ProductDose: This can be filed under "simple thing that stuns me with its brilliance." I don't use ice so it never occurred to me that someone could innovate an ice tray. It's a single mold where you pour in water, insert the inner cup, and freeze. You now have 21 oddly shaped ice cubes, or leave the inner cup and use it as an ice-cold holder for dips, sauces, beverage, etc.

IceOrb [ProductDose]

The Mobile Technology Weblog: PhoneTag's concept is simple: Those of us who would rather skip long, drawn-out voice messages by reading them instead of listening to them can have PhoneTag automatically transcribe voicemail to text and best of all this one works with all major U.S. carriers (including Verizon) and offers up unlimited voicemail storage.

PhoneTag's platform automatically converts voice messages to text and delivers them to customers via email and/or SMS text. The message also includes an attached audio file of the original message and can be accessed through PhoneTag's user platform.

The service allows the user to scroll through their messages without having to listening to each individually. All pertinent information is recorded in the email, which means it's searchable, achievable, and easily accessible. Users can forward, delete or respond to the voicemail message.

Visual Voicemail Service Available Now [The Mobile Technology Weblog]

Silicon Alley Insider: Yes, newspapers are screwed. But that isn't stopping some of them from coming up with some really interesting digital projects. So far we've seen the New York Times release a slew of cool gizmos and gadgets. But the Wall Street Journal's Mobile Reader is easily our favorite to date.

The software, available today, is one of those tools that makes instant sense the first time you get your hands on it: It delivers all of the Journal's content, updated constantly, in whatever form makes the most sense to you.

If you want to just scan headlines, you can do that. Click once and you'll instantly get a one-paragraph summary; click again and it will download the entire article, which takes about 10 seconds, max. The reader also passes our subway/airplane test with flying colors -- it lets you save stories you've downloaded so you can read them when you're underground or in the air.

Yet Another Cool Digital Newspaper Product: Get The Wall Street Journal, For Free, On Your BlackBerry [Silicon Alley Insider]

PRWeb Release: Imagine a package as red as an apple and just as biodegradable. PWP Industries has recently launched a colorful new series of biodegradable packaging, AgroResin® Rainbow, expanding its AgroResin® fiber composite packaging portfolio.

"The variety of vibrant colors opens up exciting new possibilities for the use of the already popular packaging," says Scott Sanders, Director of New Business Development, PWP Industries. "The intense and undeniably attractive colors of the AgroResin® Rainbow series have been specially formulated to accentuate the packaging of food and produce to enhance their marketing appeal."

The Rainbow series, available in many shapes, sizes and colors, is permeable to air, water and grease resistant, and microwaveable. "The development of the Rainbow series makes AgroResin® a great sustainable - yet cool - choice of packaging for perishable produce, quick-service, frozen, and deli food applications," explains Dr. Yan Xu, Founder and Managing Director of GRENIDEA, a sustainable material company.

AgroResin® Rainbow allows companies to project a hip image which will appeal to youth audiences, and with the flexible choice of a spectrum of eye-catching colors, companies can match tones to complement their food presentations. In addition, the use of AgroResin® Rainbow promotes companies as good corporate citizens through their adoption of a sustainable alternative.

AgroResin Rainbow - Adding Bright New Colors to the Sustainable Packaging Spectrum [PRWeb Release]

JoshSpears.com: There’s no chill in the air just yet, but we can sense it coming. You better face the fact it’s going to be winter soon, and with that comes prime snowboarding weather. Why not celebrate the imminent frosty season by grabbing yourself new deck? The masterminds at Monument Snowboards (or MNMT) have just what you’re looking for with their new line of boss boards for ‘08-’09, featuring some seriously sick designs from a slew of talented artists such as KRINK, Kime Buzzelli, and Todd Tourso.

Monument Snowboards [JoshSpears.com]

Market Watch: Celebrity and non-celebrity parents of new babies have one less thing to worry about. No Slip Charlie(TM), a unique baby bath safety product offered by mompreneur-owned Mom Sense, gives parents the ability to maintain a firm but gentle grip on their wet, slippery baby during bath time.

