December 2010
32 posts
9 tags
word. daily. (december 30, 2010)
Beer Robot: Using his old college mini-fridge, an air cannon, webcam and his spare time, this guy created a beer launcher. Using an app he created, he chooses what beer he wants, which then drops from the fridge onto a launchpad. Using the webcam attached to the fridge, he controls the can’s aim, all from sitting on his couch. Bonus: The webcam will post a picture of the launch to Twitter....
6 tags
Newark Mayor Cory Booker Is a Snowsocial Media...
If you are in New York City, or if you have watched the news, you probably know there’s a ton of snow on the ground out there. And, even two days after the flakes stopped coming down, there are still many sidewalks and entire blocks that have yet to be cleared, with dangerous — and even fatal — results. While countless New Yorkers are criticizing Mayor Bloomberg for botching...
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word. daily. (air travel edition)
Weather Tiles: Hanging above the commuters at the San Jose Airport is the eCLOUD – a structure made of polycarbonate tiles that responds to real-time weather signals from around the world. For instance, if it is raining lightly at the destination of the next flight, the tiles will mimic light rain.
Nonstop AMS to MIA: A Dutch filmmaker wanting to attend the Ultra Music Festival in Miami...
7 tags
word. daily. (december 28, 2010)
Just A Li’l Bit (of Snow): 50 Cent announced that he will shovel your snow, $100 a pop. He’s got five houses done, as of yesterday, and is live-Tweeting his adventure. Gift-A-Stranger: So the holidays are over, but perhaps you’re still feeling generous - if so, check this out. Using Google’s reverse geocoding, Gift-A-Stranger allows you to send a gift to a ...
10 tags
word. daily. (december 23, 2010)
E-Butler: The St. Regis Hotel in New York has launched an E-Butler app. Guests download it prior to their stay and can communicate via the service once they’ve checked-in. Untraditional Touring: To give people an atypical view, a volunteer group in London that frequently interacts with the homeless has started Unseen Tours – where the tours are led by the residents of the streets.
More...
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All I Want For Xmas Is a Tech Savvy Mom →
In the mornings, when my inbox loads all of the e-mails that came in overnight, I always eagerly await the routine e-mail from my Mom (which starts with her having to explain who the e-mail is coming from).
“Hi Sally, it’s Mom…I didn’t hear from you last night, so I guess you were out having fun.”
More recently, she’s progressed to the general...
11 tags
word. daily. (december 22, 2010)
Typography Police: Here to combat the use of Comic Sans, Comic Sans Criminal explains to you when it is appropriate to use the font (in our eyes, it’s never okay).
I Will…: What will your New Year’s resolution be? If you’re drawing a blank for 2011, visit this resolution generator. You answer three simple questions and viola, there you have it! Mine? In 2011, “I...
9 tags
word. daily. (december 21, 2010)
Pop Goes the Weasel: For their Annual Year of Ideas, NYTmag created a QR code for the cover - made from balloons.
Curbside Greenery: For the “Beautify Your City” Campaign, Auckland redeisgned the ordinary trash bag to look like a hedge - creating a curbside garden.
Gimme the Goods: Looking for where to buy Scattergories by @MboothPR? Or perhaps Boar’s Head ham in Warren,...
5 tags
Best Buy for Better Health
Typically the go-to place for entertainment electronic needs and accessories, Best Buy is expanding its offerings into the health field.
According to Bloomberg, the new product offerings include products like heart-rate monitoring watches, pedometers, yoga mats, scales, blood pressure monitors and more. Originally testing this offering in 40 stores, Best Buy is said to be planning to expand...
8 tags
word. daily. (december 20, 2010)
Stickers for Your Feets: Maybe even freakier then those shoes that are like gloves for your feet, Dutch product designer Frieke Severs created “Footstickers,” aiming to take advantage of the benefits of sporting bare feet.
Twitter Knitter: U.K. creative digital marketing agency Saint turned to Twitter and knitting enthusiasts for its latest endeavor. The firm asked the world wide...
8 tags
word. daily. (december 17, 2010)
Auto Translate: Earlier this week, QuestVisual launched the iPhone app Word Lens, which will instantly translate a sign in Spanish to English (and vice versa) as you wave your phone over the sign.
Tweet Market: Derwent Capital Markets, a London-based investment firm, will launch a hedge fund using Twitter as its sole stock market predictor. General mood swings of the people of Twitter...
6 tags
The New York Knicks: Simplified
The fans are coming out of the woodwork now that the Knicks are finally a solid basketball team again. According to a MediaPost article from yesterday:
“The team says it has seen triple-digit percentage growth on Facebook, reaching more than 250,000 likes and a double-digit percentage increase on Twitter with nearly 45,000 followers. In addition, traffic on NYKnicks.com is up more than 40%...
7 tags
Tweet About Driving, Just Don't Tweet and Drive!
Luxury automaker Mercedes-Benz is dipping its toes even farther into the social media pool with a new spot slated for the Super Bowl. According to Mashable, the company is looking for Twitter enthusiasts among its fans to participate in a race across the country in a Mercedes Benz 2012 C-Class Coupe, which will be part of an ad that airs during this year’s Super Bowl.
The catch...
4 tags
New Year's Fitness Incentives Through...Ugly...
The Crunch Sweater promotion with Crunch Gym is reminiscent of Office Max’s Elf Yourself, but with much better incentives. All you have to do is create a tacky sweater with your face, send it to a friend, and you get a 2-week membership to Crunch and a personal training session…for free! Plus, 100 sweater creators will receive a free month at Crunch.
