Next September, a fleet of taxis in Barcelona will begin testing a multimedia system which aims to serve both the taxi-driver and the passenger better.

The taxi-drivers are smiling because the satellite-connected system will ensure that the locations of their cabs are constantly being tracked and connected to the local emergency service. A navigational program is also available to guide the driver to a route free of traffic jams. With this system, they can focus on what is perhaps the most important part of their job: delivering the passenger safely and promptly to the destination.

Passengers are smiling too; a taxi ride is no longer a boring affair. With a touch screen connected to the Internet, they can read their online newspapers, listen to music, watch digital films, find information on the city and do so much more. And if the passengers are from abroad and the driver doesn't understand what they are saying, an online translation program can help to facilitate communication.

These multimedia taxis are part of the Europetaxi project being promoted by Barcelona's Union of the Catalan Taxi. Although similar projects can be found in cities like New York and Paris, Barcelona's is by far the most ambitious. Imagine finding such cabs in your home city; a taxi journey will never be the same again!

T-Mobile UK has introduced a new mobile newspaper service: News Express, which is delivered directly to customers' mobile phones. News Express consists of four channels which carry a series of articles covering news, sports, weather and entertainment. There are two daily editions, one published at 8am and the other at 5pm, with additional ad-hoc breaking news updates throughout the day. All reports are accompanied by full-colour pictures, such as snapshots of David Beckham scoring with a wonderful free kick.

News Express is based on Macromedia’s Flash Lite 1.1 technology which enables subscribers to get 'always-on', instant access to news stories as well as easy navigation throughout all articles. Updates are made automatically via software that runs in the background; this means that subscribers can read information off-line without the fuss of having to connect and wait for a while for the latest news. The graphical interface of News Express is simple and easy-to-use - what subscribers need to do is simply to click on an icon to access the latest information. Indeed, much like Whopla! (the world's first mobile magazine we described the other time), News Express is a revolutionary innovation which brings the power of a rich multimedia reading experience to the mobile phone.

Read: T-Mobile UK Press Release

You may have sent many postcards to your friends and loved ones before, but have you tried sending a custom MMS postcard?

T-Mobile Austria has announced a new service giving T-Mobile customers the ability to send their personal MMS photo, including a message, as a postcard to friends and family from over 60 countries. Photos taken with an MMS-enabled mobile phone can be set in a neutral background or developed with pre-installed templates such as 'Love', 'Birthday' and 'Party'. Pictures from a wide library of pre-defined images can also be sent along with the chosen template.

How does it work? Users send an MMS with an image and message text to postkarte@t-mobile.at. Then, they will be informed of a link where the recipient's address can be entered. Once the order has been placed, the user will receive an SMS confirmation sent to their mobile phone. The postcard will then be relayed automatically to the server of the application supplier, MTIT, developed and mailed to the recipient by post.

This MMS postcards service costs 1.50 euros plus connection charges. Now sending postcards will never be the same again! ;-)

Read:
T-Mobile Press Release
No-Hassle, Custom MMS Postcards Could Shine This Holiday Season [HP m-pulse Magazine]

Four inventors working for Toyota in Japan have filed a patent for a car that can express all sorts of emotions: cry, laugh, wink, anything. It can, for example, express its anger at another car cutting into traffic by crouching low on its wheels and beaming out red headlights like an offended lion.

The car they envision also has an antenna that wags, an adjustable body height, headlights that vary in intensity and hood slits and ornamentation designed to look like eyebrows, eyelids and tears. These components of the car can glow with coloured lights to simulate moods and physical features. It comes with a computer system that detects road and vehicle conditions (like steering angle, braking and speed) and combine the driver's input about his/her mood to express a certain emotion.

What will we have next? A whining aeroplane? A sulking train?

Read: Patents: An Automobile With Feelings [The New York Times]

There are plenty of new avenues to spend your advertising dollars in. Video and online game advertising is officially big business, according to an article from Clickz.com. For example, you could advertise in Multi-user Dungeon (MUD) as well as Massively Multiplayer Online Game (MMOG) to effectively reach the 18-34 year-old male demographic group.

Product placement and branding by third-party advertisers can be incorporated in many popular games and in many ways. For example, Electronic Arts's "Need for Speed Underground" allows gamers to modify their racing cars with parts and equipment from real-world brands. In Sony's "Gran Turismo," players not only enjoy racing with each other at breakneck speed, they are also exposed to real-life advertiser sponsorships around the racetrack.

