David Lidsky's Blog, page 2840
November 25, 2015
7 Whimsical Ways To Redesign The Pencil
You'll want every single one of these for your pencil case, from an implement for cavemen to a pencil you sharpen by squeezing.
It's pretty common for teachers to task their design students with rethinking a ubiquitous object, so designers Luka Or and Keren Tomer weren't exactly going rogue when they asked their third-year industrial design class at Israel's Holon Institute of Technology to redesign the humble pencil. But what their students came up with transcends the usual half-hearted redesigns, spanning pencils that are applied like paint brushes, pencils shapes like paleolithic tools, and more.
9 Things You Didn't Know About Frank Gehry
The quintessential starchitect's biography is surprisingly sensitive.
Architect Frank Gehry has designed some of the most iconic buildings of the past two decades, from the Guggenheim Bilbao to Facebook's new mothership in Silicon Valley. Yet in recent years, he has become something of architecture's bete noire, lambasted for his extravagant, sculptural style in an era of razor-sharp efficiency, sued for alleged design errors, and mocked for butting heads with journalists. Misunderstood genius? A new biography from Paul Goldberger—Vanity Fair's architecture critic and prolific writer—suggests as much, painting a portrait of Gehry as a shy, sensitive man who's grappling with self-doubt and ego in equal measure.
November 24, 2015
First New York, Now Chicago: AltSchool Continues Its Rapid Expansion
In an exclusive interview, CEO Max Ventilla updates Fast Company on the micro-school startup's expansion plans.
Micro-school startup founder Max Ventilla has a big ambition. He wants AltSchool—an expanding network of project-based private schools—to have as big an impact on education as his former employer, Google, did on information.
How Apple Pay Plans To Take On China
Apple is reportedly introducing its mobile payments service to China next year—but it faces stiff competition in Tencent and Alibaba.
Come next year, Apple intends to bring Apple Pay to China, according to a new report by the Wall Street Journal. Apple has inked deals with China's four largest state-owned banks, and the company's goal is to allow Chinese citizens to hook up Apple Pay with their existing bank accounts by February. Though Apple may still be subject to regulatory issues, its entry into the Chinese market could open up its mobile payments product to millions of potential new customers.
Elon Musk Had A Snarky Reply To Jeff Bezos's First Tweet
After a successful rocket test, Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos tweeted the good news—but SpaceX CEO Elon Musk had a few things to add.
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos on Tuesday morning sent his very first tweet, which announced the successful launch and landing of a New Shepard rocket built by Bezos's space company, Blue Origin.
Jeff Bezos's Rocket Company Just Came A Step Closer To Carrying Humans To Space
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos announced the successful launch and landing of Blue Origin's New Shepard rocket.
Between Boeing, Virgin Galactic, SpaceX, Xcor, and Blue Origin, the private space race is fully underway—and it appears that Jeff Bezos's space company, Blue Origin, is finally making some headway. After much speculation as to how far along in the development process the company's line of rockets was, Bezos announced today the successful launch and landing of Blue Origin's New Shepard rocket on Monday.
How To Future-Proof A Train System
There is still a lot of small-scale thinking in the train world. Andreas Vogler wants to change that.
It's well-documented that the United Kingdom's trains are overcrowded. Some regional lines are as much as 
Pro-Grade Camera Lenses Attach Effortlessly To Your Phone
The Iris Lens will definitely up your iPhone camera game, but the best part might be the clever mounting system that slides over your case.
A popular saying among photographers is "the best camera is the one you have with you." For most people, that will almost always be a smartphone camera. For more serious photographers, there's an array of attachable lenses that will transform that ever-handy camera into something closer to a professional one (Moment and Olloclip lenses are the most popular). But here's the problem: those lenses almost always require either a special iPhone case or no case at all.
Inside Ikea's Innovation Lab For The Future Of Better Living
The open-source lab in Copenhagen will help Ikea come up with the catalog of 2026, not 2016.
Ikea usually keeps a close lid on what it is working on next. But with Space10, an innovation lab recently opened in Copenhagen's hip meatpacking district, Ikea is looking to change all that. The Swedish furniture giant is throwing the doors wide open to progressive thinkers who want to help solve the next couple decades' biggest home design problems, all on Ikea's dime.
Afraid Of DIY? These Kits Are Designed To Turn Anyone Into A Craftsperson
Get beyond Ikea, and make your own projects like a pro.
If you're convinced that you're not capable of building anything more complicated than a bookcase from Ikea—and possibly not even that—a new startup was created to prove you wrong.
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