David Lidsky's Blog, page 4879

What Happens to All Those Windows Mobile 6.5 Devices Now That Windows Phone 7 Is Coming?

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Microsoft pulled the veil off it's impressive Windows Phone 7 OS yesterday. But the new mobile operating system is not due to appear in phones for awhile. And it casts a long shadow over a whole line of upcoming devices that will use Windows Mobile 6.5, an older operating system that now looks extremely jaded.

Just two weeks ago news leaked out that Sony Ericsson's Aspen phone would the the first to carry Windows Mobile 6.5.3--the latest reworking of Microsoft's venerable smartphone OS, and...

Work Smart: Stop Multi-Tasking and Start Doing One Thing Really Well

A human's ability to do several things at once is a wonder of biology: it means we can eat a burrito while we walk down the street and listen to music and daydream about the weekend all at the same time. But some kinds of multi-tasking costs you more time than you save.

Doing two things at once, like singing while you take a shower, is not the same as instant messaging while writing a research report. Don't fool yourself into thinking you can multi-task jobs that need your full...

How Startl Is Hacking Education From the Outside In

What would happen if you took the principles of a startup incubator like Y Combinator and applied it to improving education? A new philanthropic venture called Startl aims to find out. The non-profit startup accelerator is being backed by some of the world's best-known foundations (Gates, Hewlett, MacArthur), and has for-profit partners including IDEO, DreamIT Ventures, and investment bankers Berkeley & Noyes. Startl is entirely focused on educational entrepreneurs. Co-founder and Managing...

Six Cutting-Edge Totes We'd Be Proud to Carry to Work

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Photograph by Kang Kim

Don't shoot the messenger! That look may be a tad passé, but here are six new bags we'd be proud to carry to work.

DELVAUX
Newspaper bag, 1,550 euros ($2,290)delvaux.com

This Belgian-made bag is lined with basane, a sheepskin leather traditionally used for bookbinding. In the spirit of that literary heritage, the straps are designed to hold your daily paper.

FreitagF76 Leo, 250 francs ($244)freitag.ch

The newest model from every hipster's favorite Swiss bag maker...

HP Invents a "Central Nervous System for Earth" and Joins the Smarter Planet Sweepstakes

HP Labs researcher Peter Hartwell holds a prototype vibration and movement sensor, a super-sensitive inertial accelerometer. The first to be deployed as part of HP Labs' Central Nervous System for Earth (CeNSE), it is about 1,000 times more sensitive than today's mass-produced devices. Photo: Margie Wylie

Just days after Cisco signaled it will horn into IBM's turf by rewiring an aging city in Massachusetts, Hewlett Packard announced this morning the first commercial application of its own...

Who Pood on the Hollywood Sign? A Preservationist Message Goes Down the Toilet [UPDATED]

UPDATE: Like a 36-hour game of Wheel of Fortune gone awry, the Hollywood sign reluctantly revealed its new message on a sunny Presidents' Day weekend, while coining other important phrases like SAVE THE POOD and SAVE THE PEOK along the way. We can only guess what new fun sayings will be revealed as the letters come down (we're pulling for HOLLYWEAK). That's scheduled to begin tomorrow. You can watch the progress on the Web cam at HollywoodSign.org

As the sun set over Los Angeles today...

WANTED: Mattel's Puppy Tweets Collar

We love talking dogs. Even more specifically, we love to impose excitable yet simple-minded dialogue on dogs. Who didn't giggle at Dug the talking dog in Pixar's Up, who was prone to moments of dimwitted cuteness with lines like "I was hiding under your porch because I love you"? In the absence of a multilingual translating collar like Dug's, Mattel's Puppy Tweets collar seems like the next best thing. The $30 collar is equipped with a motion and sound sensor to help it select which of the...

Happy Valenswine's Day! How to Make a Bacon "Broquet"

You've seen how husband and wife team at UnderConsideration re-envisioned the holiday of love. Now see the other winner of Studio 360's Redesign Valentine's Day challenge, as picked by this week's guest, author and modern love expert Elizabeth Gilbert. And, yes...it's bacon.

First place goes to the Broquet, a bacon bouquet, which was cooked up by Portland-based industrial designer Sarah Tisdale. Last fall, Tisdale had just fallen for for her next-door neighbor when something brought his...

Windows Mobile 7 to Be Unveiled to the World, Except Holidaying Americans

It looks like Microsoft is all set to finally reveal Windows Mobile 7, long-awaited cure to the ills of all the earlier WinMo OSes. The action's due to happen at Mobile World Congress on Monday. When no one in the U.S. will care. Way to go MS!

Windows Mobile 7 represents a significant design change over the earlier WinMo issues, which superficially resemble Windows XP, and with their over-dependence on button/keypad control and inflexibility were looking extremely jaded. WinMo7, on the...

What Will Vancouver Look Like When the Winter Games Are Gone?

Most Vancouverites remain grumpy about the Winter Olympics, but the Games are likely to improve the city in many ways, from better public transportation options to new public art.

On the eve of the 2010 Winter Olympics, a Vancouver Sun poll revealed that most Vancouver residents remain ambivalent about the Games--nearly 60% of respondents calling them a waste of money that could have been better spent elsewhere. That's not exactly surprising, considering the taxpayer bailout that was...