TREND REPORTS
Revolutionary Glass Building Blocks Generate Their Own Solar Energy
[Tech]
2017/08/24 10:25
There’s a new building block in town, and it generates its own clean energy. Researchers from Exeter University developed new glass blocks that are embedded with small solar cells. Not only do the blocks generate energy, but they also provide thermal insulation and allow natural light to enter buildings.Called Solar Squared, the blocks are embedded during the manufacturing process with an arra...
How the Internet of Things Changes Everything
[Business]
2017/08/24 09:05
The Internet of Things (IoT) has been called the next Industrial Revolution, and it will have a profound effect on how marketers will need to understand, market and track consumers in the years ahead.In fact, BI Intelligence, in a 2015 report, estimated that more than 34 billion devices will be connected to the internet globally by 2020, up from 10 billion in 2015. This includes a mix of standa...
(Video) The Dyson of Drones - Bladeless Drone
[Design]
2017/08/24 09:03
The Bladeless Drone is a Winner of the 2017 Red Dot Design Concept Award.The Bladeless Drone is aptly named for its brilliant design that ditches dangerous blades for air ducts. The resulting unit is not only safer but so quiet that neighbors and strangers alike will thank you for not bugging them with an annoying hummmmmmmm!It features four bladeless “propellers.” The main propeller (easily...
Charting The US Retail Revolution
[Business]
2017/08/23 11:00
Radical disruption in the US retail sector is also posing challenges for investors. Online commerce is creating jobs but not enough to counteract the loss of jobs in traditional retail, which employs more people per million dollars in sales Retailing is undergoing a revolution. The rise of online commerce is shaking some of the retail industry’s biggest names, forcing many to retool their busi...
Uniqlo Is Rethinking Japanese Work Culture–Through Office Design
[Design]
2017/08/23 11:00
Allied Works Architecture and Fast Retailing think Western work spaces could be big in Japan. Can design help change the nation’s hierarchical work culture?Designed by Allied Works Architecture, the new headquarters of Fast Retailing–Uniqlo’s parent company–features open-plan office spaces, lounges done up with plants to resemble outdoor gardens, a library filled with books and magazines fr...
(PDF) AI Learns Sexism Just by Studying Photographs
[Tech]
2017/08/23 11:00
“Spoon” is to “woman” as “tennis racket” is to “man.” At least, that’s according to AI algorithms trained on two of the more common collections of thousands of images that are usually used by researchers to help machines understand the real world.Wired reports that a team of researchers from the University of Washington studied gender predictions made by computer vision algorithms. Wha...
Netflix Is Using 'The Defenders' to Understand Its Audience
[Business]
2017/08/23 10:50
TODD YELLIN IS pretty sure his wife would have never watched Jessica Jones if he hadn't tricked her. She's not a fan of shows based on comic books, and even though he's a Netflix exec, nepotism wouldn't have been enough to make her tune in. Yet he knew she'd love it. So Yellin did what Netflix often does to woo users: He played to her interests by mentioning the strong female lead and rave revi...
U.S. Smartwatch Ownership Expected to Increase Nearly 60 Percent Into 2019
[Consumer]
2017/08/23 10:50
Expanding use cases, new products, and advances in operating systems refresh smartwatch excitement. With the introduction of new devices, new features, and updates to hardware and operating systems alike, 2017 has brought a number of changes to the smartwatch market. As of June 2017, nearly nine percent of U.S. consumers aged 18+ owned a smartwatch, up almost 1.5 percentage points from the six...
(Video) The Philippe Starck-Designed Xiaomi Mi Mix 2 Is A Nearly Invisible Smartphone
[Design]
2017/08/23 10:50
Xiaomi Mi Mix 2 concept video shows off razor-thin bezels.The Galaxy S8 and LG G6 took the idea of bezel-less displays mainstream, but it was Xiaomi's Mi Mix that kicked things off last year. It looks like the Chinese manufacturer is aiming for an even more ambitious design for its successor, if a new video shared by the phone's designer Philippe Starck is any indication.The video shows off a v...
