Design

David Armano from Critical Mass will moderate a panel on "Always in Beta: How Big Business Can Benefit from 'Little' Innovation" at the Forrester Consumer Forum (October 10 to 13). Here's a quick synopsis: "Innovation isn't limited to R & rooms anymore. The Web 2.0 movement--powered by start-ups such as Twitter, Malhalo and even YouTube, has proven that innovation often happens in iterations. Build, launch, tweak, measure, repeat. Digital experiences seem to be 'always in beta'--learning and evolving along the way."

The fact that the Forrester Consumer Forum dedicates a panel to … Read more

Who needs the ocean anyway? This artificial lagoon and swimming pool in the San Alfonso del Mar resort in Chile is eight hectares in size and contains 250,000 cubic meters of water, equivalent in size to 6,000 standard domestic pools.

Via Spluch

Over at Micropersuasion, Steve Rubel is making a bold prediction: The portals will be big winners in the social-networking wars.

"Social networking is certainly rising and there seems to be no end in sight to the phenomenon. However, what I do know is that people will jump around from one Myfaceborkutspace to another and not all of them will win," Rubel wrote.

He is referring to Long Tail author Chris Anderson, who points out that all good web sites should have elements of social networking and therefore suggests that social networking is a "feature, not a destination.&… Read more

So you just picked up a new Enzo at the friendly neighborhood Ferrari dealer and are bringing it home for the first time. As the garage door rises, it hits you: How can you possibly park a world-class sportscar here with all this mess?

If you're like many American homeowners and suffer from Ugly Garage Syndrome, this may well be of interest--with or without a multimillion-dollar car collection. An Arizona-based outfit called GarageMahals will design and construct a luxury garage to your custom specifications for prices ranging from $50 to $125 per square foot, offering such amenities as steel … Read more

The Discovery Channel airs a one-hour special this Saturday night, October 6, about the incredibly rare and classic cars in Ralph Lauren's collection. Didn't know Ralph Lauren was a car collector? He has more interests than designing clothes, and in this special you will get to see cars from a collection that's usually kept far from the public eye.

Among our favorites is the 1929 Blower Bentley because, according to Ian Fleming's books, it was what James Bond drove. The Blower Bentley is a big touring car with a 4.5 liter engine. Blower refers to … Read more

It's been a busy week in digital music, to say the least. Today Zune 2 was announced, and Amazon finally launched its MP3 download service, though it's currently still in Beta.

I gave it a short try and found that overall it is a competent start. It's not a significant step beyond iTunes in terms of functionality or usability (more on that in a moment), though it's price/quality ratio is very good: 89-99 cents for 256kbps bit rate, DRM-free MP3s. Albums vary a lot in price, from a bit over $4 to $8.99 so … Read more

Update: we have added a video of the Photoshop Express demo.

CHICAGO--Adobe Systems gave a public viewing Tuesday night of an online version of Photoshop, its popular image-editing application.

During a sneak peek session at its Max 2007 developer conference, Adobe product manager Geoff Baum gave a demo of Photoshop Express, the Flash-based image editor that runs inside a Web browser.

The application is aimed at consumers, rather than professional developers, and complements existing versions. Baum showed how people can quickly make changes to images with the program.… Read more

I've played around with a variety of online image editors, but "played" should be the operative word. For any serious image-editing work, I've always used traditional software methods. I hadn't found a Web service that could replace my usual standby apps (Photoshop at work, and Paint.NET at home) ... until I tried the new Web-based rsizr this weekend. I was blown away by its speed and ease of use in resizing and cropping digital images.

Even cooler than those basic-yet-essential functionalities are the app's flexible image-sizing features. Rsizr uses an algorithm called "seam carving" to expand or contract images in any direction while maintaining focus on the areas rich in detail. In essence, it lets you stretch or condense pictures without making them look blurry or smooshed. With a bit of practice, you can also perform the trick of removing people or objects from photos.… Read more

If the Prince racquet controller is a boost for the Wii, then the "Porsche 911 Turbo S Wheel" and related accessories will put the Playstation 3 into overdrive. As is fitting for a global racing legend, the branded wireless equipment--complete with gear shifters, pedals and logo-bearing USB dongle, as well as the wheel--is all "fully licensed, to-spec reproduction," according to Gizmodo. At $350 it's certainly not the cheapest gaming gear around, but when you consider the full-size alternatives, it's a bargain.