Covering World

The high-tech secret hiding in New York City pay phones

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NEW YORK — Few New Yorkers, if any, would admit to liking pay phones. They're largely invisible, a ubiquitous background image on a street filled with distractions. Like any public resource in a city of 8.4 million, the phones carry connotations of filth, unreliability and inconvenience.
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"Most people don’t even notice these phones," Pete Izzo, Jr., one of the city's last pay-phone technicians tellsMashable as he repairs a phone at 13th Street and 4th Avenue late one Thursday evening.

But what most New Yorkers don't know is that these low-tech phones have something useful hidden inside: free Wi-Fi.

The city fitted 10 phones with free Wi-Fi in 2012 as part of a pilot program. Since then, the number of Wi-Fi-enabled phones has grown modestly. New Yorkers can now find free hotspots in 35 phones operated by Izzo's employer, CBS Outdoor. However, the company says it's poised to deploy as many as 5,000 hotspots.

CBS Outdoor is one of only a handful of private entities still operating pay phones in the city, and the industry is in dire straits with plummeting revenues. There were 25,000 phones a decade ago. Today, there are less than 12,000.

Operators have plastered the remaining phones with advertising, which produced the hoped-for financial results. But it left the larger question of what to do with the phones unanswered.

Enter the Internet, or at least some part of it.

"We see this primarily as a Wi-Fi franchise," says Peter Izzo Sr., a service operations executive at CBS Outdoor. "Every new structure will have Wi-Fi capability," he added, side-stepping the term "phone."

Through sponsorship, advertising and co-location with other Wi-Fi providers, Izzo hopes to monetize wireless Internet and rescue his industry. It's a fresh take on the antiquated pay phone, filled with obvious possibilities — and less-apparent perils.

Last month, BuzzFeed revealed that phones operated by Titan were potentially tracking users through the use of Bluetooth devices called "beacons."

Following the report, Titan agreed to pull its beacons at the request of City Hall, even though some feel that the threat to privacy may have been overblown.

But even if these companies operate under better security practices, they may be unlikely to solve one major issue of free public Wi-Fi. It’s notoriously attractive to identity thieves, which could become more of a threat as the number of free Wi-Fi networks increases.

Despite the obstacles, both Izzo and his son Pete Izzo, Jr. say they are optimistic about the future of their field, whether it includes phones or not. Izzo Jr.'s repair duties now include installing and maintaing Wi-Fi modems and routers hidden in the housing of old pay phone units.

"I don't see any other infrastructure in the world that could accommodate such a connective atmosphere," Izzo says, looking at a pile of discarded phones in his company's shop.

"To bring free Wi-Fi to millions of people is gonna really change the city."<br />
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Source: <a href="http://mashable.com/2014/11/06/new-york-city-pay-phones-wifi/" target="_blank">Mashable</a>

The high-tech secret hiding in New York City pay phones

Powered by Dailymotion NEW YORK — Few New Yorkers, if any, would admit to liking pay phones. They're largely invisible, a ubiquit...

16:29

TAITRA Throws the Spotlight on Taiwan's ICT Products at CES 2015

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The prestigious Computex d&i awards, executed by the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) in cooperation with the International Forum Design (iF), revisited Las Vegas, the United States for International CES. Las Vegas is the third stop on the d&i awards world tour following their unveiling at Computex Taipei. The award-winning products on display include designs from Qualcomm, Philips, HTC, and others.</div>
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Another TAITRA event at CES is the “Taiwan in Focus” press conference, promoting Taiwan’s ICT industry and the upcoming 2015 Computex. Held on the first day of the show, the press conference featured addresses from Director Moses Yen of the Taiwan Trade Center in Los Angeles and Director Jaime Chen from the Economic Division of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Los Angeles.</div>
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Also present were 11 Computex exhibitors and d&i award winners. The press conference drew scores of members of the media from Russia, Germany, Italy, Thailand, the United States, Japan, India, China, and Taiwan.</div>
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International CES opened this year on January 6<span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 0; position: relative; top: -0.5em; vertical-align: baseline;">th</span> and ran until the 9<span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 0; position: relative; top: -0.5em; vertical-align: baseline;">th</span>. With wearables, smart homes and cars, the Internet of Things, and display technology as the focus, the show is expected to draw over 160,000 visitors. Gary Shapiro, President and CEO of the Consumer Electronics Association, has called this year’s CES a “record-breaking event”.</div>
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The Consumer Electronics Association is the organizer of CES. Dr. Dieter Zetsche, chairman of the Board, Daimler AG and head of Mercedes-Benz Cars, and Boo-Keun Yoon, president of Samsung both gave preshow keynote speeches on Sunday. Dr. Zetsche discussed the development of autonomous driving. Yoon explored using the Internet of Things to create a fully connected world.</div>
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Taiwanese ICT companies generated a lot of buzz with the market release of new products. HTC released the HTC Desire 826, the newest in its HTC Desire flagship line. The HTC Desire 826 features its exclusive UltraPixel technology with both the front- and rear-facing camera, allowing users to up their selfie game even in dim lighting.</div>
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ASUS also launched three new products in one swoop, the ASUS Transformer Book Chi, the ZenFone 2, and the ZenFone Zoom. The ZenFone 2 is the first smartphone equipped with a 4GB RAM and will be available in March for $199. An ultrathin tablet with a detachable keyboard, the ASUS Transformer Book Chi challenges the established Macbook Air as the ultrabook of choice among consumers.</div>
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Following CES, the Computex d&i awards will advance to its next destination at Barcelona, Spain for Mobile World Congress. The world tour of major ICT trade shows is part of TAITRA’s efforts to offer maximum international exposure of the winners of the award, in turn generating greater global business opportunities.</div>

