David Lidsky's Blog, page 4720

VW's First Ever Two-Wheeler Fits in Your Spare Tire Compartment

Did you know that Volkswagen's "focus on mobility" extends beyond cars to two-wheelers? Neither did we until VW research and development chief Dr. Ulrich Hackenberg said so at this week's Auto China 2010 show. Hackenberg introduced the VW bik.e, a battery-powered two-wheeler that resembles a bicycle without the pedals.

According to Autobloggreen, the specs look pretty good: a 12.5 mile range (perfect for short trips around town, nothing more), a top speed of 12.5 mph, and most impressively...

Jon Stewart on the Gizmodo iPhone Saga: "Is Apple Becoming 'The Man'?"

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Just a few hours ago, Jon Stewart started off his Thursday episode of The Daily Show with an extended bit on the Gizmodo iPhone saga we've all been following so closely. The video:

The Daily Show With Jon StewartMon - Thurs 11p / 10cAppholeswww.thedailyshow.comDaily Show Full EpisodesPolitical HumorTea Party

First of all, much congratulations to Jason Chen (my former boss) for getting a not-particularly-flattering shot of himself sitting at a desk, staring into a laptop screen, onto the show...

Apple Buys Voice Search Startup Siri, Aiming Squarely at Google

Siri, a tiny voice search startup, confirmed that Apple acquired them today. Siri describes themselves as a kind of Internet-connected voice search option--"You can ask Siri to find a romantic place for dinner, tell you what's
playing at a local jazz club or get tickets to a movie for Saturday
night." This goes way beyond "dial Mommy." And why does Apple care about this? Because Google is amazing at it.

Apple's current voice search on the iPhone OS is near-archaic and generally...

The History of Personal, Portable Music: Home Taping Is Never Not Killing Music

It's startling how much of the history of one of the most popular and groundbreaking gadgets of all time is still generally unknown, including lots of trivia that make the whole story so fun. Well, actually, given that I was -7 years old when the first Walkman (then called the Soundabout) was announced in 1979, maybe it's not all that surprising.

The story starts with how the Walkman came to be--one of Sony's cofounders loved listening to music over headphones while on the plane, but Sony's...

FiLife Goes Broke: Is There Any Personal Finance Hope for Generation Debt?

The abrupt shuttering of FiLife, a well-known personal finance destination backed by IAC and Dow Jones Interactive, has loosed speculation that the site was paying for clicks to reach its eye-popping 3.4 million monthly unique visitors. I made a bad call on this one, highlighting FiLife's "exploding traffic" in my Most Innovative Company entry--and some finance reporters whispered at the time that the wool had been pulled over my eyes. Former CEO Ezra Kucharz, who departed for CBS just after...

Today in Most Innovative Companies

News of note from our Most Innovative Companies, including HP, Hulu, Toyota, and Facebook.

HP: In a surprise announcement, HP revealed that they will be acquiring Palm for $1.2 billion. Our own Dan Nosowitz takes you through the details.

Hulu: After licensing rights discussions proved unfruitful with British broadcasters, Hulu has nixed their plans to launch their service across the pond. According to reports, licensing talks with broadcasters have been going on for almost a year now, part...

Staff Meeting in the Diner? Or the Bathroom? 12 Creative Office Spaces

You think those fancy swivel chairs in the conference room are the best part of your office? Where We Work: Creative Office Spaces, from the creator of design website This Ain't No Disco (It's Where We Work), features 45 creative firms around the world whose offices just won't settle for cubes. Here's a look at 12 of those office spaces.

"This American Infographic" Designer EJ Fox Has Ira Glass's Numbers

Earlier this year, designer EJ Fox began a daunting task of creating an infographic illustrating each episode of the beloved public radio show This American Life. For a show I hadn't ever thought of as being particularly packed with much facts and stats, Fox's This American Infographic ends up being the perfect companion for TAL's true stories and chatty reportage. This American Life now features a link to Fox's site and, interestingly, just published their own page of statistics and data

Trader Joe's Climbs the Ranks in Greenpeace's Carting Away the Oceans Report

Half of all supermarkets surveyed received passing grades in the most recent edition of Greenpeace's Carting Away the Oceans scorecard. Some highlights: Trader Joe's has finally won approval after a long Greenpeace campaign that attacked the grocery chain for sourcing red list seafood. The sustainable seafood report also gives the thumbs up to A&P and Delhaize, both of which didn't receive passing scores last time around.

Greenpeace's report takes into account a number of factors, including...

7 Scientifically Proven Ways To Get "Shared" On Facebook

These days, sharing isn't just caring--it's ensuring virality, especially on Facebook. And Dan Zarrella, the Hubspot viral-marketing scientist who gave us nine proven ways to get retweeted on Twitter, knows exactly how to encourage it.

For several weeks, he compiled roughly 12,000 articles posted to Facebook, most from big-name sites such as Mashable and CNN. Then, he found the average number of times each was "shared"--meaning it was commented on, liked, or directed to a friend--and...