Soft, durable and easy to maintain, No Slip Charlie(TM) is a pair of fingerless gloves that promote bath safety by providing a secure gripping surface while leaving parents' fingers free to wash hair and make skin contact with the baby. In addition to a pair of soft poly/lycra gloves, each No Slip Charlie(TM) package also contains two machine-washable terrycloth wash mitts that attach to the gloves during bath time. The product is available in pink and blue.

No Slip Charlie(TM) was created by mompreneur Kim Shulman, who realized the need for this type of baby bath safety product after the birth of her son, Charlie (for whom the product is named). Worried about the dangerous combination of her wet, slippery baby and the equally wet and slippery hard surfaces of a bathroom, Shulman developed the gloves to help alleviate unnecessary stress that can arise during an otherwise joyful time. With No Slip Charlie(TM) gloves, parents can relax and have fun with baby during bath time, knowing they are equipped to keep their child steady in the tub and while lifting their baby in and out of the bath.

Mom Sense's No Slip Charlie(TM) helps keep babies out of slippery situations [Market Watch]

Edmonton Sun: Sometimes even the greatest fans of the cafe experience are on an instant coffee budget. But that doesn't mean you have to say "Ciao" to your favourite steaming hot beverages.

Tassimo, Canada's No. 1 on-demand brewer, has teamed with renowned appliance manufacturer Bosch to create a sleek new one-step process for making hot drinks.

Forget a giant-sized (and giant-priced) espresso machine with attachments, button, bells and whistles. You can whip up tea, hot chocolate and cappuccino with this high-quality and easy-to-use gadget.

You can make your favourite coffee, as well as cappuccino and lattes, espresso, crema, tea and hot chocolate.

Patented technology purports to enable the machine to read the bar code of the T-disc to ensure that the brew temperature and amount of water are automatically adjusted for each beverage. The energy-efficient flow-through water heater virtually eliminates pre-heat time.

There's minimal setup required. Open the box, remove the packaging. Rinse out the water container to clean the machine before the first use and add the water filter (an additional feature of the Suprema).

Pop in the disc of the hot beverage you choose, put your favourite mug underneath and press the bottom. Voila.

Hot drinks a cool treat [Edmonton Sun]

High-tech music is emerging as a new trend in the sound industry. The laser harp, by Stephen Hobley, gives us music created by using laser beams. The home-built DIY system allows for playing a harp by using your hands to disrupt the various laser beams. Hobley designed the system so that the sensor detects only the laser beams (and not just any light) and then transforms the hand movements into sounds. You can produce awesome melodies and tunes, right in the comfort of your living room. Pretty groovy.

* * *

TrendsSpotting.com is a trends agency focused on developing exciting tools for Trend Spotting. We follow current trends and are constantly looking for new ones. We specialize in trends research and the social media. Dr. Taly Weiss, TrendsSpotting CEO, is a Social Psychologist, with extensive experience in branding strategy and marketing research. Feel free to explore our trend spotting tools on www.trendoScope.com.

Gadgets Weblog: Automotive giant Chrysler is planning to put cellular Wi/Fi hotspots on all their new cars from August 25th and beyond, and these hotspots will work with all 2009 Chrysler models as well as earlier year models.

I suppose it has come to this, because we all need to have hotspots on our cars so we can surf the net while we are driving. Well, until we can do that, at least you will have a sure place to surf the net wherever you are driving.

You'll have to pay $499 for the router which is capable of EV-DO and WiMAX signals. By the way, you will need to pay an additional $29 per month for this service.

Wi-Fi in your car, thanks to Chrysler [Gadgets Weblog]

I've been thinking a lot about the term "retail theatre" lately. I've noticed that it continues to appear now and then in the blogs I frequent, and I've become increasingly bemused as I've seen a propensity among retailers for the creation of theatrical environments simply for the sake of theatre, without any clear effort (at least as far as I see) to link the "theatre" to the shoppers' needs.

I remember back to days in my distant past (15 years ago now!) when I was the Director of Marketing for a large Canadian specialty retailer. Athletes World sold casual footwear and apparel primarily to urban teens. We went through a phase of making our stores look trashy - hiring graffiti artists to paint the walls, unfinished concrete floors, even wrecked cars in the middle of the sales floor. In the end we clearly achieved the goal of making our stores look trashy, but to what end? The inauthenticity of our "street smart" efforts fooled no one, least of our our savvy target customer. In hindsight, we didn't improve the shopping experience. We just ended up with ... junky stores.

