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Nokia-Bicycle-Phone-Charger-Kit-2

Nokia has unveiled the first pedal-powered phone battery charger. According to the Financial Times cyclists will be able to plug their handsets into a charger mounted on their handlebars and connected to a dynamo that harnesses electricity from the wheels. It would take two-and-a- half hours for a cyclist riding at 15km an hour to [...]

Walmart is using Big Data gleaned from social media to target consumers with highly relevant suggestions for products. Last year it bought a startup focused on social media, Kosmix, and formed WalmartLabs. It uses Kosmix’s vast knowledge base, called ‘Social Genome’  to capture information and relationships about entities such as people, events, topics, products, locations [...]

CineSkates-Camcorder-l_0

Take a tripod, add some simple wheels and now you can create Hollywood-style moving shots with your little old non-professional camera. Featured in Fast Company with a demo video here.

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nokia

This new phone from Nokia charges through body heat. What if charging your cell phone was as easy as sticking it in your pocket for a few hours? That’s the premise of the Nokia E-Cu concept phone, developed by British designer Patrick Hyland. Hyland’s Nokia E-Cu (E for environment, Cu for Copper) phone features a copper [...]

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Power Cable Organizer Glory

This is a great idea. A website where people can submit their own, and help develop others’ ideas. Ones like this crafty cord concealer. Quirky.com launches a new product every few days and then sells the products on its site.

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062925_049_fluff

According to multimedia artist Mike Winkelman, interviewed for the Atlantic, making something new everyday gets over the fear of starting creative projects. Mike has completed a new art project every single day since May 1 2007 and now has 1600. He says they aren’t all perfect, but that’s not the point: “Just showing up is [...]

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Foursquaropoly-1

Foursquaropoly. This is an interesting idea. Make your own city a virtual Monopoly board where you can buy the buildings and play against other players. Watch this video to see the concept.

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scared-face

A new study published in the Journal of Psychological Science helps explain why many people try to pooh-pooh novel ideas. They find it scary. Research by the University of Pennsylvania and co-author of the experiments that involved 200 subjects,  showed that while people say they want creativity, in reality they reject it partly because creative [...]

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cow-with-names

from the New York Times 9th annual year in ideas For dairy farmers, whether to name their cows may seem like a matter of taste. But it might not be. It could be a business decision. A study of several hundred British dairies published in the journal Anthrozoös in March compared responses to a survey [...]

Pop star Cee Lo Green will make about $20 million this year. His hit single “Forget You” (actually it’s not “Forget”, but another shorter word beginning with the same letter) became the 12th most downloaded track of all time. But his music sales represent only a small proportion of his earnings. The New York Times [...]

Categories: environment, ideas | Comments Off
bicycle-super-highways

from the New York Times 9th annual year in ideas Copenhagen has begun to create a system of as many as 15 extra-wide, segregated bike routes connecting the suburbs to the center of the city. The Bicycle Office of Copenhagen’s design calls for service stations (with air pumps and tools for simple repairs) and plans [...]

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fsImageResize.aspx

Businesses that give two hoots about innovation are finding novel ways to collaborate with artists who have ideas coming out of their ears. Artists for instance, like Dave Stewart, my co-author on The Business Playground. I recently asked him about his advisory role to Nokia. Dave was stranded in London on the other side of [...]

dominos-augmentedrealitybillboards12-2

Domino’s Pizza in the UK have created augmented reality (AR) billboards that let passerby order pizza through their smart phones. According to Creativity Online: “Consumers can scan the posters, placed over 6,000 sites and communicating a special ’555′ deal, with their smartphone, download a mobile ordering app and become a Facebook fan, all while standing [...]

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good-ideas

According to Stephen Johnson, innovation expert and author of “Where do Good Ideas Comes From?”