Every Thursday, we each tell you one thing that hit our radar (and stuck there like chewed gum) over the past week…
Jeremy
CNN’s Holograms
Was anyone else freaked out by the integration of live holograms into CNN’s election coverage on Tuesday? It was like Star Wars revisited. Will we be seeing more of this reporting technique in the media moving forward?
Allison
Mobikasi
Some of the coolest things in mobile are coming out of South Africa (and we don’t just mean Michael Sharon). This “geo-tagged documentary for your mobile,” part of the South African location-based social network The Grid, reconceptualizes the walking tour. It has 25 one-minute vignettes of youth street culture in Soweto, tagged with the location where it was shot. Viewers can explore virtually on a multimedia-filled mobile streetmap, or they can actually follow it and play a clip for each place on the route. Check out the promo video here.
Laura
In a textbook migration (pun intended) from runway to sidewalk, feathers are dotting downtown ensembles post-pillow fight style. From head wraps, bands and clips to fabric trims and - in cases of extreme trend consumption - entire pieces, feather embellishments are catching on faster than you can say “tweet.” Those keen to join the flock take note: the right balance of quills to modern pieces will ensure the look is more hip than Cher.
Andrea D
Fire Flower
I think this concept is great — so many people get burned in restaurants and kitchens all the time, so having something that works quickly AND looks like a decoration when it’s not in use? How much better can you get?
Solar-Powered Bonsai Tree Charging Station
I hate wires. Hate them. Anything that charges my devices while hiding my wires and creating an awesome focal point on my desk or table is good in my book.
Forest
Zhiing
Zhiing simplifies location-based technology by cutting out the extras and sticking to a friend-to-friend finder system. So, if you’re at a party and you want to “Zhiing” a friend to come check it out, simply pull up the program and send them your location. If your phone has GPS, your location will be sent automatically and your friend will receive a message, complete with a map and turn-by-turn directions. Since it’s just person-to-person, there’s no need to type in directions because the sender’s GPS will be able to tell exactly where that friend is. Zhiing can be used mobile-to-mobile, mobile-to-computer or computer-to-mobile.
Andrea F
A future competitor to the iPhone perhaps? T-Mobile and Google are stepping up to the plate and guess what kids? Not only does this phone have a touch screen similar to that of the iPhone, it also has a keyboard. Read more here and here.
Jain
NY Times.com Election Word Train
Super simple election day collective consciousness visualization!
Lawrence
Blackberry Bold Released through AT&T, Walmart
A number of chunky ideas to wrap your head around in this article:
- First time line up for a Blackberry release…a la iPhone fever of this past summer (luckily not as zealous of a camp-out)
- RIM is not longer optimized for only email…2 megapixel camera and blazing internet through 3G
- Aesthetic…eye candy that gets you salivating and a screen that’s crisp as a clear fall morning
- Wally’s out for blood…2nd time in two months that Walmart has undersold a major carrier on the hottest release (T-Mobile’s G1 felt the heat earlier)
Marisa
Good for consumers, bad for Geico, there may soon be less accidents on the road.
Thanks to project I-WAY an acronym for ‘Intelligent co-operative system in cars for road safety’, wireless networks will soon be using data from in-vehicle sensing systems allowing consumers to receive highly advanced warnings and alerts for traffic jams or accidents to avoid crashes. Project I-WAY is slated to be complete in January 2009, currently a European project, but this type of advanced sensor model is much needed and probably not long off for the US!
