What to do with CDs in the age of Spotify, iPods, and the collective realization that CD sound totally sucks" You could throw them in the rubbish bin or you could do what Elise Morin and Clémence Eliard have done and turn them into a massive, undulating art installation that shows off CDs" best (and arguably only) asset: They sure are shiny!
Forget Rise of the Planet of the Apes ? it's Rise of the Planet of the Algorithms. In the 15-minute TED video below, game developer Kevin Slavin explains how formulas are not just beginning to control aspects of our lives like Netflix recommendations and Wall Street trading, but also how we are quite literally changing our architecture and shape of the earth to accommodate them.
This week, high-end lifestyle electronics maker Bang & Olufsen announced its BeoSound 5 Encore, an "affordable" version of its BeoSound stereo system, clocking in at $3,555 -- down from $6,000 -- that can consolidate all of your music libraries and play them at maximum digital audio quality. And though the company has consistently targeted the audiophile, it appears to be doubling down on the notion that there is still a market for people who don't want to listen to their MP3s at 128 or 256 kbs.
The stereotype that old people are hapless Luddites who can't distinguish an iPad from their cat's litter box is, like a lot of stereotypes, rooted in some reality. The elderly are less likely than younger adults to own a cell phone. They're also less likely to wax enthusiastic about technological innovation.
I've amassed a sizable collection of shopping bags, rivaled only by my collection of reusable totes. My eco-conscience has guilted me into buying every canvas, nylon, and recycled plastic carryall under the sun in the hopes of find one that would be an actual improvement on the grocery bag. And they've all ended end up stuffed in a closet, which I suppose is better than a landfill. But Baggu may have answered my prayers with its Daypack, a lightweight nylon backpack that folds into its own zippered pouch.
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With bike design, it's almost impossible to produce something entirely new because the basic format has been perfected over 100 years. Leave it to a design student to shake things up with an altogether different take on the urban bike -- a groovy, multicolored ride made from plastic with shutter-shade slats.
The design concept above, by San Francisco-based Renee Walker, recently won Rethink the Food Label, a competition that asked designers to make the health info on packaged goods easier to understand. Mounted by the UC Berkeley j-school's News21 program and Good magazine -- with powerhouse jurors, including ?liberal foodie intellectual?
In one week, I'll be staring into my first child's face. But what will he or she be seeing? How will I look to him/her? I've always wondered this, and now there's an iPhone app that purports to "simulate what your child sees during its first year of life." It's called What Do You See?, and according to creators Blixt & Dunder, it's based on publicly available medical research about developmental milestones in human vision.
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