TAITRA Throws the Spotlight on Taiwan's ICT Products at CES 2015

The prestigious Computex d&i awards, executed by the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) in cooperation with the In...

01:38

Facebook Is Taking Steps To Becoming a Video Empire

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Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg</div>
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As online video heats up, Facebook is doubling down on its effort to capture a bigger share of viewers’ attention.</div>
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On Thursday, the company announced it had acquired <a href="http://www.quickfire.tv/" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(203, 238, 250); border-bottom-style: solid; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; box-shadow: rgb(203, 238, 250) 0px -4px 0px inset; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">QuickFire Networks</a>, a video startup that uses proprietary technology to support high-quality videos without eating up users’ bandwidth. Some of the team from the San Diego-based company will join Facebook as part of the terms of the acquisition, and QuickFire will eventually shutter its operations.</div>
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The news comes just a day after Facebook <a href="http://media.fb.com/2015/01/07/what-the-shift-to-video-means-for-creators/" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(203, 238, 250); border-bottom-style: solid; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; box-shadow: rgb(203, 238, 250) 0px -4px 0px inset; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">published</a> new data on its explosive growth in video. According to its <a href="http://media.fb.com/2015/01/07/what-the-shift-to-video-means-for-creators/" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(203, 238, 250); border-bottom-style: solid; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; box-shadow: rgb(203, 238, 250) 0px -4px 0px inset; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">press release</a>, the number of video posts per person are up 75 percent globally. In the U.S. more than half of daily Facebook users are watching at least one video per day. Since June 2014, the company says, Facebook has delivered more than 1 billion video views to users every day.</div>
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So why bother with QuickFire? It’s just another piece of the puzzle that fits in with Facebook’s grander video strategy. As the social network’s video ambitions continue to swell, it is getting serious about building out the necessary infrastructure that will allow video to scale.</div>
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<u><i>Battling for Your Hours</i></u></h3>
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                                 According to a cached version of QuickFire’s website, the company is a video transcoding service—in other words, a way to quickly encode videos for posting on the Web without compromising quality. For Facebook, this sort of technology appeals because it allows content creators to throw more things up on the site by shrinking upload times. When creators are happy, they tend to create a lot more for the platform, which is precisely what Facebook wants.</div>
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People are already sharing tons of videos on Facebook. But that may not be enough for the social network. According to a recent <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/27/business/media/facebook-offers-life-raft-but-publishers-are-wary.html?_r=0" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(203, 238, 250); border-bottom-style: solid; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; box-shadow: rgb(203, 238, 250) 0px -4px 0px inset; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: 'Exchange SSm 4i', Georgia, serif; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">New York Times</span> report</a>, the company is constantly looking for ways to coax publishers into having their content live inside Facebook, instead of linking to it. The company likely wants to do the same thing for video, where the competition for people’s attention in that space is fierce.</div>
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YouTube delivers more than 6 billion hours’ worth of content every month to viewers worldwide and is <a href="http://www.wired.com/2014/10/keep-stars-happy-youtube-may-let-pay-skip-ads/" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(203, 238, 250); border-bottom-style: solid; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; box-shadow: rgb(203, 238, 250) 0px -4px 0px inset; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">working to promote its talent pool even more</a>. A host of other players—from IAC’s Vimeo to former Hulu CEO Jason Kilar’s Vessel—are gearing up to launch subscription video services. Add in all the hours users are spending on Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Instant Video, and that’s a lot of online time not spent on Facebook. The more Facebook can make itself a native video platform, the more of those hours it can get for itself.</div>

Facebook Is Taking Steps To Becoming a Video Empire

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg As online video heats up, Facebook is doubling down on its effort to capture a bigger share of viewers’ at...

10:41

What Does The Future Hold For Cloud Computing?

