Liquid Graphite Pencils

projo.com: Liquid Graphite Pencils, Pentech, $3-$4. They are made of wood and look like a traditional No. 2, but these pencils work more like a pen. The tip is metal, not lead, and what comes out is liquid graphite. For kids who don’t like stubby pencils, here’s the best part: no more sharpening! Cool stuff for your backpack [The Washington […]

MMS & Buy

Cellular News: A record label is launching a service that enables music fans to get information about music, simply by taking a photo of the CD case and sending it via MMS to their server. MMS & Buy is about impulse purchase through picture taking: You are looking at a CD in the store or passing by a promo poster. […]

Smart Alarm Clock

Why is it so hard to wake up to a normal alarm clock? Because a normal alarm clock can’t detect where you are in your sleep cycle — a continuous cycle from deep sleep, to brief almost-awake moments, and back to deep sleep again. Occasionally, your alarm may catch you at an optimal, almost-awake moment and you wake up feeling […]

Drink with iStraw

Popgadget: The iStraw is a lightweight polycarbonate straw fitted with a special membrane, which uses micro-filtration technology to clean your water. If you’ve tried chlorine tablets, you know how icky the taste can be, and with the iStraw there’s no aftertaste. The company sent one for me to try out so I can attest that the water tastes great (well, […]

Ladies’ Drink

Springwise: Heineken is about to soft launch a sparkling cider brew for the fair sex. Christened Charli, the drink combines cider, barley malt and fruit flavours. Although barley malt is one of Heineken beer’s main ingredients, Charli is marketed to the 63% of women who, according to Heineken, don’t like its main product. The brew is also being presented as […]

YOKANG the New Japanese Fashion

YOKANG is a fashion label out of the beautiful island of Okinawa in southern Japan. Okinawa used to have the independent dynasty as the Kingdom of Ryuku, and people have different images for Okinawa from those of traditional Japanese culture. Its unique culture, developed from the interactions between Southeast Asian countries and Japan, as well as the subtropical climate and […]

Midnight Special Offers

Iconoculture: E-commerce has always been hailed as 24/7. But how many consumers actually click “buy” at 3 a.m.? Apparently enough to get a handful of merchants to test the midnight madness waters with e-specials from midnight till dawn. Sears, Kohl’s and Dick’s Sporting Goods all offer the early-morning specials to bleary-eyed insomniacs and busy consumers like Mom who prefer browsing […]

SMS Privacy

TrendCentral: Even more so than in the U.S., people in Japan are overwhelmingly addicted to text messaging, mainly because making private cell phone calls in public is considered extremely rude. However, overcrowded public spaces such as the subway are not always the most private, so it has become common practice to use stick-on cell phone privacy screens which are thin, […]

Sweet Choco Museum

The Cool Hunter: The Nestlé Chocolate factory in Mexico City’s Paseo Tollocan near Toluca has never been a site anyone went to see for its beauty. It is what is inside that has always interested chocolate-lovers. That changed earlier this year when Michel Rojkind, the 38-year-old principal of Rojkind Arquitectos, decided that he was not satisfied with the original idea […]

BIZNESS! Newsletter Issue 51

Pitch In The Elevator In business, every entrepreneur needs to have his or her “elevator pitch” ready. Whether you’re networking at a business function, exhibiting at a trade show, trying to raise money, or meeting a prospective client, the first question they’re going to ask is “What do you do?” You’ve got to have a clear, concise way to answer […]