Added 7 October, 2013
A recent survey by the upscale hotel brand Pullman Hotels notes a growing trend in which travelers are blurring the lines between business and leisure travel. Interestingly, the reason for this may be the growth of mobile technology. Now it's easier than ever for both types of travelers to extend their stays, enjoy themselves while simultaneously...
Added 5 October, 2013
We recently wrote quite a bit about the many products that are being marketed specifically to women, even though the items themselves are not at all gender-specific, like earplugs. Now PepsiCo, the makers of Pepsi and other soft drinks, is marketing a bottled-water brand aimed squarely at the teenage. PepsiCo is using its own Aquafina water brand...
Added 4 October, 2013
It's one thing to wear a bracelet that measures your rates of activity. But from a medical perspective, it's quite another order of magnitude to constantly measure your body temperature, down to a percent of a degree. Precision thermometry of the skin, along with other measurements, can provide clinically relevant information about cardiovascular...
Added 4 October, 2013
Regular readers of WikiTrend will remember a story back in January about a company in New Orleans that installed a children's playground that's utilizes photovoltaic panels to power fans, water dispensers, and garden irrigation systems. Now a non-profit in Ghana is going one better by harnessing the children's own energy to generate electricity...
Added 4 October, 2013
A few months ago we reported on an initiative by Heineken in which they put their beer in square bottles rather than round ones in order to be more ecological. The reasoning is that square bottles can be packed more efficiently, saving both fuel and money on shipping. Additionally, packing more bottles into boxes saves a lot of cardboard and trees...
Added 3 October, 2013
Until now, all the crabs you've ever eaten have been fished from the wild. That makes them expensive and, in many cases, unsustainable. Especially in Southeast Asia where diners are crazy for crab. Now for the first time, business groups are answering the demand by developing crab hatcheries. Based in Malaysia, Texchem Resources is leading the...
Added 3 October, 2013
Just as mobile phones are slowly incorporating all manner of other personal electronics into their software to become all-in-one devices, wearable computers are headed in that same direction. The first devices, like the Nike Fuel Band, are concerned with monitoring a single aspect of wearers' lives, like activity levels. Now we're starting to see...
Added 3 October, 2013
Everything is getting smart these days: smart phones, smart watches, smart refrigerators. The trend is a concept called the Internet of Everything, in which all manner of heretofore normal items are becoming digitally interconnected. The Stir Kinetic Desk is a good example. At the touch of a button, the desk raises and lowers on hydraulic legs so...
Added 2 October, 2013
U.S.-based paint supplier Sherwin-Williams is one of the first consumer brands to see the utility of Google Glass and similar technologies to help promote their wares. Although the technology will not be available to the general public until next year, companies are imagining ways in which wearers might be able to interact with thier products and...
Added 2 October, 2013
Russian media outlet RIA Novosti is reporting that what citizens value most these days are the ability to run a business, vacation abroad, engage in sports, and go to church. Those are the results of an opinion poll of a cross-section of society conducted by the Levada Center, an independent pollster. According to 87 percent of respondents, taking...