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Cloud computing has been called the future of not only hosting, but also the way we compute. It has transformed the way many businesses operate since it makes applications and technology more accessible. Most importantly, cloud computing helped many businesses with all the great tools and technology that were only available to enterprises that had a ton of money. Even if you don't know <a href="http://www.futurist.com/2011/10/28/information-technology-spending-make-way-for-the-cloud/" style="color: #006699; text-decoration: none;">what cloud computing is</a>, chances are that you could be using it without your knowledge on a day-to-day basis. Do you use Gmail, or Dropbox, or Google Drive, or <a href="http://www.apple.com/icloud/features/" style="color: #006699; text-decoration: none;">iCloud</a>, or any of the millions of websites that run on a cloud server? You are just enjoying all the benefits of cloud computing without your conscience. There had been a lot of advances in cloud computing in the past several years that, one needs to think about the capabilities of this technology. Here we speculate how cloud computing is going to evolve and how it is going to affect the future.</div>
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Businesses and individuals are moving their websites and online applications and services to the cloud for a number of reasons. Cloud hosting is extremely cost effective, reduces capital cost for startups, is easily scalable, improves accessibility, quickly deployed, etc. Traditional shared hosting is still the reigning champion of websites for individuals and small businesses. However, things are changing really fast. 81% of the 60% of the enterprises that are already utilizing cloud have reportedly saved money by migrating to the cloud. It is estimated that end-users will spend more than 180 billion U.S. dollars on cloud services before the end of 2015. Cloud hosting is not only attracting large businesses, casual bloggers and small business owners are turning to cloud. Traditional shared hosting providers are also providing cloud hosting services nowadays. Quite recently, the popular Australian web hosting,<a href="http://www.ezihosting.com/" style="color: #006699; text-decoration: none;">EZI hosting</a> started providing cloud hosting service. Some of the top players in the U.S. like, HostGator and JustHost also jumped on the bandwagon only recently. There is a stiff competition among, U.S., European and Australian website hosting companies and we can expect the prices to go down. If the trend continues, cloud hosting will soon completely replace traditional shared hosting.</div>
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Private cloud is preferred for enterprise applications and to run apps like, CRMs, and ERPs. HCRM, etc., but public cloud is going to grow really fast compared to private cloud. Private cloud although has a lot of advantages and perks of cloud technology, they are still more like using traditional services. With public cloud, people and companies don't have to sign contracts, use shared hardware to reduce cost (utility model), yet don't have to trade-off reliability. Large corporates and enterprises will use private cloud for compliance requirements and security, but as more and more individuals and small businesses migrate to the cloud, we speculate public cloud to grow leaps and bounds compared to private.</div>
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If you are using some of the top e-mail providers, or social networking services, you could already have a lot of your data on the cloud. You probably have more data on the cloud compared to the hard drive on your computer. This raises an interesting question. Can the cloud actually replace the hard drive? The answer is yes and no. To start with, you can't run a computer with a storage device – one needs an hard disk to store the operating system and other supporting files to run a computer. However, since most of the tasks one performs on the computer is accomplished using a web browser, most of the data could be easily moved to cloud and accessed with the Internet since our mobile devices and computers are tethered to the world wide web 24x7. Furthermore, keeping all you data on the cloud makes it easy for you to access it from different devices, and keep it safe. Or at least one needs to have a copy of all the most important files on the cloud since data loss is just a hard disk crash away. The closest thing we can get to using a computer without relying a lot on a hard drive for storage is the <a href="http://blog.laptopmag.com/best-chromebooks" style="color: #006699; text-decoration: none;">Chromebook</a>. It is a personal computer by Google In., that runs on the Chrome OS. Most of the applications run on the browser with the power of the Internet and all the data is stored safely in the cloud. Most of the models not only come with a physical hard drive, but also a cloud storage of 100 GB to 1 TB of Google Drive.</div>
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<li style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; list-style-type: none; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><strong style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Hardware revolution</strong></li>
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With the advancement in cloud computing, the cost of hardware will fall. Low power and low cost processors are expected to be used in data centers to cut cost without affecting the quality of service. Low power ARM chips can be quite economical and also be eco-friendly. Some experts also predict that these low cost hardware for servers might look like sleds that could be swapped out and swapped in with ease.</div>
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What Does The Future Hold For Cloud Computing?

Cloud computing has been called the future of not only hosting, but also the way we compute. It has transformed the way many businesses...