On a recent trip to Las Vegas I was walking through Fashion Show, the chichi shopping centre at the north end of The Strip. This mall takes it's fashion cred seriously. A fully produced fashion show - live models and all - is produced every hour on the hour from noon until 6:00PM on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays.

This is serious "retail theatre" - but to their credit it completely reinforces their core consumer proposition - the destination for fashion in Las Vegas.

I've posted some pictures here of the infrastructure they have built for these fashion shows - an elaborate stage that rises from the middle of the shopping centre floor, professional grade stage lighting and audio systems, good quality models.

This is retail theatre done right - in a manner that showcases product in a compelling, high involvement way. In a manner that builds on the shopper's experience, rather than just existing for its own sake.

How can your company, retail or not, build theatre in a way that showcases your products or services?

Just before the show begins

The stage begins to emerge from the floor

The control booth

* * *

Graeme Spicer is a Canadian trendspotter, ethnographer and observer of all things retail. He spends his time consulting with leading retailers; presenting at conferences across North America; lecturing at OCAD, Canada's leading design school; and reading too many blogs. Graeme blogs at http://graemespicer.typepad.com.

Trend Hunters: Earlier, Trend Hunter featured customizable helmet covers for scooter helmets. Now, twe’re featuring full motorcycle helmet covers from the same company.

In addition to looking stylish, these covers can protect your helmet from scratches. Now you have a new way to add a hint of cool to your attire.

The helmet covers are sold for about 25 euros.

Customizable Helmet Covers (Part 2) [Trend Hunters]

Gadgets Reviews: To reduce amount of products in stores that are manufactured of unrecyclable or poorly recyclable materials, a lot of world leading companies look at a farmer’s fields to find an appropriate solution today. And they are not only guided by green tendencies. By using environmentally friendly materials companies can bring down taxes and costs of productions. Five plants that are presented here are essential for the future technology and they can be accessed in any part of the world. Let us see what prospective gadgets will be made of.

1. Guyule: First – it is allergy free and recommended for kids' products or products that contact with human's skin like headphones, wristwatches, medical gloves, etc. Also guayule latex can sustain more tension without strain. Second and the most interesting fact – guayule latex perfectly meets a demand of flexible screens, flexible keyboards and many other similar gadgets.

2. Corn: For the world of modern technologies it can bring fully recyclable plastics made from corn. No products like cell phones, computers or MP3 players come without plastic parts. The problem is that it doesn't get recycled and will stay forever at dumps. Something has to be done with it sooner or later and corn has already flowed into high-tech world as a new material source.

3 Algae: For best use to our cars algae can be an initial product for perfectly flammable high-octane biodiesel, which is cheaper and a lot less harmful to our ozone layer.

4 Cockleburs: Its advantages are: unpretentiousness to materials. It can be made of practically all existing plastics as well as of recycled ones. Velcro, if made properly, can be of extreme durability.

5 Lotus: First one is clothing – clothes that don't need to be taken to laundry when some dirty water or something else is spilled on it. The second domain is after gadgeteer's heart. The "Lotus effect" is taken into account in touchscreen design. Touchscreen that gets dirty easily is another trouble to one's head but with the help of nature we get rid of it.

Environmentally friendly materials for future technologies produced from plants [Gadgets Reviews]

Springwise: We've featured several companies that appeal to a growing appreciation of the benefits of napping, from a New York sleep salon to napping cocoons at airports. So we were intrigued by news that a hotel in Barcelona—the Hilton Diagonal Mar—has set aside 40 of its 433 rooms this summer for anyone who'd like to take a siesta. For EUR 75, customers get a barbecue lunch and a guest room from 1–5 PM, plus access to the hotel's gym and rooftop pool.

The hotel's napping angle should help recoup some of its fixed costs. And it's definitely a more creative approach to boosting occupancy than simply slashing room rates. One to sleep on.

