Tag: LONDON

We're super excited for New York Design Week, but we'd be even more excited if the city were getting its very own robot "octopus" to mark the occasion. That's what London will get for its London Design Festival in September, when design outfit Kram/Weisshaar will install a six-armed robot called 'Outrace,' borrowed from the Audi production line, in Trafalgar Square. (And yes, we're aware that ...

Construction is nearly complete on the Strata skyscraper in central London. The Strata is the tallest residential tower in the area, and boasts a unique feature, built-in wind turbines, making it the first building of its kind. The five-bladed turbines, each measuring about twelve feet in diameter, are expected to raise 50 megawatt hours (MWh) of electricity per year, effectively providing ...

Just yesterday, Maria Sharapova, a tennis star known for her beauty as well as her overhand, donned a dress that really lit up the room -- whenever her cell phone rang, that is. Posed in the display window of London's upscale department store Liberty, the former Wimbledon champion and current ambassador to Sony Ericsson modeled the high-tech prototype, which connects to the wearer's cell phone ...

Usually when we cover the baked goods beat 'round here it's in the form of a gadget-themed confection, so anything that actually empowers our sweet tooth is not only brilliant, it's dangerous! That's why we were really excited (and a little scared) to come across BakerTweet, a Wi-Fi-enabled, Arduino-based prototype that one mounts on the wall of their bakery. Items are added or removed via Web ...

The London City Police -- or Bobbies, cuz that's infinitely cuter -- has launched a new service whereby the citizenry can drop an SMS (text message) to the law in an emergency instead of calling it in. The new SMS service is replacing the typetalk and textphone systems for people with speech and hearing difficulties. Of course, the service is open to all city residents by just SMSing 07940 500 ...

In the U.K., T-Mobile is running a popular commercial that shows people at a London train station engaging in a seemingly random -- yet thoroughly choreographed -- dance session. Using Facebook to spread the word, a fan decided to recreate this with a flash mob silent rave of the type we saw in New York City last spring. However, the recreation (check out the video) was ultimately far more ...

British Airways has announced they'll start offering limited in-flight cell phone use on flights from London to JFK. Passengers will be allowed to send text messages and use data, but not to make actual calls (thankfully -- because we all know how annoying that would be). Several other airlines have launched similar trials, including BMI and Qantas (which has announced they will allow usage for ...

London will be the first city to test out new bomb-proof garbage cans, which are also going to multitask as recycling bins with LCDs that stream travel info and news. Security concerns (AKA fear of terrorists dropping bombs in them) have kept rubbish bins out of subway stations and many of the city's streets since the mid-'80s, causing frustration among citizens, not to mention what amounts to ...

A chic London restaurant and bar called Inamo is making patrons' dining experiences digital by projecting colorful menus and aesthetic patterns onto touch-sensitive tabletops. When browsing, patrons can preview the food as if it were on the plate in front of them -- only flatter, we suppose. They can also order their meals, look up neighborhood services, and select one of seven visual vibes ...

We'd swear this had to be some sort of spoof on the impeccable James Bond, but sadly enough, the whole thing is true. A secondhand Nikon Coolpix camera which sold on eBay for a mere £17 ($30) turned out to be a real bargain once its new 28-year old owner completed his first image dump. Along with decidedly decent snaps from his US vacation, he also found a number of "top secret" images, ...

Here's your afternoon dose of cuteness, ready or not. David McGoran's Heart Robot has made its way into London's Science Museum, and for good reason. This intelligent robot not only possesses a face with moving eyes and an external heart that blinks depending on what's happening, but it actually encourages people to hug and cuddle it like a real human. Seen as being "among the first robots to ...

British-born artist Paul St. George has brought to life the vision of his fictional great grandfather, Alexander Stanhope St. George, the Telectroscope. What is it? The Telectroscope is a giant, telescope-like optical tube that runs under the Atlantic allowing people in London to stare at people in Brooklyn, and visa-versa. In reality, the Telectroscope is a giant art project mixing fictional ...

We live in a dangerous world filled with murderers, terrorists, and lamp posts. That's right: lamp posts. Don't play coy with us. We know on at least one occasion you've been walking down the street texting away on your mobile phone and walked right into a lamp post or telephone pole. British telephone directory service 118 118 is out to save Londoners from themselves and has started wrapping ...

In the U.K., cell phones and bars go together like -- alcohol and bars. Just a few weeks ago a few English pubs introduced the ability to order drinks via text message, and now a new service has shy British bar hoppers talking to each other, or at least making contact, via cell phone. The service, called Ice Brkr, lets you create an online persona with a picture. You then indicate which bar(s) ...

Everyday this Big Brother stuff gets scarier and scarier. Pretty soon the only place you'll be safe is in your own home, in your bed room, under the blanket. We posted before about experts declaring that by 2057 there will be roughly one million sensors and recorders for every U.K. resident. It looks like London is wasting no time rushing towards that goal. We're well aware of the security ...