13:20

Air umbrella produces a "force field" of air to keep you dry

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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9cTDi9iU33ZmOnThx90QIwE6-gP94iTSVJn9zl64U7gWV7U8w4EH0WF3fJ_pczlNmNxjE8GE9XOgKS463bvght9oP2_VGSLwVp4sDKFiIX5ZH4vi1zqkJbLbXW1IdmOVZ8LqqcuN4yLw/s1600/air_umbrella.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9cTDi9iU33ZmOnThx90QIwE6-gP94iTSVJn9zl64U7gWV7U8w4EH0WF3fJ_pczlNmNxjE8GE9XOgKS463bvght9oP2_VGSLwVp4sDKFiIX5ZH4vi1zqkJbLbXW1IdmOVZ8LqqcuN4yLw/s1600/air_umbrella.jpg" /></a><i style="background-color: white; color: #999999; font-family: ProximaNova, 'Helvetica Neue', Arial; font-size: x-small; line-height: 32px;">A team of Chinese designers has developed the Air umbrella with the aim of making tangles of metal poles and fabric a thing of the past</i></div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: ProximaNova, 'Helvetica Neue', Arial; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px;">People certainly haven't been afraid to try and reinvent the umbrella over the years. There was the solar-powered </span><a href="http://www.gizmag.com/vodafone-solar-powered-signal-boosting-umbrella/22957/" style="background-color: white; color: #1e8dd7; font-family: ProximaNova, 'Helvetica Neue', Arial; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Booster Brolly</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: ProximaNova, 'Helvetica Neue', Arial; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px;">, the windproof</span><a href="http://www.gizmag.com/rainshader-umbrella/27442/" style="background-color: white; color: #1e8dd7; font-family: ProximaNova, 'Helvetica Neue', Arial; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Rainshader</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: ProximaNova, 'Helvetica Neue', Arial; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px;"> and the lopsided </span><a href="http://www.gizmag.com/rain-shield-umbrella/25038/" style="background-color: white; color: #1e8dd7; font-family: ProximaNova, 'Helvetica Neue', Arial; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Rain Shield</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: ProximaNova, 'Helvetica Neue', Arial; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px;">, just to name a few. But now a team of Chinese designers is looking to do away with the awkward metal poles and canopy entirely, relying instead on a "force field" of air to keep you nice and dry.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #cccccc; font-size: x-small;"><b><i> <span style="line-height: 32px; text-align: center;">The Air umbrella uses a lithium battery to power a motor and fan, which creates a cycle of air flowing through its tip</span></i></b></span></div>
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 The idea of using air flow to shield users from pelting rain has been explored before. A pair of designers developed a <a href="http://www.yankodesign.com/2010/01/12/try-air-to-stay-dry/" style="background-color: transparent; color: #1e8dd7; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">similar concept</a> back in 2010, though this version seemingly never made it to market.<br />
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The latest take on the Air umbrella uses a lithium battery to power a motor and fan, which creates a cycle of air flowing through its tip to deflect the drops and form the protective layer. So how much protection are we talking about exactly? Well, the designers say at the current stage of development the umbrella will provide enough shelter for two people, though if the rain isn't too heavy more people can be squeezed underneath.</div>
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<i><span style="color: #cccccc; font-size: x-small;">The Air umbrella uses a lithium battery to power a motor and fan, which creates a cycle of air flowing through its tip</span></i></h2>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-size: 16px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 22px;">The team is working on three models, all resembling something of a detached shower head. The first claims to be designed for females and is 30 cm (1 ft) in length and 500 g (1.1 lb) with a battery life of 15 minutes. The second is 50 cm (1.64 ft) long, weighs 800 g (1.76 lb) and has a 30 minute battery life. The third is extendable, ranging from 50 cm (1.64 ft) to 80 cm (2.62 ft), weighing 850 g (1.87 lb), also with a 30 minute battery life.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="color: #cccccc; font-size: xx-small;"><i>A team of Chinese designers has developed the Air umbrella with the aim of making tangles of metal poles and fabric a thing of the past</i></span></h2>
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With these battery times you wouldn't want to be stranded in a rainstorm, but they might just be enough to get you home from the bus stop without becoming a cold, shivering mess.</div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc; font-size: x-small;"><i>The team is developing three models, all resembling a detached shower head</i></span></h2>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: ProximaNova, 'Helvetica Neue', Arial; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px;">The team is looking to raise US$10,000 on Kickstarter for the production of its Air umbrella and looks to be having reasonable success to date. At the time of writing it has attracted almost $12,000 in pledges with 10 days to run on the campaign. Most of the early bird pledges are already gone, with $108 the minimum pledge to reserve the shorter "female" version of the umbrella. Deliveries are slated to commence from December 2015 if all goes to plan.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: ProximaNova, 'Helvetica Neue', Arial; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px;">You can see a demonstration of the Air umbrella in the following pitch video.</span></div>
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Air umbrella produces a "force field" of air to keep you dry

A team of Chinese designers has developed the Air umbrella with the aim of making tangles of metal poles and fabric a thing of the past Pe...

13:04