DESIGN, BUSINESS & INNOVATION

Photo via Mashable.

Todd Wasserman in Mashable: "Will your wrist be the next billboard? With new entries from Sony, Samsung and Motorola hitting the market, plus rumored interest from Apple, smartwatches appear to be the next emerging category in computing. Some 15% of consumers are currently using wearable technology, a category that includes fitness bands and smartwatches, according to a recent study by Nielsen." Read full article in Mashable. E.T.P. 5'

Photo via Fast Company.

According to Fast Company Duolingo is reinventing how to learn a language, and I have to say that I agree, I'm learning French et je suis très heureuse! (This is not a sponsored post, by the way, I wish it was haha!) "Duolingo, the free language learning app, is rapidly expanding by embracing crowdsourcing as a way to provide more language courses to its 12 million users. The company launched with six core languages--French, Spanish, Italian, German, Portuguese, and English--providing free language instruction using a simple graphic interface similar to Rosetta Stone, to users who can't afford the hefty price tag of language learning software programs. Although they wanted to add every single language on Earth, hiring experts for each new language wasn't a viable option. Since its launch in 2012, Duolingo has received requests for over 500 languages, including fictional ones like Klingon." Read full article in Fast Company. E.T.P. 5'

Photo via The Guardian.

Steven Poole cleverly writes in The Guardian: "The news that Facebook has splurged $2bn (£1.2bn) on buying Oculus Rift, the world's first really viable virtual reality headset, has set off waves of plaintive snark in the world of videogames. Virtual reality headsets were supposed to be about totally immersive space battles or sword fighting simulations, not about peer-through simulacra of distant relatives' new kitchen windows. I mean, it's bad enough when Facebook friends have children and instantly change their profile picture to a baby photo, as though having regressed to mewling and puking infancy themselves. Imagine seeing that appalling phenomenon in the future Faceworld." Read full article in The Guardian. E.T.P. 5'

DESIGN, BUSINESS & INNOVATION

Photos Thomas Alleman via Fast Company.

"In his series, The American Apparel, Alleman documents the clothing line’s ads as he finds them in East Los Angeles, one of the city's poorer areas. And just like that, the ads start to look downright preposterous. “My mission is neither to validate nor vilify,” Thomas Alleman says of the series. He doesn’t have to. There’s a not-so-subtle absurdity to a model in a wet T-shirt posing above two weary older women, waiting for a city bus, or a girl doing the splits while locals walk by with grocery bags." Read full article in Fast Company. E.T.P. 4' And have a look at more work by Alleman here.

Photo: Simon Signs by Alex Poon, signs "Candy"via Fast Company.

The near future wearable technology can teach you sign language, prevent pilots from falling asleep, keep your dog close to you with a digital leash, or deliver kitten photos when you most need it (yes, that's right, the world knows that you need kitten photos to soothe your anxiety). Read more in this article by Fast Company about their findings in the Consumer Technology Show held in Las Vegas early this year. E.T.P 6'

Illustration by Rob Donnelly via Slate.

Writer and illustrator Jessica Olien writes an insightful article about that one thing that allegedly everyone likes, but not really: creativity. "In the United States we are raised to appreciate the accomplishments of inventors and thinkers—creative people whose ideas have transformed our world. We celebrate the famously imaginative, the greatest artists and innovators from Van Gogh to Steve Jobs. Viewing the world creatively is supposed to be an asset, even a virtue. Online job boards burst with ads recruiting “idea people” and “out of the box” thinkers. We are taught that our own creativity will be celebrated as well, and that if we have good ideas, we will succeed. It’s all a lie." Read full article in Slate. E.T.P. 8'