A New Economics - The Collapse of Retail

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Recent times are revealing inefficient economic models everywhere. This is not reflective of a temporary drop in demand but a more fundamental shift touching every consumer and industry. For example, during the past decade, which saw tremendous economic activity, the retail distribution of entertainment content was overcome by new models, and the culling is not yet over with. Now comes further reorganization in the retail sector. All major retail chains are unsustainable and demonstrating their ineffiencies - most will not survive with hundreds of thousands set to close this year alone. In the U.S. nearly 19 square feet of retail exists for every man women and child: the number should be half of that. New economic models are sweeping over each and every industry. Hear more from Howard Davidowitz on the state of U.S. retail today.

Pattie Maes lab at MIT - Environmental Interaction Using Off the Shelf Technologies

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Functionally utilizing information technologies day to day holds tremendous promise for the advancement of ubiquitous computing. This demo -- from Pattie Maes' lab at MIT, spearheaded by Pranav Mistry -- was the buzz of TED. It's a wearable device with a projector that paves the way for profound interaction with our environment. Imagine "Minority Report" and then some.....

Transcendent Man - Kurzweil's Upcoming Film

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Transcendent Man is a film about famed inventor and futurist thinker, Ray Kurzweil. The film follows Ray around the world to tell the story of his early day's as an inventor, including his influences, successes and accolades. It delves deeply into his profound predictions about the future, raising questions about our humanity, our divinity, and ultimately, our destiny.

Boxee : The Internet vs Old Media

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quick intro to boxee from boxee on Vimeo.

An increasing number of solutions that leverage the Internet to distribute high value content are emerging. Boxee is one: on a laptop or connected to an HDTV, boxee gives you a true entertainment experience. Boxee has been getting a lot of attention lately, especially after it won a Best of the Best Award at the Consumer Electronics Show in January. It now offers content both from Web sources like Blip.TV, Joost, TED and Revision3 as well as TV shows from mainstream outlets like PBS, CBS, HBO, CNN, Comedy Central, WB, NBC and Fox.

Some cable companies, satellite companies and even Apple, are all trying to determine how they will respond or handle these advances because they will likely ultimately undermine the control of distribution channels by these providers. In March, Ronan drew more attention to Boxee by engaging in a fierce and widely read debate with HDNet’s Mark Cuban over the future of video entertainment. It was set off by a Cuban editorial entitled “Why Do Internet People Think That Content People Are Stupid?”