productivity

Europe loves the VW Beetle, the Renault Twingo, and the Smart. The U.S. has the Mini and will finally get the Smart, too. And recently India proudly presented the spiritual successor to all of these--the $2,500 Tata Nano, a "people's car" that is widely gushed about, not only for its surprisingly slick design but also for its innovations.

In recent years, ecoconcerns, design savvy, and an (urban) willingness to quest for practicality have fostered the trend toward specialized cars that are as small as the niches they serve. While the idea of a small car … Read more

Avon Products CEO Andrea Jung will become Apple's eighth member of its board of directors, the company announced Monday.

Jung gives Apple an expert on direct sales strategies and the buying habits of women--at least a certain demographic of women--which could be enormously helpful to the company in helping grow its various businesses. She has been with Avon since 1996, and before that was executive vice president of high-end retailer Nieman-Marcus.

An informal poll of women in the News.com office suggested that Avon's brand name doesn't exactly resonate with the typical under-40 San Francisco female (believe … Read more

As part of the Consumer Electronics Show extravaganza in Las Vegas this week, Yahoo has opted to announce the next iteration of its mobile offering, Yahoo Go. The new beta product arrives at a time when just about every other huge name in tech--Google, Apple, you name it--is making a bigger push for the handset market, and (slightly) smaller brands like Facebook and MTV have been tweaking their mobile products.

Yahoo, however, isn't about to put out a Yahoo Phone. The new Yahoo Go 3.0, rather, is a free downloadable application compatible with about 30 different handsets so … Read more

Sure there are flashy tvs, phones that vie for the iPhone's status, more flat screens than you can shake a stick at, but at today's CES sneak-peak, I noticed some of the more random things at CES 2008 that caught my attention:

Juice This!

Duracell, battery manufacturer galore, is making plugging in easier with these plug-in-able packs. Maybe it's me, but with brown-outs, black-outs and white-outs lately, it may be worthwhile to think about.

Sew This!

Maybe it's Project Runway's fault, but I even saw Brother sewing machines at CES. Maybe they're Wi-Fi enabled … Read more

The design world lost a giant on Monday: Ettore Sottsass died at age 90. You may not be that familiar with his work, but I can bet you that he has influenced just about every designer who makes the stuff you buy today.

As is typical of Italian designers, where the fields of architecture and product design are not separated educationally or professionally, Sotssas worked across the domains of office products, ceramics, furniture, tableware, glass, sculpture, and interiors. He was one of the founders of the avant garde Milan-based design group Memphis, who's work still startles twenty years later. … Read more

Maybe bleeding to death is the last thing you think about in the morning as you pull on your pants, but it could happen.

That's why a Norfolk, VA based manufacturer of military and law enforcement equipment has developed a uniform with built-in tourniquets, which it says will save lives on the battlefield.

The Warrior Wear Integrated Tourniquet System by Blackhawk Products Group has eight tourniquets; four in the pants and four in the shirt (two in the short sleeve version), which may, in case of injury, be constricted immediately with one hand by the wearer, their buddy or … Read more

Smartphone keyboards are fine for composing short e-mails and maybe tweaking the occasional Word document. But if you want to get any serious work done on your device, fuhgeddaboudit. Your thumbs don't deserve that kind of punishment. Instead, reach for the iGo Stowaway Ultra-Slim Bluetooth Keyboard, which serves up a full-size set of QWERTY keys and then folds up slim enough to slip into your pocket.

The Stowaway normally lists for $149.99 (ouch!), but Amazon has it on sale for just $29.99--which qualifies it for the store's free Super Saver Shipping. Just make sure you … Read more

Everyone wants to be a designer. That's the value proposition of JuJups.com, a new online service claiming it will allow consumers to design their own personalized and customized 3D content. 3D printing, as the underlying technology is called, is a form of rapid prototyping that builds up three-dimensional objects by "printing" successive layers of materials (polymer, cells, sugar, etc.) on top of each other.

As a recent Wired story points out, 3D-printing technology has been around for a while, mostly used by professional design firms and design-intensive businesses such as automakers, handset makers, and aerospace companies. … Read more

If you can't say anything nice, my grandmother always cautioned me, you should consider being a journalist. (Naw, she didn't, really. She was a much nicer lady than I am.)

We do enjoy a good bit of snark--if only to set off the cheerleading of which we're sometimes accused. After touting all the great things technology can do for you, 'tis the season to dish dirt on paltry products. Along with sister site CNET Reviews, Popular Mechanics just published their picks for the least convincing tech products of 2007.

See the full catastrophe on CNET Reviews: "… Read more