Mash-ups in Italy
A friend of mine, Lele Dainesi, manages Mash-ups in Italy, a blog on the “rise of cut & paste culture”. It is all in Italian, but insightful if you understand the language. As part of the nicely designed blog, Lele…
Insights curated by Experientia, the UX research and design consultancy
Insights curated by Experientia, the UX research and design consultancy
Category Technology
John Thackara critisises the EU’s “tech first” approach
John Thackara, director of Doors of Perception, just posted a critical comment on how the EU’s innovation and research programmes put an emphasis on tech rather than on people. For instance, the EU’s Information Society Technologies programme contains, according to…
Oakley’s new sunglasses are Bluetooth-enabled mobile eyewear [Reuters]
Oakley Inc. is jumping into the electronic age with sunglasses that play music and work with cell phones as it targets gadget lovers who want more than just protection from the sun. The project involves a collaboration with Motorola and…
I screen, you screen: the new age of the music video [The New York Times]
Videos have taken on an exciting if uncertain life of their own, far away from the mother ship that launched them. They thrive at online music sites, they’re sold in record stores, they connect strangers across the Internet. And just…
Usability and San Francisco’s new voting equipment
San Francisco’s Department of Elections has become very interested in usability issues of voting quipment. Recently, the department had usability expert Scott Luebking come in to provide the staff some basic training on usability and voting equipment. The training included…
An orb with a galaxy of uses [Business Week]
Ambient Devices didn’t realise how many different applications people would find for its data-display invention. It’s a lesson in side effects. Read full story
A brain trust in Bangalore [Business Week]
High tech’s biggest name are keen to set up research operations in India — and not just because of the cheap labor. Sarnoff is one of many Western tech research outfits that have turned to India for its combination…
Teens spurn e-mail for messaging [BBC]
US teenagers prefer instant messaging rather than e-mail to stay in touch with each other, research shows. A Pew Internet and American Life Project study found online teens are increasingly tech-savvy. Nearly nine out of 10 teenagers say they use…
Mobiles becoming ‘media channels’ [BBC]
Mobiles are becoming “media channels” as music, games, gambling and adult content clamour to make the industry worth $42.8bn by 2010. Read full story
Tech’s “dearth of innovation” [Business Week]
That’s due to “near-monopolists” in many areas, says futurist Mark Anderson, whose newsletter is read by the likes of Gates and Dell. Mark Anderson just might be one of the most influential technology futurists around. His weekly newsletter, Strategic News…
World’s first ambient experience suite opens [PhysOrg.com]
The Ambient Experience suite uses Philips’ lighting and consumer electronics to create a welcoming and patient-friendly environment for children undergoing medical scans. Featuring a Philips Brilliance CT (computed tomography) scanner in a room with curved walls, it lets young patients…
How Philips found new spark [Business Week]
CEO Gerard Kleisterlee tells how an emphasis on smart design pushes innovation, makes happy customers — and boosts the bottom line. Read full interview (via Brian Regienczuk)
When cell phones become oracles [Wired News]
Cell phones know whom you called and which calls you dodged, but they can also record where you went, how much sleep you got and predict what you’re going to do next. At least, these are the capabilities of 100…
London exhibition of designer hearing aids [BBC]
The UK’s largest charity for deaf people and a design magazine are launching an exhibition of futuristic hearing aids to make them more popular. The show, called Hearwear, opens at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London this week. Read…
Mobile phones boom in Tanzania [BBC]
The enormous growth of mobile phones in Tanzania is helping to close the digital divide between Africa and the West. Mobile phones seem to have created a new sector of the economy, and some now wonder if the emphasis on…
Single gadget weaves phone, internet and media services [International Herald Tribune]
France Télécom this month offered up its latest version of convergence by tacking on a few useful services to its Livebox home networking product, a “triple play” service combining Internet, telephone and television service. The most interesting of the new…
This pen is mighty [International Herald Tribune]
Three French companies, with an assist from the Finns and the Swedes, have combined their ingenuity to come up with a digital pen-and-paper system called PaperPC that, broadly speaking, digitises anything you can write with a pen. What makes it…
Are we losing our innovation religion? [EDN]
You can outsource product design to a third party, which in turn may use big chunks of external intellectual property; you can outsource physical manufacturing; and now, you can even outsource your research and development. […] What’s left? Not to…
It rings, it plays, it has TV [Christian Science Monitor]
First there were TVs. Then came PCs. Now, mobile phones are becoming the ‘third screen’ for viewing video. Read full story
Work is where you hang your coat [San Francisco Chronicle]
Sun leads way in telework — working not just from home but anywhere. Sun is on the leading edge when it comes to “telework” — a coinage that nowadays replaces the term “telecommuting” because it encompasses not just working from…