Fitness Cell Phone

Back in 2006 we wrote about the Nike+iPod Sport Kit as an example of the growing number of branded brands—smart partnerships between brands —and now adidas and Samsung have launched an offering along similar lines.

miCoach, which was unveiled just last week, is an adidas-branded Samsung music cell phone equipped with stride sensor and heart rate monitor to provide on-the-go personal training. With one click, users can connect to the fitness features and begin a workout. On their first use, the system assesses their fitness level and places them in one of three categories. Users can then set their own goals, or let the system's personal coach—backed by more than 200 workout plans—guide them. Either way, miCoach provides instruction to encourage and motivate users along the way, such as advising runners to “speed up to power zone” or telling them that “15 minutes is completed.” Tapping the slider phone twice produces instant updates on the workout, and the 2-inch LCD shows a real-time visual display of time, heart rate, distance, speed and calories burned. Users can arrange workout music on the phone according to tempo or motivational value, while a 2-megapixel camera and 1GB memory capacity let them capture their workout milestones. The miCoach also features USB and Bluetooth connectivity for fast file transfers and seamless sync with the miCoach web portal.

The miCoach phone will be available in Europe starting in mid-March, with delivery in the US next year. European pricing will start at about EUR 195, according to the Associated Press. For more on branded brands, check out our sister site trendwatching.com's briefing on the topic. In the meantime, keep your eyes open for more of them!

Source: www.micoach.com

Robot Lawn Mowers Run By Solar

Robot vacuum cleaners are slowly taking off, and robot lawn mowers have been around for over a decade. What's new this month, however, is a mower that not only trims the lawn all by itself, but does so using solar power.

Sweden's Husqvarna just introduced the world's first solar/electric hybrid robot lawnmower, which has no exhaust emissions and uses approximately the same amount of energy as a standard light bulb.

Cleverly targeting time-starved consumers as well as tree-huggers, Husqvarna claims: "It's been calculated that using Automower Solar Hybrid to cut the lawn in an average garden can save 40 hours of labour every year—the equivalent of an extra week's holiday." Owners just lay out a boundary cable that tells the robot where to stop cutting, saving the delphiniums from an untimely death. Cuttings don't need raking, either: the grass is cut so finely that it can be left where it falls and acts as a fertiliser.

Combining two powerful trends—convenience and eco-friendliness—has to be a winner. Who's next? (Related: Indoor composting made easy.)

Source : www.husqvarna.com

Meatless Fast Food

A few weeks ago, we wrote about Zen Burger, a meatless fast-food chain in New York that serves up vegetarian burgers. One of our Springspotters pointed out Yellow Sunshine, which has been operating in Berlin for a few years. Like Zen Burger, Yellow Sunshine's menu only features vegetarian and vegan food, from vegan muffins to the "Miss Piggy Burger"—faux pork chops on a bun.

In Boulder, Colorado, V.G. Burgers has been selling organic fast-food since 2006. V.G. is strictly vegan: no animal-derived products of any kind are used in their burgers, sides or shakes. Their 'green' ethics extend beyond their food offerings, too. The restaurant runs on wind power, and all containers are plant-based and biodegradable: cups, straws and salad containers are made from corn, the cutlery from potato starch, and the soup and burger containers from sugar pulp.

As more consumers begin to grasp the environmental impact of eating meat and move towards a (semi) vegetarian diet, opportunities will no doubt expand for entrepreneurs who can serve up guilty pleasures that aren't quite as guilty.

Wind Powered Lighting

We've written before about small-scale wind turbines that consumers can use to generate their own power, and now a new device uses wind power to create mesmerizing outdoor light.
The Firewinder, also known as the Original Windlight, is a decorative and completely wind-powered outdoor light from the UK-based Firewinder Company that transforms the ebb and flow of the wind into an upwardly spiralling glowing light. Wind from any direction spins a small turbine on the helix-shaped device, thereby lighting up LEDs along its outer edge. With light winds of at least 3 mph, the Firewinder emits a dim glow, but as winds increase, so too does the brilliance of its light. In variable winds, the result is a pulsing, twisting glow that appears to float in mid-air. The Firewinder can be hung or mounted to a post or wall, and it's made of recyclable materials; no batteries or wires are required. It will be available starting late summer in the UK priced at GBP 99.95.

