When leaving appliances plugged in

PSFK shows this image from Good Magazine, which illustrates the implications of leaving (household) appliances plugged in, on stand-by for an entire year. Perhaps a company would be so kind to invent/introduce an environmentally-friendly plasma TV?

CommandShift3

Website, CommandShift3 (the name comes from the keystroke combo needed to make a screen grab on Mac computers), allows visitors to vote for favourite web designs in a head-to-head, 'hot or not' battle as well as providing inspiration for web designers.

Severed arm lying on the streets

I'm pretty sure I would be scared and freaked out if I saw a severed arm (holding a DVD) lying in the middle of the streets.This is what Amsterdam-based ad agency, New Message did for the guerrilla marketing campaign of Quentin Tarantino's Death Proof movie. As read in TrendHunter.

Sugar cube-like salt

With increasing health-related food worries (including too much salt consumption), the timing of the Kakujio couldn't be better! Salt presented just like sugar cubes - in pre-measured dosages.Designed by Yasuhito Hirose and Ryohel Yoshiyuki.
This is genius, why wasn't it been thought of earlier?

Usability of portable hard drive concept

Yanko questions the realistic usability of this portable hard drive concept:
(Designed by Sang-Hoon Lee, the central hub is a touchscreen used to view and organise the collective files.)

If it were me, I would probably lose the individual flash drives!!

An interesting article in how the government (and councils of East) Germany are beautifying their towns in aid of attracting more female residents, as many have left since the fall of the Berlin Wall.

15 reasons why Facebook isn't worth its billions

Social networking news website, Mashable, has an article detailing 15 reasons why Facebook isn't worth its billions.

Personalised clothing

This is a step further from having one's name embroidered onto clothing; having the name within the stripes of a suit.

Toyota i-Real

The Toyota i-Real reminds me of the wheelchair that Professor Xavier from X-Men uses.(Link shows video of its features).

Free services (with adverts) to youths

Many advertisers are desperately trying to reach a young audience by offering free services, which include channeling direct adverts, as seen in mobile phone service provider, Blyk and photocoping companies, Tadacopy and StudyPrint. Today, I read that McDonalds is criticised for their partnership of a school in Florida, which allows them to place adverts on report cards and to offer Happy Meals to those who achieve A and B grades.

Bureau of Workplace Interruption

The Bureau of Workplace Interruption aims to provide continuous employee stimulation at work by interrupting them! What an interesting, crazy piece of service innovation.

Paypal user-friendly widget

Netvibes founder, Tariq Krim believes that widgets are the future and today, I read Paypal have launched a user-friendly widget that could revolutionise e-commence for even newbie users.

Santa's Ghetto

Theres a certain attraction with rebellion and anarchy, perhaps its the confidence, bravery and courage that does it. Here is this year's Santa's Ghetto by anonymous graffiti artist Banksy and friends and the organisation's beliefs behind it:

"We would like to make it very clear Santa’s Ghetto is not allied to ANY race, creed, religion, political organization or lobby group. As an organisation the only thing we’ll say on behalf of our artists is that we don’t speak on behalf of our artists. This show simply offers the ink-stained hand of friendship to ordinary people in an extraordinary situation.

Every shekel made in the store will be used on local projects for children and young people. Not one cent will go to any political groups, governmental institutions or, in fact, any grown-ups at all.’"

Invite-only on the web

Providing an interesting read, PSFK mentions how the internet originally conceived to be "a level playing field with open-source code, anonymous commenting, crowdsourcing and wikis" - which eliminated the caste system, is currently being flooded with exclusive, invite-only sites for the elite.

Build-it-yourself (open-source) mobile phone

Wow, I didn't see this coming; build-it-yourself (open-source) mobile phone. By Bug Labs, it currently has four add-ons: "digital camera/video camer, colour LCD touchscreen, GPS and an accelerometer/motion sensor". Looks a bit hefty when all the add-ons are attached, but definitely room for development!
(This post is dedicated to Sammy, who was speaking to me about customisation of mobile phones just the other day!)

Extremely exclusive beer

Apparently, some monks in Belgium have been brewing some extremely exclusive beer. To purchase it, one has to make an appointment via telephone and buyers are only allowed to purchase two cases per month! On this PSFK post, it says that they are "doing their best to resist getting bigger. They don't advertise and don't put labels on their bottles. They haven't increased production since 1946."

This PSFK post further adds to my fascination with learning about how creative imaginations (including those in literature) predict a close realisation of future scenarios.

Retro brick phone-updated!

TrendHunter points to a retro 'brick' phone (like the first mobile phones launched in the 1980s) but updated with a camera and music player. Hmm....will this really take-off?

Ask 500 people

Ask500people; a potentially great tool to obtain opinions and feedback on products, marketing etc.
I love the way that the 'live' interface moves to show the location of most recent person (in the world) whose 'just' answered the question.

All about the (enhanced) eye-lashes

Yesterday, I read this from TrendHunter; companies are trying to further develop a particular ingredient (found in a medicine) that is able to increase the length of eye lashes - replacing the need for mascaras.

Today, I read about developments to the products at Shu Uemura's eyelash bar, from IG TrendCentral:

"Once primarily attracting high end beauty shoppers or outrageously dressed clubbers, the Shu Uemura eyelash bar now attracts teens who go for fun designs like the Yellow Flash and Lucent Sun, which, when hit with light, cast colored patterns on the face. "

Give good food to your mac

Making PC users green with envy, Give Good Food to your Mac is providing applications (discounted for a limited time) for mac users to organise, customise and optimise their gadgets, including one that utilises the iPhone or Wii as a remote control for the mac computer!

Smart architecture

I read about this this morning, which reminded me of this, which I read a few months ago. Both concepts work with nature, especially wind power.