Barcelona Hilton hotel reserves rooms for a siesta [Springwise]

A fitness trend that lets you get a work-out while you walk: The flip flop with a built in gym. In short: The Fit Flop. The micro-wobbleboard technology built into the shoe's midsole "places varying densities of EVA under your feet each time you step, to challenge the support and balance muscles of the foot and leg." EVA (Expanded Vinyl Acetate) is the closed-cell foam in the midsole of many shoes. It's used for its cushioning qualities since it is lighter and softer than the other major midsole ingredients. So while you can exercise hard to reach muscles, trim and tone your legs, work your bum and thigh muscles and essentially stay in shape, you also look fabulously stylish. In addition to all that, according to a study done at the University of Salford in Manchester, "Walking in FitFlops is like walking barefoot, but a little bit better." Anything else? Oh, yes. There are no animal products used in the UK Walkstar fitflop, which makes at least one of the fitflop models vegan-friendly as well.

Taking a walk has never posed as a more sensible and trendy workout. Stroll, skip, hop, jump or run-as long as you're in fitflops, you'll surely see results.

* * *

TrendsSpotting.com is a trends agency focused on developing exciting tools for Trend Spotting. We follow current trends and are constantly looking for new ones. We specialize in trends research and the social media. Dr. Taly Weiss, TrendsSpotting CEO, is a Social Psychologist, with extensive experience in branding strategy and marketing research. Feel free to explore our trend spotting tools on www.trendoScope.com.

Springwise: 3VOOR12, a multimedia platform for music that's run by Dutch broadcaster VPRO, is piloting a new heat-mapping system at this year's Lowlands music festival, which takes place next weekend.

Using familiar web terminology—Hot or Not—the festival's visitors will be able to let others know which of twelve venues is hosting the hottest show at any particular moment. The voting system will run on a mobile app that users can download to their internet-enabled phones. (Those with wifi-enabled phones will be able to use 3VOOR12's free festival-wide wifi.)

Using their phones, crowds create heat maps of hot gigs at music festival [Springwise]

Trends in Japan: There’s still no shortage of Japanese seeking luxury experiences, especially when it comes to health and wellness. Japan’s aging society is still a wealthy one, and isn’t afraid to spend money on products and services that can enhance quality of life. Salt Studio Saltasia fits right into this category, creating stylish salt rooms to promote anti-aging and relaxation for women.

Saltasia uses hexagon-shaped, natural salt tiles on the floor, ceiling, and walls to create what feels like a honeycomb for relaxing. Behind the tiles are colored LED lights which, along with ambient music and sounds, diffuse smoothly and create a soothing experience for guests who can stretch, meditate, and let off stress.

Far from being a sauna (it’s only 41°C), the point is to be able to sweat without having to push yourself through an intense 90~100° session in normal dry sauna.

Saltasia luxury Salt Studio in Omotesando [Trends in Japan]

CoolBuzz: Apart from spicing up your attire, groovy buckles also get your curvy waistline talking. And if they happen to have some room to keep your things, it will only breeze through as the most-wanted accessory on the shelves! Secret Stash Case Belt Buckle is the fresh fashion accessory that flaunts C. Z. stones neatly arranged in the shape of pot leaf. The stainless steel finish further makes it classy and versatile. Talking about the added functionality of the space inside, you can push up to 7 cigarettes in a line. It's obviously not a smoker-dedicated buckle and things like driver's license, credit cards and money can also be locked up in it.

What lies inside your Stash Case Buckle? [CoolBuzz]

TechRadar: Japanese mobile phones are very hit and miss – some have fantastic (mostly network-related) services, yet are ugly as sin, while others look great but offer very little else. Now, however, a new category is becoming apparent, as the number of simple-to-use handsets from major manufacturers is increasing, while included functions aimed at their elderly users become more useful than the music and video players found on normal models.

A perfect example is the new F884iES, a mobile made by Fujitsu for market-leader NTT DoCoMo's Raku Raku (Easy Peasy) range of phones for OAPs.

The new handset creates a daily health diary for its owner by combining information gathered from two sources built into the phone.

A pedometer measures how far the user walks each day – the Japanese government recommends 10,000 paces daily for retired people, who can often be seen clutching dedicated pedometers in the street, incidentally – and adds it to data from an ingenious bit of camera trickery.

