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On a recent trip out shopping, my wife started to count the number of frozen yogurt storefronts that seem to be popping up in every mall and strip center in our area. We got to talking about what would be the next fad or bubble that would replace them when their time came due. Later that day we spotted something that might be strange enough to be that next fad: Cup of Corn.
The idea is that you buy a cup of corn niblets, top them with flavored butters, cheese, etc. and eat it with a spoon. This is not a side dish, but the actual snack.
We saw it at the higher end mall in our area and people were lined up to buy it. It might actually have enough of a shelf-life that it can sell franchised kiosks and be the next big thing for a few months this summer.It’s so new that it’s hard to find much on the internet about it, but it seems that it might be coming soon to a food court near you.
One thing twitter has given us this week is a wealth of complaints about the gifts people received. I didn’t realize that so many people were so upset they didn’t get an iPhone or a car for Christmas. I wonder how their expletive-laden tweets would have sounded if they got the original iPhone prototype found here.
Yes, that looks like a Princess phone and an early computer had a baby.
Happy New Year!
For those of you who haven’t started yet (I know one or two) time is running out. But for those who have been doing their Christmas shopping this year, it turns out that online shopping continues to grow (15% over last year according to the New York Times). What is interesting is that more people are using mobile phones in the shopping process, though appears they largely browse via these devices and make the actual purchases on a tablet or traditional PC/laptop.
It will be interesting to see how mobile phone shopping and purchasing evolves. In the early days on online banking (just about 15 years ago), consumers were willing to review information on their laptops but felt the desktop was much more suitable to make actual transactions. Back then they indicated they felt that desktop computers were more secure and they’d be less error-prone when entering numbers or commands. It may be that as consumers get more and more used to employing smaller mobile screens in the shopping process, increased transaction numbers will follow.
Who knows, maybe in a few years we’ll see an easy return the Christmas presents you don’t want app.
More and more often developers are skipping the PC when designing consumer applications. The latest example is Google’s new Flipboard competitor: Google Currents. Like Flipboard, the application is designed to make a tablet or mobile magazine reading experience better and more interactive. The one interesting wrinkle is that it’s also set up to import your Google reader feeds, taking that content and making it beautiful. It’s good enough that it makes me want to read the content on my phone instead of on my laptop.
Also this week, Twitter released a new version this week. The trick to get the new look and functionality? You had to download it to your Android or iPhone first.
An article in the Atlantic has been making the rounds on the Internet today (at least here in North Carolina) as it highlights local entrepreneurs. Durham’s Kickstarter Kids highlights a trend in the Triangle, typically known for big IT and pharma. With one of the most educated populaces in the nation, the Triangle (the NC region encompassing Raleigh, Durham, and Chapel Hill) is becoming a hotbed for small start ups and creative ideas. Durham in particular has undergone a renaissance in the past five to ten years, attracting residents and businesses to a downtown that faded as the tobacco industry moved away.
So what are they doing? They’re making custom bound journals by marrying technology with just-in-time printing capabilities, using technology to create custom clothing, and making doughnuts (hey innovation needs fuel).
Durham is a great example of how a once industrial town can reinvent itself through an educated populace, creative thinking, and technology/innovation.
So this morning, the new owners of the social bookmarking site Delicious launched their new, revamped version of the site. Gone are the Yahoo name and many features that long-time users are now complaining about on Twitter and other social networking sites. What they’ve offered is a new Beta site that is not without glitches. This, combined with a recent article in the Atlantic (The Cloud’s My-Mom-Cleaned-My-Room Problem) highlight the problems that many brands (especially online ones) face when they change a product or service.
It’s a clear reminder that users/customers/consumers whatever you want to call them, feel they have a stake in your brand. Sometimes they feel their stake is as much as the actual owner’s. It’s yet to be seen if the new owners of Delicious can make enough changes to keep users attracted to their site, or if they’ll drive away existing users and do little to encourage growth. One thing is clear, they may have misjudged the passion and expectations that many of their customers have for their brand and service.
So Y Combinator, a start up incubator is launching 63 companies into the world today, the most in its history. What is it? It’s a way for start up companies to get the time and funding to ready their ideas and tech for demos with investors. They’ve helped get sites like Dropbox, Posterous, and Reddit up on their feet. So if you want to check out some of the web’s next services from the beginning, now’s your chance.
Check out the list of sites and brief descriptions over on All Things D.
Want to go to dinner with new people? Want to try new places? Maybe a service like Grub with Us will do the trick. Essentially the social networking site lets you browse dinner parties being formed and decide which one to join based on both the cuisine and the people involved. You pay in advance and just show up. You can search by a number of interests including:
- Environmentalism
- Rock Climbing
- Spicy Foods
- Singles
- Food types
- Baseball
We at W5 have always thought the dinner party is a great way to bring people together for a lively discussion. This is a nice twist on social networking that requires people to actually be social. Instead of hiding behind the anonymity of the net, it gives individuals the chance to get together and have real conversations in person.