Young male consumers spend a lot of time gaming, so be sure to consider video game advertising for your marketing campaign! :)

Read: You Don't Know Jack... About Online Gaming [Clickz Network]

Nike's new 'Art of Speed' blog on Gawker.com is an experiment which you will want to watch closely if you're an advertiser or marketer. For 'Art of Speed', Nike commissioned 15 talented young filmmakers around the world to interpret the idea of speed. Over the course of 20 days, the weblog will showcase these innovative directors, their short films, and the digital technology behind the scenes. The blog has since ended on 30 June, 2004.

The results of this teamup will reveal a lot about whether a mainstream marketer can marry its message to the hip content of a blog such as Gawker, and, in doing so, gain access to the influential, well-connected blogging community. And if Nike does succeed in getting its message arcoss, you should be serioudly consider weblogs as an effective medium of advertisng! At the very least, it should some low-level buzz for your business, so says Steve Hall, the publisher of the Adrants weblog.

Read: Nike Tries a New Medium for Advertising: The Blog [The New York Times]

Let's play ball! Mindball is a game where two players control a ball with their brain waves. The most relaxed player wins the game by making the ball roll over to the opponent´s goal, with his brain waves as the only form of aid. Surprising, eh? A ball game without all the adrenaline and the aggression.

The brain waves are detected by sensors attached to the headbands. The sensors (electrodes) are connected to a biosensor system which registers the electrical activity in the brains.

It's hard to say who will win the game because the transition from calm to excitement and vice versa happens very quickly. Mindball is an exciting audience-friendly game where the audience can follow the game both by watching the ball on the table as well as watching the hopefully relaxed faces of the players. This innovative game turns the typical concept of competition upside down and challenges consumers to think in new ways.

Read: Mindball Product Page

Owners of a USA vineyard are now using Wi-Fi technology to more carefully monitor growing conditions at their site.

California-based Accenture Technology Labs installed 40 wireless units on existing trellising posts around the 30-acre vineyard and fitted them with sensors to measure microclimate data such as soil, air temperature, moisture content, and leaf wetness. The data is sent from sensor to sensor, forming a Mobile Ad-hoc Network (MANET), which requires less power and equipment than networks using wires or radio transmitters.

Real-time conditions in the vineyard can then be monitored on a secured Web site. The information can help vineyard managers make decisions about when, where and how much to water vines or spray to control mildew. Also, vineyard managers can have the wireless system alert them if something is amiss, such as frost or oversaturated soil.

Although the technology has been tested only for a few months, the initial results are positive. Accenture is developing plans to test the technology in larger vineyards. Certainly, wireless technology can be applied to any industry anywhere.

Read: Wi-Fi Hits the Vineyard [Wine Spectator]

London's Victoria and Albert Museum has a new exhibition that completely transforms the entire process of visiting a gallery with its innovative sound installations.

The exhibition, 'Shhh... Sounds in Spaces', is unique in that the V&A museum has invited 10 different musicians and artists to provide sound-pieces to accompany the collection of sculpture, furniture and fasion in the different rooms and spaces. The contributors vary from big names like Gillian Wearing and Jeremy Deller, to musicians like Roots Manuva, and David Byrne.

Your journey begins in the museum's Contemporary Space, where visitors collect headphones, a custom-made MP3 player and a map that leads them through the series of sound installations. Infra-red sensors throughout the museum trigger the in-ear soundtracks which vary dramatically from space to space, ranging from large-scale soundscapes to spoken pieces in response to a single art object.

Now that's 'modern' art, isn't it?

Read: BBC Feature

Electrical goods retailers are known to offer a money-back guarantee if you're not satisfied with your purchase, but we didn't know that you could extend that concept to the Food & Beverage industry.

Here in Singapore, CoolBusinessIdeas.com has spotted several hawkers selling their food with a money-back guarantee. There's one stall selling pancakes with peanut, red bean or cheese filling. Outside this stall hangs a big sign that says: "Money Back Guarantee". And the stall owner is true to the promise of a full refund, so long as you ask for it.

Apparently, this marketing tool is quite effective. So far, very few customers have asked for a full refund. Besides, the money-back guarantee will get more people to try the food which may translates into a bigger customer base in the future.

