Hey trendspotters! This time around, Nora talks about the Mantis, a kind of exoskeleton designed for workers who to heavy lifting (via Core77). It’s a good example of the normalization of cyborg technology.
Cathi shows us another ‘out there’ technology that’s steadily becoming part of everyday life: drones. Frankendrone offers modular, customizable drones that move across the surface of a body of water (via Gizmag).
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Posted in Personal Devices, Vehicles
Tagged cyborgs, drones, exoskeleton, Frankendrone, Mantis, spyware
In today’s podcast for trendwatchers, Nora Young talks about Indochino, a service that provides custom-made suits by getting the customer to do their own measurements. Cathi Bond and Nora think it furthers the trend toward mass customization, and using the internet to create personalized experiences for lower prices. It continues a trend they’ve talked about before, in products such as Styku.
Meanwhile, Cathi Bond discusses this PSFK interview with Digital Art Director Dhani Sutanto, who has created the Oyster Ring – wearable tech that he can use to access the London Tube. Cathi and Nora discuss whether the app-loaded cell phone has taken the wind out of the sails of wearable tech, or if there will be new life in good looking wearable gear.
UPDATE: Bit of a problem with the podcast for a day. Should be fine now. Thanks Encaffeinated ONE
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Posted in Electronics, Marketing, Personal Devices
Tagged Dhani Sutanto, indochino, mass customization, oyster ring, wearable technology
Welcome back to a new season of The Sniffer: Decidedly Odd Since 2005! This time around, Cathi Bond talks about the Joggobot, a fitness coach project out of RMIT in Australia. It’s a drone (via Gizmag)! Check out the videos below. Have you seen a drone in action? Let us know!
Meanwhile, Nora Young talks about a very cool IKEA hack by designer Andreas Bhend (via Core77). Do you know anyone who hacks their IKEA products? Also, Nora mentions Asana, a productivity tool she started using recently. What are your fave productivity tools?
Posted in D-I-Y, Electronics, Personal Devices
Tagged Andreas Bhend, asana, drones, fitness, hacks, IKEA, joggobot, personal coaching, Productivity
Hey trendwatchers, in this podcast Nora Young talks about a possible move to push back on our info-overload online lives. New York Times journalist (who has also contributed to Spark) Anand Giridharadas writes about two trends in services: the immersive spend-your-time-behind-a-screen experience, vs. a move to quick check-ins that help manage your offline life. Designer Jack Cheng advocates for The Slow Web, making a similar call to keeping our online tools in check, serving us instead of the other way around. It squares with my (Nora’s) own sense that the real push in a market crowded with streams of information and apps galore, is in creating tools that give you real utility, and offer the space for you to create meaning in your life.
Cathi Bond this time brings you Terminator Pants! No, seriously, Delta 415 jeans feature a protective pocket in the front of your jeans so that you can store your cell phone and access it all the time. The design is inspired by fighter pilots’ G suits, apparently. Definitely a sign of the times in terms of the advance of 24/7 wearable tech. Would you wear them?
In this trendwatching podcast, Cathi Bond expands on the POV video and video-sharing trends (see her related coverage on Spark, here) with a look at Vergence Labs’ Kickstarter project in social video eyewear. It combines video-enabled glasses with a video sharing service. Are we all going to be capturing everything that goes on around us all the time?
Meanwhile, Nora Young looks at another quirky example of passive monitoring: tracking your pet! Fujitsu is set to release a device that attaches to your dog’s collar, which will allow you to monitor your doggie’s exercise. Cathi and Nora ponder what data their pets would reveal (via Technology Review).
Posted in Personal Devices, Self-Tracking
Tagged Fujitsu, Kickstarter, POV glasses, self-tracking, Vergence Labs, video-sharing
Greetings, Trendwatchers! In this podcast, Nora Young talks about a design for powering portable electronics such as your iPhone – with your breath! The Aire is a concept design (the technology doesn’t yet exist) by João Lammoglia, which features a mask that you wear, designed to harness the wind power of your breath. It’s kind of goofy, we admit, but beneath it lies a serious point: how are we going to power all these gadgets and devices we have? See images and more over at Fast Company.
