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As the official color of living plants, green is a highly appropriate hue for Ploom to choose as the latest shade for their kazoo-shaped vaporizer, the Pax. The San Francisco-based tobacco start-up launched the convenient, portable smoking device nearly a year ago...
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Design studio Onformative developed an algorithm to search the tech company's Maps function for areas of land that look like physical features.

Web commerce giant planning botanical offices in downtown Seattle campus.

In the beginning, there were products and services, and some were good. Fewer became trusted brands, but those that did enjoyed unquestioned loyalty supported by a simple yet effective marketing engines built to reach people in mass quantity. The formula worked for decades. An empire was built on the shoulders of Madison Avenue and expanded globally. It is an empire, which still exists today, though arguably it’s a diminished version of its former self. 

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Yesterday, Pew Internet and American Life Project (in collaboration with Berkman) unveiled a brilliant report about “Teens, Social Media, and Privacy.” As a researcher who’s been in the trenches on these topics for a long time now, none of their finding surprised me but it still gives me absolute delight when our data is so beautifully in synch. I want to quickly discuss two important issues that this report raise.

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Project Soul Cell is a portable and collapsible lamp designed to let users continue social activities outside when it gets dark.

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We’ve already seen one mobile app that rewards kids for keeping parents updated as to their whereabouts and well-being, but Evado Filip takes a different approach. Earlier this year the London-based company launched VIVOplay, a wearable mobile communications and location device designed to help families stay connected.

Watch-sized VIVOplay uses a combination of GPS, WiFi and GSM technologies to let parents and kids easily get in touch with each other whenever they need to. Featuring location and date/time/alarm features built-in, the water-resistant device lets parents send short messages to their child, such as ‘“dinner is ready’.” With the VIVOplay’s calling functionality, meanwhile, parents can designate five predefined numbers via the parental mobile app that accompanies the device, thereby limiting the numbers their child can call. Parents can also create “safe zones” and get notified when their child strays outside them; baby monitor functionality is available as well. Last but not least, an emergency button gives parents a way to instantaneously broadcast their child’s location to all five pre-programmed numbers, and to record all sounds around the device.

Evado Filip explains: “”VIVOplay delivers all the benefits and independence of a cell phone and minimizes the concerns that keep parents from buying mobile phones for children aged 5-12. VIVOplay is flexible enough to be worn as a wristwatch or fit into custom accessories to meet changing tastes and keep it from getting misplaced.”” The video below explains the premise in more detail:

Evado Filip is gearing up to launch VIVOplay early this summer; no word on pricing so far. Eventually, however, the company sees a broader range of applications for the device, such as keeping the elderly safe as well. Safety-minded entrepreneurs: One to get involved in?

Website: www.evadofilip.com
Contact: contact@evadofilip.com

Spotted by: Alexia M

    

Continuing from our previous post, let’s look at two P’s of world-changing brands: power and permission.

Power

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Bite Beauty opens pop-up shop where customers can create their own lip colors, textures and scents.

German company AOTERRA wants to put cloud servers into residential houses to act as heaters.

Tokyo-based designer Duncan Shotton wanted to take his online shop offline, so he relocated it to a tree.

Scout monitors vital signs, temperature, heart rate and stress, tracking the user’s health over time.

by Gavin Lucas Hole & Corner is a brand new bi-annual print magazine devoted to "celebrating craft, beauty, passion and skill." Hot off the press, issue one takes a look at how Chris King carefully...
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The café, situated next to an Armani boutique, will sell a variety of branded food and drinks, including chocolate, tea and sparkling water.

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Queuing is more often than not an annoyance for consumers and can also be bad for business. Estonian startup Qminder has already offered one option to help customers avoid queues, with its number allocation app that alerts them when it’s their turn to be seen. Our latest spotting is Australia-based ExpressQ, which enables event attendees to pre-order and pre-pay for food, drinks or merchandise for easy collection on the day.

Event organizers can set up a food and drink menu or item list prior to the occasion, which consumers can then log onto through the ExpressQ app. There, they can reserve the items they want and pay for them. Customers then receive a QR code unique to them, which they can either print off or simply load on their smartphones to show to vendors when it’s time to pick up their goods. Since the items were pre-ordered, organizers should already have everything they ordered to hand. Businesses can set up a separate sales point for ExpressQ customers, meaning the even those in the regular queue benefit from reduced lines. The video below explains more about the service:

ExpressQ helps businesses provide a more efficient service at their event, while consumers don’t have to endure a long wait that can cut into the time they spend enjoying it. One to replicate in your part of the world?

Website: www.expressq.com.au
Contact: www.expressq.com.au/contact-us

    

An urban food forest in the Beacon Hill neighborhood of Seattle will enable locals to pick fruit and vegetables.

Visitors need to post with a hashtag in order to view the flowers in this interactive display.

These trends show the most talked about ideas collected from two years of projects and workshops in NYC, Berlin and Mumbai.

By sliding a phone right or left music will start and stop.

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We’ve already seen an iPad app that lets consumers seek guidance from the masses on design plans for their homes. Now taking that crowdsourcing premise a step further, Italian CoContest is a site through which homeowners can set their own design competitions, getting architects to challenge others for the chance to work on their renovation projects.

Homeowners with renovation to be done begin by launching a contest on CoContest, specifying not just the work to be done but also the specifications, deadline and any cash award. Architects around the world can then compete by submitting their proposals. “This is a worldwide solution,” CoContest says. “Why not obtain a Scandinavian design for your house in New York directly from a Swedish architect, or a Japanese touch in your London apartment from an architect based in Tokyo? With CoContest, you can.” In any case, at the end of the contest, homeowners can view all potential solutions and choose a winner, ranking the best projects by marking them with stars. From that point on, the contest becomes public and is viewable by all users. The video below explains the premise in more detail.

CoContest can be particularly useful for real estate firms seeking a new outsourcing channel for low-cost projects, as well as for “junior architects who want to emerge,” the company notes. Architect and interior design entrepreneurs: one to get involved in?

Website: www.cocontest.com
Contact: info@cocontest.com