Less than 72 hours ago, the Associated Press reported that doctors at C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor used a 3D laser printer to create an airway splint that saved a baby boy who was having critical daily breathing problems.
The hospital used computer-guided lasers that stacked/fused plastic layers into more than a hundred tiny tubes. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration gave the hospital special permission to implant one of the tubes in the baby, who’s now doing just fine.
In addition to healthcare, 3D printing is fast making significant inroads in a wide variety of vertical markets.
“It’s the wave of the future,” said Dr. Robert Weatherly, a pediatric specialist at the University of Missouri in Kansas City.
Elizabeth Royte, writing in this month’s Smithsonian Magazine, reported that even the printing of organs – and cartilage and skin and tissue – “holds great promise for transforming healthcare and extending longevity. Transplanted organs from a patient’s own tissues won’t be rejected. Waiting times for kidneys and other donor organs will decrease, and organ traffickers could be put out of business.”
One of Royte’s sources, Anthony Atala, who heads up the... Read more
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3D Printing Poised to Be Next Business/Marketing Paradigm Shift
Posted in Creative Best Practices, Emerging Platforms, Opinions, Social Media, Targeting, Websites, Wireless, Word of Mouth | 1 Comment »
Getting the Skinny on Mobile Device Design Issues and Opportunities
Market research firms sponsor literally hundreds, if not thousands of conferences around the globe. While one key objective, understandably, is to directly or subliminally promote the firm’s products/services, the topics will hopefully be both educational and informative and attract attendees, keynote speakers, and panel participants who are well regarded in their respective fields and bring added value.
A good example is the recently concluded Linley Tech Mobile Conference, held last week in Santa Clara, CA and organized by Mountain View, CA-based The Linley Group, a market research firm providing independent technology analyses of semiconductors for networking, communications, mobile, and wireless applications. The company also produces a trade publication, Microprocessor Report.
This was the fourth year the event was held; according to company founder and Principal Analyst Linley Gwennap, the conference attracted about 200 people, including those from mobile IP and chip companies, handset and other device vendors, carriers and software vendors, as well as the financial community and press. Attendees represented a broad range of companies, including Broadcom, China Mobile, Cisco, Dell, Ericsson, HP, Huawei, Imagination Technologies, Marvel, Samsung and Sony, as well as financial analysts from Bank of America, Credit Suisse, UBS, and Wells Fargo.
The conference focused on a... Read more
Posted in Creative Best Practices, Emerging Platforms, Opinions, Social Media, Targeting, Websites, Wireless, Word of Mouth | No Comments »
Geeks Shall Inherit the (Virtual) Earth – GDC 2013 Bits/Bytes
With this year’s Game Developers Conference (GDC) now behind us, what were some of the key takeaways?
One of the most interesting occurred before the exhibit halls opened -- the first GDC State of the Industry survey that polled more than 2,500 attendees. The results revealed some intriguing trends in funding, platform preference and publishing models.
For starters, how are developers funding their projects? A few survey numbers:
• 72% are being funded by a company’s existing war chest or an individual’s personal funds
• 9% are from VCs
• 10% are publisher-funded
• 4% are crowdfunded – and 8% of the developers have worked on crowdfunded projects, with another 44% planning to go this route in the future
Indies Rising
The survey also found that 53% of respondents consider themselves ‘indie developers’; 46% are employed at companies of 10 people or less – and only 24% reported they worked with a publisher on their last game.
Platforms
According to survey results, more respondents are developing for smartphones and tablets than for any other platform – 38% released their last game for smartphones and tablets; 55% are making their current games there; 58% will release their next games on these platforms.
Cool Stuff
Survey results aside, there were some cool products to play... Read more
Posted in Creative Best Practices, Desktop Apps, Emerging Platforms, Entertainment, Opinions, Social Media, Targeting, Websites, Wireless, Word of Mouth | No Comments »
Social Media and the Amber Nectar
Brewski. Glass sandwich. Liquid bread. Aiming fluid (when playing darts). Barley pop. The slang words are endless. In plain English – beer.
The amber nectar has been around for thousands of years – ancient Egyptians and Mesopotamians were probably the original craft brewers. In fact, in Mesopotamia, the oldest evidence of beer is a 6,000-year-old Sumerian tablet that shows people drinking through reed straws from a communal bowl. Party on!
Fast forward to the 21st Century. While enjoying a beer recently at a San Diego microbrewery, I began to ponder that with so many national and international brands available today, how do these smaller microbreweries rise above the advertising din of giants like Anheuser Busch and Coors and get noticed?
For the past several years -- via social media. From Singapore to Delaware, numerous microbreweries have utilized a wide array of social media platforms, programs, tools, etc., to help with branding and marketing.
So while sitting at home this afternoon with a cold wobbly pop (yes, another beer slang term), I decided to roam around online and check out a few microbreweries that appear to be doing a bang up job at promoting... Read more
Posted in Ad Networks, Ad Serving, Creative Best Practices, Desktop Apps, Emerging Platforms, Entertainment, Opinions, Search, Social Media, Targeting, Web Analytics, Websites, Wireless, Word of Mouth | 3 Comments »
Cool Trends and Stuff at CES 2013
According to the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), the Arlington, VA-based trade association that owns and produces International CES, there were more than 156,000 attendees and 3,100 vendors at this year’s show. Depending on the time of day, most of them seemed to be waiting in line for a taxi or monorail. Or ordering a chai latte at Starbucks.
Despite the usual congestion and often daunting logistical challenges of getting from Point A to B at the Las Vegas Convention Center (LVCC) or nearby hotels where many companies had suites, there were quite a few interesting trends, along with a gazillion gadgets, gizmos and gewgaws. And in certain areas of the LVCC it seemed like every other booth, suite or kiosk was rolling out yet another line of iPhone/iPad covers and assorted accessories.
A number of companies that debuted on sites like Indiegogo or Kickstarter were showing their wares at CES. CNN reported that one of these interesting prototypes was the HAPIfork produced by Hong Kong-based HAPILABS. The fork keeps track of how many bites of food you ingest – if you eat too fast, you’ll see indicator lights come on that remind you to stop emulating your dog.... Read more
Posted in Ad Networks, Ad Serving, Creative Best Practices, Desktop Apps, Email, Emerging Platforms, Entertainment, Opinions, Research, Social Media, Targeting, Websites, Wireless, Word of Mouth | 3 Comments »
