Age of technological abundance 'official' as broken mobile telephone screens 'all the rage' across the United States; adjudged 'ice-breaker'—
Asad Yawar (@Mediolana) May 24, 2013
#Cracked screen wallpaper, screensavers now common; shattered #iPads 'certain to be the next big thing' #technopolis tinyurl.com/ocuf2xd—
Asad Yawar (@Mediolana) May 24, 2013
Filed under Culture, Technology
Regular readers of this blog should surf to mediolana.com’s creative section where the above article on one of Europe’s most sensational musical prospects awaits!
Filed under Creativity, Culture, Technology
Hundreds of Chinese automotive companies now operational in #Detroit, facilitating West-East #technologytransfer + selling basic auto parts—
Asad Yawar (@Mediolana) May 13, 2013
#Shanghai #Automotive #Industries, #China's largest carmaker, set up in #Detroit in 2012 w/out any #publicity of note tinyurl.com/bqjxrko—
Asad Yawar (@Mediolana) May 13, 2013
Filed under Business, Economic Development, Technology
One of the largely-unheralded casualties of the most recent property bubble in both the United Kingdom and the United States is a group whose relative lack of access to the corridors of power often sees it ignored by policymakers: young adults. With prices for housing – whether rented or purchased – long in parodic territory in metropolises such as London and New York, the lack of posited solutions for such an obvious problem is one of the genuine intellectual disappointments of the twenty-first century. Well-intended proposals such as microflats – tiny apartments that seem designed for large rodents rather than anything approaching a humanoid – have only served to highlight the lack of imagination evident in addressing this crisis; many young professionals have turned to internal or external migration as the only viable exit.
It was with this in mind that our CSO was struck by a novel form of housing being formulated at the Media Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (‘MIT Media Lab’). The CityHome is an 840ft² property the main room of which – via the use of robotic walls, appliances and furniture – can transform into any number of large rooms at the flick of a switch. One minute it can be a large dining room with space for up to fourteen people; the next, a home gym; the next, a large kitchen. While the project is still very much under development and its limitations for anything other than one-person occupancy are clear, the massive corporate underwriting of the MIT Media Lab means that should the construction industry find this idea a winner, CityHomes could soon be making their way into a newly-constructed apartment block near you.
As brilliant an idea as it is, however, the CityHome does not address the ultimate question of its own perceived necessity. Would there be any need for such electronic ingenuity in the event of a simple rise in interest rates which would end subsidised money and rebalance the housing market? As red ink soaks the balance sheets of financial institutions in both the great financial centres of the last century, it seems almost churlish to ask.
Filed under Economics, Finance, Technology, Urban Life
2x new #Porsche 911s listed without manual #gearbox option in move sure to infuriate purists; '#computers shift gears smoother than #humans'—
Asad Yawar (@Mediolana) May 10, 2013
As #Porsche clientele has moved from car enthusiasts to global über-wealthy, +demands for easier, faster transmission tinyurl.com/c7pgpdt—
Asad Yawar (@Mediolana) May 10, 2013
Filed under Business, Culture, Technology
#Hype machine cranking up in pre-release publicity as Electronic Arts' #FIFA14 pitted against #Konami's latest iteration of PES, #PES2014—
Asad Yawar (@Mediolana) April 18, 2013
#FIFA 'finally focusing on realistic gameplay' after nearly 20 years of 'simulacrum' football; #PES vaunts brand new engine, #AFC licenses—
Asad Yawar (@Mediolana) April 18, 2013
Lack of new market entrants highlights entrenched #duopoly; App Store + Google Play 'not generating real competition' tinyurl.com/ch3moo9—
Asad Yawar (@Mediolana) April 18, 2013
Filed under Culture, Football, Technology
https://twitter.com/Mediolana/status/321954625538375680
Filed under Technology, Urban Life
67.8% of South #Korean #smartphone users changed their model in 2012; 24 month contracts 'common', but many replace their sets mid-term #ROK—
Asad Yawar (@Mediolana) April 07, 2013
70% of Koreans expected to replace their smartphone in 2013, despite global #recession, geopolitical uncertainty, possible nuclear conflict—
Asad Yawar (@Mediolana) April 07, 2013
#Chile (55.5%) + the #USA (55.2%) also vaunt high #smartphone replacement rates; only 8.4% follow suit in #Bangladesh tinyurl.com/czqw4m5—
Asad Yawar (@Mediolana) April 07, 2013
Filed under Culture, Technology
#Ponanza programme beats #shogi master Shinichi Sato in Japanese chess first; 'Deep Blue shades of #Kasparov' tinyurl.com/dyw4nht #iRobot—
Asad Yawar (@Mediolana) April 02, 2013
Filed under Culture, Technology
#NorthKorea suspected to have downed 0000s of computers at 6 #ROK media companies and banks; cash machines and commerce 'grind to halt'—
Asad Yawar (@Mediolana) March 21, 2013
#Chinese IP number behind attacks 'not significant' as #PRC hacking usually +targeted rather than purely 'disruptive' tinyurl.com/bvpo552—
Asad Yawar (@Mediolana) March 21, 2013
Filed under Business, Political Science, Politics, Technology
