If confirmed next week, this will be the biggest news in the history of physics since the birth of the Theory of Relativity: CERN scientists may have already found evidence of the existence of the elusive Higgs boson. THE FORCE, dudes. More »
We’ve been talking a lot about our big ass home theater, and today we’re going to conduct our in-depth home theater demo. Translation: we are gonna watch some loud-ass movie, and you are going to enjoy it. Yes. More »
Verizon and Redbox are reportedly gearing up to poop out a TV and movie streaming service. Great. Because what the world needs now is yet another streaming content provider with a nonsensical pricing scheme. Please don’t no stop ugh. UGH. More »
This is simply genius. Since smartphone cameras don’t have lens mounts, attaching a macro or zoom lens usually requires a cumbersome case. But by embedding one in an elastic band, this macro lens can easily be used on any smartphone. More »
Ouch, my head hurts. I don’t know if it’s because I had a little too much to drink or if I just experienced far too many different kinds of incredible at the #GizmodoGallery opening last night. Woz hung out! Antics ensued! We almost broke Santa Claw! Has anybody seen Mascari? More »
One of Japan’s leading and globally renowned, award winning architects, Kengo Kuma has designed a new Starbucks store that will open in the Southern Japanese city of Fukuoka. The store is currently under construction but is due to open in mid December.
Fashionsnap report that the deisgn is made up of a traditional timber framed structure with the facade of the building protruding out at different angles, similar to a tree’s branches. “A fusion of the traditional and contemporary and made up of natural materials” is how Kuma describes the approach to the design that looks like it will lend itself to the natural surroundings of the stores location in Dazaifu Shrine.
Kuma continues to be one of the leading architects in Japan right now and has won a number of awards in the last 5 years. The recently refurbished Nezu Museum and the LVMH Japan headquarters at Omotesando ONE amongst his striking designs. Since march this year he has also been involved with an architects group “Kishin no Kai” featuring Ito Toyo, Riken Yamamoto, Naito Hiroshi and Kazuyo Seijima from Sanaa, who are helping design plans to help rebuild the disaster stricken area.
Left Photo courtesy @asagao_itsuka
Starbucks have been making some interesting moves in Japan in it’s 15th anniversary year. Just earlier in March the brand opened up their Starbucks B-Side which was designed by the legendary Hiroshi Fujiwara, the “Godfather of Harajuku” and a hugely influential figure from Tokyo’s subculture. The collaborations with such interesting names as Kuma and Fujiwara show how Starbucks continues to deepen it’s roots in Japan and align itself as a modern and contemporary brand.
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Toshiba have launched a new marketing campaign aimed at promoting their vision of the Smart Cities of the future. The, not hugely catchily titled, M/E/S/S/A/G/E “Symphonic Balance Of Smart Community” uses Facebook and is a pretty fun video that users can personalize.
The lego town in the video represents Toshiba’s smart city with the balls rolling around in it color coded to represent the different green energy alternatives or technologies needed for the community to function. Visitors to the site are instructed to link to their Facebook accounts and can then type in a personalized message into the site. A fun video is then played which features different avatars and characters from your Facebook friends as the balls which roll around the town symbolizing the ways in which energy and technology are used to make it function. The final scene then has the balls roll down to display your personalized message which can be captured and uploaded onto your Facebook wall.
The site also links to “Toshiba’s Technology Vision for Innovation” page which shows off some of the company’s leading technology that they see “contributing to safer and more comfortable lifestyles and a sustainable society”. As with many major industrial companies in Japan this year, Toshiba have ramped up their CSR activities since the energy concerns precipitated by the Fukushima power plant events, focusing particularly on society and new energy saving technology. Companies have seen the new focus on energy as an opportunity to push a message to the public showcasing their sustainable commodities in a way that isn’t just focusing on their reaction to environmental issues but more trying to prove that they are doing their part to help the country in it’s time of need and attain energy security.
It is this strategy, of focusing more on the concrete real issues that the public can actually see and benefit from, whether it be in staving off energy shortages or simply meaning lower prices for petrol, that stands to have far greater chance of success in driving new green technology, not just in Japan I would argue but further afield. Focusing on real tangible activity rather than the tired practices of images of polar bears or arctic ice melting, that the everyday consumer has no true connection with, which will align the consumer more coherently, and ultimately therefore really driving investment into sectors that work toward a real sustainable future.
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Toshiba’s Energy Saving Eco Chip
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Comics are cool now. Well, kind of cool. Acceptable. But it’s not all pasty nerds reading comics in the dark in their parents’ basements anymore—lots of us have moved on to reading in the dark in our own homes and apartments. Here’s how to buy for the comic fanboy in your life. More »
In a rare example of overruling her own experts and the FDA—while apparently ignoring the highest teen pregnancy rate of any industrialized country—Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius is prohibiting teenagers younger than 17 from buying the morning-after pill over the counter. That’s plain wrong. More »
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