Shifts in Hipsturbia.
To ward off the nagging sense that a move to the suburbs is tantamount to becoming like one’s parents, this urban-zen generations of X and Y are seeking out palatable alternatives and importing the trappings of a twee lifestyle like bearded mixologists, locavore restaurants and antler-laden boutiques. While this colonization is still in its early stages, it is different from the suburban flight of decades earlier, when young parents fled a city consumed by crime and drugs. These days, young creatives are fleeing a city that has become too affluent.
Mexico City's Aztec Surprises.
Mexico City might be one of the world’s classic megacities, an ever-expanding jumble of traffic, commerce, grand public spaces and leafy suburbs. But it is also an archaeological wonder, and more than three decades after a chance discovery set off a systematic exploration of the Aztecs’ ceremonial spaces, surprises are still being uncovered in the city’s superimposed layers.
Siri, a Romance Gone Sour.
Gene Munster, a securities analyst at Piper Jaffray, subjected Siri to over 1,600 voice tests, half in a quiet room and half on a busy Minneapolis street. In the quiet room, Siri understood requests 89 percent of the time, but she was able to accurately answer a question only 68 percent of the time. On a busy street, Siri could comprehend what people were saying 83 percent of the time, but answer a question correctly only 62 percent of the time. The problem in his analysis was that the software was not good enough to understand questions. Mr. Munster gave Siri a “grade D” and said it needed to sharply improve in order to be an alternative method of mobile search.
Tweets in Print. Literally.
To promote its fall lineup, the CW is putting LCD screens running video clips and a live Twitter feed in copies of Entertainment Weekly. This is pretty thrilling, because I wasn't sure print magazines still existed. The network says bad language in tweets will be censored, but negative comments will remain. Negative comments about CW shows? On the Internet? Who in their wildest dreams could imagine such a thing?
Tweet Me Maybe.
What made the summer hit "Call Me Maybe" fly into the stratosphere? Nearly two-thirds of teenagers listen to music on YouTube, more than any other medium, and self-made user/listener-generated viral videos were the driving force behind the popularity of the infectious tune. The song spread at an insane rate of speed. It's a new thing. It’s a cool thing. And it changes the game completely.
Drive-Ins Not Quite Dead, Yet.
Drive-ins remain an extremely fragile business. Only 368 remain in the U.S., and their numbers are dwindling by two or three a year, according to the United Drive-In Theater Owners Association. But some survivors appear to be chugging along just fine — a few are even gaining steam — as a more affordable option to the multiplex, where ticket prices in a big city can run $12.50 or more for adults and $9.50 or more for children.
Bicyclists' Black Boxes.
Cyclists have long had a rocky coexistence with motorists and pedestrians, who often criticize bike riders for a confrontational attitude, and for blowing through stop signs or otherwise exempting themselves from the rules of the road. Now small cameras — the cycling equivalent of the black box on an airplane — are becoming an intermediary in the relationship, providing high-tech evidence in what is sometimes an ugly contest between people who ride the roads on two wheels and those who use four.
Wine to Millennials.
These days, the prized customer base in the wine industry is the millennial generation. According to The Wine Market Council’s annual report on the state of wine in the United States, older millennials (ages 26 to 34) are consuming wine with greater frequency and are highly experimental, with 89 percent trying unfamiliar brands frequently. Many vineyards are deciding to buck traditional wine industry marketing tactics and go after that group, investing in a social media campaigns to establish its niche.
© dieste, inc. 2013