New Business Ideas/Opportunities Featured In This Issue:

RETAIL
TV Wardrobe
Shopping enabled entertainment gives a whole new meaning to product placement where viewers no longer have to be persuaded by advertisers to buy their products, but instead their brands are being actively sought-out by a celebrity-obsessed culture.

CONSUMER GOODS
Laser Scissors
Talking about scissors is general but talking about it with laser is something good and new. According to the website, “The scissor blades are stainless steel and cut very clean with a micro serrated edge”.

Outer Skin for SmartPhones
The new trend in SmartPhones is to encase the brains of the phone in a nice, smooth and rubbery outer skin. The Blackjack, the Dash and the Black Motorola Q all have this nice feel to the outside. With new cell phone deductibles on your "insurance" policies, it makes sense to protect both the case and the screen.

Knork
Inventor Mike Miller thought of the idea while eating pizza with his buddies. It dawned on him how to solve the problem of eating a pepperoni pie politely: Integrate a fork with the functionality of a knife.

MEDIA & PUBLISHING
Botttle Mag
Coca-Cola Belgium will be the first soft drink company to use the Magazine on a Bottle concept. On Product Publishing, which created the innovative labelling technology, worked closely with Coca-Cola Belgium to adapt the labels to Coke's iconic curvy bottle.

ENTERTAINMENT
Bar-bingo
The only good cause in today's bar-bingo scene in Manhattan is having a good time while competing for silly prizes like NASCAR mugs. Young bingo buffs follow the floating game to different bars around the city, creating an ad hoc community.

GADGETS
PumpOne iPod
The clever folks at PumpOne noticed that a lot of people work out with their iPods, so they've designed workout programs that play on any model that displays images. It also works on nanos, Zunes and smartphones with memory and color screens.

ADVERTISING
Zooppa Video Ads
A new website gives advertisers the chance to brief online video ad developers for considerably less than the cost of a production agency. It’s a win-win situation for advertisers on Zooppa, a new website launched this week. It is essentially a platform for paid, user generated video, with a twist.

FOOD & BEVERAGE
Caffeinated Seeds
Now they're selling sunflower seeds laced with energy boosters like caffeine, taurine, lysine, and ginseng. The product named, "SumSeeds", are described as premium roasted sunflower seeds supercharged with the same stuff found in "energy" sodas.

MOBILE
Where’s my Starbucks
Coffee behemoth Starbucks has launched a new cell phone-based service that lets you efficiently locate the nearest store and feed your addiction get your caffeine buzz on.

DESIGN
Fashion Flu Mask
Flu masks get some fashionista flavor with the creations of New Yorker Patricia Lamberti, decorated with accoutrements like floral appliqués, leopard fabrics and satin ribbons, these protectors against pandemics strive to shed the shackles of postindustrial supply store.

Maximum Protection Umbrella
American industrialists try to build better mousetraps, but northern Europeans apparently need better umbrellas. The SENZ Umbrella has been designed to directly fill a need - to prevent a strong wind from turning an umbrella inside out. The SENZ team has redesigned the umbrella to be both stronger and more aerodynamic.

FASHION
Smashing Darlings
With a focus on helping independent fashion designers market their talents in new ways, SmashingDarling offers a unique experience for buyers, sellers, and anyone interested in fashion that thinks outside the mall.

I’m Not a Plastic Bag
A bag that retails for £5 but is now changing hands for up to £200 on eBay. A bag so hot that it was chosen as the official goodie-bag for guests at the 2007 Vanity Fair Oscar-night party. A bag that proclaims, on the cream canvas exterior between its grosgrain trim: "I'm Not a Plastic Bag."

TECHNOLOGY
Tune-In Bed
Since then, we've seen iBelts, Inflatable iChairs, iProjectors, iLoo Roll, you name it. What on earth is next? Why, the Tune-In Bed, of course! This is no ordinary iPod dock! You can sleep in it! This is also no ordinary bed! It plays music from your iPod! Of course, the sound and mattress quality are totally irrelevant in view of the astounding novelty of this idea!

MONEY & FINANCE
Allowance 2.0
A recent slew of “allowance 2.0” tween-friendly debit programs are giving tweens responsibility for their own spending and we expect to see more products and services fulfilling similar needs. Example is PAYjr; this allowance-tracking website allows parents to create lists of chores with corresponding dollar amounts.