As the greening of the consumer world continues apace, the market for ecologically sustainable goods will only increase. There's no end in sight to the benefits of thinking green!

-www.firewinder.com-

Illuminated House Numbers

Frustrating when you can't find an address number in the dark ?!

Starting a business that sells and install solar-powered illuminated house numbers is not only a very inexpensive business venture to set in motion, it also does not require an special repair or construction skills. The solar-powered illuminated house numbers can be purchased from various manufacturers on a wholesale basis and resold to homeowners. The business can be marketed by designing and distributing promotional fliers or by displaying the product at home and garden trade shows. The product can be sold via the Internet or mail order to do-it-yourself homeowners who can install the product themselves. While this business enterprise may not make you a millionaire, it is a great business to start and operate part-time from a homebased office, and can generate substantial extra income.

T-Shirts With a Story

One of the challenges for charitable organizations large and small is to get potential donors to feel the need for help in an immediate and personal way. By selling t-shirts imprinted with the stories of the specific individuals in need of assistance, Rosa Loves raises the necessary funds while also giving donors a tangible connection with the people they have helped.

Each Rosa Loves t-shirt is created to help a specific person, family or community, and 60 percent of its sales go directly to providing that assistance. The story of those in need is told on each t-shirt through not just a graphical design on the outside, but also a written description of that story on the shirt's inside, just over the wearer's heart. T-shirts are hand-numbered and created in limited runs; once the needed amount has been raised for a particular cause, Rosa Loves stops printing and selling the associated t-shirt. A series of t-shirts over the holidays, for example, was designed to provide holiday meals to 10 families in the St. Augustine, Florida, area, where Rosa Loves is based. In just two weeks, the shirts sold out and Rosa Loves had enough funds to supply the needed meals.

The site's founders explain: "It's usually thoughts like, 'those people over there,' that perpetuate a sense of complacency and lack of concern. Rosa Loves wants to shed light on the stories around us, to give them a real face, a real name."

Rosa Loves was founded in 2006, and is still operating with just a part-time staff. But there's no arguing with its success stories. We've written before about companies that have begun to publish the "life stories" of their products (see, for example, Dole Organic's product life story labels), tapping into consumers' increasing demand for authenticity, transparency and information, and Rosa Loves brings that trend into the social arena. One for other socially focused organizations to emulate!

- www.rosaloves.com -

Pocket Printer from Polaroid

More than half a century ago, the Polaroid camera produced the world’s first instant printed images, spitting out photos just a minute after they were taken. And while today’s cell phones and digital cameras take snap shots that can be transmitted to other phones or computers instantly, people still have an old-fashioned desire to hold printed copies of their snapshots in their hands.

Proof: one of the biggest buzz-generating products to come out of this year’s Las Vegas Consumer Electronics Show was a printer about the size of a deck of cards that can create 2x3 inch photos in under a minute. The printer is the result of a collaboration between Polaroid and Zink, another US firm that developed the device’s inkless printing technology. With a store-delivery date slated for this fall, the Digital Instant Mobile Photo Printer can be linked up via Bluetooth or USB to other portable media such as cell phones and digital cameras—all for a retail price of USD 150, plus USD 4 for a 10-pack of paper.

Granted, the instant mobile printer may not be as disruptive as the iPhone, but it does show creative entrepreneurs how an older company can neatly reinvent itself, even if its products have long been technologically leap-frogged. Polaroid’s pocket-sized printer harks back to the company’s original breakthrough, making media instantly available for sharing. It was an idea that spawned a small-scale social revolution as millions devised innovative uses for the product: everything from instant photos of wedding receptions to the identification-card making devices used by organizations and governments.

No doubt people will devise new uses for Polaroid’s minuscule printer. But the real lesson here is that there’s a wealth of opportunity to be mined in old ideas, provided you have the creativity and the capital required to reinvent them.

- www.polaroid.com -