eyetracking-cropped Top Banner Ad Take a look at the next four slides. Which ad do you think will receive the most eyeballs? Right Above Fold Left Above Fold Right Below Fold Industry Average for Different Placements If you want eyeballs — and who doesn’t — the best ad placement is on the left side above the fold. The worst is below the fold. Ads Without Faces Now let’s take a look at side ads — seen by 84% of people on the left and 74% of people on the right. Do you notice the two side ads without faces? How Your Eyes See Ads Without Faces Ads With Faces What about the two side ads with Faces? How Your Eyes See Ads With Faces Industry Averages The most successful ads, noticed by a full 100% of people, have faces. In order to make the most of your ad dollars, include people in your ad campaigns. Read more: http://mashable.com/2012/07/06/eye-tracking-online-ads/
Most people tend to be disgusted by bugs, but some robot researchers are inspired by them. Scientists at Harvard have spent the past five years building robot bugs that can move with the same dexterity and speed as real-life insects. The goal, according to Harvard Microbiotics Lab, is to “create high-performance aerial and ambulatory microrobots,” which can perform tasks such as “search and rescue operations, assisted agriculture, environmental monitoring, and exploration of hazardous environments.” The researchers have designed robobugs that can move as fast as 37 centimeters — the equivalent of more than eight times its body length — per second. One of the bugs is about as small as a penny; another bug is a bit larger and has a built-in battery supply so it can scurry around for longer periods of time. It seems that Harvard has gone bug-crazy. Earlier this year, scientists at the university unveiled a bug-sized flying robots with a 3-centimeter wingspan — and yes, the wings look just like the wings on a bug. Image courtesy of YouTube, MicrobioticsLab Read more: http://mashable.com/2013/06/23/robot-bugs/
TOSA, or Trolleybus Optimisation Systeme Alimentation, is a new electric bus charging system that takes only 15 seconds to power up. It is now being tested in Geneva, Switzerland. The system currently in place has the vehicles constantly connected to overhead trolley cables or, alternatively, running entire routes on a single charge. The new system allow buses to charge at every third or fourth stop using a device installed at the stop that engages with the roof using a laser guidance system. Once connected, the mechanism delivers a 15-second-long, 400-kilowatt boost to the bus batteries as passengers are getting on and off. TOSA’s charging stations will be completely wireless. Image courtesy of TOSA. TOSA enables flexible routes and eliminates the need for messy and unsightly overhead cables. Additionally, all of the electricity the buses use comes from hydropower, so no CO2 is emitted at any point in the process. The project is a collaboration between Geneva’s public transport company (TGP), the Office for the Promotion of Industries and Technologies (OPI) and the Geneva power utilities SIG and ABB. The trial will begin with a route from Geneva International Airport to the Palexpo exhibition system. If it succeeds, Geneva will be the world’s first city to use this concept and one step further towards a greener transport system. Image courtesy of TPG This article originally published at PSFK here Read more: http://mashable.com/2013/06/10/charging-electric-buses/
You’d think Samsung would have waited until it was out of the San Jose courtroom with Apple, where it is currently locked in battle over charges of infringing patents, before it launched this. In downtown Sydney, the Korean electronics giant has just launched the first of its new line of “experience” retail stores — an experience not unlike one you’d have in say, oh, I don’t know, an Apple store. To be clear, there are other prominent downtown Samsung retail stores in the world — one in New York at the Time Warner center, for example. But the Sydney store that opened Thursday is a new style entirely. Let’s take a peek inside: What Is Copying Anyway? Now to be fair to Samsung, it’s hard to patent the kind of similarities here. A store is a store. Just because it happens to be spacious, spartanly attired in wooden tables, generously staffed with smart young people in blue outfits — well, we doubt Apple has a patent on all of that. (We know they have patents on the external design of the Apple store.) But they could win the legal battle on this one without a shot being fired, and still lose the wider PR war. The store launch may have come too late to influence the jury in San Jose, but there’s still the jury of public opinion. Which is, arguably, what you need to win in a retail environment. So let’s get the conversation started. Watch the video of the store from Australian TV above, then take a look at this classic video from 2001, where a relatively young-looking Steve Jobs introduces the original Apple store, complete with original iMacs: What’s your vote? Would you shop at a version of that Samsung Store near you? Can it compete? Let us know in the comments. Read more: http://mashable.com/2012/08/23/samsung-copy-apple-store/
In our latest Ask a Dev, Android Engineer Sagar Seth discusses how developers can get ready to build for Android Wear, Android’s new wearables SDK. “While developing for Android Wear, you have to keep one thing in mind — the goal is simplicity,” says Seth. “So no overcrowded UI.” Our developer experts are from Mutual Mobile, a leading development and design firm that builds mobile strategies for top companies such as Audi, Google and Citigroup. The team is eager to answer your questions about mobile, so ping us with your top queries on Twitter, using the hashtag #AskaDev. Don’t forget to check out our Ask a Dev YouTube channel and subscribe. BONUS: What Should I Learn to Develop for Wearables? Read more: http://mashable.com/2014/04/07/android-wear-developer-tips/
A leaked LG manual for the next-generation Google Nexus 5 smartphone has surfaced online, boasting more than 200 pages of details from wireless charging and camera specs to new design features. According to Android Police, the draft service manual for the LG-D821 smartphone (also known as the Nexus 5) is dense in technical information, charts, diagrams, line drawings and disassembly images. The phone is expected to launch and go on sale later this month, possibly as early as Oct. 14. The Nexus 4 is no longer available for purchase via the Google Play store, which indicates the next-generation device is coming very soon. Although the tech site originally posted the document, it has since been removed following a request from LG. VentureBeat was quick to download and embed the manual before it was removed. You can check it out below: LG D821 manual draft The manual revealed a lot of what has already been speculated about the device, including a 4.95-inch 1080p display, 16GB and 32GB of RAM and a Snapdragon 800 (2.3 GHz) processor. Other listed specs are a 8MP OIS rear camera, 1.3 MP front camera, 2300mAh battery, a MicroSIM slot and NFC technology. Bluetooth 3.0 is listed as a feature, but Bluetooth 4.0 appears in other places throughout the document. A photo, which has also been removed, includes what appears to be a circular earpiece or speaker. The document doesn’t detail which mobile operating system will come with the device, but there’s a good chance it could be the first smartphone to ship with Android 4.4 (KitKat). Image: Flickr, JD Hancock Read more: http://mashable.com/2013/10/07/nexus-5-leaked-lg-manual/
