David Lidsky's Blog, page 4797

Who's Next: Osama Bedier

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Photograph by Howard Cao

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Photograph by Alex Livesey-FIFA/Getty Images

VP of platform, mobile, and new ventures, PayPal

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Courtesy of In-N-Out Burger

Big idea: To make mobile commerce and digital money a reality. "In the past 5,000 years, there have been only four major ways that people pay for things: barter, coins, paper, and then plastic. The future is undeniably digital," says Osama Bedier, 34. "That great iTunes buying experience? It needs to happen in almost everything, in a common way that's...

Tsunami Generator Helps Protect Against Future Tsunamis

yeah. tha

It seems slightly counterintuitive: a tsunami generator that protects cities from future tsunamis. But that's exactly what the wave-generating machine located at University College London supposedly does.

The machine, developed with cash from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), is mounted in a 148-foot long wave channel. It uses an air-driven system containing a fan and control
valves to suck water into a tank and release it in a controlled manner. This...

Apple Store Cube Is More Popular Landmark Than Statue of Liberty: Cornell Report

A Cornell study says the Cube came in at number 28 worldwide, and number 5 in New York City.

What's the 28th most photographed built landmark in the world? According to Cornell, it's the Apple Store Cube. Cornell students fed 35 million Flickr images into a university supercomputer to determine the most photographed landmarks. The Fifth Avenue Apple Store is the fifth most popular in New York--beating out the Statue of Liberty!--and number 28 worldwide. The top landmarks on earth? You...

Ohio's New License Plate Is "Unique," "Different," Ugly

The state's once-scrapped new plate is outselling its current model 3 to 1.

You can't make this stuff up: In the summer of 2008, the Ohio BMV unveiled the state's new license plate, a "bucolic, pastel-hued" landscape designed partly by the governor's wife (the windmill was her idea, she says). It's "Beautiful Ohio"--the sun rising in the east over a cartoon barn and the Wright Brothers' plane--can't you just smell the amber waves of grain? Then in May, they decided the plates would be too...

A Transforming Video Wall at HP's HQ Is More Than Meets the Eye

It's a wall! It's a TV! It's a new architectural installation that can transform from a stunning contemporary room divider to a large-screen digital theater! HP just installed the display in its Palo Alto headquarters. Tronic designed the hybrid sculpture/video wall as a piece that "transcends technology and creates an experience that embraces the new," company co-founder Vivian Rosenthal tells FastCompany.

To create the shiny, blueberry-hued shells, Tronic created 60 feet of reinforced...

Can Bank Brands Ever Earn Back Our Trust?

I live in a city of big banks. With headquarters for two of the top three U.S. financial institutions a short walk from my studio, they feel a bit like old friends. But when Bank of America recently declared it would drop its $35 overdraft fee because they had decided to listen to their customers, I thought, "Really? So what were you doing before?"

For many years, the most conservative brands on the landscape were financial ones. Consumers depended on these institutions to protect them and...

Greenaid Fosters Johnny Appleseeds for the 21st-Centrury

A young duo in L.A. have created a clever urban hack, that encourages people to replant their neighborhoods.

If you live or work in a city, odds are, you passed a vacant lot or an ugly, barren strip of soil at some point today. Now imagine if that eyesore were transformed into a wild garden. But how?

Greenaid, a project by two recent grads of Otis College of Art and Design in L.A.,
Kim Karlsrud and Daniel Phillips, is a plan to distribute candy machines loaded with "seedbombs"--seeds...

Design Within Reach Will Close Its Tools for Living Stores

It's been a tough few months for modern furniture retailer Design Within Reach. The company, which prides itself on authenticity, was exposed for knocking off famous product designs. What started as a catalog-only business had expanded--too quickly--into the retail world, and costly store space was weighing down on the company. Now, as DWR tries to get itself back on track, it will close store locations of its accessories line, Tools for Living. (New York's SoHo store is presently still...

Lessons From Leno and Twitter Bombers: 3 Rules for Next-Gen Marketing

At the Advertising Research Foundation's (ARF) 2010 Re: Think Conference in New York City Tuesday, CEO of social-media marketing research firm Communispace Diane Hessan presented the eight rules for next-gen marketing research. Based on feedback from over 200 consumer-insight professionals, these tips can help companies in any industry find their footing in today's business world. Here are three that can help yours:

1. Manage Your Social Media Jitters. Hessan believes the Web is filled...

Water: Our Thirsty World

A new exhibition at the Annenberg Space for Photography in Los Angeles uses the work of National Geographic photographers to show the many ways our most valuable resource--and the lack of it--creates economical, social, and cultural impact around the globe.