Portugal is the latest country to create a development based entirely on the ideas of city 2.0. Will these new cities--purposefully designed to avoid the urban planning mistakes of the past--be the model for the future?
We’ve seen a lot of old folks’ homes in our day, and their design is always majorly depressing, whether they’re channeling The Golden Girls or the Bates Motel (or worse).
The home of the future will be bedecked with smart sensors that send their data to the cloud so you can manage the house from afar--yes, we've heard this story we've before. But now Microsoft is helping build a smart city in Portugal packed with exactly these smart dwellings.
AT&T's chief of Mobility and Consumer Markets Ralph de la Vega, got on his soapbox today and spouted about the U.S.'s fabulous 3G networks, which are leading the World. The trouble is, de la Vega is spouting some cell-phone hogwash.
AT&T is about to upgrade its cellphone network to 7.2 mega bits per second to support the tech in the new iPhone 3G S. But over in Portugal, where 7.2 mbps rates are already common, Vodafone's going for 21mbps.
iHouse, a Brazilian company that makes products like fingerprint activated doors and cell phone-controlled window blinds, is working on a faucet with facial recognition that turns water on to temperature and flow preferences. The tap saves preferences for multiple users, so every member of a household can have settings adjusted instantly. The device's LED display changes from blue (cold) to red (hot) when the temperature changes.
