Nokia to take location-based social networking mainstream
Location-based social networking could soon go mainstream with today’s news that Nokia, the world’s leading mobile cellphone manufacturer, has acquired Berlin-based Plazes.
Founded in 2005, Plazes lets “friends†update each other about what they are doing when and where, resulting in a Twitter-like activity stream but with integrated geo-tagging. Users can then subscribe to any of their friends’ activity streams or to groups of friends, as well as to specific locations known as “Plazesâ€Â. Updates can be done either on Plazes.com or by mobile phone (via text messaging) or using a number of third-party applications that utilize the Plazes’ publicly available API.
read more here
At Vintage Plant you can buy and sell plants with a history; second-hand plants that need a new home or third-generation cuttings with an old family-tree. Instead of throwing an old and tired plant in the bin you can come to Vintage Plant and they will try to find it a new home. The plant’s journeys will be traced and mapped out for you to view on the website. (If you are in Stockholm this summer there is a very nice café next to the Vintage Plant shop.)
LittleBits is a library of discrete electronic components pre-assembled in tiny circuit boards. Just as Legos allow you to create complex structures with very little engineering knowledge, littleBits are simple, intuitive, space-sensitive blocks that make prototyping with sophisticated electronics a matter of snapping small magnets together. With a growing number of available modules, littleBits aims to move electronics from late stages of the design process to its earliest ones, and from the hands of experts, to those of artists, makers and designers.
Smart Design is working on this toolkit to make sketching in hardware very easy to use. Little Bits work without a computer. I think its really interesting, and I was helping a little bit on this project (I am still interning at Smart Design San Francisco) and will go to Smart New York soon and probably get some more insights.
Representatives from price comparison website, www.moneysupermarket.com wandered the streets this morning wearing sandwich boards offering a free £5 note to anyone who asked. Despite encountering over 1800 people, only 28 passers by bothered to take advantage of the offer.
The UroClubâ„¢ is intended to eliminate anxiety and any feeling of uneasiness on the course. It can be emptied at the nearest restroom or later on, when the golfer returns home
Hi all,
A quick note to let the world knows that the Momentum website is online at http://www.dh.umu.se/momentum. Check out the great projects, especially from the six graduating Interaction Design students.
Wellington Zoo set out to bring consumers face to face with animals and spur interest in species endangerment. They deployed a new technology from Human Interface Technology Laboratory in New Zealand produce what they call “augmented reality“: special effects that seemingly pop animals off the page by using ordinary cameras in mobile phones. The results for the campaign were less than tame: it produced a 30% increase in visitors through the front gates of the zoo.
Well, this would make drinking 3,5% folköl a lot more enjoyable experience. A videogame that you control with your pee.
well, hello e.
E’s flagship device is a small wearable/portable device with fine aesthetic and a simple, natural interaction. Consumers can use this device to connect to each other’s social network services like LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter by holding two devices together, much like a handshake. 
Using mobile.processing this guy connects arduino to a mobile phone.
A Diecimila board + USB Mini-B jack in a very small breadboard-ready package. Lovely!
The Arduino Nano is available for pre-order. Order now and get 10% off; boards will ship on the 16th of June.
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Between August 18th and 29th we will run 7 simultaneous workshops in open software and hardware for designers and artists at our studio in Malmo, Sweden. Themes will be related to either physical computing or computer vision. There are both basic and advanced workshops that vary in length between 2 and 3 days.
Basic Arduino
Physical Gaming
Alternative Displays
Deep Cuts
Basic Processing
Let’s Dance in Processing
Processing Lifeforms
Elmanco has a very comprehensive list of design blogs in all sort of languages. It’ll take years to read them all. Check it out.