With an increasing number of cellular phones and carriers touting 3G service, the obvious question arises: What is 3G? The term 3G refers to the third generation of mobile telephone, or cellular, technology. 3G was specifically designed to allow for the growth of applications that rely on increased mobile bandwidth.

While older generations of cellular technology allowed for only voice or limited data transfer, 3G can deliver multimedia applications over the network at faster speeds. With speeds ranging from 144Kbps to 2.4Mbps, 3G networks can be nearly as fast as a cable-modem. With that kind of speed, mobile web browsing, chatting and even live video streaming are possible.

In the United States, most carriers have begun rolling out their 3G networks to urban areas. Eventually the carriers' entire networks will be 3G.

So, do you need a 3G enabled cell phone? It depends on how you want to use your phone. If you're simply interested in making voice calls, there is no real advantage. If you plan to send multimedia messages containing photos and video, browse the web, chat or download applications over the network to your phone you should certainly look only at devices and carriers with a 3G network.

The Eco House, by Diseño Earle, is to be the first zero-carbon-footprint villa built in Southern Spain. The home is long and narrow to fit on the plot and is crowned with a unique, angled roof design that allows for solar panels to be installed for maximum exposure to the sun, and to allow air to pass over and cool the home. The design calls for extensive use of louvered glass panels to let plenty of natural light into the building while reducing heat. A geo-thermal system will be installed to provide both cooling and heating.

"The foreclosure mess is casting a shadow over New York’s Hamptons this summer. One result: An 18,000-square-foot Bridgehampton home has been reduced from its $27 million asking price to 'just' $19.5 million."
- Via The Wall Street Journal

The world's first moving building is planned for construction in Dubai. Each of the tower's 80-floors can move independently of each other or be choreographed to move in unison. Power for the building will come partially from turbines and solar panels installed on each floor. The building will be constructed from prefabricated units built in an Italian facility and attached to a central, utility core, around which the floors will rotate.
• World's first ‘building in motion’ ready in 2 years

Donald Trump announced a project to build a 62-story tower jointly with Dubai developer Nakheel. The hotel will feature a $30 million penthouse and will be built on Palm Jumeirah island. The structure, to be made of stainless steel and glass, will consist of almost 400 apartments and 400 hotel rooms.
• Donald Trump Launches new Hotel and Tower on Palm Jumeirah Dubai

SnickarPer of Sweden has an extensive line of retro-styled doors for entryways, from the front door to the garage. We especially like the nautically-themed portals shown above.
• SnickarPer
• Via Materialicious

While many brokers provide virtual video tours of apartments, Mr. [Max] Ribitzky has taken the concept to a more intimate and personal level, a live interactive apartment showing, via video conferencing software. With more and more foreigners snapping up Manhattan apartments, the technique could make it easier to close a deal.
- Via The New York Times

"... water flowing through the facade has left it badly damaged. Some panels are visibly cracked and peeling, and many of their steel frames have rusted. A frieze of poured concrete, spelling 'Storefront for Art and Architecture,' is in particularly bad shape: the final E now resembles an L with two drooping appendages."
- Via The New York Times

At Trulia Hindsight you can enter in a city and watch an animated presentation of property growth over time. Dots bloom on the map to represent where new home growth is happening. It's an interesting display that shows how communities grow and change through the decades. The map above was frozen over Los Angeles in 1948.

"Built to withstand bone-shaking winds off the Atlantic, their [crofter's cottages] 4ft-thick granite walls are nigh impossible to punctuate with sufficient windows for contemporary taste, and their lack of insulation makes winter heating an economic challenge... Now at last, there are plans to build new homes on some of the best plots in the Western Isles that will look like a crofter's cottage of a century ago, but with the views and all mod cons."
- Via The Telegraph