HEALTH & BEAUTY
Easy Veins
The Luminetx VeinViewer claims to make the process a bit less painful, by showing the needle-wielding nurse exactly where to poke to get that vein straight off. It uses near infrared light to detect veins inside our body.

View this issue of the CoolBusinessIdeas Newsletter by clicking here. Subscribe for free by clicking here

The Cool Hunter: Techno craftsman Gresso (http://www.gresso.com) are better known for their African Blackwood mobile phones. The collection of phones are beautifully constructed out of 200 year old wood and have placed Gresso in a unique market where wooden craftsmanship meets technology. Now, Gresso have developed their own line of MP3 players called, The Symphonia Collection. The model is again crafted from African Black wood, whilst the front panel is made of a scratch resistant 18 carat gold surface. The idea behind it's conception is for the Symphonia to be worn as a piece of jewelry rather than an MP3 on a lanyard. With this exceptional finish, this is easily achieved. The Symphonia Collection holds 1 GB of memory and when it debuts later this year will be priced between US$4000 - $6500.

The $6000 MP3 Player [The Cool Hunter]

Domanic Tay is introducing his fatigue to fitness program, Ultimate "Fatigue To Fitness" which will teach and guide you along to kiss goodbye to fatigue and welcome a new toned body. You will learn:

- Breaking out the dangerous vicious cycle of ill health

- 2 things to do before you exercise that could dramatically change your fitness forever

- 7 energy-boosting exercises you can do anytime

- The keys to relaxing your mind

- The top energy drainer at work and how knowing this can turn it to your advantage

- And much, much more...!

To learn more about the programme "Fatigue to Fitness", visit his website at http://fatiguetofitness.com/

This post is a sponsored blog post.

CoolBuzz: Talking about scissors is general but talking about it with laser is something good and new. Every time you cannot mark the area that you have to cut, with a marker. And, without marking it is very difficult to achieve sheer cutting. Laser Scissors is designed with an in-built laser light on the handle. According to the website, “The scissor blades are stainless steel and cut very clean with a micro serrated edge”.

No wobbly cutting with Laser Scissors [CoolBuzz]

Springwise: Coca-Cola Belgium will be the first soft drink company to use the Magazine on a Bottle concept. On Product Publishing, which created the innovative labelling technology, worked closely with Coca-Cola Belgium to adapt the labels to Coke's iconic curvy bottle.

The first bottles of Coca-Cola Light (chilled 500 ml PET) with GLAM*IT mini-mag attached will be on the shelves in April 2007. Published by Sanoma, GLAM*IT is a Belgian fashion and beauty magazine targeted to a young, female audience. Which makes for a good fit with Light/Diet Coke buyers. As stated by Mie Van der Auwera, editor of GLAM*IT: "Adapting editorial content for another brand is only credible if brand values mutually match. In the case of Coca-Cola Light and GLAM*IT that was no problem. That's why it results in a powerful communication tool for both brands." The removable 24-page magazine is a 'light' version of GLAM*IT, featuring typical content for the mag, but reduced to fit the bottle.

Magazine On A Bottle [Springwise]

Iconoculture: Bingo's kitschy appeal dates back to gay bingo nights that raised money for AIDS charities, which we told you about in 2002. Though drag queens still occasionally call the numbers at Mo's, the only good cause in today's bar-bingo scene in Manhattan is having a good time while competing for silly prizes like NASCAR mugs.

Young bingo buffs follow the floating game to different bars around the city, creating an ad hoc community. Singles bars are so last century. Like bowling alleys and roller rinks, bar bingo offers scenesters the chance to meet somebody while having some good old-fashioned retro kitschy fun.

Bingo bellies up to the bar [Iconoculture]

Popgadget: The clever folks at PumpOne noticed that a lot of people work out with their iPods, so they've designed workout programs that play on any model that displays images. (I may have to finally upgrade my second gen ipod, circa 2003!) It also works on nanos, Zunes and smartphones with memory and color screens. The programs have names such as PumpedForLife, PumpedAsanas, and PumpedForSummer. Each workout includes instructions, tips and visuals you can watch at your own pace.

