observations, the telescope was functioning well. "Fortunately, the storm passed quickly without damage to the telescope or the radar system, and the maintenance and electronics teams were able to activate the telescope from hurricane lockdown in time for the observations," Sean Marshall, an observatory scientist who led the team doing those radar observations, said at the time.SEE ALSO: A handful of new telescopes are about to transform the hunt for alien life and our understanding of the universe itself DON'T MISS: SpaceX and NASA plan to launch astronauts on the Crew Dragon spaceship again next month, with at least 4 major changes Join the conversation about this story » NOW WATCH: Here's how astronomers took the first image of a black hole that's located 55 million light years away

Pinterest's high-profile former COO Françoise Brougher has filed a gender discrimination lawsuit against the company, New York Times' Erin Griffith reports. The lawsuit explains why Brougher left the company suddenly in April without explanation after two years in the No. 2 role. The suit comes after the explosive exit of two Black Pinterest employees, Ifeoma Ozoma and Aerica Shimizu Banks, and Business Insider's full investigative report. Read the full story: Former Pinterest employees describe a traumatic workplace where managers humiliate employees until they cry, Black people feel alienated, and the toxic culture 'eats away at your soul' Pinterest's high-profile former COO Françoise Brougher has filed a gender discrimination lawsuit against the company. The lawsuit explains why Brougher left the company suddenly in April without explanation after two years in the No. 2 role. Brougher says in the suit that she was fired after she had a heated exchange with Pinterest's chief financial officer, Todd Morgenfeld, after he allegedly made disparaging comments about her in front of peers and gave her feedback that she viewed as sexist, complaining she wasn't "collaborative enough," the lawsuit claims.   "I believed Pinterest would judge me based on my job performance. But instead I was treated unfairly because of my gender," Brougher said in a statement emailed to Business Insider. She also claims that she was left out of important meetings, not invited to go on the corporate road show in the runup to Pinterest's IPO in 2019, and that she discovered she was paid less than the male executives only after the company filed paperwork to go public. (Although she was the COO, Pinterest did not reveal her salary in its prospectus documents.) And she said that, unlike her male peers, her stock options were backloaded, meaning most of them vested over the last two years of a four-year vesting schedule. She said that after she complained, the company adjusted her compensation.  Brougher says she complained about Morgenfeld's comments to the head of human resources and to CEO Ben Silbermann, and Silbermann fired her over a video call. She says she was asked to announce her departure to the staff as a resignation and she refused. Prior to Pinterest, Brougher was well-known in the tech industry for her executives roles at Charles Schwab, Google and Square. "I'm speaking out because I want to be part of the hard work of dismantling systems of gender bias that punish women for the type of strong leadership rewarded in men and that impedes female leaders' ability to be successful," Brougher said in her statement. Pinterest did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment but told the New York Times it was reviewing the lawsuit, a company spokesperson said. "Our employees are incredibly important to us," the spokesperson said. This lawsuit comes after the explosive exit of two Black Pinterest employees, Ifeoma Ozoma and Aerica Shimizu Banks, Pinterest's former managers of Public Policy & Social Impact. After the two publicly quit in May, they discussed their struggles with the company with Business Insider from fighting for pay, to fielding internet threats. Business Insider talked to nearly a dozen former employees who described being fired or "pushed out" of the company with no real explanation, managers that humiliated employees until they cried, and the particular alienation that Black people felt, the company. Since then, the CEO of the company, Ben Silbermann, has apologized and has promised to conduct a full investigation into its culture and policies. Now read: Former Pinterest employees describe a traumatic workplace where managers humiliate employees until they cry, Black people feel alienated, and the toxic culture 'eats away at your soul' The inside story of Pinterest's toxic workplace that caused CEO Ben Silbermann to admit to employees, 'I'm embarrassed' The two Black employees who took on Pinterest explain why they quit, their fight for pay, the death threats, the private investigator: 'It was a torturous experience'   SEE ALSO: The 17 major IT certifications that you can take to help you land a gig that pays over $100,000 Join the conversation about this story » NOW WATCH: Why thoroughbred horse semen is the world's most expensive liquid