This is a catchy, funny viral...
10 tags
word. daily. (december 16, 2010)
Sour Mirror: Here’s one of those browser experiences (think: The Wilderness Downtown) that integrates your Facebook, Twitter and a live stream of you from your web cam – the Sour Mirror.
Erase from Cyberspace: Online privacy company Abine launched DeleteMe – a “delete button for the Internet.” Users pay the company to remove photos, blog posts, search results, old accounts, etc. Finally,...
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5 tags
word. trend forecast for 2011.
Here at “word.,” we tend to live in the moment. We’re always asking ourselves, “What’s going on right now?” and “Where are our keys?” (but mostly, “What’s going on right now?”).
But in this, our last issue of “word.” for 2010 – we asked ourselves, “What’s going to be going on in 2011?” In other words, what is everybody going to be talking about?
What with all of our idea-spotting this...
11 tags
word. daily. (december 14, 2010)
Google’s Slam Dunk: To encourage people to watch tech demos, Google launched Demo Slam, a site where you can watch really cool videos showcasing innovative ways to use Google technology and pick your faves. Check out this one, where guys in Japan faux-skydive over Hawaii.
What Kind of Dog Do You Look Like?: We can’t read this because it’s in Italian (don’t judge me, I know my last name...
11 tags
word. daily. (december 13, 2010)
Flix on Stix: Similar to Redbox, Flix on Stix lets users borrow movies - but with a twist. You plug in your thumb drive, pick a movie to rent for a certain number of days and after your allotted time, the movie erases itself off of the USB.
Buttons on the Floor: The website of NYC Design studio Sagmeister features a live stream of their office, where you see an office floor with large ...
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word. daily. (december 10, 2010)
Sparkling Fountain Water: To boost the image of the Paris tap water and to be ecological, the city set up a new fountain that changes tap water into sparkling water.
Shape What’s To Come: Levi’s is sponsoring the first-ever TEDWomen conference, and to gear up for that they gave 50 inspiring young women journals to document how they are making the world a better place. The journals will...
12 tags
word.daily. (december 9, 2010)
Watch Yourself: Fact: Formula One racing boss Bernie Ecclestone, 80, was mugged for his Hublot watch. Fact: Hublot is now featuring an ad with him and the tagline, “See what people will do for a Hublot.” Fact: Very cool.
Julie & Julia & Lawrence: Playing off the premise of the movie itself, Lawrence Dai has vowed to watch Julie & Julia every day for a year — no...
6 tags
Naming a Baby via a Facebook Poll – Yay or Nay?
Facebook comes in handy for many things — from remembering birthdays to learning about relationship statuses on the News Feed, it’s like a trusty old pal, always there to help. After reading this article from the Toronto Star, Facebook can now add “deciding on baby names” to its list of helpful tasks.
Baby Melania, who was born on Tuesday, was named after 22,000 people voted in...
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8 tags
word. daily. (december 8, 2010)
Links Small, Bank Account Big: By using link shortener shrtn, users can start making money off links shared. The start-up is working with over 100 online merchants and has created a commission for regisitered users - if someone buys The Twosome Blanket you just linked to using the site, shrtn gets a commission and throws you (or your favorite charity) some dolla bills.
Homeless Street Art:...
4 tags
Find Out Where Images Came from with TinEye
Have you ever found an image online and had no clue where it came from? In an ideal world, images would always be linked and credited to their sources but that information often gets lost, kind of like playing a game of Telephone.
Enter TinEye, a search engine from Canada that allows you to do a “reverse image search” — upload an image or insert the URL and it will find other...
15 tags
word. daily. (december 7, 2010)
The Sampler: Converse debuted an iPhone app that lets you try on their shoes. Point your phone at your right leg/foot and, using augmented reality, the shoe appears on your foot!
Foursquare Show: Popular location-based service Foursquare has announced they will create a television series. Other than the fact that the service will be “meaningfully integrated” into the show, we don’t know...
10 tags
word. daily. (december 6, 2010)
Surprise Inside: Heard through the Twitter grapevine, Jack Spade has sewn a number inside one of his new bag styles – when it’s called, you’ll hear a recording of New York City sounds.
New File Format to Save Trees: The World Wildlife Foundation created a new file format to protect the environment. The .wwf file format is the same as .pdf – expect it can not be...
9 tags
word. daily. (december 3, 2010)
Plane Connect: People form everlasting bonds on planes – Julia Roberts and Bradley Cooper in Valentine’s Day are proof of this – so Nick Martin thought it would be fun to see who would be on his flight. He created an app so you can scan Facebook and see what other users are on the same flight as you.
Buy This Satellite: There’s a huge satellite floating over us and its corporate owner has...
11 tags
word. daily. (december 2, 2010)
I Hope This Gets To You: Walter C.’s girlfriend moved across the country for grad school and to let her know he feels about her, he made a (really great) video. He is counting on the internet to pass it around so it organically reaches his gal, Lex.*
What Accountants Do For Fun: Each year, accountants at PNC gets together over eggnog and calculate the cost of Christmas by adding up all the...
11 tags
word. daily. (december 1, 2010)
High Speeds, Slow Tunes: Belgian road safety organization Parents of Child Road Victims created an iPhone app that plays music and adapts to the driver’s speed. If you are driving way too fast, the music will become very slow, or even stop, cautioning you to slow down.
Frizzy Weather: AccuWeather.com and StyleCaster partnered up to bring us: the frizz forecast. Tomorrow looks cloudy with a...