Areas of focus are strength, weight loss, endurance, flexibility and heart health. They offer a variety of trainers, which is nice because personality matters when you are receiving instruction. On January 1, they also started a service to download workouts to your mobile phone.

Finally, the best part is that you can still listen to your playlists while you work out.

PumpOne iPod workouts [Popgadget]

Strange New Products: Now they're selling sunflower seeds laced with energy boosters like caffeine, taurine, lysine, and ginseng.

The product named, "SumSeeds", are described as premium roasted sunflower seeds supercharged with the same stuff found in "energy" sodas. The manufacturer then goes on to boast the natural goodness of sunflower seeds, such as Vitamin E, Zinc and Iron, to make its product doubly good.

I imagine something like this will be popular with baseball players.

Caffeinated Sunflower Seeds [Strange New Products]

Fast Company: We're talking about consumers who want to own the same pair of jeans that Meredith wears on "Grey's Anatomy" or a dress that was seen on Gabrielle's character on "Desperate Housewives." The Times dubs this new phenomenon "shopping-enabled entertainment," a rapidly-growing marketplace now aided by several new websites selling the most popular and fashionable of the as-seen-on-TV products to consumers.

Shopping enabled entertainment gives a whole new meaning to product placement where viewers no longer have to be persuaded by advertisers to buy their products, but instead their brands are being actively sought-out by a celebrity-obsessed culture.

I first came across such fans last summer when reading message board posts on a design magazine's website. One fan had just seen the movie "The Break Up" with Jennifer Anniston and Vince Vaughn and was dying to locate the living room furniture used to decorate the couple's condo. The message board soon revealed hundreds of other fans who had admired the set as well and were seeking advice on which stores carried the exact couch, the end table and even the paint color on the walls.

Now, websites such as SeenON.com or StarStyle.com cater exclusively to these consumer demands and fans no longer have to fret over where to find their favorite TV items; a visit to the sites reveals just how extensive this market has become. As reported in the Times article, these websites don't just sell the clothes and accessories worn by characters on more than 100 televisions shows and movies, they also allow visitors to take virtual tours of TV and movie sets to purchase the tiniest details such as the Tupperware set used by Bree on an episode of "Desperate Housewives."

Need A New Wardrobe? Shop TV [Fast Company]

CNET: Coffee behemoth Starbucks has launched a new cell phone-based service that lets you efficiently locate the nearest store and feed your addiction get your caffeine buzz on. Starting today, when you send a text message with the ZIP code of your location to the number "MYSBUX" (697289), you'll receive another text with the addresses of the three nearest Starbucks locations. It won't cost you anything besides your cell phone plan's normal texting fees.

Starving for Starbucks? Just use a text message [CNET]

Iconoculture: Flu masks get some fashionista flavor with the creations of New Yorker Patricia Lamberti, who has taken her Fashion Flu Masks where no flu masks have gone before. Decorated with accoutrements like floral appliqués, leopard fabrics and satin ribbons, these protectors against pandemics strive to shed the shackles of postindustrial supply store.
But let's face it: A fibrous oblong cover that obscures your nose, mouth, chin and cheekbones is pretty hard to make into anything beautiful. Still, it's an attempt to say: Sick is bad enough, OK? We don't have to look that way.

Paranoia levels vary among consumers, but choices are starting to appear that make taking control seem less about sacrifice, more about seamless integration.

Flu masks get personal: Combine practical with fashionable [Iconoculture]

BizReport: A new website gives advertisers the chance to brief online video ad developers for considerably less than the cost of a production agency.

It’s a win-win situation for advertisers on Zooppa, a new website launched this week. It is essentially a platform for paid, user generated video, with a twist.

Businesses are encouraged to supply advertising briefs, including specifics such as target audience, product details, core message and brand guidelines. Users create video ads which are then entered in to a contest where they are reviewed and voted on by other Zooppa users. At the time of writing details of the value of the prizes are not known.

"Zooppa.com's purpose is to create a community of professional and amateur creatives and videomakers that compete in creating the best and the most viral video commercials ever,” said Zooppa’s Allison Green.