BPM phone uses camera to measure heart rate [TechRadar]

TrendCentral: At last year's 2007 Roskilde Festival in Denmark, it was reported that it took more than 500 people and several weeks to clean the remaining trash; the price tag for the cleanup was over a million Euros. This year, the organizers came up with a "Less Trash - More Music" slogan to encourage attendees to cut back on the amount of trash they generated, thus reducing the amount of waste at the end of the four days of festivities. Festivalgoers were given the opportunity to fill their own bags of trash (provided by the festival organizers) with a reward of beer or chocolate milk for every bag. Other incentives included tents and tickets for next year's event. There was also a competition for "who could collect the most garbage." The winner collected 1,048 bags of garbage and won backstage passes to Neil Young's performance.

NEW TREND IN CLEAN LIVING: PICKING UP GARBAGE [TrendCentral]

Golden Shellback Waterproof Coating from gCaptain.com on Vimeo.

PopGadget: The death of my very first and favorite PDA (Personal Digital Assistant, as they were called during those days) came quite suddenly. I remember coming back from work one evening and being completely shocked to find the PDA dripping with water as I took it out of my bag. I swore to never put a water bottle and my gadgets together again, but repeated the mistake soon after, this time with my cell phone. Perhaps I could have saved ‘em fellas if the Golden Shellback Splash Proof Coating had been available back then - assuming I were rich enough to afford it.

This spray (rumored to be priced at $1000) can apparently protect electronic gadgets such as iPods, laptops, and cell phones from liquid, making them completely waterproof. For example, once you spray it onto your cell phone and drop the phone into water, the water-resistant coating ensures that the liquid stays completely out of your phone electronics. Which means that the phone is going to be functional as before, even underwater!

Spray to make gizmos completely waterproof [PopGadget]

Iconoculture: Vehicle segments are an easily identifiable reflection of the times. In this case, it's not just suburban SUV drivers who are feeling the pain of high gas prices. Demand for so-called weekend cars is plummeting. Convertible sales are down even more than the overall auto market.

Until recently, luxe cars always outperformed the market, but high-end marks like Porsche and Mercedes are seeing double-digit sales drops. Porsche's total U.S. car sales were down 28% versus a year ago to date.

Sign of the times ahead. Even if our economy takes a turn for the better, the change sweeping across the auto landscape looks likely to be longer term. The SLK has always been Mercedes' halo vehicle, but nowadays no model means more to its maker's image (or its driver's) than the Prius.

The future of fancy rides might be in better fuel efficiency, but automakers need to keep them fun if they want to keep them rolling off the lot.

Weekend cars are staying in the garage [Iconoculture]

Inhabitat: While many green gear-heads argue whether electric vehicles are better than hybrids, Slovak designer Matúš Procháczka has brought the debate one step further. His innovative concept car foregoes these trifling 21st century technologies and fast-forwards straight to the future. Instead of an internal combustion engine, his vehicle is driven by an electric engine that generates a magnetic field capable of propelling the vehicle down the road!

Caveat first: the MAG car would require that all automotive infrastructure be magnetized in order for it to work, a task well-neigh impossible for any large-scale implementation. However such a system would tremendously reduce the energy required to propel the car, as it’s electromagnetic motor would be calibrated to reduce the car’s weight by 50%. The seats are created by two fabric nets which are adjustable to suit the occupant, and consume a minimum of materials.

The winner of the Unseen Technology Award at the Interior Motives Design Award 2007, the MAG is an extremely futuristic vehicle that requires technologies that are far away from being developed and deployed. Still, it presents a striking concept for future-foward transport that was too intriguing for us to resist.

The Futuristic MAG Concept Car [Inhabitat]

One thing that wasn't listed in the Tiffany's table manners handbook is the difficulty that comes with balancing your champagne glass and cracker delight simultaneously. Well, surprisingly enough, the answer to this complexity comes from Fred & friends: FINGERFOOD™. Mini plates attached to rings that enable you to wear your food. No need to worry about awkward balancing acts. Just small talk…

TrendsSpotting.com is a trends agency focused on developing exciting tools for Trend Spotting. We follow current trends and are constantly looking for new ones. We specialize in trends research and the social media. Dr. Taly Weiss, TrendsSpotting CEO, is a Social Psychologist, with extensive experience in branding strategy and marketing research. Feel free to explore our trend spotting tools on www.trendoScope.com.

