David Lidsky's Blog, page 3048
February 23, 2015
Google Wants To Fix Your Work Email Nightmare
Google is just the latest tech giant to try to reinvent your work inbox.
As reviled as it may be, email refuses to die. You can limit your after-hours inbox habit or even ban email on Fridays, but this bedrock of digital communication is not going anywhere yet. As denizens of the hyper-connected, always-on professional world, the best we can hope for is messaging that's cleaner, smarter, and more useful.
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The Latest Privacy Risk? Looking Up Medical And Drug Information Online
Your most sensitive web searches (or just your 2 a.m. hypochondria) have become fodder for advertisers and data brokers.
If you have cancer, HIV, diabetes, lupus, depression, heart disease—or you simply look up health-related information online—advertisers are watching you. A new paper on what happens when users search for health information online shows that some of our most sensitive internet searches aren't as anonymous as we might think.
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Why Apple Is Spending $1.9 Billion To Open Data Centers In Denmark And Ireland
Apple follows Microsoft and Google by opening data centers in Europe. Whether that's NSA-motivated is unclear.
Apple said Monday that it is investing $1.9 billion to open data centers in Denmark and Ireland, according to the AFP. It is a move likely to comfort European politicians and security industry insiders who have criticized the U.S. National Security Agency for poring over European citizens' data held in U.S. facilities. Until now, Apple has stored user data in centers in California, Oregon, and North Carolina.
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7 Reasons Why YouTube Kids Is Better Than YouTube
We like YouTube's new Kids-only app more than their official one. Here's why.
I want to tell you about a special place on the internet. It's free to attend, fun to navigate, trolls don't exist, and there are LEGO movies on tap. It's YouTube Kids—Google's new app for iPads and Google Tablets that reimagines YouTube as an experience just for children.
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One Of Silicon Valley's Highest Profile Gender Discrimination Suits Goes To Trial This Week
In a public space, a private, high-powered problem plays out.
Tech's diversity problem is no secret: The tech sphere is riddled with stories of women experiencing discrimination, running the spectrum from deeply ingrained unconscious bias to sexual assault and intimidation.
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A New Generation Of Smart Sensors Aim To Track The Air You Breathe
Hardware startups want to tell you about your environment, in a way you can actually understand.
New gadgets are arriving that are designed to show you in real time just what you're breathing in, with Internet-enabled indoor and outdoor air-quality sensors.
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Check Out How One Of Birdman's Ridiculously Long Shots Was Made
Beyond the magic of movie editing, some of the film's takes were just really, really long.
Director Alejandro González Iñárritu's Birdman deserves the high praise it has received from critics, and not just for its brilliant writing; hyper-meta deconstruction of fame and self-perception; and excellent acting by its stars. Famously, Birdman was filmed to look like one continuous shot.
Finally, An App That Lets You "Play Off" Rambling Coworkers Like Oscar Acceptance Speeches
You know that music cue when Oscar winners thank way too many people? Now you can use it to make speeches and presentations more efficient.
There is no graceful way to tell someone to stop talking in most situations. Award shows, however, do not have that problem. When that wrap-it-up overture starts swelling while you're still on stage, it means it's time to thank your mom and your spouse and call it a night. And it works, too. Even the most heroically defiant speech-maker at this year's Oscars, Best Foreign Language Film director Pawel Pawlikowski, only lasted 45 seconds after the music started (though it seemed more like a half-hour). If only there was a way to harness this powerful efficiency tool into your social and professional life! Whoops, there already is.
Bang & Olufsen's New Stereo Can Read Your Mind
Bang & Olufsen's latest music system has a two-side controller designed by the same team that helped create Windows' Metro UI.
Thanks to companies like Spotify, Rdio, and more, a nearly endless succession of music flows from our devices like tap water. So while the design problem of the last 50 years or so has been the best way to get music to people, the design problem of the 21st century is all about how to make sure that, given endless choice, people are always hearing the music they want to hear.
The Rise Of Urban Audio Tours
Audio tours break out of the museum and onto city streets. Here's how to design the perfect tour.
While many still associate audio tours with bulky headsets rented from museum ticket counters, commercial startups, artists and storytellers are developing new smartphone-based urban audio walks they say can be as immersive as popular podcasts like Serial and This American Life.
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