A Reality-Based Look at the City of the (Near) Future
By 2050, seven out of every ten people on Earth will live in cities. Compared to the beginning of the 20th century, when just 20 percent lived in urban settings, the increase is staggering.
This rapid urbanization coupled with the population explosion that will see 8.9 billion people living on the planet in 2050 presents the challenge of more total humans and a higher percentage of them flocking to cities to find a better life. So, what is the city of the future and what is the future of cities?
Txchnologist asked a few leading thinkers to give their impression of what future cities in 50-100 years will be like.
(via Bye Bye, Jetsons: Engineers and Consultants Offer A Reality-Based Future | Txchnologist)
(ht futurist.com, ht The Futures Agency)
Bringing down the cost of fuel cells
via kurzweilai:
Numerous reports of this coming to future laptops, smart phones, and tablets in the comic years. Particularly from Apple.
Innovation.
(via @JoeTierney)
I think the surface can outline the future of Microsoft heading into the hardware battle. It will surely be the first real iPad competitor, it still won’t beat it.
If you can’t wait to get the new iPad third generation, which is available to the public on March 16; you can check out this unboxing video from Vietnamese blogger Sonlazio. He provides a first look into the new iPad and a bunch of great photos. Thankfully, since I don’t speak Vietnamese, he points a lot in the video and you can make sense of the new features such as the bigger 5 megapixel camera.
Why you’ll soon be hearing all about ‘Terahertz Scanners’.
Several exciting new uses are being trialed for devices which can scan objects and create an image using beams of terahertz radiation. Much like an x-ray can see through clothes and skin to image your bones, T-rays can produce similar images, but with new techniques they could soon see uses in held held devices, as opposed to the room-sized scanners required for x-rays.
One report describes a device that is small enough to fit on a silicone chip and operate at room temperature, which could be used as a security screening device for weapons, for medical imaging, or even for drug ‘sniffing’. The Imperial College in London, who created the device, say that it can sense any molecule, because every one has a unique signature in the THz range.
Elsewhere, the New York Police Department and the Department of Defense are using similar technology specifically for weapons screening. Privacy issues aside, the Police hope to one day use the scanner in place of a more invasive pat-down to check for weapons. Their current prototype has a range of up to five metres, but they hope to extend that to 25 metres (85 feet).
That device scans for the terahertz waves which are naturally emitted by our bodies. The waves pass through any non-conductive material like clothing, but are blocked by conductors such as your keys, mobile phones, or more importantly a knife or gun.
Expect to see these techniques and even more uses for terahertz scanners in the news over the next few years. While privacy advocates will be upset at the thought of an invisible Police probe able to target you from down the block, nerds and geeks should be thrilled at the thought that it could soon be used to build a real life tricorder.
Wasn’t it Ben Franklin that said “Those who would give up freedom for security deserve neither and will loose them both”

I think in this technological world we live in now we’ve come to the point where you don’t need to learn how to use technology. We are living in the age where no matter who you are, or what age you are; you can walk up to any computer or any cell phone and instantly know who to use it. Even if it’s not the advanced things you can still find your way around it. I think we need to thank natural finger gestures for this. Yep, that set of six things like pinch to zoom, and press and hold have all lead us to where we can instantly use technology. But it doesn’t stop there, we’re now hearing stories that two year olds that use their parents iPhones and iPads swipe at there books and T.V. thinking that the picture will change. As crazy as this is, companies need to keep innovating, and capitalizing on this. Since it’s something every human knows how to do, it could get more people on their devices (hence the reason Apple is so popular, people know how to work the products). While there is still a lot of work to go with this, the idea is great, it removes the keyboard and mouse as well as the barrier between technology and humanity. The only thing it needs now is Siri and a voice box everywhere!
Da Kidd
Ouch! A new study found that tapping on your tablet incorrectly can lead to greater strain and injury than a computer. We talked with the experts to find out what to do.
“In general, the iPad provides a lot of mobility, and so that is a healthy thing,” said Jack Dennerlein, a senior lecturer on ergonomics and safety at Harvard. “But only so long as you don’t get stuck in any one posture for too long.”
The key to good iPad ergonomics, Dennerlein says, is to use a good case that allows for different viewing angles — and to remember to change that angle regularly.
Apple better fix this before it turns into NECKGATE. I can already see the furious Engadget Headlines.
It’s all very clean and should look great next to your macchiato, but we’re really hoping Clear bucks the trend and syncs with Google Tasks, your iOS reminders, or some sort of cloud service and isn’t just another pretty task manager.
Clear for iOS manages your to-do list with a minimalist, gesture-based interface | The Verge
If this app had location based reminders, Apple would buy this.
Via NYTimes.com: So much for the free-wheeling, libertarian reputation of Twitter. The company announced Thursday that it could start censoring certain content in certain countries, a sort of micro-censorship widget that would pop up up in a grey box on the Twitter feed.
“Tweet withheld,” it would read “This tweet from @username has been withheld in: Country.”
I’m skeptical about this since I really don’t think Twitter themselves are doing this. I could see if the countries themselves are censoring the tweets, but why Twitter themselves. It’s the best place on the internet for Free Speech. This will be something to further investigate.
In a new report from the Wall Street Journal published a short time ago, they are saying that Facebook may finally file for their Initial Public Offering (IPO). Currently Facebook is a privately held company, and if they go public their stocks can be traded publicly and they can build on their capital dramatically.
Facebook, Really, I know you’re a big company and you want money I get it, but all IPO’s lead to bankruptcy. Unless you Linked in (I really don’t get why that caught on), or Zynga (Farmville is so 2009). Get it anyways Facebook, don’t listen to me.
Da Kidd
Pew: 19 percent of American adults now own a tablet, twice as many as in December
Just in case you needed data to back up your assertion that tablets are exploding in popularity, the Pew Research Center has revealed its latest polling figures, suggesting that 19 percent of grown-up Americans now own a slate of some sort. More notably, there was apparently a lull in tablet ownership growth over the latter half of 2011, which now appears to have been a case of buyers waiting for the holidays before putting up the cash.
YouTube now serves more than 4 billion daily video views
YouTube has passed yet another milestone: it now serves more than 4 billion daily video impressions to its adoring audience. That’s the report from Reuters, which cites information direct from Google that also notes roughly 60 hours of new content are being uploaded to YouTube every minute. That’s a 25 percent increase from the 48 hours users were uploading back in May, when the video hosting website was dolling out only 3 billion video views per day.
Is YouTube the next Hulu or T.V. no less maybe Apple should take note…