So if you find this money-back guarantee concept feasible in your industry, why not give it a try? ;-)

Whenever you need to know something, just SMS the Any Question Answered (AQA) service on 63336.

Be it the times of last trains, weather reports for the London marathon, shirt numbers of Manchester United players, recommendations for birthday celebrations, next plane to New York, best odds offered in a horse race, details of film showing times, or which restaurant to eat at next; customers on Orange and Vodafone mobile networks in the UK will be able to have any questions answered via this unique service. AQA runs on IssueBits's 'patent-pending' technology, a combination of intelligent computer algorithms, database technology and human researchers.

According to IssueBits, 'within minutes AQA will return a concise answer'. The company says questions can be worded in any way and promise a single return text. The simplicity of AQA, with just one number 63336 for all customers, means that it will have broad appeal to mobile phone users.

The billing details of questions asked will automatically appear on customer's phone bills at the cost of a pound plus a text message.

Read: A Very Smart Phone [TIME]

CoolBusinessIdeas Newsletter Issue 4 - July 4, 2004

New Business Ideas/Opportunities Featured In This Issue:

• Shop for Clothes at Home!
The days of driving into town, looking for a parking space, fighting with others for changing rooms, zipping in and out of new types of clothes, and eventually going home frustrated and empty-handed may be over thanks to Topshop To Go.

• How To Become a Global Retailer Instantly
Where can retail shops find inexpensive and effective advertising for selling their products globally? Well, the answer lies in the Internet landscape where a worldwide audience can be found.

• Stylish Media Racks!
Is your CD rack an eyesore? Are you having storage problems? If your answer is yes to any of the above question, then it is high time that you consider getting a rack that is stylish and space saving… such as the Mechanica media racks!

• Abre-Facil ("Easy Open")
Don't you just hate it when the task of opening a can is so painful? Or troublesome? Well, why not have a can that is easy to open, ensures freshness and what's more: it can be reclosed to be stored or refrigerated for future use?

Don't you just hate it when the task of opening a can is so painful? Or troublesome? Despite the fact that can-openers are becoming increasingly sophisticated, it still is a little cumbersome to have to use it just to open a can. Well, why not have a can that is easy to open, ensures freshness and what's more: it can be reclosed to be stored or refrigerated for future use! Now that feature alone would receive the approvals of housewives!

The invention of the Abre-Facil (Brazilian for "easy open") can, which is patented by Rojek (a major can maker in Brazil), consists of a can end which has a central vent hole sealed using a plastic plug. Once the seal is broken, the internal vacuum formed during the sterilization process is released by removing the plug and the end can be taken off. An additional benefit is that the end has a unique reclosable feature (Source:www.apeal.org). It quickly attracted the attention of the major fillers in Brazil. An additional advantage was the stackability of the pack due to the necking in of the top of the can giving greater stability on the supermarket shelf and during shipping.

Let's Get Down To Business...
It goes to show that by being just a little bit more creative and innovative, an additional small feature to your product might actually attract much more consumers to buy your product. We should learn to focus on the finer details of products at times. For instance, the Abre-Facil can is essential just like your normal can, with the dimensions being basically the same. However, its unique and additional feature of the lid is what sets it apart from other cans. This feature has attracted more clients (food companies) because it has shown that consumers of canned-food favour the practicability of this new feature. Sometimes, we do not have to come up with a new break-through design to win over the hearts of consumers. Rather, we could innovate and improve upon and already existing product, keeping in mind that it is the consumers that we have to please. By just tweaking a product, who knows, you might just secure a wider consumer base! :)

Related Ideas & Trends
Space-saving, Convenient Cup Dispensers
The Swiss Army Knife of the Eyewear Industry
Innovation + Style = Lots of Customers
Cereal That Taste Like Cookies
http://www.apeal.org/Contents/Inno/Pub11-10.html
http://www.packworld.com/articles/Features/10793.html

Is your CD rack an eyesore? Are you having storage problems? If your answer is yes to any of the above question, then it is high time that you consider getting a rack that is stylish and space saving… such as the Mechanica media racks!

What's more, the shelf spacing is fully adjustable and one could just add more shelves at any time! The sheer convenience and the sleek designs sure do leave people yearning for one of these shelves.

In fact, we did feature several articles in previous issues of our CoolBusinessIdeas newsletter about the qualities that customers look out for in consumer goods and products. Things like performance, functionality, comfort, durability and style. So be sure to read what we have to say about the Hides™ multi-function eyewear as well as the Bumble-Free™ cup dispensers.

