David Lidsky's Blog, page 4794

Net-Enabled Robovie MR2 is a Gigantic Leap Forward in Cuteness

Robots. Love 'em or fear 'em, they're coming. But even the stodgiest metalphobe is sure to find a small place in his heart for Robovie MR2: The little tyke's just precious.

Robovie MR2 is a product of Japan's Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute, and he's designed to be a desk-bound device, mainly: Standing just 30cm tall and weighing a mere 2-kg he'd possibly come a-cropper if he were to roam around at floor-level. He's a sort of advanced desk toy then, perhaps in the mold of the...

Analysis Drives the Final Nail Into Dumbphone's Coffin

If you ever needed convincing that the future of cell-phone tech is more smartphones and less dumbphones, then AdMob's most recent statistics will change your mind: The smartphone is on the ascendant, and the "mobile internet device" is too.

According to the new analysis by the advertising firm, the month of February 2010 soar smartphones soar to nearly 50% (48% to be exact) of all of AdMob's worldwide Net traffic--that's up from around 35% a year ago. Featurephones, on the other hand...

Design Genius: A Shirt Created for the Modern, Gadgety World

The Wipe Shirt is a fine example of what makes Japanese design so great.

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These are pretty handsome shirts, right? But you'll notice one funny detail in each--which in fact is a minor stroke of design genius. Those black patches are microfiber, and they're intended to allow you to wipe either your glasses or your phone:

The shirts were designed by Katsunari and Ami Igarashi, whose firm, FIFT, usually focuses on product design. According to Design Yearbook, their mission is to "promote...

Octomom Dogged by Dodgy Finances, Aided by Peta's Kitty

Nadya Suleman, aka Octomom (or, to give her her full superhero name, Tetradecamom, since she's got 14 kids--at least, the last time she looked, for all I know it could be 19 and rising) has encountered a spot of financial bother*. Lucky for Tetradecamom, however, she's a walking, laboring inspiration for all manner marketing, let's say, innovators. And help is at hand. Is it a bird? Is it plane? No, it's Peta! Tempting though it is to think that they've parachuted Pamela Anderson in to help...

Mutants and Social Anxiety? Sounds Like a Design Show!

The Design Museum Holon in Israel has opened its inaugural exhibition, "The State of Things: Design and the 21st Century," which collects 100 contemporary designs and runs through May 15.

Student App "Light Alert" Warns Users of Rape Zones

Imagine if you phone buzzed and lighted up with an text message whenever you were walking down a street or through a neighborhood with a history of sexual assault. That's the idea behind Light Alert, an app created by two student finalists in Imagine Cup, Microsoft's annual student tech competition. Malisa Vongskul, a junior IT major at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, and Ashley Myers, a senior computer science major at DePauw University, make up team MangoBunnies, the...

Infographic: The Geekiest Blinds in the World

These things actually graph the way they've been used in the last seven days.

It's hard to imagine something as ancient--and dead simple--as window blinds getting a full-on, 21st-century geek treatment. But here you go. Ishac Bertran and Gizem Boyacioglu, two students at the Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design, have created La Ventana Indiscreta, a mechanical window shade that actually graphs the way it's been used. That barely makes sense typing it, but bear with me.

 

The...

Analysis Drives the Final Nail into Dumbphone's Coffin

If you ever needed convincing that the future of cell phone tech is more smartphones and less dumbphones, then AdMob's most recent statistics will change your mind: The smartphone is on the ascendant, and the "mobile internet device" is too.

According to the new analysis by the advertising firm, the month of February 2010 soar smartphones soar to nearly 50% (48% to be exact) of all of AdMob's worldwide Net traffic--that's up from around 35% a year ago. Featurephones, on the other hand...

Cancer-Fighting Nanoparticles Could Herald Real-Life Medical Innerspace

The first set of trials using nanoparticles to fight cancerous cells have completed, with proof that injecting a specialized polymer nanoparticle into a patient's bloodstream can attack the malignant cells successfully. Researchers at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena have tested the technique, called RNAi, or Ribonucleic Acid interference, on 15 patients with melanoma, with positive results. If successful, the breakthrough could mean an end to chemotherapy and radiotherapy...

Infographic of the Day: U.S. Census Turns to Peer Pressure Tactics

The U.S. Census Bureau is publishing return rates by zip code. Can peer pressure really be a strong motivator to action?

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As any beahvioral economist can tell you, peer pressure can be a wonderful thing. For example: Some smart-grid start-ups are using peer pressure to get people to slash their energy consumption. And now the U.S. Census is getting on on the act, with an interactive infographic that lets you track census response rates down to the zip code. The idea being that you'll be so...