innovation

Credit: next09

I just came back from the next09 conference in Hamburg, one of Europe's leading digital/creative/marketing forums that stands out in the conference circuit because of its unique German-international focus (bilingual program, 80 percent international attendees, many international speakers). This year's theme was "Share Economy," and the 1,300 attendees comprised of European VCs and angel investors, Web 2.0 entrepreneurs, media, creative agencies, and executives from German corporations (from BMW to Deutsche Bank to Deutsche Telekom).

In talking to many German attendees, my impression was that the German creative community shows no … Read more

Marketers face three types of media as channels of interaction with their audiences: paid media, earned media, and owned media. We know that in today's hyper-relational, atomized micromarkets, paid media's effect is somewhat limited. The days of broadcasting one-way messages via mass media are gone. Traditional advertising is struggling to cut through the clutter in an economy in which attention is the scarcest resource. Most ads are ignored or perceived as spam.

Earned media, on the other hand, has the merit of third-party credibility, and it reaches people when they are opted in and value the information. Media … Read more

I had seven flights last week: San Francisco-Tokyo-Shanghai-Hong Kong-Beijing-Shanghai-Tokyo-San Francisco. On Tuesday I’m headed to Austin, Texas. And then to Hamburg on Sunday. When you travel so much, the design of the airport experience becomes an integral part of the quality of your life, maybe even more so than the design of your own home. You come to appreciate the little details that distinguish one airport from another in making the moments in transition more enjoyable.… Read more

Has it finally arrived, the post-advertising age? Advertising Age, nomen est omen, recently ran a story on the blurring line between commercial and editorial content, as media companies are facing a fiercely competitive marketplace amid declining advertising budgets (according to the Newspaper Association of America, advertising revenue in 2008 decreased by 17 percent, to $38 billion), and the looming crisis of the news industry as a whole (see Clay Shirky’s seminal essay on "Newspapers and Thinking the Unthinkable").

As if to further prove the point, the Los Angeles Times carried a Page 1 advertisement on Thursday that … Read more

EV Innovations unveiled its own planned line of electric vehicles, starting with two models, the Wave and Inizio. The latter of the pair aims to be a Tesla Roadster competitor.

But with less range, less power, and a bigger sticker, we're not sure if Tesla has to worry about the EVI Inizio just yet.

Design is not the answer to everything, but it certainly has an important role to play in almost everything that holds a society together.

In light of the current economic crisis, several U.S. professional design organizations (AIGA, IDSA, and others), design education accreditation organizations, and Federal Government officials have seized the historic opportunity and joined forces to launch an initiative to shape a U.S. National Design Policy. In a moment of great global uncertainty and an erosion of national confidence, designers are perfectly positioned to take on a leadership role in "Re-designing America's Future," and … Read more

Updated at 9:40 a.m. PDT with a comment from a Chrysler spokesperson.

EV Innovations, a lithium car battery specialist based in Las Vegas, is perhaps looking for a way to catch a few of the stimulus dollars aimed for Detroit.

The boutique electric-vehicle manufacturer, formerly named Hybrid Technologies, issued a statement on Thursday, April 2, 2009, announcing that the company "has begun the process of reaching out to both Chrysler and General Motors to discuss the possibilities of merging its cutting-edge electric-car manufacturing and lithium battery technology with the giant automakers."

If preliminary discussions are taking … Read more

Seamstresses may find themselves out of job soon if Brother continues to develop sewing machines like the Innov-is 6000D. This multitalented gadget commemorates the Japanese company's 100th anniversary, and is probably what clothes makers and fashion designers dream of at night.

The Innov-is 6000D can not only sew, it is also capable of embroidery, quilting, and crafting. But what really sets this machine apart from its competitors are the advanced technologies that aid users in operating it.

The Innov-is 6000D has three USB 2.0 ports to attach compatible peripherals (such as a computer mouse, which we will touch on later) or to plug a USB stick in to transfer downloaded stitching patterns or upgrade the firmware. It also has an 8.5-inch touch-screen LCD where the menu can be navigated by using a mouse.

There is a camera built-in near the needle which gives you a closeup look at the stitches on the screen if you need to reposition or make amendments to the work piece. Brother has also incorporated a row of LEDs below the sewing arm to illuminate the work space and to facilitate the view for the camera. … Read more

This comprehensive system utility keeps your computer at peak performance by offering tools to manage processes, hard-disk space, and even Registry entries. When put to the test, it gave a solid performance, but we found inconsistencies with its trial period and in the overall design.

Innovative SysPack's main user interface is very easy to navigate. The main window has six prominent buttons for managing different tasks. There is a system optimizer, task manager, disk cleaner, start-up firewall, and tools to manage drives and to uninstall programs. But we found that each feature contained a different user interface. Granted, each … Read more