“Unreliable Machinery”

$2,000 beer, Hypercolor cars, Google's Quantum AI Lab and more in our weekly look at the web

As tech powerhouses like Google and Apple fight to make their products increasingly context aware, Studio NAND is fighting back. Software developers are working to estimate a user’s activity by tracking mobile device sensors to gain insight into that person’s behavior and environment. But will users behave differently knowing their actions are being traced? Studio NAND’s “Unreliably Machinery” project focuses on making up the context, …

The Nest Protect

$2,000 beer, Hypercolor cars, Google's Quantum AI Lab and more in our weekly look at the web

Nest turned an unloved wall appliance into a sought-after tool with their sleek Learning Thermostat, and they’re doing it again with their all-new smoke detector, the Nest Protect. Wireless connection is of course involved, along with an attractive design and smarter sensors—everything you would expect from Nest founder and famed iPod designer Tony Fadell. With the smoke detector’s history of poor design—we’re all too familiar …

Will Work For Inspiration

$2,000 beer, Hypercolor cars, Google's Quantum AI Lab and more in our weekly look at the web

Creative Time Reports commissioned musician, cyclist and author David Byrne to write a piece on NYC’s present and future ahead of their upcoming annual summit. His argument in the resulting insightful essay is that “the city is a body and a mind,” and that while the Big Apple has greatly improved the physical part, as neighborhoods become walled communities for the rich, the city is …