Hello All –
Summer is here and hopefully this week’s UXD Inspired Reads may inspire some new design thinking whilst you are on the beach, in your backyard, or relaxing at home. Starting this week’s edition is a Product Management podcast from the folks at Alpha. Running Agile Sprints well for larger teams can be a lot of work, regardless of discipline. Focused Design Sprints can be rather useful for driving to the validity of an idea very early on, and whether or not customers will actually use the product. Next we look at a very interesting article from the BBC on what happens to Airplanes after their end-of-life. In Autos, BMW, VW, and Bosch are all investing heavily in building their data centers and AI platforms, as well as mapping out the future of driverless cars using Quantum Computing. Are Aviation and Locomotive companies following suit?
Hard to believe that the iPhone is now ten years old. How much have all societies around the world changed because of mobile phones? In the Age of Mobile, much has changed. iPod creator and iPhone Co-Creator Tony Fadell has some sage advice on balancing digital technology with one’s analogue life. We close this week’s edition with optimizing one’s mobile phone battery, how automobile companies are removing features, in this case the under-appreciated sets of fog lights, and a look at a real-life Wonkavator! Star Trek TNG may have helped inspire mobile phones, tablets, and touch screen interfaces; but author Roald Dahl, through his vehicle of Willy Wonka, may have inspired scores of children (and adults) to think beyond the limitations of equipment and imagine the solution they wanted.
Happy Fourth of July! Have a Safe & Sane Weekend!
M
1. This Is Product Management: 105 Mastering the Design Sprint Is Product Management
“Jay Melone, Partner at New Haircut, shares how design sprints can help product teams validate ideas in just five days and what product leaders must do before, during and after a design sprint to ensure it’s successful. Get the latest updates from the show at http://www.thisisproductmanagement.com.”
https://soundcloud.com/tipm/105-mastering-the-design-sprint-is-product-management
2. The Place Where Aeroplanes Go To Die (from Rajan)
“When they reach the end of their life, many aeroplanes are sent to this field in the English countryside – not just to die, but to be reborn. Retired aircraft hold surprisingly valuable parts, and sometimes you can find some unusual lost property too.”
http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20170620-the-place-where-airplanes-go-to-die
3. BMW And Volkswagen Try To Beat Apple And Google At Their Own Game
“Volkswagen is delving into quantum computing. BMW is building a giant new data center. And Bosch this week announced plans to construct a factory to build chips for self-driving cars. The moves are part of an expanding effort by European carmakers and suppliers to build the computing capacity — so-called big data — they will need as vehicles digitize and become driverless.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/22/automobiles/wheels/driverless-cars-big-data-volkswagen-bmw.html
4. What Is Quantum Computing?
“Nature — including molecules like caffeine — follows the laws of quantum mechanics, a branch of physics that explores how the physical world works at the most fundamental levels. At this level, particles behave in strange ways, taking on more than one state at the same time, and interacting with other particles that are very far away. Quantum computing harnesses these quantum phenomena to process information in a novel and promising way.”
https://www.research.ibm.com/ibm-q/learn/what-is-quantum-computing/
5. Quantum Computing: How D-Wave Systems Work
“To speed computation, quantum computers tap directly into an unimaginably vast fabric of reality—the strange and counterintuitive world of quantum mechanics. Rather than store information using bits represented by 0s or 1s as conventional digital computers do, quantum computers use quantum bits, or qubits, to encode information as 0s, 1s, or both at the same time. This superposition of states—along with the other quantum mechanical phenomena of entanglement and tunneling—enables quantum computers to manipulate enormous combinations of states at once.”
https://www.dwavesys.com/quantum-computing
6. Former Apple Executives Recall Designing Touchscreen Interface Of Original iPhone
“As we near the ten-year anniversary of the iPhone later this week, a few stories posted online have delved into the rich history of where the device started, how the original team came up with the idea for the touchscreen smartphone, and what it was like reviewing the device back in 2007.”
https://www.macrumors.com/2017/06/25/apple-executives-original-iphone/
7. iPhone-Creator Tony Fadell: Don’t Let Smartphones Threaten Your ‘Analogue Life’
“On the week of its 10th anniversary, the inventor of the iPod, and a key member of the iPhone team talks exclusively to WIRED about how Apple’s mobile came to be.”
http://www.wired.co.uk/article/tony-fadell-iphone-10th-anniversary
8. Squeezing More Battery Juice Out Of A Smartphone
“A. Many factors can affect a smartphone battery, including environmental conditions, age and apps. Start by making sure your phone is up to date with all the available software for its apps and operating system, and restart the device.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/29/technology/personaltech/squeezing-more-battery-juice-out-of-a-smartphone.html
9. Why Fog Lamps Are Starting To Disappear
“Add another item to the list of once-common features — including ashtrays, spare tires and turn-the-key ignition switches — disappearing from new cars: fog lamps.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/29/automobiles/wheels/why-fog-lamps-are-starting-to-disappear.html
10. The Wonkavator Is Real! Behold The Maglev Multi Lift That Goes Up, Down And Left To Right
“Standing over a medieval town in Germany is one of the country’s tallest towers and inside, an invention that its creators hope will revolutionise the shape of cities.”
http://www.wired.co.uk/article/thyssenkrupp-multi-maglev-elevator