Cathi Bond, on the other hand, continues to explore her love of Maglev technology with the Evacuated Tube Transport system (via Gizmag). Would you propel yourself through a tube halfway across the world?
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Posted in Personal Devices, Vehicles
Tagged aire, Evacuated Tube Transport, green power, green transportation, maglev
Hey trendwatchers! Today, Nora talks about the news that the guy behind BitTorrent is developing a way to use the peer-to-peer protocol to distribute live content (via Technology Review). The idea has many appealing features, such as lowering distribution costs, but with live video becoming the bread and butter of TV networks (sports, live reality show contests), will broadcasters balk, or take the bait?
In other video news, Cathi Bond brings you very cool PivotHead sunglasses. Basically, there’s a little easy-to-operate video camera embedded in the arm of the glasses. You can see Engadget’s video review here. As Cathi points out, this could be a great tool for journalists and armchair documentary makers. Does this mean everyone will turn into a video lifecaster?
Finally, love the feeling of being barefoot, but worried about hurting your feet? How about Kevlar socks! (Via Core77)
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Posted in Media, Personal Devices
Tagged bittorrent, kevlar socks, lifecaching, peer-to-peer, PivotHead, portable video, Swiss protection socks
On this week’s podcast, Cathi Bond is feeling inspired by her participation in 1,000 Songs, a Facebook group about music, coordinated by arts guy about town, Jim Shedden. She’s discovered great tunes by The Cowsills and more. If you can’t get depth from long form journalism, maybe social media is the answer after all.
Meanwhile, Nora Young talks about this article in Technology Review, about the impending job loss as a result of the rate of change in computer technology. It reminded Nora of this article by Farhad Manjoo. Oh, and watch out for flying robots.
After we recorded this podcast, Nora thought it might make for an interesting topic for Spark. If you’d like to hear more, here’s the full interview with Andrew McAfee, co-author (with Eryk Brynjolfsson) of Race Against the Machine.
Cathi continues her search for novelty personal transport with the Seabird personal submarine. Check it out here!
Posted in Arts and Culture, Personal Devices, Social Change
Tagged 1000 Songs, computers, personal submarines, social media, unemployment
In this trendwatching podcast, Nora Young wonders who owns the data your devices generate? She started thinking about it because of a story about a man with a defibrillator implant who is trying to get access to the data it generates, in order to better understand what triggers his heart condition (via Technology Review). As more of us have implants or other devices that generate data about how we’re using them, is this the shape of things to come?
Looking for a gentle alarm for the guitar lover in your life? Cathi Bond brings you the Acoustic Alarm, a clock that awakens you to a strumming guitar (via Ohgizmo. Take a look at it here.
Cathi also discusses a new Segway-esque police vehicle, the T3, augmented with the ability to use non-lethal weapons such as rubber projectiles or dye bullets (via Gizmag). Smart approach to riots and crowd control, or gateway to overuse? What do you think?
Posted in Personal Devices, Vehicles
Tagged alarm clocks, open data, policing, self-tracking, vehicles
In this trendwatching podcast, Cathi Bond discusses Bivouac New York, a very cool-looking urban campsite – on the roofs of buildings! We hope they have railings! (via PSFK).
Meanwhile, Nora Young looks at yet another example of gamification: Stray Boots is designing scavenger hunts, with clues sent to players’ cell phones, as a way to explore cities. It’s also being used in marketing, to create a fun way for consumers to interact with brands. (Via the consistently excellent PSFK) At least branded entertainment today is more subtle than this:
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Posted in Fun Stuff, Personal Devices
Tagged alternate reality games, camping, gamification, stray boots, urban life
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