Let's Get Down To Business...
The AV Mechanica media racks feature unparalleled flexibility - CDs, DVDs, VHS or Beta storage in any combination! This flexibility definitely entices customers to buy their racks. Producers should always bear in mind that consumers like practicability and style. So if a producer can successfully fuse both factors together in a product, the thirst for the product would then be greater.

Related Ideas & Trends
Space-saving, Convenient Cup Dispensers
The Swiss Army Knife of the Eyewear Industry
http://www.avmechanica.com/info%20pgs/Product_intro.htm

Where can retail shops find inexpensive and effective advertising for selling their products globally? Well, the answer lies in the Internet landscape where a worldwide audience can be found. Are you thinking of buying banner ads on Yahoo! and MSN? Sure, they are the most-visited websites today, but it costs thousands of dollars and banner ads are increasingly being ignored by Internet users. However, CoolBusinessIdeas.com has spotted an emerging form of online advertising that is not only cheap (compared to advertising with Yahoo! and co), but also effective.

Keeping retailing truly virtual: Style.com, the online home of Vogue and W magazines, recently introduced TheShop, which features, on a weekly basis, a rotating handful of online boutiques, ranging from hip, affordable work and weekend wear from Club Monaco to elaborate, collectable shoes by Edmundo Castillo (Source: Style.com). Look at that - an online magazine that provides cool e-tailing features too! The collaboration is a hit simply because TheShop adds features to Style.com, satisfying consumers' needs for original and surprising apparel, and establishing a platform for an abundance of original products from both established designers and new talent. E-tailers are also able to get good response almost instantly from the relevant, highly-targeted consumer group through this effective form of online selling.

Let's Get Down To Business...
Any retailer, by collaborating with international publications that have a worldwide audience, would set itself successfully apart from its competitors. The effective platform on which the retailer sells its products and services provides near-instant visibility and allows 'real-world' companies to enter uncharted markets on the cheap. Tapping the Internet with the help of well-known e-magazines and e-newsletters can make you a global e-tailer almost instantly. Indeed, there has been a surge in advertising and marketing with such online publications in recent times. In short, it's one of those trends that should be incorporated in every existing and new marketing and advertising strategy. In the near future, CoolBusinessIdeas.com could be providing such advertising services too. Who knows, maybe your brand will pop up on our newsletter? ;-)

Related Ideas & Trends
Look At Those Walking Ads!
The Thing About Toys and Action Figures
http://www.style.com

The days of driving into town, looking for a parking space, fighting with others for changing rooms, zipping in and out of new types of clothes, and eventually going home frustrated and empty-handed may be over. Now all you have to do is simply to pick up the phone and a personal stylist will appear at your home (or even your office!) with a set of clothes that suit you best.

This is the idea behind Topshop To Go, a revolutionary initiative of the London-based Topshop, the cutting-edge high street store. Indeed, living rooms and office spaces are the newest boutiques in the fashion scene.

This is how Topshop To Go works: Customers book an appointment with Topshop, giving its style advisors an indication of the types of clothes that they like, new fashion accessories they are interested in trying out, and the colours and sizes that suit their taste. Topshop then selects and brings suitable clothes to the customer's home or office. There, Topshop's style advisors present styling and fashion advice as customers try on the clothes. This personal home shopping service allows customers to try on clothes in the absence of harsh department store lights and long snaking queues for changing rooms. It's the kind of personal service that has previously been reserved for high-spending designer shoppers or celebrities, but now everyone, including you, can get similar treatment. There is no charge for the service and no obligation to buy. Unfortunately, it is currently only available within London. (Source: Times Online UK)

Let's Get Down To Business...
Just like Cereality (the cereal restaurant we featured in the last issue of our newsletter) which brings cereal-eating out of the house, Topshop has brought fashion retailing into the homes of the masses. The idea is to replicate the consumption of consumer goods and services which are traditionally consumed at home in an outdoors shopping environment, and vice versa for outdoor retailing.

This trend of home shopping is not only a form of entertainment, but consumers also appreciate the comfortable retail environment and sense of community it provides. The convenience it brings to the customers would also be a huge hit with them!

Related Ideas & Trends
Fast Food Cereal
http://www.topshop.co.uk/togo
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2104-1109835,00.html