PSFK Author:
Ozgur Alaz

IconNicolson has a “social retailing” vision which means mashing up social computing and near-field communication technologies with youth shopping habits – to target young adult shoppers. As a part of this project, they have come up with an interactive mirror that sends a live video feed to any cell phone or e-mail account selected by a shopper. CNet reports:

A New York-based designer has come up with a mirror equipped with infrared technology that sends a live video feed to any cell phone, e-mail account or personal digital assistant device selected by a shopper.

Christopher Enright, chief technology officer for digital design company IconNicholson, said putting these mirrors outside store fitting rooms meant women could go shopping with their friends — remotely.

"She could be in Paris, your mom, watching you try on your wedding dress (while you are in New York)," Enright told Reuters on Tuesday as he unveiled the interactive mirror at a retail trade show.

Using the interactive mirror, a shopper’s friends can then text message back with comments about the outfit.

PSFK has found some great video and audio recordings of the presentations made to the MIT Futures of Entertainment conference held in November 2006.

Topics under discussion included Television Futures, User-Generated Content, Transmedia Properties, Fan Cultures and Virtual Worlds.

Downloads can be found here.

Dasparkhotel is an experimental hotel in Austria which was converted into hotel rooms from drain pipes.  Each room has - full headroom, double bed, storage, light, power, woolly blanket and light cotton sleeping bag. All other hostelry devices (Toilets, showers, minibar, cafe, etc) are supplied by the surrounding public space.

Costs are very flexible. They offer "pay as you wish" system where customers leave a Euro amount that they can afford and with which they wish to support the project.

Dasparkhotel

VoIP comes to the cellphone with is a new piece of free software named Truphone. You will be able to make free or VoIP-rate from Wi-Fi hotspots places with your mobile phone.  It saves money by routing calls over the internet rather than via traditional mobile operators.

It works wherever you have access to the internet via Wi-Fi - and the availability of wireless connectivity is absolutely booming. Truphone is now available for Nokia’s new E-series and N-series phones.

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Two web giants has recently launched an “answer” service. One of the newly launched answering service is nownow.com. They have partnered with Amazon.com Company, Mechanical Turk, who has a community of users completing various tasks for numerous businesses.

They pay the mechanical Turk community to answer the questions. During beta-test period all questions asked is free. But, they plan to price questions soon.

Another “answers” service is launched by the popular corporate social networking site LinkedIn. It’s mechanism is similar to Yahoo Answers, but it covers business related topics. Members who provide the best answers to questions, they earn expertise and an opportunity to be featured on the Answers home page.

LinkedIn Answers
Amazon Answers

To stay competitive, many retailers (e.g. Amazon, Costco, Sears…) offer a 30 day price protection guarantee. It means that if they lower their price within 30 days of when you purchased it, they’ll refund you the difference. But, the majority among us still do not remember to the check price again, you?

PriceProtectr is a new website that watches for prices to drop and if the store offers a money back guarantee, it will notify you if you have a price difference coming your way.

People’ve already saved  2320$ with this service. But, I believe, the real message for marketers  is  price transparency is automatizing.

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The last buzz about Wii is if it could begin a new generation of porn industry. “Wii Mote Strap” gives players the ability to give pleasure to computer women in matured themed games.

For example, bbspot reports that Sierra plan to release a new episode of the cult favourite "Leisure Suit Larry" that will use the Wii controller’s unique features to create a compelling new use of the device. Larry has been featured in multiple episodes of the game as a forty-something, balding man trying to seduce young and attractive women

Then, arstechnica reports a tip from anonymous user about wii-friendly porn sites.

"So shortly after getting the trial version of opera on the Wii I went to a free adult site http://www.tiava.com to look at some photos.  Yesterday I went back and… well apparently either the site maintainers are Wii enthusiasts or I’m not the only one.  The site has added a "Wii friendly" interface for browsing their content. I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised the adult industry seems to always know where technology is going, but I’m surprised to see it so quick.  The browser hasn’t been available but for a week now."

Finally, Regine notes
an interesting device while Pornography and Technology conference. She reports,
Wiibrator, a Python application that interfaces the Wii’s Wiimote and the PS2’s Trancevibrator. As they conclusion, i believe that we’ll see more and more of these gadgets that mediate virtual and real life sexual activities.

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TailoredMusic is an interesting concept that caught our eyes.  We are already familiar with the personalized song that Jessica Simpson made, but this start-up takes it a step further. TailoredMusic which will launch at the beginning of 2007 let you write your own love song for that special someone in your life. With their easy lyric editor you insert the person’s name and other details of your relationship and you’ll soon have your very own love ballad.

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Inspired from subway maps, Nowandnext and Future Exploration Network have produced a trend map. It shows some of the major trends into ten main categories, as well as the key intersections between the trends. Visulisation of trends is amazing.
It inspired me to think of the interaction independent trends.

You can download the pdf here