David Lidsky's Blog, page 4640

Alex Bogusky's Simple Message for Climate Change: Pollution Sucks

Creative Jesus-figure Alex Bogusky, co-chairman of Crispin Porter + Bogusky and the man behind Denver's B-cycle bike sharing program, has come up with a simple way to make the world understand the seriousness of climate change. Rather than blinding people with science, he reckons the climate change lobby needs to do one thing in order to get its message through to an audience: simplify its message.

Social network Design 21 is running a video challenge called Living Climate Change alongside

The Foxconn Effect: Where Will Electronics Be Made if China's Wages Rise?

The media fuss about recent suicides at China's Foxconn company, an electronics manufacturer that supports, among others, Apple, has prompted a debate about the future. In particular, will rising wages drive tech firms elsewhere for cheap labor?

The Wall Street Journal has a contemplative piece on this matter today. The article starts by mentioning the suicides at Foxconn's factories and notes that there have now been several moves to elevate the wages of the workers there in order to try to...

Blockbuster CEO Jim Keyes on Competition from Apple, Netflix, Nintendo, and Redbox

Part II of Fast Company's interview with Blockbuster CEO Jim Keyes.

Blockbuster has been taking lots of flack for the company's , , and inability to combat the success of Netflix and Redbox. Blockbuster CEO , whose we recently analyzed, spoke with us about what he is doing to turn the struggling video-rental giant around. Part I of our interview focused on Keyes's views on the board of directors battle with . In part II...

Work Smart: Must-Have Mobile Apps for the Road Warrior

If you've got a smartphone that can run apps like the iPhone,
BlackBerry or an Android phone, you've got a pocket computer--and when
you're on the road, you want to load up on the apps that can help you
get where you need to go and stay organized on the way. Here are some of
the best mobile apps for business travelers.

[twistage f55275acf135d:]

TripIt is a fantastic itinerary
organizer that requires zero data entry. Here's how it works. Register
for a free account at TripIt.com....

Read This Before You Volunteer to Clean Up the BP Oil Disaster

[image error]

Merle Savage has a wheezy, guttural smoker's cough. But the 71-year-old former Alaska resident and author of Silence in the Sound never smoked a day in her life. She did, however, spend four months as a general foreman during the Exxon Valdez oil spill recovery project in 1989. And she has a message for anyone working at the BP oil disaster sites: "You've got to use your common sense. Breathing crude oil is toxic."

Savage moved to Alaska in 1988--just one year before the Exxon Valdez oil...

The Rise and Fall of Design Within Reach

[image error]

Photograph by Jonny Valiant

[image error]

OUT OF FASHION: "It throws people off," says ousted CEO Ray Brunner of his white-stocking style. So did his controversial reign. Then-CEO Brunner said that DWR Kitchen was ahead of plan. That "plan" must have been extraordinarily conservative. Only one person purchased a DWR kitchen in 2009. | Photograph by Clay Patrick McBride

Retailer Design Within Reach helped create a new appreciation for the modernist aesthetic. With design more mainstream than ever, why is...

iFive: Steve Jobs' Keynote, BP's Payment Plan, Austerity Measures Around the Globe, Facebook IPO, Microsoft's TechEd

Morning, campers. While you were sleeping innovation was stealing a march on you. Here's what's been going on:

1. Catch Steve Jobs' WWDC10 keynote in its entirety here. Marvel at the picture quality of iPhone 4 and its "retina display." Wowzers. Then go download Safari 5, the latest web browser out of One Infinite Loop. It's speedier, cleaner and more secure, says Ars Technica. 

2. Obama would have fired BP's CEO, Tony Hayward, according to an interview with NBC's Today Show. There's...

The Les Grossman School of Branding

Branding veteran David Brier shares how Les Grossman (played by Tom Cruise) showed us how a highly unrefined, foul-mouthed Hollywood heavyweight producer can steal the show at the 2010 MTV Movie Awards... while leaving behind some branding lessons to live by.

Les Grossman is that highly unrefined, foul-mouthed Hollywood heavyweight producer who first came to notoriety in "Tropic Thunder." Brilliantly portrayed by Tom Cruise, Les is definitely more.His most recent escapade appearing in various...

Facebook Rolls Out Insights Analytics Tools: Now You Can Tell Who "Likes" What

Announced back at the f8 conference, the Insights dashboard is a revamped set of analytics on (anonymized) user data. It's mostly targeted at app developers, publishers, and content owners who use Facebook and want to know what their audience likes so they can, you know, keep doing that.

The tools show mostly sharing data, in terms of broad demographics--which stories males of a certain age emailed, or "Liked," that kind of thing. Those demographics include gender, age, country, city, and...

Why You'll Lust for iPhone 4, Even Though You Don't Need One

Not since the original iPhone was introduced back in 2007 has an Apple device been so dramatically unveiled to the public. Journalists have been handcuffed over this thing. And after months of leaks, rumors, spy shots, and speculation, Apple finally announced the iPhone 4 at today's Steve Jobs keynote at the 2010 Apple Worldwide Developer's Conference in San Francisco. I got some time to play around with the iPhone 4 after the announcement, and came away extremely impressed. This phone is...