TREND REPORTS
Sleep On It - New Smart Devices Improve Slumber
[Product]
2015/03/08 18:28
Humans spend over a third of their lives asleep, but it is often disrupted and of poor quality. Smart home inventors have finally turned their attention to improving slumber, offering users the ability to track not only the biological factors that affect their rest but also the environmental issues at play. These devices bring big data to bear on an age-old problem: getting a good night’s slee...
(PDF) Pew - Local News in a Digital Age
[Business]
2015/03/08 18:28
Whether in a tech-savvy metropolis or a city where the town square is still the communication hub, local news matters deeply to the lives of residents. Across three disparate metro areas in the U.S., nearly nine-in-ten residents follow local news closely?and about half do so very closely, according to a new, in-depth Pew Research Center study. During a period of tremendous technological change?...
Supermarket Ditches Paper Price Tags for Digital Ones
[Tech]
2015/03/08 18:28
Color EPD displays save Sainsbury's store employees time.Working at a supermarket involves the kind of sisyphean drudgery that never gets done, like changing little paper or plastic price tags under items that will only have to be changed again in a matter of weeks as store arrangements and prices change.But stores are always trying to find ways to save employees some time, for better or worse,...
The US Ad Market Remains Unchallenged
[Business]
2015/03/08 18:28
As the global advertising market surpassed half a trillion US dollars in 2014, the United States remains unchallenged both in terms of total and per capita ad spend. According to Strategy Analytics, advertising expenditure reached $181 billion in the United States last year, almost eclipsing the combined ad spend of the remaining Top 10 ad markets. In terms of per capita ad spend, the US lead i...
(IPO) Etsy Files for Handcrafted IPO, Aims To Raise $100M
[Investing]
2015/03/08 18:28
The handcrafted marketplace cited losing its authenticity as a risk factor in its regulatory filing Wednesday.Etsy, the online marketplace for handcrafted and vintage goods, has filed for an initial public offering that is banking on the continued appetite for new Internet stocks.Reports speculated that the company could be valued in the public markets $2 billion. It said in a regulatory filing...
Oral-B Smart Mirror Encourages Better Brushing Through Storytelling
[Product]
2015/03/08 18:27
Form better teeth-cleaning techniques using technology developed by hygiene giant's call to third party developers.Good oral hygiene is important to a healthy lifestyle, but spending an extended period making sure those pearly whites live up to the name is not always easy. Oral-B is doing their best to make the process easy, fun, and technologically savvy. Their latest innovation to their tooth...
(Video) Japan's 9 Hours Capsule Hotel Offers Nine Hours of Rest in Tiny Pods
[Product]
2015/03/08 18:27
Why pay a hotel for a 24-hours stay when you just need a bed for nine?A new hotel in Japan is offering nine-hour rentals on small cubicles with a single purpose?to put you to sleep. Inside the hotel, the sleeping pods are stacked, with plenty in each room. For Japanese cities running out of space and affordable rooms, the approach from the aptly named ninehours hotel makes perfect sense.To chec...
(PDF) The Proximity Paradox : Balancing Auto Suppliers’ Manufacturing Networks
[Business]
2015/03/05 13:11
The past few years have been relatively good ones for the world’s leading automotive suppliers. Thanks to an industry recovery from the global financial crisis of 2008 and 2009 and successful cost-cutting initiatives, earnings and return on capital for the ten largest automotive suppliers are approaching their highs of about a decade ago. Global auto sales remain strong, powered by robust grow...
How Apple Can Overcome Dropping iTunes Revenue
[Business]
2015/03/05 13:08
Although Apple's software services are a drop in the bucket compared with its iPhone business, analysts believe they can boost the company’s total operating income by as much as $4 billion by 2017. Based on Morgan Stanley Research data charted for us by BI Intelligence, new services, including Apple’s mobile payments solution Apple Pay, will provide more sources of software revenue for Apple...
(Video) Stratos is Not Just Another All-in-One Smart Card
[Business]
2015/03/05 11:09
Where a number of startups have recently failed, Stratos hopes to succeed. The mobile payment startup from Michigan just announced a new smart card that combines all your accounts to make mobile payments easier. It has plenty of competition, and the odds might be against it considering the rise of integrated services like Apple Pay, Samsung Pay, and Android Pay. But it has a chance to thanks to...
Audi Chairless Chair Part of Exoskeleton for Worker Trend
[Tech]
2015/03/05 11:08
Audi is testing a new technology that eases many assembly activities: the so-called “chairless chair.” This high-tech carbon-fiber construction allows employees to sit without a chair. At the same time, it improves their posture and reduces the strain on their legs.* Three prototypes in use on assembly lines in Neckarsulm* Carbon-fiber construction supports employees in assembly workAudi AG i...
(Video) Prototype Fujitsu Smartphone Unlocks with The Blink of an Eye
[Tech]
2015/03/05 11:06
At MWC Fujitsu is displaying a smartphone prototype with an iris-scanning authentication system.Most smartphones require some sort of password or pattern input to unlock them, whilst some have voice print recognition, and a few ? such as Apple's iPhone 5S and Samsung's Galaxy S5 ? even use fingerprint scanning. But Fujitsu claims to have gone one better by introducing iris pattern recognition o...
