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Airbnb’s next project is building houses
Back in 2016, Airbnb created an innovation lab called Samara, which was focused on rethinking housing and urban planning. Now, Samara has announced its new initiative -- a project dubbed Backyard that will "prototype new ways that homes can be built and shared." "Backyard isn't a house, it's an initiative to rethink the home," Airbnb co-founder Joe Gebbia told Fast Company. "Homes are complex, and we're taking a broad approach -- not just designing one thing, but a system that can do many things."
Airbnb hopes to redesign small towns
For Airbnb, it's not enough to try to shape city policies on home sharing -- it wants to shape the cities themselves. The service tells FastCo Design that it has created an innovation lab, Samara, whose aims include rethinking architecture and urban planning. If Airbnb can spark new life in small towns, the reasoning goes, it can create "new types of commerce" and attract more rentals to areas that might be on the decline. Samara's initial effort is a communal housing project for the small Japanese town of Yoshino (due to open soon after its October arrival), but there's talk of similar work for other small towns as well as new product designs, software and "economic models."
Leaked AMD roadmap reveals next-gen Fusion tablet chips
Until recently, AMD has kept pretty mum on its tablet plans, with it only officially entering the fray last month. It's clear that the first batch of Z-Series chips, codenamed Desna, are are not terribly different from the rest Fusion line but, according to a leaked roadmap, that will all change with its successor -- Hondo. Supposedly the next gen of tablet APUs will ditch a number of features that aren't essential to its burgeoning form factor, including VGA output, PCIe support, and couple of USB pathways. It will also add an "active standby" mode for maintaining connectivity while reducing power draw and cut TDP by about a third. Hondo is expect to enter production in Q2 of next year, and be succeeded by Samara which will feature a new graphics core. Check out the source link for a few more slides.
BioWare reveals Samara, Mass Effect 2's biotic bombshell
With Dragon Age: Origins out the door and making friends, BioWare has switched the Mass Effect 2 hype machine into full gear, inviting us to play the game and provide a peek at some of the new squad mates who'll be joining Commander Shepard on his/her most dangerous mission yet. The latest cast member to make a debut, Samara, should have absolutely no problem taking care of herself -- as well as anything (or anyone) that gets in her way. Samara is an elite Asari warrior who controls some incredibly potent biotic powers. Forget simply tossing enemies around -- she manipulates dark energy in order to levitate herself, as evidenced in the above video. The footage also confirms that there are still five potential party members yet to be introduced before the game ships for PC and Xbox 360 on January 26 (not March 23 as originally noted by Randy, who's clearly met his recommended daily allowance of paste.) %Gallery-79192%