Advertisers can use new website for online ad production [BizReport]

SmashingDarling.com: We are an online community/marketplace for indie fashion designers and buyers. With a focus on helping independent fashion designers market their talents in new ways, SmashingDarling offers a unique experience for buyers, sellers, and anyone interested in fashion that thinks outside the mall. At SmashingDarling.com you sell it, we take payment for it, you ship it, and then we pay you. It's as simple as that.

SmashingDarling.com

Gadgetnutz: The new trend in SmartPhones (Windows Mobile ones, anyway) is to encase the brains of the phone in a nice, smooth and rubbery outer skin. The Blackjack, the Dash and the Black Motorola Q all have this nice feel to the outside. While it does seem to be more resistant to scratches to have this kind of outer case, your valuable investment is still prone to scratches, smudges and to breaking if dropped. With new cell phone deductibles on your "insurance" policies, it makes sense to protect both the case and the screen.

Vaja has long been regarded as the "Premier" leather case for everything from iPods to PDA's (remember them) to Phones. It is not surprising then that Vaja has released new cases for the very sexy Motorola Q. These cases are for all versions of the Q with the standard battery. If you own a Q and care about preserving its "Sexiness" you owe it to yourself to read on for the review.

Vaja has long been known as one of the “Premier” leather case manufacturers in the world. Their cases are custom ordered – the user picks out the type of leather and the color combination and can even get it engraved. They are known for using premium full grained Argentinean Cowhide which is both beautiful to look at and smell and very durable.

Can You Make This Phone Any Sexier? [Gadgetnutz]

TrendCentral: With much of tweens’ entertainment—and thus their spending—happening online and now even through gaming consoles (PS3 games cost $8 per download), it has become more difficult for parents to track what their kids are charging to their credit cards. A recent slew of “allowance 2.0” tween-friendly debit programs are giving tweens responsibility for their own spending and we expect to see more products and services fulfilling similar needs. Example is PAYjr; this allowance-tracking website allows parents to create lists of chores with corresponding dollar amounts; when kids check off their completed chores money is automatically transferred to a prepaid debit card.

Tween-friendly debit programs [TrendCentral]

Popgadget: American industrialists try to build better mousetraps, but northern Europeans apparently need better umbrellas. The SENZ Umbrella has been designed to directly fill a need - to prevent a strong wind from turning an umbrella inside out. The SENZ team has redesigned the umbrella to be both stronger and more aerodynamic. The asymmetric shape keeps the rain from hitting the face, and it acts as a weather vane to help reorient the canopy for maximum protection. The SENZ Original opens up to about one square meter, and the Mini folds down to a typical handbag size.

The designers have even addressed the "eye poke effect" from those little metal caps that stick out the sides of conventional umbrellas. SENZ has capped the ends of the umbrella spines with flat and wide plastic disks to protect the ever important eyesight.

Senz is the almost unbreakable umbrella [Popgadget]

Shiny Shiny: Young and old, nobody likes needles. But we all have to put up with them from time to time, whether you're doing 'something amazing today' by giving blood, or just having a plain old blood test.

The Luminetx VeinViewer claims to make the process a bit less painful, by showing the needle-wielding nurse exactly where to poke to get that vein straight off. It uses near infrared light to detect veins inside our body. The near infrared light reflects off tissues surrounding veins but not the blood cells inside veins. The system picks up the reflected light, processes it, and then beams a picture back onto our skin, highlighting the vein locations. The result is a strange green web on a piece of plastic on your arm, showing the whereabouts of your veins, so those stab-happy medical people can get it right first time!

Luminetx VeinViewer reveals your veins [Shiny Shiny]

DailyCandy: If it were up to you, you’d wrap yourself in pizza and eat your way out.

But since there’s a little thing called manners, settle for a Knork instead.

Inventor Mike Miller thought of the idea while eating pizza with his buddies. It dawned on him how to solve the problem of eating a pepperoni pie politely: Integrate a fork with the functionality of a knife. The result looks like a traditional fork but has beveled, rounded edges that work as a knife when using a rocking motion over grub.

Knork It Over [DailyCandy]

The Independent (Online Edition): It's just a bag. All right, so it's a tote bag designed by Anya Hindmarch, the queen of Bagland. A bag that retails for £5 but is now changing hands for up to £200 on eBay. A bag so hot that it was chosen as the official goodie-bag for guests at the 2007 Vanity Fair Oscar-night party. A bag that proclaims, on the cream canvas exterior between its grosgrain trim: "I'm Not a Plastic Bag." But a bag, nonetheless: something to carry groceries in. Not something, one might think, with the power to change the world.

