David Lidsky's Blog, page 4809

Google Calendar's Smart Rescheduler: Great for Sneaky Secretaries or Lazy People

Google just released Smart Rescheduler, a plugin for Google Calendar, into Google Labs, and it's one of the most flat-out useful apps they've ever made. It's simple to use, but does an impressive amount of legwork automatically.

Smart Rescheduler makes use of the ability to share calendars among different people: you select who you want in your meeting, and it pores through everybody's schedule to find and then rank the best times. That part seems relatively simple, although useful enough as...

Chinese Media: Google Will Leave China on April 10

Following the well-publicized fracas over censorship, attacks on human rights, full-scale hacking, and accusations of governmental involvement in attempts to steal data from Google's servers, Google has been very public in its condemnation of the situation. Recently, even China has brought out the fangs, threatening the search giant with "consequences."

Though hopeful for a positive resolution, Google's executives and spokesmen have not been shy about threatening to completely pull out of...

Sony's PlayStation Move Ad Snarks on Microsoft's Project Natal, Ignores Nintendo Wii

All three current-gen videogame console makers have staked their futures on motion sensing. Nintendo famously did it first with the Wii, a ballsy, forward-looking move that many believed would lead to the downfall of the venerable company--but instead it won them this generation, racking up incredible sales and proving the naysayers totally and embarrassingly wrong.

Microsoft, the newest to the game (pun! ha!), had a hit on their hands already with the Xbox 360, thanks to an extremely strong...

Spider in the Sky: Ryohei Koike and Jarod Poenisch's Web-Tastic Skyscraper Proposal

Their concrete-and-carbon Nested Skyscraper is no place for arachnophobes.

It's been a rough few days for traditional skyscrapers: two masters of the modernist glass tower died last week, the Trump Tower's Der Scutt and the Sears (now Willis) Tower's Bruce Graham. But imaginary architecture is alive and well. Just check out the winners of eVolo Magazine's 2010 Skyscraper Competition.

The winner was a floating prison designed by Chow Khoon Toong, Ong Tien Yee, and Beh Ssi Cze, architecture...

Sony's PlayStation Move Ad Snarks Microsoft's Project Natal, Ignores Nintendo Wii for Some Reason

All three current-gen videogame console makers have staked their futures on motion sensing. Nintendo famously did it first with the Wii, a ballsy, forward-looking move that many believed would lead to the downfall of the venerable company--but instead it won them this generation, racking up incredible sales and proving the naysayers totally and embarrassingly wrong.

Microsoft, the newest to the game (pun! ha!), had a hit on their hands already with the Xbox 360, thanks to an extremely strong...

Chinese Media: Google Will Leave China on April 10th

Following the well-publicized fracas over censorship, attacks on human rights, full-scale hacking, and accusations of governmental involvement in attempts to steal data from Google's servers, Google has been very public in its condemnation of the situation. Recently, even China has brought out the fangs, threatening the search giant with "consequences."

Though hopeful for a positive resolution, Google's executives and spokesmen have not been shy about threatening to completely pull out of...

Universal Music Group Slashes CD Prices to Between $6 and $10

Universal Music Group, one of the "Big Four" major labels, is the first to react to the years-long decline in CD sales. CD sales are down 15.4% this year, a slightly slower decline than the two years prior but still a huge drop, and though digital sales are nearing the volume of physical sales, revenues are still plummeting. Retailers and consumers alike have clamored for lower prices on CDs, and the labels have responded far too slowly, dropping from $18 to $13 in 2003.

Now, UMG is radically...

Hey, GoogleTV: I Want My HBO

I'm sure Google was reading my last post and decided it was time to come clean about their intentions to enter the living room via GoogleTV. Kidding aside, that's what was reported recently. In a nutshell, Google is extending its reach into your living room and inviting Sony, Intel, and Logitech to the party. Couple this news with Google's Fiber to Home trial initiative offering 500,000 people a Google high-speed network, and you've got the makings for an epic battle with TV service...

Why "Tron Legacy" Will be Awesome: the Director's an Architect

Joseph Kosinski trained at the knee of IDEO's founder, and some of the most famous architects in the world. Will we now seen more architects making Hollywood films?

When Tron Legacy comes out in theaters, it'll be one of the most expensive movies ever made. But it isn't being directed by James Cameron or Michael Bay or Peter Jackson. It'll actually be a first-time feature for Joseph Kosinski--who didn't train as a film-maker. Instead, he went to grad-school for architecture at Columbia...

Today in Most Innovative Companies

Daily news of note from our Most Innovative Companies, including Microsoft, Google, Ngmoco, and BYD.

Microsoft: Bloodied from the recent loss of $105 million to VirnetX over patent-infringement, Microsoft is looking to make some of that dough back with lawsuits of their own. The software giant has set its crosshairs on Alf Temme, the owner of a slew of misspelled "Hotmail" domain names, from ho0tmail.com to hotmailp.com, all which redirect visitors to FastExercise.com (Thankfully, not a...