TREND REPORTS
Starbucks Fights Hot Startup in China
[Business]
2019/03/17 09:06
Coffee giant’s battle with Luckin highlights value of delivery services in world’s second-biggest economy, even at the expense of profits.Starbucks built its empire in China on the idea that consumers there would want to be seen inside its posh cafes.Now the Seattle-based company is struggling to keep up as local upstart Luckin Coffee wins over a new kind of Chinese customer—one who wants th...
Bringing Realism to VR is Complex, But Start VR Found a Way in Holograms
[Business]
2019/03/17 09:05
Read any extensive coverage of virtual reality and undoubtedly you’ll come across the word “immersion” at least once or twice. That’s a relatively vague term for the feeling of presence within the virtual world, but it’s as close as we’ll get to providing a singular point of reference for gauging the success of a VR developer in crafting a believable experience.Most developers utilize sim...
Amazon’s Ad Business Growth Outstrips Facebook and Google
[Business]
2019/03/17 09:04
Amazon’s ad business is growing fast—faster than Facebook and Google when they were at comparable sizes, according to third-party data and an analysis of company filings. If this continues, it could fuel criticism from political circles about Amazon’s expanding tentacles in different businesses.Amazon’s ad business crossed the billion-dollar mark in 2016, when it raked in about $1.5 billion...
Samsung’s Galaxy Smartwatch has Competition - The Galaxy Band ?
[Design]
2019/03/17 09:03
What would you even call this tech-filled friendship bracelet?! The Galaxy Bend? Sounds too much like the Galaxy Fold. The Galaxy Band? That sounds like people would confuse it with the smartwatch.This is a conceptual Samsung smart-wristband. Created by LetsGoDigital using patents that Samsung filed just a week back, this device is clearly Samsung’s way of flooding the market with flexible dis...
(PDF) Mckinsey - The Trends Transforming Mobility’s Future
[Business]
2019/03/14 11:12
Mobility as we know it is about to change. A handful of trends will largely determine the benefits—and costs—for business and society.Since its inception, the automobile has been a flashpoint for technological, economic, and social innovation, doing as much as any human invention to change how people live—largely, but not always, for the better. Now it’s time to buckle up again: the levels...
(Video) Festo’s Agile Robot Handles Objects Effortlessly - BionicSoftHand
[Tech]
2019/03/14 11:12
A study conducted at MIT previously demonstrated that AI-powered robots can make pizza, and now engineers at Festo have designed an agile robot arm which can effortlessly handle objects and even learn how to do it better.Festo’s agile robot arm is equipped with a “bionic soft hand,” the feature it is officially named after. The BionicSoftHand introduces a new approach to a robot skeleton. Fe...
Can Falling Battery Prices Push Electric Cars ?
[Business]
2019/03/14 11:12
According to research conducted by BloombergNEF, the inflation-adjusted average price of battery packs for cars has dropped from $1,160 per kWh in 2010 to just $176 in the past year. How much of a difference does that make to the price of a car, you ask? A big one. Consider the Tesla Model 3 for example: The most popular electric car in the U.S. comes with a battery capacity between 50 and 75 k...
(Infographic) What Happens in an Internet Minute in 2019?
[Consumer]
2019/03/14 11:11
During an average workday, a single minute might seem negligible. If you’re lucky, a minute might buy you enough time to write a quick email, grab a coffee from the break room, or make small talk with a coworker.But in other situations, a minute can also be quite extraordinary. Imagine being a quarterback in the Superbowl in overtime, or finding yourself in a life-and-death situation in which...
(Paper) Hybrid Fiber Combines Strength of Metal and Elasticity of Rubber
[Tech]
2019/03/14 11:11
A sample of the fiber is stretched in the lab – the silver sections are the gallium core, which shows numerous breaks.Metal fibers are strong, but can't be stretched very far. Rubber fibers are stretchy, but they're not very strong. Well, scientists have combined the selling points of both materials into one type of hybrid fiber. It could be used in applications such as soft robotics, packagin...
