The Thicket

My Commute Would Certainly be Cooler!

Cool vehicle for a cool commute (not that I'd be any "cooler," but I'd be commuting in style).  I found this on Three Minds.  It's technically classified as a motorcycle, has a gas powered electric generator and batteries. Plug it in for 2-4 hours and drive 50 miles.

Drive further and the generator turns on to recharge the batteries. At 350 miles of driving the generator will keep the batteries charged enough for unlimited driving at about 130 mpg. 75 mile trips are about 400 mpg.

At $27,000 - $30,000, Aptera is expected to be safe as any auto.  Plug in for 50 mile trips for $1-$2. Cool!

Flock is Awesome!

Granted, I may be a little late to this party (story of my life), but while at MacWorld Expo two weeks ago, I stumbled upon the Flock browser booth.  It was just me and the booth dude, so I had lots of time to check it out, ask questions, volunteer for Beta testing, etc. I have to tell you, I'm putting Safari, Firefox, Mozilla, and Camino, all of which I use on the Mac, aside and am lasering in on this cool browser (a new version of Flock has just been released for Mac Leopard and TechCrunch raves about it).  Flock is a Mozilla application and it's geared heavily toward people who use social-networking sites (ahem, which is very much me). I love the “look and feel,” and it has excellent RSS and blog management built in and it seems pretty zippy after startup. Might be worth giving a look.  Be a Flockstar!

Piracy is a Market Signal

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(and yes, the soundtrack to this is a bit dodgy/buggy.)

Calculating the Value of Free

Recently I was on an early trip to SF and flying the regional carrier Horizon. In the terminal area was FREE coffee (starbucks) and FREE papers to sip & read. With these "little" things my loyalty and $ does lean to the brand/company. Also, this effort has an additional + of possibly restraining customer explosions for certain plane/rain delays (PDX airport also has free WiFi).

Has your company considered the value of free & fitting services?

Google Maps Spreads Work out to You

Don't you hate when the mapping service you're using is just slightly off (by sometimes a few buildings) on the location of an address?  Well, take notice of the little "Fix It" link on locations you lookup in Google Maps.  Not sure how long it's been there but like everything with Google, it's quietly added to their mapping product.  Lookup a location like your home and see if it's accurate.  Mine wasn't so I clicked on the Fix It and was able to easily drag the indicator arrow from where it was at my neighbor's house 5 doors up the street right up to my front door.  I went to check if it took on another browser and sure enough it did, saying that my Google ID had edited the location just a few minutes ago.  Very cool.

This is neat on two levels.  First being it only enhances the usefulness of the product and strengthens the information.  Second being it's not costing Google anything in customer service, engineering or even manual labor to correct these mistakes beyond the effort it took to add in the Fix It functionality.  Google is getting scary smart and efficient. 

Talking 'bout a REVOLUTION: From Health to Financial Services...

Revolution Money, a spinoff of Revolution LLC, founded by AOL co-founder Steve Case, and current CEO of Revolution Health...phew! all with similar branding, has launched a new credit card. You don't see that every day.
The RevolutionCard is not an every day credit card, though. The RevolutionCard is distancing itself from the long-standing MasterCard and Visa mold by being more secure, more flexible and a more "internet enabled" model of credit card.
What does that mean? Well, for starters, as you can see above with an actual image of the current version of the card, RevolutionCard does not print users' names or account numbers on their cards; rather, use of the the card is based entirely on encryption and a 4 digit PIN.
Additionally, Revolution Money (backed by Citi, Morgan Stanley and Deutsche Bank), just launched Revolution MoneyExchange (still in Beta), their PayPal killer. The new service, coupled with the card, allows you to store and transfer money across a variety of internet platforms, including social networks and instant messaging portals.
Here is yet another example of how Web 2.0 technologies can benefit consumers and merchants alike, turning the industry on its ear to create opportunities...traditional banks and lenders should watch, learn and listen.

Text in the Grocery Aisles...

A new form of in-store marketing lets advertisers place their messages right between shoppers' hands, on shopping cart handles that have been modified by Modstream.
Messages are wirelessly streamed to a small screen in a hard plastic case that replaces the standard shopping cart handle. Advertisers and retailers log on to modstream.com to enter their messages, selecting stores where they want their message to appear. Messages can be run across a complete chain or targeted to specific regions, stores or times of day. Since the messages can be changed on the fly, it's easy to adapt the ads for short-run sales or clearance items.
Since a majority of purchase decisions are made by consumers while they're shopping, it makes sense to target them while they're rolling down the aisles. Other companies have tried video screens on carts, but while those might serve up more engaging ads, they're also expensive to purchase and maintain. Modstream's message handles, meanwhile, stand up to rain and snow, and have a 5-year battery life. The system is currently being tested at Home Depot stores in eight states.
Now if it could text me the list of stuff my wife wanted that I've forgotten...

Leopards in Space?

Why are the visuals for OS X.5 dealing with outer space?
Every time I login to Leopard I feel like I'm a crew member on Star Trek.......where's Spock? or moreso where's the leopard in Leopard?

YouTube to Tube for Apple iTouch

So, I just saw on the old/offline tube the iTouch Apple advert produced by TBWA/Chiat/Day but first created by Nick Haley a young YouTube.com author/publisher.

is this more buzzworthy?
increase product/consumer authenticity? credibility?
will it unleash more consumers creating :15 & :30 second product spots on youtube?

see the original youtube.com bit here (250,000+ views):

See the TBWA/Chiat/Day on your old tube (and probably soon on youtube too).
Anybody think this is a bit fishy (Nick Haley joined youtube.com 1 year ago and has uploaded only 1 video? and this video is all choppy)?

Leopard Faster, but just "Evolutionary," According to WSJ's Mossberg...

With Apple on a roll, the new release of Leopard will surely push them farther and faster.
While Walt Mossberg hails many of the new features as surpassing MS Vista, he's not sure for himself it's "revolutionary," according to today's Wall Street Journal.
Several of us will "geek out" at the Apple Store Friday night to see for ourselves.