Or is it? Hindmarch's creation is doing much more than making celebrities look good on the streets of New York, Paris and London. It is the must-have fashion accessory of the year - and the most successful endeavour yet by We Are What We Do, a non-profit British campaign group that has set out to change the world with baby steps. Suddenly, those baby steps are turning into a run.

We Are What We Do has published two books since its birth in 2004. The first, Change the World for a Fiver, has sold 750,000 copies. The second, Change the World 9 to 5, released in September, is also recording huge sales. They list "actions" to improve our environmental, community and personal behaviour, such as "Smile and smile back"; "Turn off the tap while brushing your teeth"; and "decline plastic bags wherever possible". And now comes the bag.

Could a bag really save the world? [The Independent]

Shiny Shiny: Remember when an iPod dock was a clever idea? Since then, we've seen iBelts, Inflatable iChairs, iProjectors, iLoo Roll, you name it. What on earth is next?

Why, the Tune-In Bed, of course! This is no ordinary iPod dock! You can sleep in it! This is also no ordinary bed! It plays music from your iPod! Of course, the sound and mattress quality are totally irrelevant in view of the astounding novelty of this idea! Is there anyone left on this planet who doesn't already have sufficient iPod docking bedroom arrangements and might actually need this?

iBed [Shiny Shiny]

New Business Ideas/Opportunities Featured In This Issue:

SERVICES
Charmin Restroom
Procter and Gamble's bathroom tissue brand operated a 20-stall restroom in the heart of Times Square, calling the service 'Charmin's holiday gift to New York'. The facilities offered clean, deluxe bathrooms, baby changing stations, stroller parking, seating areas, and of course lots of luxury toilet paper.

RETAIL
Supermarket Self-checkout
At Price Chopper's Burlington store, eight of 19 checkout lanes are equipped with automated "Easy Scan Checkout" machines. The rest of the duties are left to customers: punching produce codes, weighing vegetables, scanning for prices and bagging food. To pay, shoppers feed cash into the machine or swipe a credit or debit card.

AGRICULTURE & ENVIRONMENTAL
EcoHangers
Hanger Network has developed an alternative: a dry cleaner's hanger made entirely from recycled paper. EcoHangers are sturdy and cheap. And because they're paper, they can be completely covered in full-colour advertising.

ADVERTISING
The Interactive Urinal Communicator
Discover Wizmark, the interactive urinal communicator, its advertising you can't help but look at. An idea so original, it has everyone talking. Wizmark's interactive capabilities will get results, providing the perfect guerrilla marketing medium for men of all ages.

Cellphone Billboard
V-Lodge is an online business-to-business marketplace for smarter, more civilized product placement and advertising weaved into video games. In-game advertising is the next frontier in entertainment marketing.

HOMES & LIVINGS
X-paste
Do you judge people by whether they squeeze the tube from the end or the middle? Do you think perhaps you should readjust your priorities in life? If the answer to the first two is yes, and no to the last, you should look into the X-paste dispenser.

MOBILE
Hidden Clue
Japanese firm Fujitsu is pushing a technology that can encode data into a picture that is invisible to the human eye but can be decoded by a mobile phone with a camera. The company believes the technology will have spin off implications for the publishing industry.

“I’ve lost my keys come home”New website TextMeOuttaHere.co.uk will, for a pound, send its users a text message at a prearranged time to help them lie and cheat their way out of an awkward situation. Sneak, your spouse or partner, your best friend and your vicar. That’s slander, surely.

DESIGN
Illuminate Fun
A Latino brother-sister design team generates nighttime cool with the quirky Havaleena, a sleek, versatile and customizable portable light. Providing illumination via a 1-Watt wide-angle LED, the portable Havaleena can be used indoors or outdoors, singly or as a bouquet of lights on an accompanying stand.

Build Your Bed
Called BuildTheBed, the product caters to DIY boudoir decorators who want to put their personal memories, fantasies or digital art in a place of honor, if not dreamy contemplation. In a choice of sizes and styles, from arched to rectangular, BuildTheBed's colorful headboard gives a personality billboard-like prominence.