TikTok collected data from Android users for at least a year in apparent violation of Google's policies, The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday. The app tracked users' MAC addresses, an identifier unique to every smartphone that would allow TikTok to track users even if they tightened their privacy settings, according to the report. Google and Apple have both banned apps from collecting MAC addresses, but researchers told The Wall Street Journal that TikTok did so until November last year by exploiting a bug. TikTok told The Journal that it doesn't currently collect the information, and Google told Business Insider it's "investigating these claims." The report follows President Donald Trump's executive order last week that aims to ban American companies from doing business with TikTok's parent company, ByteDance, which would effectively halt its US operations. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. TikTok surreptitiously collected information from users' Android smartphones without their consent, an apparent violation of Google's app store policies, The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday. The app logged users' MAC addresses — unique digital identifiers attached to all smartphones that cannot be reset — allowing TikTok parent company ByteDance to track people even if they changed their privacy settings to opt out of certain ad-tracking practices, The Wall Street Journal found. TikTok installs from the Google Play store in the US currently total around 89 million, according to app analytics firm Sensor Tower. The Journal's analysis, which was based on a past version of TikTok, found that the app collected MAC addresses for at least 15 months, but ended the practice with an update to the app last November. "We are committed to protecting the privacy and safety of the TikTok community. We constantly update our app to keep up with evolving security challenges, and the current version of TikTok does not collect MAC addresses," a TikTok spokesperson told Business Insider. "We always encourage our users to download the most current version of TikTok." Google banned app developers from collecting users' MAC addresses in 2015, while Apple did the same two years earlier. But smartphone security experts told The Wall Street Journal that TikTok circumvented the policy by exploiting a bug and hid its tracks with an atypical extra layer of encryption. "We're investigating these claims," a Google spokesperson told Business Insider, while declining to comment specifically on the bug that TikTok reportedly exploited. The Wall Street Journal's report comes on the heels of President Donald Trump's executive order Thursday seeking to ban TikTok from operating in the US by prohibiting American companies from doing business with ByteDance. Trump issued a similar order aimed at messaging app WeChat, which is owned by Chinese tech giant Tencent. Trump's orders cited concerns about the apps' ownership by Chinese-based firms, claiming that both are subject to pressure from the Chinese government that could force them to censor content it finds objectionable or help it spy on Americans using data collected by the apps. "We have never given any US user data to the Chinese government nor would we do so if asked," TikTok's spokesperson told Business Insider. Experts told Business Insider's Isobel Asher Hamilton that TikTok no more intrusive in its data collection practices than competitors like Facebook, and the CIA has reportedly told the White House that there is "no evidence" that the Chinese government has accessed American user data from TikTok. Experts have also expressed doubt about the legality of Trump's orders, arguing they violate the First Amendment's ban on government censorship. TikTok reportedly plans to challenge the order in court as early as this week. Paige Leskin and Katie Canales contributed reporting to this story.Join the conversation about this story » NOW WATCH: Why you don't see brilliantly blue fireworks

Tesla on Tuesday announced a five-for-one stock split effective August 31.  At the close of trading on August 28, shareholders will receive five shares for every one they own.  At Tuesday's prices, the new stock price would be about $274 per share.  Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. Tesla said Tuesday that it was pursuing a five-for-one stock split following a massive rally in its share price this year.  At the end of trading on August 28, Tesla said in a press release, each shareholder will receive four additional shares for every share they own. Those shares will begin trading on August 31. At Tuesday's prices, that would value shares at about $274. Stock splits do not affect a company's market value, only the individual share prices.  Tesla's stock has been on a tear for most of 2020, as excitement around growing electric-vehicle sales and possible inclusion in the S&P 500 index entice new investors despite a global slump in equities prices amid the coronavirus pandemic. The rally has left Tesla as one of the most valuable automakers, despite the company making a tiny fraction of the industry's total output. Shares rose as much as 6% in late trading Tuesday after the split was announced.  CEO Elon Musk appeared to get the idea from Twitter in late June, when a user suggested it as a way for more fans to buy single shares.  Worth discussing at annual shareholders meeting — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 1, 2020 Tesla's move follows one from Apple, which on July 31 announced a similar stock split, the fifth in its history.  Join the conversation about this story » NOW WATCH: Why you don't see brilliantly blue fireworks