Lets do something new: lets go couch surfing!

I think almost everyone ever heard of the term: couch surfing. But for the people who doesn’t heard anything about couch surfing, a short explanation:
Couch surfing is moving from one friend’s house to another, sleeping in whatever spare space is available, generally staying a few days before moving on to the next house. But it’s more in the leisure world. There is an organization named CouchSurfing International Inc. It is a Delaware for-profit corporation based in San Francisco that offers its users hospitality exchange and social networking services.

As I said before: Couch surfing is not something new, but it responds to one of the actual problems: the crisis. If you want to travel the world and you don’t have much money, this is the best way to travel the world. You save money on the accommodation and furthermore if you’re lucky enough, you’ll stay with a person who wants to show you to the city you’re staying. So then you’re also saving money on a guide!

It also responds to the trend Experience Economy. Everyone is looking for experience: Anytime and anywhere. With the possibility to stay at someone’s place, you’ll definitely experience more then you’ll ever think of! I never went couch surfing, but it looks fun to me. Have you ever been couch surfing? Where did you go and what were your experiences?

Source: travelandleisure.com

Fashion shopping at his best!

In supermarkets and department stores alike, RFID is transforming the shopping experience. It is helping shoppers to learn more about products and to find exactly what they want – whether a leather handbag, a suit of clothes or a favorite brand of imported chocolates.

For example:
You take a sleek red blouse from a rack, hold it to your chest and stand in front of a special RFID mirror. The reader behind the mirror reads the unique ID on the blouse’s RFID tag, and information flashes up on the mirror as if it were a computer screen. You can view this product information, including the manufacturer, the fabric of the garment and the instructions for washing.

After that, you go to the dressing room to try on a coordinating skirt. You realize you need one size larger than the one you have in your hand. The monitor in your so-called “smart” dressing room tells you what additional sizes and colors are on the rack and where the rack is located.

This is only possible if your favorite department store is using removable RFID tags on garments to help keep shelves stocked. The technology allows stores to identify individual items in bulk rather than scanning them separately. For instance, a sales assistant only has to roll a complete rack of blouses past a reader, and the computer system is updated with information about the items that are going on the racks. This speeds up the stocking, inventory and reordering processes dramatically.

For most shoppers it means their favourite items are available at all times and shopping is much more convenient. Furthermore it’s like service design thinking. The more service you give as a department store, the more customers you get. What an experience!

Source: discoverrfid.org

Drift skating, upcoming sport?

Drift Skate USA provides one of the most unique experiences on a board to-date. 

Drift skates were derived from extreme sports such as snowboarding, surfing, and skateboarding, but with a little twist. Comprised of two drift skates, one for each foot, they are ridden sideways, giving the rider a snowboard-like feeling. They are unique in the fact that you move your feet in an s-like motion to propel yourself across the ground, so you never have to push. With your feet separated, you get more freedom in your ride than you do with other boards, allowing for sharper turns, innovative tricks, and an overall more versatile skating experience.

But what puts drift skates over the top is the fact that they are extremely portable. At 6” wide and weighing a little over 4 lbs., you can carry them in the palm of your hand, or easily fit them in a backpack, allowing you to take them with you just about anywhere. They do all this without sacrificing durability, having an almost unlimited lifespan for the average rider.

What do you think? Can drift skating be an upcoming sport?

Source: trendhunter.com

INSANITY® – Are you ready to dig deep?

There were a few notable sport trends in 2012. For example: home sport workouts and extreme sports. Extreme sports sounds more dangerous then it should be. When I say extreme, I actually mean heavy.

I think that these two trends are also going to be popular in 2013. A perfect combination of these two sport trends is INSANITY®.

The INSANITY® workout of BeachBody might just be the hardest fitness program ever put on DVD. Your personal trainer Shaun T will push you past your limits with 10 INSANITY workout discs packed with plyometric drills on top of nonstop intervals of strength, power, resistance, and ab and core training moves. No equipment or weights needed. Just the will to get the hardest body you’ve ever had in only 60 days.

Are you still ready to dig deep, after seeing the workout?

Source: beachbody.com

Every day a morning coffee with another print on top? Yes please!

People nowadays like to get limited editions, and with limited editions I mean: normal products with a special touch. In other words: everything they think or do is linked to experience. For instance: a normal coffee or latte macchiato is not ‘cool’ anymore. Just ‘normal’ isn’t good enough, cause they want more. Because of these needs, the trend experience economy is actual.

Latte art is one of this moments Food trends. It gives your ‘normal’ cup of coffee or latte macchiato a special touch. That’s what people want!

A few years ago Philips introduced the 8155 x-y flatbed plotter, a latte art printer. With this printer you can print an image on the top of your morning caffeine drink. The timing of this product was very bad. The last thing people wanted a few years ago was a latte art printer.   But now, in 2013, maybe there’s a market for a latte art printer. One of the consumer trends is do it yourself also known as DIY. This printer makes it possible to ‘make’ latte art yourself in your spare time. What do you think? Would you buy this?

Source: incrediblediary.com

Zeo – The gift of sleep!

Take control of your sleep.

Are you also tired all the time? You don’t know what to do anymore, cause you’ve tried many different options?