Springwise: TeachStreet launched in Portland, Oregon yesterday. The site now features more than 55,000 teachers, trainers, tutors, instructors, coaches and classes in the Pacific Northwest, 25,000 of which are in the Portland area. Besides offering existing instructors an alternative to advertising on Craigslist and bulletin boards, TeachStreet aims to unearth hidden teaching talent. Convinced that everyone is an expert in something—"You have a hidden talent for beer-brewing, pie-baking or parenting and wouldn't mind showing off your mad skills by inviting folks out to your backyard, your kitchen, or local coffee shop"—TeachStreet encourages everyday experts to list a class, either as a jumping off point for a new career or side business, or as a way to meet new friends with shared interests.

Now in Portland: local lessons, advertised & reviewed [Springwise]

Springwise: Unless they happen to be near a bicycle shop during business hours, bicyclists who break down are typically out of luck if they don't already have the parts they need to make a repair. Aiming to make bike parts more accessible, two different vending machines we've spotted are always on hand with critical parts.

Most recently, bike manufacturer Trek set up a prototype Trek Stop Cycling Convenience Center at the end of June, just off the bike path in Madison, Wisconsin. Located outside bike shop Machinery Row, the Trek Stop is a 24/7/365 convenience center for cyclists that provides access to cycling products, information and a safe place to work on a bike. The full-service vending machine is stocked with bicycle products such as spare tubes, patches, tire levers, CO2 cartridges and more, along with food and cold drinks; it also features an information center with maps, a message board and advertising space for local announcements. A covered maintenance area, meanwhile, offers a work stand, free air and even how-to videos—available at the push of a button—for those trickier repairs.

Vending machines for bicycle parts [Springwise]

TUKAANI is Finnish for the toucan bird species. The sterling silver TUKAANI is a hand made eating device for Asian food consumers in the West. It may be held as traditional chopsticks. But unlike the disposable wooden chopsticks, TUKAANI is both machine and hand washable and much easier to set on – and use at table. The matt surface and taut movement allow steady grip in the hand. The curl at the end of the TUKAANI provides eased food picking and delivery to the mouth. The loop also allows easier hanging, storage and display. The Toucan's bill provided inspiration for this cutlery project.

TechCrunch: BuzzHubb is best summarized as bringing the utility of next-gen Yahoo Groups to the mobile college student, but done in a creative, lightweight manner. The first fundamental element of BuzzHubb is that it establishes boundaries around the university campus - you can only join a school’s BuzzHubb community if you are part of the school (a great concept that Facebook championed). Once you have joined, you can join existing Hubbs, or quickly establish your own.

College students have complex, sometimes overlapping social group relationships. BuzzHubb makes communicating with those groups simple and engaging. A Hubb is a group of individuals who can share group messages quickly and easily from their phone, the web, or their social network. There are several types of Hubbs: Broadcast Hubbs, where you join, but there is a single author (e.g, the campus sports blog), Invitation-only Hubbs, where an existing member needs to invite you to join (a study group, a team, a special interest group) and all can contribute, and Open Hubbs, where anyone on campus can join and contribute (e.g., Obama 2008).

BuzzHubb: A Better College Social Network [TechCrunch]

Alaska Journal of Commerce: Alaskan shippers will have a new way to keep goods fresh with a container called the TEDSBOX that is being manufactured in Anchorage by an Alaskan based company.

Designed and built at Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport by Tednologies, Inc. the TEDSBOX container's trademarked name stands for Tracking, Environmental, and Deviation System.

The developer, Don Harman, president and CEO of Tednologies, Inc. spent two years and $400,000 designing, and building the container that he hopes will save money by offering the cool/hot container that will cut down on spoilage while perishables are being shipped.

Harman's idea was to provide a better container for shipping foods, flowers, fish and pharmaceuticals. The company slogan covers its uses “from boat to throat and from farm to fork.”

