David Lidsky's Blog, page 4831

Penguin's iPad Demonstration Asks: Are Kids Destined to Grow Up With Tablets?

We saw Penguin speak about their conception of books-as-apps earlier, but now the publisher has released a beautiful, Apple-like teaser-ad showing their ideas in more detail--and there's a surprising emphasis on children's content.

In all our excitement over the iPad's possibilities for text, multimedia, and gaming, there's been hardly any consideration of the lucrative children's market. But the iPad is perfect for kids in a lot of ways--its larger screen is much easier for kids to...

At Cleveland Mall Green Market, Sustainability Is the New Hot Topic

Yesterday, we reported on the Cleveland Galleria mall's plan to build a massive urban greenhouse where retail shops once stood. The real story, it turns out, is what the two people behind the Gardens Under Glass project have planned for tomorrow. An urban wasteland is being transformed into a green paradise.

The idea came about as a way to put some of the mall's empty space to good use, the Galleria's marketing and events director Vicky Poole tells FastCompany.com. At its peak, the Galleria...

Today in Most Innovative Companies

Daily news of note from our Most Innovative Companies, including Apple, Nokia, and Google.

Apple: Most of you probably caught a glimpse during the Oscars of the dozen ways you can hold an iPad, and I'm sure many of you were excited to find out that the tablet will ship April 3, with pre-orders beginning March 12--but don't worry about getting in line too early. Analysts now estimate that Apple will build 5 million iPads in the first half of 2010--enough iPads for every citizen of Ireland...

Rapture Architecture: Designers Tackle the Coming Apocalypse

We live in terrifying times: Pandemics ranging from bird flu to swine flu regularly threatening to kill millions. Can architecture deal with those problems?

What Would You Ask Nature? Submit to the Biomimicry Institute/Designers Accord Challenge!

Thanks to a smart TED talk by biologist Janine Beynus that made the rounds a few years ago, books like Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature, and new online resources like
AskNature.org, more and more designers are realizing a simple truth when trying to find responsible, ecological solutions: If we're trying to do it, chances are, nature already did it better.

Biomimicry is quickly becoming a cornerstone of
sustainable design (read our story on biomimicry from 2008), but for designers...

Tom Dixon's Burlesque-Themed Circus: G'hed, Order the Strip!

You've never really dined until you've dined next to a stripper pole.

Superstar designer Tom Dixon--whom we've covered frequently before--recently finished his newest interiors project, for a new restaurant in London called Circus.

Obviously, restaurants with a circus theme have been done over and over
ago--there was the original Le Cirque, with monkey-drawings everywhere. And Aureole,
in Las Vegas, features trapeze performers that fetch your wine. But where Le Cirque and Aureole are pure...

Zappos' New "Crank Yankers"-Style Ads Are a Shoe Win

It's practically impossible to say anything bad about online retailer Zappos. They've got a sparkling customer service record, quirky corporate culture, let's not forget that $847 million check from Amazon, and now--for a company that probably doesn't even have to advertise--some of the funniest ads on TV.

Boston-based ad agency Mullen took a page from another genre of phone call-inspired hilarity, the Comedy Central show Crank Yankers, created by Adam Corolla and Jimmy Kimmel. They used real...

Women in Gaming: Female PC Players Will Soon Pwn You

In a recent report, M2 Research studied female demographics in gaming. The takeaway? Facebook game developers and casual browser game publishers have done what the big three gaming companies and their consoles could never do--bring women to gaming. M2 estimates that 140 million men play PC games, and 130 million women. This nearly 50-50 split is not even approached by the gaming consoles or their networks:

Nintendo president Reggie Fils-Aime is featured in the report, with Nintendo...

Foursquare Offers Analytics to Businesses, Enables Easy Customer Stalking

Wondering how that barista knew your name before asking you? Check-in-based social networking game Foursquare has taken another step toward relevancy by adding analytics tools for businesses that participate. The new dashboard feature, still in alpha testing, gives data such as total number of check-ins, unique visitors, gender comparisons, and breakdowns by time. It also shows how people are sharing (over Twitter, for instance) and can differentiate between customers and staff members.And...

Do Improv Comedians Make the Best Design Thinkers?

A teacher of design thinking at Dartmouth uses improv set-ups to boost his students' creativity.

Big design firms such as IDEO and Smart Design have made millions on their "design thinking" and "human-centered design process." Which is good for them, but doesn't necessarily teach you how to crib their mojo for your own endeavors. Peter Robie, an Engineering professor at Dartmouth, has an answer that would make Dunder Mifflin's Michael Scott: Copy improv comedy classes.

Apparently, in his...