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Spotify goes mobile on Nokia phones!

By Nicolas On November 23, 2009 In Featured, Headline, mobility, Music, technology With No Comments Permanent Link to Spotify goes mobile on Nokia phones!Permalink

In a post I wrote two month ago on 52ndwest.com, I spread the news of the launch of the mobile version of Spotify, THE music streaming application which gives access to 6 million+ tracks, for iPhone and Google Android’s.

Spotify for Symbian smartphonesToday, Spotify mobile is finally made available for Symbian devices (Nokia, Sony Ericsson and Samsung smartphones). Just as with the iPhone and Google Androïd’s platforms, Spotify mobile allows you to stream any of its nearly 4 million tracks over WiFi or 3G and syncs playlists for playback while disconnected. Bare though in mind that Spotify Mobile is exclusively available to Spotify Premium members in the UK, Sweden, Spain, France and Norway (a US launch is expected soon).

And if you can’t wait to enjoy from music streaming on your mobile, you can always use and enjoy (I do) Mobbler,  Last.fm‘s  radio player and scrobbler for Symbian smartphones. Mobbler allows you to listen to your Last.fm radio stations and to scrobble tracks played using the standard music player. Magic.

You can download the application directly on your mobile from m.spotify.com

Enjoy the music!

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Does my phone use Symbian? You can view the entire list of supported Symbian phones to find out.

Want to know why “Mobbler Is Officially The 2nd Greatest S60 Application”? Read this

More info on Spotify for Symbian OS

walking in circles – Urban navigation system

By Christian On November 19, 2009 In Featured, mobility, Vienna, weird With No Comments Permanent Link to walking in circles – Urban navigation systemPermalink

Forget all your inaccurate and energy consuming mobile GPS (well, except if you managed to put your hand on a Maptor prototype: Map Hole is a new (and FREE) road guidance tool designed to direct pedestrians and travelers to their final destination using existing elements in the urban landscape. It locates the pedestrian with a starting point and provides information on the exact distance or average walk time to the listed landmarks. Clever and simple.

I was precisely wondering which use could big cities make of those hugly and half-useful manholes in their streets…

Designer: Jiae Kwon

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Spending a (wonderful) night at the airport

By Nicolas On November 17, 2009 In Featured, Headline, technology, trend, Vienna With 2 Comments Permanent Link to Spending a (wonderful) night at the airportPermalink

New-York City, John F. Kennedy International Airport, February 10th 2017. 9.00pm - “Attention to all passengers of the KLM flight KL0644: Due to the current bad weather conditions over the Atlantic your flight to Amsterdam Schiphol has been delayed to further notice. We expect the next flight to take-off tomorrow morning at 8.00am. KLM thanks you for your understanding and wishes you a pleasant night in John F. Kennedy International Airport.”

Such an announcement in 2009 would trigger a wave of panic and distress among travellers waiting for their flight, and a comment like “KLM [...] wishes you a pleasant night in John F. Kennedy International Airport” would be  more than inappropriate considering the context.

Thanks God we’re in 2017 and Airports waiting lounge don’t look like what they looked in 2009.
For the past 10 years, engineers have been working on projects of small individual resting rooms which could provide travellers, moments of quiet sleep and rest from the city without wasting their time searching for a hotel. Such projects, like SLEEPBOX to name the most significant, have started to emerge a few years ago in places like Airports, Railroad stations, Expocentres, Accommodation facilities and even in Public and shopping centers.

Thanks to those revolutionary infrastructures, any person now has an opportunity to spend the night safely and cheaply in case of emergency, or when they have to spend a few hours waiting for their flight or train with their luggage. Most of those resting rooms provide their users with a basic service: a soft  2×0.6 m bed equipped with automatic change of bed linen system,  a ventilation system, a built-in LCD TV screen, WiFi access, electric plugs with built in adaptors and a system that darkens all the windows of this pod to give its user a minimum intimacy. And it is possible to use the service from 15 minutes to several hours.

Just like those public restrooms we could find in many developed countries at the end of the last decade, those resting pods are fully automated. After the clients exit his room, automatic change of bed linen starts and quartz lamps turns green to report that the pod is clean and free for use. Payment can be made on a shared terminal, which provides the client with a disposable electronic key or access key sent to his smartphone.

