David Lidsky's Blog, page 4548

Facebook and Amazon Team Up to Make Gift Shopping Easier

Amazon and Facebook announced today a new partnership, using Facebook Connect, that combines the best of both companies. You can buy lots of stuff on Amazon for people you know on Facebook! It's a smart move from Amazon, the latest in its "Web 3.0" changes.

The partnership manifests itself in a totally opt-in system on Facebook, which is a good choice, seeing as how Amazon will have access to all kinds of information about you if you opt in, which not everyone will want. Amazon is being very...

In the Smartphone-Centric Future, Will HTC Beat Nokia?

A startling U.K. survey has revealed that smartphones have over 73% of the U.K. contract cell phone market. Combined with news that famed smartphone maker HTC is selling own-brand units, the writing's on the wall for dumb phones. 

The survey data comes from GFK Retail and Technology, and though it highlights Android phones in particular (which have seen dramatic growth from 3% of the U.K.'s mobile market in Q1 2010 to over 13% in Q2) the real message is the overall market dominance of...

Toxin BPA Found on Receipts From Safeway, Whole Foods, Walmart

So you've bought a BPA-free water bottle and ditched BPA-filled canned food. But BPA, a toxic chemical found in many of the products we use every day, may still be a big part of your life. That's because massive amounts of BPA are found on many store receipts. And according to a recent study, BPA easily makes the transfer from receipt to skin, where it penetrates at such a deep level that it can't be washed off.

Environmental Working Group decided to find out just how much BPA is found...

MIT Creates Global Award for Sustainability, but Only if You're in the U.S.

Why are sustainable innovations for the developing world limited to inventors based in the U.S.?

MIT once again takes the lead in driving bottom of the pyramid innovations with its latest announcement of the $100,000 Lemelson-MIT Award for Sustainability. From the Lemelson-MIT website:

The $100,000 Lemelson-MIT Award for Sustainability honors inventors
whose products or processes impact issues of global relevance, as well
as issues that impact local communities in terms of meeting basic...

Facebook as News Distribution Tool No Threat to Google and Twitter

At a meeting in San Francisco last night, Facebook's head of media and content partnerships announced its new Facebook + Media page, a crib sheet for old media firms to best use Facebook's half-a-billion-users clout to spread their content throughout the connected world. Obviously, this is something that Google and Twitter already do, so the news can be read in two ways: Either it's Facebook sticking its size elevens on Google and Twitter's territory and claiming a slice of the market, or...

What the U.K.'s Growing Rural-Urban Net Divide Can Teach the U.S.

As the U.S. broadband expansion plan stalls at the starting blocks, officials could learn a trick or two from the old country. The U.K.'s Net development plans demonstrate both shining examples and pitfalls to avoid.

City-Countryside Divide

The U.K.'s prosperity map has long been split across the "North-South divide" with South being richer, but according to a new study by telecoms regulator Ofcom, a strange new divide is emerging in the nation: Rural versus urban Net experiences.

When twisted...

vChatter Becomes Family-Friendly Alternative to Tawdry Chatroulette

As Chatroulette becomes a destination for pervs, vChatter has built a family-friendly alternative that's popular among Asian families and migrant laborers.

If Chatroulette had been launched in Asia instead of the U.S., it might look a lot like vChatter. Founded by a group of Indian and American entrepreneurs who previously made a matrimonial match-making app for Facebook, the service has become popular among Filipino and Indonesian families and migrant laborers spread across the...

Crowdsourcing Production Costs, Web Drama Hosts Web-a-Thon to Fund New Season

Web series Anyone But Me is launching its first-ever Web-a-Thon Tuesday to crowd source funding for its third season. The event is the first of its kind in the world of online TV, and will need to raise $120,000 in just three days to bring the show back.

The series, which calls Blip.tv home, has been praised as a teen drama for the ethnically and sexually diverse post-9/11 generation. It has received honors from both the Webby and Streamy awards, but the Web-a-Thon is its biggest hurdle yet...

Knocking Down Barriers With the Power of Performance

Do Something award finalist Micaela Connery celebrates every student's abilities onstage and off with Unified Theater.

DoSomething, headed by Fast Company columnist Nancy Lublin, has recognized five young social entrepreneurs with $10,000 grants--and one with a prize of $100,000. Fast Company will profile one of these enterprising youth each day this week.

"Kelsey is brave," a 9-year-old Micaela Connery wrote about her friend and cousin. Born three months apart, Micaela and Kelsey grew up...

Facebook as News Distrubution Tool No Threat to Google and Twitter

At a meeting in San Francisco last night, Facebook's head of media and content partnerships announced its new Facebook + Media page, a crib sheet for old media firms to best use Facebook's half-a-billion-users clout to spread their content throughout the connected world. Obviously, this is something that Google and Twitter already do, so the news can be read in two ways: either it's Facebook sticking its size elevens on Google and Twitter's territory and claiming a slice of the market, or...