PETS
Dogs Beer
A nice young lady from Holland brewed up a nonalcoholic beer for her Weimaraners as a treat for a day's hard work, and now she's selling it as "Kwispelbier" after the Dutch word for a wagging tail. Technically, it isn't a beer at all but more of a non-alcoholic malt liquor flavored with beef extracts. Either way, the dogs love it.

GADGETS
Driving Emotions
Using a certain finger to indicate feeling is so downgrading where as Drivemocion is a more geeky approach. It is a small electronic display that can be attached to the back window and allows any kind of message to be displayed. Its circular rear display can show smiley faces, frown faces, "Thanks," and "Back Off."

Digital Cookbook
You might have heard, but soon there will no longer be a need to risk your laptop in precarious situations in the kitchen. Modeled after a spatula, coo.boo is a digital cookbook that fits into the kitchen environment better than any laptop or printed cookbook.

FOOD & BEVERAGE
Halal Baby Friendly
Mumtaz Foods Industries offers ten varieties of baby food suitable for infants from 4 to 7+ months old, including Potato, Lamb & Spinach, and Spring Vegetables and Chicken. GEM Food's Petit Gems comes in culture-spanning flavours, from Vegetable & Roast Beef to Middle-Eastern Lamb Tagine.

LIFESTYLE & LUXURY
Indoor Grill
If the drop in temperature has made the grilled delicacies a thing of the past, then this DeLonghi Healthy Indoor Grill will bring the grilling season again! The all-weather grill cooks with a combination of contact and radiant heat and it’s removable stainless steel drip tray allows excess fat to drip away, providing low-fat food and smoke-free indoor grilling.

View this issue of the CoolBusinessIdeas Newsletter by clicking here. Subscribe for free by clicking here

Gizmodo: Who knew you could use urine to power a battery? The Pee Battery uses the ions in human urine to keep 1.5 volts streaming for 90 minutes, and its makers say it can be tweaked to last even longer. They're even saying that all other bodily fluids work equally well. Sounds like an unpleasant way to get that iPod working again.

These are some batteries that would certainly pass our USB Piss Test. Rig 'em up to power gaming consoles, and we could have ourselves a Pee Wii.

Battery Passes Urine Test, Running 90 Minutes On Pee [Gizmodo]

Iconoculture: Called BuildTheBed, the product caters to DIY boudoir decorators who want to put their personal memories, fantasies or digital art in a place of honor, if not dreamy contemplation. In a choice of sizes and styles, from arched to rectangular, BuildTheBed's colorful headboard gives a personality billboard-like prominence. Can't decide what's best? Sleep on it. If you can't settle on your own photo, they have more than 250 stock images to choose from.

Consumers set on making their homes highly personal statements are always keeping an eye out for pieces that set them apart from the masses. The bedroom as design statement? Even once-private spaces are becoming fair game for show-off artistry.

BuildTheBed headboards get personal [Iconoculture]

The Boston Globe: In an ad-saturated world, the cellphone screen is a nearly pristine canvas.

But a number of area companies are helping to transform the device that 220 million people are loath to leave at home into a personal, pocket-sized billboard, hawking everything from the latest ringtone to Fabio-favored "I Can't Believe It's Not Butter!"

"We're calling the phone 'the brand in your hand' -- you're never more than a foot away from it, 24 hours a day," said Fareena Sultan , associate professor of marketing at Northeastern University's College of Business Administration. The challenge, Sultan said, will be to produce an advertisement for the phone "that excites the person holding it."

Fueled by faster wireless networks, more capable phones, and increasingly popular data services, the cellphone ad space is poised to grow, according to industry watchers, and a cluster of Boston start-ups have positioned themselves as the middlemen who bring brands to the screen.

Boston-based Enpocket Inc. partnered with Sprint Nextel Corp. to place banner ads on the carrier's mobile browser homepage last year. Third Screen Media Inc., also in Boston, builds cellphone-sized banner ads for major brands such as Burger King Holdings Inc., Bank of America Corp., and Toyota Motor Corp.

Cellphone screen is today's hip billboard [The Boston Globe]