Zeo is a comprehensive system to help you improve your sleep. Your quality of sleep is central to your quality of life. Zeo is designed to help you analyze your sleep and improve it, so you can be your best every day. It’s composed of a lightweight wireless headband, a bedside display, a set of online analytical tools, and an email-based personalized coaching program.

If you’re doing everything with your smartphone, you want Zeo so bad but only if it’s possible on your mobile. Then it’s your lucky day! Zeo has a new and improved mobile sleep management system. It also tracks the quality of your sleep and gives you a personalized assessment and expert advice to help you improve it.

Source: slideshare.net

Print me a Band-Aid please!

Running out of adhesive bandages would never be an issue if the Band-Aid Printer were to go from concept to reality. This design is meant to print out Band-Aids on demand, which means that you’ll never have to worry about buying new Band-Aids again. Those without kids and those who did not grow up in a house with small children may not understand just how important it is to always have a stocked box of Band-Aids on deck. The printer allows you to create bandages designed for different parts of the body. No longer will you have to stick a normal Band-Aid across a kneecap.

As great as the Band-Aid Printer would be for solving first-world problems, it would function even better as a solution to third-world problems. One Band-Aid Printer could easily meet the needs of a small town or village. People wouldn’t have to depend on aid groups for Band-Aids as they could merely print their own.

Source: trendhunter.com

WikiCells – Sustainability

The delicate segments of an orange, the tender flesh of grapes and the crunchy, juicy interior of apples are all held inside edible skins provided so thoughtfully by Mother Nature. Why not then can’t processed foods we consume daily like cheeses, yogurts, ice creams, soups and mousses also be similarly contained within edible wrappers rendering plastic packaging redundant? Indeed they can be, say a group of scientists and designers led by Harvard University biomedical engineer, Dr. David Edwards.

In early 2012, the team unveiled wondrous balls of food wrapped in edible wrappings called WikiCells at a Paris food conference. Pumpkin soup held inside a spinach membrane, lemon juice contained in a lemon membrane, and coconut sorbet enclosed in a mango skin are just some of the creations the scientists showcased.  The all-natural containers consist of two layers. The first is a soft skin that has direct contact with the food and is made from three main components: miniscule food particles, a nutritive ion like calcium; and a natural molecule like chitosan or alginate (a derivative of seaweed). Combined, these “ingredients” form a kind of edible gel that when wrapped around a liquid food prevents it from drying out. The second layer is more of a protective hard shell or the “outer packaging” that takes the place of a plastic or cardboard box or bag, and is either entirely edible or entirely biodegradable. The first commercial WikiCell product is ice cream – the chocolate chip ice cream is wrapped in a cookie dough skin and the vanilla ice cream in a chocolate fudge skin. The cells are then packaged in a “box” made from bagasse (from made from sugar cane) or tapioca.

When we talk about sustainability, it isn’t only about thinking green and plants. It’s also about consciously deal with actually everything around you. For example: WikiCells. With WikiCells you can conserve your food longer then usual. So you’re conscious when it comes to food. That’s why this product is a form of sustainability.

Source: forbes.com

Avoid food waste, use LiquiGlide Gel!

This coating, invented by Kripa Varanasi, professor of mechanical engineering at MIT and five of his students, brings much-awaited relief to anyone who’s shaken a bottle of ketchup like a crazy person waiting impatiently for that stubborn condiment to slither out at its own lethargic pace.

LiquiGlide, a completely food-safe, gel-like substance is applied to the inside of jars intended to hold thick, viscous liquids like honey and mayonnaise. Once the jars are filled, the contents will slide out easily – even the notoriously immovable remnants at the bottom. The coating is made from FDA-approved, plant-based, flavorless food “ingredients” and can be applied to a range of materials including metal, plastic, ceramic and glass.

Varansi is confident his invention will have a significant impact on reducing food waste (combine all the liquids, creams, pastes etc. that get thrown away worldwide because they’re just too difficult to access from bottles, jars and canisters and you’d be amazed at the accumulative wastage). Moreover, he estimates that the coating will enable manufacturers to do away with the big plastic caps currently used, saving about 25,000 tons of petroleum-based plastics each year.

Source: forbes.com

You like banana’s? Eat Brun Banana for your health!

Brun Banana is 100% natural banana from a variety called Cavendisch. The banana undergoes a process of dehydration, combining the ancient skills of authentic handmade production with advanced manufacturing techniques to keep a clean and natural product.

For the production of 1 kilo of Brun Banana, 10 kilo of fresh bananas are required. The production of Brun Banana is still not completely mechanized, in that manual intervention is still utillized in the production stages as well as in the packaging stages. It’s possible that each product have slight variations.

Brun Banana is 100% natural, containing three natural sugars: sucrose, fructose and glucose as well as fiber. A banana gives an instant sustained and substantial burst of energy and nutrition, moreover Brun Banana helps to prevent:

Anemia
Bananas stimulate the production of hemoglobin in the blood.

High blood pressure
Bananas have good properties to reduce blood pressure and can prevent heart disease.

Stress
Times of stress.

Depression
The banana contains tryptophan; a type of protein, which relaxes you, improving your mood and generally making you feel happier.

Source: brunbanana.com