David Lidsky's Blog, page 3049
February 20, 2015
YouTube Is Launching An App To Capture Your Kid's Attention Span (And TV's Future)
YouTube Kids is a stand-alone video app devoid of clips for grown-ups.
Google has long been trying to blur the line between YouTube and TV. And while its investment in original programming has yet to yield any Netflix-sized successes, YouTube is in this fight for the long haul. The next battleground? Your kids' attention spans.
Report: Apple Will Release First Public Betas For iOS
With beta releases for iOS 8.3 and 9, the curtain is lifting on Apple's notoriously tight-lipped operating system development.
For the first time ever, Apple is launching public beta versions of the software that runs the ubiquitous iPhone, starting with iOS 8.3. According to 9to5Mac, the public beta, which will be released mid-March, is an attempt to smoke out bugs before iOS 8.3 is released to the masses. (The beta for iOS 9 will hit this summer, the report says.) However, it also signals an increasing shift away from the way Apple has typically handled imperfect iterations of its products.
Take The Fast Company News Quiz
Show how much you know! Here's our quiz for February 20, 2015.
What happened this week? Research says that one of the best ways to solidify new information is to be tested on it. Here's a chance to bolster your knowledge of current events—and earn a special emoji badge. 
Smaller And Full Of Holograms: The Storefront Of Tomorrow
As no less a source than Back to the Future predicted, 2015 may be the year a hologram grabs your dollars back from Amazon.
Mannequins have done their job in store windows for over a century. But as brick-and-mortar stores increasingly fight for attention, they're due for a digital upgrade. Namely, a talking human hologram that greets you and asks if you'd like to buy the designer sweater she's wearing. You say yes, and she offers you a coupon you scan on your mobile phone to redeem in-store or online.
The Problem With Sex Workers and Law Enforcement Body Cameras
Recording arrests is supposed to help both alleged criminals and the police. Yet workers say the footage could lead to more exploitation.
In the video, the young woman is sitting on a double bed under the yellow light of a hotel room. A policeman is recording her with a body camera as he explains that he's part of Bellingham, Washington's VICE team. He shows her printouts of the sex ads she's allegedly posted to Backpage.com and explains that the man she had arranged to meet at the hotel was an undercover cop. She grabs at her forehead and looks like she might cry.
How Startups Valued At $1 Billion Or More Put Design First
Good design pays billions.
Since 2014, the Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones VentureSource have been tracking venture-backed private companies valued at $1 billion or more. Now, they've turned their findings into an interactive infographic that visualizes the value of 73 companies in the billion dollar startup club. Perhaps not surprisingly, given previous research showing that good design is good for business, many of these top startups put a premium on design, including Houzz, Dropbox, Pinterest, Airbnb, Fab, Jawbone, and Nest. The infographic further highlights this link between good design and big valuation.
The 10 Most Sustainable Cities That Will Thrive As The World Crumbles
A new ranking looks at three factors that go into making a city successful: people, planet, and profit.
When we talk about the future of societies, a lot of times we mean the future of cities. By 2050, 70% of the planet is likely to be in an urban center, and these places will account for a lion's share of resource consumption and output. They already do: Cities are home to 55% of the world population today, use 80% of all energy, and produce most the world's greenhouse gases.
How Designers Built The World Of "The Grand Budapest Hotel" By Hand
Anderson's avoidance of CGI and freakish devotion to handmade, old-fashioned production design lends his latest epic its fantastical charm.
In his Oscar-nominated 2014 film The Grand Budapest Hotel, Wes Anderson didn't just tell a story-within-a-story about murder, purple-suited lobby boys, and prison breaks—he created an entire universe. The fictional Eastern European land called Zubrowka has its own original architecture, money, fashions, and government documents. And all this was, for the most part, built by hand, without much computer manipulation, at a time when many big-name Hollywood directors can't pull themselves away from the CGI (looking at you, James Cameron).
Anderson has the sensibility of a graphic illustrator. No other major American filmmaker is working in that vein.
Apricot Forest Fixes What Ails Chinese Health Care
For using technology to seek the cure to overstressed doctors.
The Chinese fable of Dong Feng tells of a skilled and generous medical practitioner from the Three Kingdoms period (AD 220–280) who treated the impoverished for free. In return, patients planted apricot pits. An orchard grew, and Dong Feng traded the fruit to the public in exchange for rice, wheat, corn, or millet, then distributed that grain to the poor. "Our goal," says Dr. Yusheng Zhang, whose health care startup, Apricot Forest, takes its name from the story, "is to help as many doctors as possible to become like Dr. Dong."
Free App Friday: 5 Smartphone Tools For Your Next Business Trip
Must-haves for life on the road.
Business travel is not for sissies. And even the most hardened road warriors still need all the help they can get. In that spirit, here are some apps to make living out of a suitcase more bearable.
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