Added 4 January, 2014
This week the Ford Motor Company announced a new concept car powered by rooftop solar cells that, eventually, might be able to operate completely off the grid. Called the C-MAX Solar Energi Concept, the car is a first-in-the-world sun-powered electric vehicle that never needs to be plugged in. The challenge with solar cell technology is that you...
Added 4 January, 2014
Just when you thought there was not much more steam left in the pop-up trend comes the Big Green Bus, an old double-decker from England's West Midlands that has been upcycled into a traveling one-room hotel. Well, there's a few rooms, actually, including a nice kitchen and living space/dining room downstairs, and three bedrooms up top that are...
Added 30 December, 2013
For years, mature companies have been talking about the effect that the Millennial Generation will have on their businesses. What do they need to attract this demographic? How are they different from the generation that came before them? How has growing up with the Internet and social media affected their behavior, their needs and wants? Born...
Added 2 December, 2013
Going to extremes is the next frontier of tourism. Several companies are competing to bring tourists into space, with Virgin Galactic starting service in 2014. Now the Cyclops submarine plans to go deeper than almost any other before it, taking visitors to depths that were once only visited by highly trained scientists. Starting service in 2016,...
Added 23 November, 2013
We've seen interactive billboards before, like the ones that feature QR codes that invite passers-by to scan them for more information. Or the ones that recognize when people are walking or driving by and then flash a message to them. But this one if different. British Airways has placed an animated digital billboard in London's Piccadilly Circus...
Added 20 November, 2013
Starbucks is so ubiquitous, the joke goes, that they just opened another Starbucks inside a Starbucks. In many cities around the world, you can't walk a few minutes in any direction without seeing one of these coffee shops. Now the brand is going even further by putting a shop inside a rail car. In cooperation with the Swiss train operator SBB,...
Added 19 November, 2013
Now that lighting up indoors is banned in so many parts of the world, vaping is becoming the new smoking. But backlash against eCigarettes is ramping up too, with many restaurants and other public places saying no to that too. So what's an eSmoker to do? One answer is opening at Heathrow airport in the form of an electronic cigarette airport...
Added 11 November, 2013
Once upon a time, commuters had to rely on sporadic radio traffic reports to get a sense of how long their journey would take. No longer. Now several companies are competing to give travelers up-to-the-minute information on traffic jams and police actions that attract rubberneckers and slow cars down to a trickle. One of these companies offering...
Added 7 November, 2013
It's a very good harbinger of a trend to come when ninety-percent of consumers say they would consider buying a particular product that is currently in the pipeline. That huge percentage said that the thing that would tip the scales for them is lower insurance rates, which are slated to drop as much as 80 percent when self-driving cars become...
Added 6 November, 2013
Here's a great idea: Encourage electric automobile use by doing away with the plug entirely. Municipalities like New York City may soon be creating green loading zones where electric trucks can automatically get recharged while off-loading their goods. The initiative, created by HEVO, works by embedding wireless charging stations under the...