“Focused on the intelligent collaborations between architects and interior designers, Total Office Design explores contemporary workplaces that are as visually striking as they are functional. The book categorizes the offices by budget—small, medium and large—with comprehensive floor plans, insightful texts and nearly 425 vibrant photographs accompanying the 50 total spaces.”

via Read More → "Total Office Design: 50 offices you wish you worked at in one comprehensive book"

Intel’s Haswell architecture is set to arrive in 2013 and touts (1) the ability to run your laptop for 24 hours on one charge, (2) 10 days on “connected standby” and (3) the 22-nanometer 3D-transistor architecture consumes so little power—20 times less than their current gear—that it can run on a solar cell. via Gizmodo

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Starting September 15, underneath the High Line in New York City, there will be a new outdoor installation entitled Tight Spot by David Byrne in conjunction with The Pace Gallery. The installation will feature a 48-by-20-foot inflatable terrestrial globe which appears to be gently crushed by the towering High Line. It will be on view from September 16 to October 1, 2011 under the High Line at 508 West 25th Street in New York City.

New York Magazine</ … Read More → "Tight Spot, an art installation by David Byrne under the High Line in NYC"

University of Leeds scientists have developed a new type of polymer gel that has the potential to create cheaper lithium batteries without impacting, and perhaps even improving, performance. The technology has been licensed to Polystor Energy Corporation, which is currently in trials to commercialize the batteries for portable consumer electronics. The polymer, which is more flexible than traditional lithium-ion batteries, could have some important benefits to shaping the batteries for more efficient use.

They’re some fairly bold claims, but a team of researchers at the University of Leeds say they’ve managed to develop a … Read More → "Leeds researchers tout gel-based batteries as better, safer and cheaper"

What happens when engineers own dogs.

… Read More → "Excellent ball-flinging robot will play with your dog for hours"

“Under “Koomey’s law,” it’s efficiency, not power, that doubles every year and a half.” via Technology Review

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“Controlled by a botmaster using 3G, the drone or group of drones fly over any urban area looking for Wi-FI networks. As they find them, they automatically try to break in. Once they get inside the network, it searches for personal computers that can be compromised. Any computer that falls to the attack gets turned into a zombie without the user ever knowing it.” via Gizmodo and cnet

Read More → "A cheap DIY flying drone that can break into Wi-Fi networks and turn computers into zombies that can be controlled remotely"

“The Kanex AirBlue is simply a portable Bluetooth music receiver or, as I like to call it, an audio bridge. After pairing with a A2DP-enabled smartphone or portable media player, the AirBlue is able to recieve streamed audio wirelessly and output that same audio via a single 3.5mm analog audio connection. The device includes, for this purpose, an audio patch cable with 3.5mm male connections at both ends and a 3.5mm to stereo RCA audio cable.

Physically measuring 1.875 inches across and only about a quarter of an inch thick with a matte black, soft touch … Read More → "Wirelessly stream audio from your Bluetooth device to almost any audio player"

The Maduro Sonos Desktop Speakers by GoodDeedAudio ($350) feature 2.5-inch aluminum cones mounted inside authentic cedar cigar boxes and tuned with 3/4-inch copper port tubes. Every speaker is self-powered with an internal 10 watt per channel amplifier. All you need is a 3.5mm stereo headphone jack and an outlet. Wouldn’t these look super cool on your desk?

via < … Read More → "Cigar box desktop speakers"

The latest step forward in creating chatty AI, New york Times is reporting some high-quality prose from the research labs of Narrative Sciences. Goodbye Choose Your Own Adventure as a narrative style…

Narrative Sciences, a start-up in Evanston, Illinois, has developed a sophisticated program that can write articles—typically sports summaries—in under 60 seconds according to the New York Times. Previous iterations of the artificial intelligence used “fill in the blanks” that drew from statistics … Read More → "Will bots soon be writing EE Journal for us?"