David Lidsky's Blog, page 4778

Think City EV Heading to NYC Streets

Get ready, New Yorkers: Think's European-style hatchback EV is coming to a street near you. The highway-ready vehicle has been on sale in Europe for the past year, but New York metropolitan area residents will get first dibs in the U.S sometime in the coming months.

The Think City EV isn't meant for speed demons--it has a top speed of 60 mph. But it gets big points for ease of use. The EV can charge from 0 to 80% capacity using a fast-charging 220 volt station, and the vehicle's battery...

Ubisoft Produces Wild AR Spin-Off of Splinter Cell Game

Ubisoft has just released an augmented reality spin-off to promote the upcoming Xbox release of Splinter Cell: Conviction, and it's the first time such a major developer has used the Layar platform for a game. Players will have a series of location-based missions that they will need to solve in Amsterdam. Here's how it works:

You, agent of the Third Echelon (okay, you, bank teller from The Hague) receive your first mission on the screen of your cell phone. It tells you whereabouts in the city...

Infographic of the Day: The Seasonal Food Calendar

An easy-to-use chart for finding a low-carbon shopping list.

Eating vegetables in season makes sense, because the amount of energy used to get a blueberry from a neighboring state is a tiny fraction of one flown in from Chile. Local veggies will likely taste better, too. But grocery stores don't make it easy.

The solution is a food calender, and this is the most intuitive one we've seen. Granted, it's not that good looking, but the pinwheel shows what's in season by month; the outermost ring...

Genetically Modified to Save the Planet: Is the Enviropig What's for Breakfast?

Can we use genetics to make farm animals greener than nature intended? Scientists are certainly trying--just take a look at the Enviropig, a genetically engineered pig that produces feces and urine containing 65% less phosphorous than standard porkers. National Geographic reports that the pig was recently approved for Canadian production in controlled research settings. Next up: passing tests in the U.S and Canada for commercial use.

Enviropig's creators didn't tweak pig genes just for...

Will the Open-Ended Innovation of "Lost" Ultimately Deliver for Its Audience?

Good design is polarizing. You could argue the same is true for
good television. Case in point, Lost. For almost six years, viewers have been
arguing over the possible endings and explanations behind ABC's hit television
show.

In my experience, most fans are
divided into two camps. On one end of the couch are the die-hard devotees like
my wife, who maintain that the writers have planned everything from the
beginning and have faith that the show will wrap up in a coherent and
satisfying...

Q&A: Abdelaziz Aouragh, Owner of El Asira, the Online Muslim Sex Shop That Isn't a Sex Shop

Earlier this week, Fast Company reported on El Asira, an online sex shop for Muslims. Naturally, we wanted to hear more about this innovative business, and so we contacted the guys behind it to find out a little bit more. Abdelaziz Aouragh, the owner, emailed us back with the answer to most of our questions. Some, he was less keen on answering, such as what he would say to less enlightened individuals who might see the store as un-Islamic. "I think it's more than we intended to discuss," he...

RIM Sells More BlackBerrys Than Ever, but It's Not Enough

RIM, poor RIM, can't seem to catch a break: It's just revealed its latest finances, which represent record sales figures for its iconic BlackBerry smartphones...but somehow managed to disappoint Wall Street analysts, who expected even more.

To be precise, RIM reported it had shipped 10.5 million BlackBerrys in the three months ending in February 2010, representing a personal best for RIM. Among these 10 million phones, around half--actually 4.9 million--were new subscribers, demonstrating...

Facebook Sues Data Geek, but That Doesn't Solve Its Privacy Problem

A computer programmer culls data from 210 million Facebook profiles--and pisses Facebook off in the process.

Remember those fascinating graphs by Peter Warden that used Facebook data to illustrate, for example, people's interests and common names across the U.S.? Facebook has totally squashed the project. But the privacy concerns remain.

Warden gathered that data from public profiles using "crawling" software similar to what's commonly available on the Web; he was planning to release the set...

Almost Genius: A Carpet That Transforms Into Furniture

A brilliant, space-saving design.

By necessity, the Japanese have an intuition for space-saving design that shines in their products and architecture. But this concept might be one of the cleverest we've ever seen. Created by Shin Yamashita, a student at the
Kyoto Institute of Technology, Land Peel is a foam floor covering which also has panels that flip up and fold, to become any sort of furniture you might need: From a table, to a backrest, to a drink tray, to a footrest, to a pillow:

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Do Unto Others: Customer Service Tips From the Amish

Amish businesses have a 95% success rate, according to Erik Wesner. In his new book "Success Made Simple," Wesner outlines why Amish businesses thrive and what others can learn from them. Here, he takes a look at how they approach customer service.