BBC News: BMW is preparing to enter the market for car-style people carriers, the firm’s chief has told BBC News. Speaking at a BMW event ahead of the Geneva motor show, Helmut Panke predicted demand for such crossover vehicles would soar in Europe. In contrast, he said, the popularity of van-style seven-seat vehicles and traditional saloon cars would fade. “Customers […]
BMW’s Move
Ants Collective Intelligence Inspires Technology
we make money not art: Scientists are studying ants behaviour to help solve technical problems. An ant can work out the quickest way from A to B more efficiently than a boffin with a computer. It bases its behaviour on pheromone trails laid down by its nest-mates. So now human communications networks are often based on virtual pheromone trails. Nigel […]
CoolBusinessIdeas Newsletter Issue 11
CoolBusinessIdeas Newsletter Issue 11: 14/02/05 – 06/03/05 New Business Ideas/Opportunities Featured In This Issue: GADGETS Microsoft Child Surveillance Toy The idea behind this plush toy is that it will be able to follow the movement of the child round the room, turning its head and allowing parents to spy and instruct their child. Archimedes: Chia Pet Meets Tamagotchi “Oribie Navi […]
Microsoft Child Surveillance Toy
Shiny Shiny: How to give your child a lifelong uneasy feeling that it’s being watched: sit this ugly stuffed toy into the corner of its room. This Teddy Bear is something Microsoft’s been showing off recently. It’s still, thankfully, only a prototype, but there’s a chance that a creature like it may one day emerge to begin a reign of […]
Trash With Solar-Powered Compactor
we make money not art: New York is testing a trash can that uses solar power to sense when it is full and automatically compact the garbage inside. When the can is full, a red indicator light goes on and it can even send out a wireless call for a pickup. The BigBelly can’s tryout began February 14 in Chinatown […]
Racing Fishes
Popgadget: Feeling guilty for keeping your goldfish in a little tiny bowl? The Goldfish Racetrack has an “infinity shape” so your goldfish (said to have a memory of 7 seconds) will think they are exploring the seven seas. I’m not sure if it’s humane or extra super cruel, tricking your fishies like this. I keep thinking of the fishbowl neurotics […]
Easy Driving
Technology Review: A car that swerves back into lanes on its own and a video system that makes parking a breeze were part of technological features on display by the Japanese automaker Nissan Motor Co. The technology that reporters tried out in test drives Monday at a research center outside Tokyo is part of Nissan’s efforts to make driving safer. […]
Super Trainer Bicycle Treadmill
Gizmodo: My brain goes all crunchy with potential Jetsons-type disaster of the Super Trainer Bicycle Treadmill. At about twelve feet long, three feet wide, and something like twenty-five hundred pounds, the Super Trainer simulates a patch of road with far more clarity than the so-called streets here in New York. With no restraints to hold the bike in place the […]
Milk At Its Finest
Businessweek.com: Although the 400-acre farm’s profits were a distant memory, Shatto had both a financial and familial stake in the company, and he refused to sell out. “I figured the only thing we could do was keep milking the cows,” he says, “but we had to find a way to make money for a change.” He conducted a feasibility study […]
Pro Podcasting
IHT.com:The primarily amateur Internet audio medium known as podcasting took a small, hopeful step on Friday toward becoming the commercial Web’s next big thing. That step was taken by Odeo, a five-person start-up that is based in a walk-up apartment in the Mission District of San Francisco and was co-founded by a Google alumnus. The company plans to introduce a […]