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What Next?

Moments of warmth powered by Duracell

Duracell have installed a heating system in a bus shelter that functions on a unique concept; one person can’t activate the system alone. Two conductive pads have been installed on either side of the shelter, and when the circuit is completed through hand-to-hand contact, four vents in the ceiling produce a pleasant jet of warm air. Continuous heat is only achieved by the completed circuit of two or more people working together.

“In this winter of ice storms and a polar vortex, moments of warmth are few and far between. We wanted to see if we could change that.” said Duracell.

This concept effectively brings strangers together by breaking the ice (figuratively AND literally) through human contact and experiencing shared warmth on more than one level.

Video of the week

Wake and bacon

This week’s hilariously strange viral video is courtesy of American meat manufacturer, Oscar Mayer. With classic lines such as, ‘Embrace the sizzle’ and ‘Who knows where that crispy compass will lead you?’ – this has the potential to become a classic. The video, in all it’s weirdness, is actually advertising a bacon scented alarm clock attachment for your iPhone.

It’s ridiculous, it’s kind of creepy and we’re pretty sure we want one.

TV Ratings

Cooking, construction and current affairs

All People National – Free to Air Station Audience
 My Kitchen Rules – Mon Network 7  1,734,000
 My Kitchen Rules – Tue Network 7  1,667,000
 My Kitchen Rules – Wed Network 7  1,609,000
 The Block: Fans V Faves – Sun Network 9  1,568,000
 My Kitchen Rules – Sun Network 7  1,550,000
 Nine News – Sun Network 9  1,326,000
 Seven News – Sun Network 7  1,321,000
 Sunday Night – Sun Network 7  1,297,000
 The Block: Fans V Faves – Mon Network 9  1,283,000
 Nine News – Mon Network 9  1,241,000
Source: OzTAM 04/03/14 – 10/03/014

A novel in 90 minutes

Spritz is about to go public with Samsung’s new line of wearable technology, and it’s going to change the way we read forever. The software developer has created an app that can increase your reading speed to 1,000 words per minute. What a novel idea! The app works by maximising the efficiency of the movements of the human eye that are required to read text in a traditional format. As explained on the Boston-based software developers website; while reading, the eye searches for the middle of a word before the word can be comprehended. This is called the “Optimal Recognition Point” (ORP) and by displaying the words based on their ORP and flashing them rapidly in succession and in red, the reader is able to process words quicker than ever. In this way, our eyes don’t move at all as we see the words, and we can therefore process information instantaneously rather than spend time decoding each word.

You’ve got to try this for yourself.  Visit their website for a full rundown and see how fast YOU can read.

 

 

App of the week

Threes App

Say hello to Threes and it will say hello back many, many times. This fiendishly simple puzzle game is from the team behind Puzzlejuice, Asher Vollmer and Greg Wohlwend (Solipskier, Hundreds, Ridiculous Fishing).

Simple to play, insanely hard to master. There’s no maths involved, you just move numbers around the grid matching pairs. When a pair is matched, the numbers combine and double. There really is no more to it than that. You might think it looks dry but it’s packed with charm.

Why order from a menu when you have an interactive touch table?

To increase customer participation, Pizza Hut have conceived an interactive display that allows diners to design and pay for their pizza on a giant, iPad-like touchscreen table. Once your dream pizza is finished, it’s sent off to the oven and a handy counter reveals how long it will take until it’s ready. While you wait for your food you can pass the time by playing games on the table, using it like a giant tablet. A spokesperson behind the installation, Chris Boyles, has said “we invested a lot of time in UX and visual design. In that sense, it’s pretty real. It makes sure little Billy, Uncle Jim and grandma get their food their way – and have fun ordering too, taking the stress out of a sometimes complicated process.”

Website of the week

Voyando.com

Voyando is an innovative new travel site that turns finding the best deal into a community endeavor, by essentially crowd-sourcing yourself the perfect travel agent. You start by entering the details of where you’d like to go, when you want to leave and the type of vacation you’re after.  Once you’ve input your preferences, you then need to specify how much you’d pay for someone to put it all together for you and Voyando does the rest! This website will save you time, money & un-needed stress, all the while ensuring you get the holiday you deserve.

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