28C

Dark Sky Proves That Even The Weather Report Is Being Disrupted By Mobile Tech

For the creators of Dark Sky, having a TV meteorologist predict the week’s weather wasn’t good enough. They needed something more personal. They needed something more immediate. So Jack Turner and Adam Grossman created an app that utilized government data to predict rainfall at a users exact location and at that exact moment.

This fascinating project, brought to us by Ewan Yap, explores how “less is more” within big consumer brands. Ewan created a series of experimental packaging design based on the principle of ‘Big Brand Theory‘. The main focus is to have each brand’s identity meticulously and uniquely cropped out of the packaging as much as possible, yet maintaining it’s integrity and comprehension and, at the same time, enhancing the aesthetic value. 

Want even more Twitter help? Here’s a tool for the lazy social networker.

Check out this app that will find tweets for you.

Some energizing tips for you world-changers out there: 10 Resolutions for Social Entrepreneurs in 2013

1. Talk to your users.

2. Look upstream.“If you can solve the problem that’s causing the problem, you’ll be two steps ahead.”

3. Evaluate. Get feedback. 

4. Commit to impact, not the project. “You need to focus on the impact of your work… do what you must to serve the greater good.”

5. Embed and Affiliate. “The most successful among us embrace our connections to complementary ventures.”

6. Take care of yourself. 

7. Connect to where you live.

8. Volunteer. ”…your commitment to others will connect you to the world in surprising ways.”

9. Take a risk. ”Walk into the unknown and trust that the pathway will appear. You never know unless you try.”

10. Invent something. ”The world moves ahead when people create new things.”

Here are some of the social entrepreneurs that Fast Company is talking about:

Blake Mycoskie, CEO of Tom’s Shoes, the shoe brand famous for its one-for-one business model that gives away a pair of shoes for each pair purchased. 

Kjerstin Erickson, founder of FORGE, a non-profit that encourages entrepreneurship among African refugees. 

Don Harris, founder of the Nehemiah Corporation, a non-profit that provides down-payment assistance to new potential home owners. 

Ben Lyon, founder of micro-financing non-profit FrontlineSMS:Credit

Nancy Carstedt, Executive Director of the Chicago Children’s Choir 

Want more? Here’s 7 Young Entrepreneurs Changing the World with their Businesses.

Use the hash tag to #SocEnt2013 to add your own social entrepreneurship resolutions for 2013.

This App Prevents the #4 Cause of Death in the U.S. 

“One study estimated that mistakes with blood pressure medication alone are responsible for 89,000 premature deaths a year, which puts medication noncompliance up there in the top five causes of death.”

The inventors of the free MediSafe Project iPhone and Android app hope to save lives by helping patients keep track of their medications. 

Here are some other innovative ways that technology and medicine are meeting up:

Gadgets You Can Swallow

8 Medical iPhone Apps You Should Prescribe Your Healthcare Professional

The Future of Medical Technology is Apps, Games, and Movies

What if large groups of people could go beyond ridesharing – replacing traditional car ownership altogether through on-demand access to the cars they want: a convertible in the summer, an SUV for winter ski trips?

What if driving skills could be computed as a score that warned us of bad drivers nearby – real time, on the road – also enabling navigation systems to offer safer alternative routes? Imagine if we could get rid of traffic jams and accidents altogether. Or how about if our cars picked up our groceries on their own – and dropped us off at the airport like a self-contained limo service?

What if automakers could subsidize our car purchases by working with telecommunications and other companies that want to capitalize on the lifetime revenue opportunity of a connected driver? Consider also the possibilities for insurance providers to charge higher premiums (for those who drive their cars themselves), or for local governments to monitor personal CO2 usage (in exchange for not taxing or tolling public roads).

The top 10 most influential people on Tumblr in 2012

1) President Barack Obama Commander in GIF

In what was dubbed the Facebook election, Barack Obama leveraged social media to help win the 2008 presidential election. This year, Obama’s campaign added Tumblr to its repertoire. His official Tumblr blog has more than 1,240 posts, out-blogging his opponent Mitt Romney almost every step of the way. More importantly, Obama’s campaign used Tumblr to interact directly with users in a way that was relatable, posting GIFs of the president listening to music and giving speeches.

“It gets him in front of a much larger audience, especially more and more young people who spend time on the Internet,” said Tyler Pearson, a front-end developer and designer for New Media Campaigns, a North Carolina-based creative agency that helps build politicians’ Web presence.