“We shipped perishables like eggs, yogurt and produce over to Emmonak, and on the return trip we brought back a load of king salmon shipped by KwikPak,” Harman added. The test shipment used dry ice for cooling and performed well, as expected according to previous tests, said Harman.

Anchorage entrepreneur offers new cool/hot container [Alaska Journal of Commerce]

Kevin Kelly - Cool Tools: For anyone requiring reading glasses intermittently, these specs are heaven sent! The frame breaks in the front and clicks together once resting on your nose by way of two magnets. When not in use, they stay out of the way -- the glasses have a hard frame 'loop' that slips around your neck. As soon as you need them, you reach down and pull them up into place. I've tried lanyards -- they get caught on your seat belt strap and tangeled around your collar. I've tried my pocket -- they fall out. Nothing seemed to work, so I ended up buying eight or ten pair of cheap glasses and leaving them all over: habitat, car, at work, etc. CliCs are a wonderful way to avoid all that clutter.

-Dennis Brittain

CliC Readers (manufactured by CliC) costs $29 and are available from Amazon.

CliC Readers [Kevin Kelly - Cool Tools]

A new medical trend with the potential for huge impact is the brilliant innovation by Chris Holden, which can completely alter the drug administration procedures worldwide. The medidome has all of the essential parameters needed to eliminate all the fears, discomforts, complications and contamination dangers of the standard medical injections.

The medidome comes in two variations, both of which are disposable and beautifully designed.

The first one, Needle medidome, is a disposable needle based injection, which can reduce injuries and human errors, as well as speed up the injection process so that more people can be treated in less time. It is far less intimidating than a regular needle and can be used for pediatric purposes. Also, it is most useful for self-injections, first-aid kits and military and army field based injections. Probably the greatest advantage is the potential for mass immunization required in developing countries where the possibility of contracting the HIV virus can be easily obliterated.

The second one, Absorption medidome, administers absorption-based drugs by using a unique slow release design. This too, has a great many advantages. There is absolutely no syringe sharing which eliminates the contraction of HIV. It also particularly facilitates the administration of slow-release painkillers and children's antibiotics.

The incredibly long list of medidome benefits can only indicate that it will soon become the most prominent drug-administration aid worldwide. We sure do hope.

TrendsSpotting.com is a trends agency focused on developing exciting tools for Trend Spotting. We follow current trends and are constantly looking for new ones. We specialize in trends research and the social media. Dr. Taly Weiss, TrendsSpotting CEO, is a Social Psychologist, with extensive experience in branding strategy and marketing research. Feel free to explore our trend spotting tools on www.trendoScope.com.

The Canberra Times: The frocks are made from pinstriped jackets and floral bed linen. There are trenchcoats patchworked out of safari suits, jackets from vintage corduroy and the panelled denim skirts are sewn from at least three pairs of jeans. These mixed-up designer clothes are known as "refashioned originals" - which is a polite way of saying they are made from landfill.

The rise of fashion with a conscience has led to designers hunting for solutions in organic and sustainable fabrics, but this trendy gear is cut from a different cloth - of the type found in charity bins. More than 60,000 jumpers and many more T-shirts, coats, windcheaters and old sheets were rescued to make the latest collection from Canada, where the label Preloved was established a decade ago by a retired catwalk model as a creative twist on op-shop hunting.

Julia Grieve's motivation was fashion first, but her unwitting success at emancipating landfill has made her a poster girl for green design across the United States, Britain and Japan.

The market is competitive, with the bigger charities given the first opportunity to buy clothes by the kilo. In the past, the remainder was sent to landfill. But enter the fashionistas, who pick over the last of the treasure, which they lug back to the workshop, cut into pieces, then assemble - navy stripes beside purple polka dots beside plaid - into a groovy new outfit.

Cut from a different cloth [The Canberra Times]

Luxist: The new Monticello Motor Club is a members-only club with a private track located 90 miles northwest of Manhattan. Members pay $125,000 for access to the , 4.1-mile loop plus $7,500 in annual dues. Membership is by invitation only and enrollment will be capped at 500. In this exlcusive club, members' net worth averages almost $20 million. It cost about $50 million to build the facility, which is on the site of a former airport near the village of Montic