Sleeping the night over in one of those rooms has turned, for most passengers, to be more convenient and cheaper than a regular hotel room. Since the majority of pods are located near boarding gates, passenger can wait until the very last moment to comfortably board their flight. An unforgettable night before an unforgettable flight on board one of KLM’s brand new WB-1010 “Spruce Whale”.

KLM WB-1010 Spruce Whale2

I can tell now that I don’t fear any more to book this 8am morning flight since I can spend the night on site.

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SLEEPBOX
Area: 3.75 m2
architects: Goryainov A., Krymov M.
Design: 2009 – Arch Group

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Too bad we’re only in 2009? Maybe, but at least you can tell one day your kids or grandchildren that once in your live you ended-up sleeping on a bench like a homeless.

Still need some info to spend a pleasant night in your favorite airport? Check The Guide to Sleeping in Airports, The worst, and best, airports to sleep in

Coffee break: Come on and stir it up

By Nicolas On November 12, 2009 In coffee break, Featured, Vienna With No Comments Permanent Link to Coffee break: Come on and stir it upPermalink

One of the big dilemma I often face when I drink a cup of coffee  is to know what to do with the spoon I use to stir it (I like it with milk and sugar). This wouldn’t be an issue if I drank my coffee in a regular coffee-cup and its saucer where I could drop my spoon once I used it. But I am more of a mug-man than a granny-like-styled coffee drinker. Damn! Why can’t I do things like normal people do?!

Until today I then just had the choice between spoiling my desk with a dirty and sticky spoon or stick it in my eye every time I had a sip of my coffee.

Fortunately for me (and my ophthalmologist) there’s now a solution. Two young French designers created quite a clever “self-stirring cup” than can be used either for tea or coffee (I say). It’s a glass, actually, and it has a ceramic ball at the bottom that moves around and mixes the tea (or coffee!) as you lift the cup or swirl it gently. For those of you, who like me, hate or can’t afford losing time stirring their coffee with their two hands, this cup is revolutionary.

self stirring cup

Last but not least, the base of the glass protrudes enough so that when you lift the glass to drink, the ball never falls out and hits you in the teeth or end up in your stomach. Clever.

Who said that drinking coffee was a safe activity? Even George seems to have issues when it comes to resupplying in his nearest Nespresso shop.

George ohoh

My advice: You should try and order online next time.

All-In-One Electronic Card (travel light and green!)

By Nicolas On October 30, 2009 In environment/green, Featured, technology, travel, Vienna With 2 Comments Permanent Link to All-In-One Electronic Card (travel light and green!)Permalink

I always have this big issue to deal with when I’m travelling “light”: “what should I do with the dozen of plastic cards I have in my wallet?”. I have plastic cards for almost everything: of course my credit card, ID card and driving licence, but also my various customer cards, membership card from various associations and finally frequent flyer card for different airlines.

I let you imagine what my wallet looks like at the end of the day. So it’s always a big deal, when I’m trying to travel light, to decide which card to take or to leave in a drawer.

One other issue is that every time one card expires, its plastic adds to the trash. So do the numerous receipts that we accumulate after swiping our CC.

But a wind of change might blow (soon?)…

The fundamental of the One Card Electronic Card is quite simple: it wants to eliminate the trash and give a break to our poor ever growing wallet (and resolve issues like identity theft via discarded expired CCs) by proposing to be this all-credit-cards-in-one device.

onecard

On one end of the gadget is a Memory Card Slot that will help the user upload their various card Details.

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The other end has a turning-knob that allows one to choose the appropriate card to be swiped.

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The display on the device reflects an identical copy of the card front, while the strip on the back mimics a card’s magnetic strip. Once the transaction is completed, the receipt generated is displayed on the device (no paper receipt) and the info gets stored on the memory card.

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The concept is pretty clear in what it wants to achieve, namely combine all cards that a person uses under one umbrella, reduce generation of paper/plastic trash, identity security etc. The only block is the compatibility with various banks and the willingness of people to rely on a gadget for daily CC transactions. Yes, we do use online, virtual services, but something like this is quite different.

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As a matter of facts this concept may one day revolution our approach to the concept of wallet itself! Imagine that this all-in-one credit card may give us the ability not only to pay our goods, but also services (a virtual e-ticket for public transportations or airplanes, social security, insurance) and feature everything from our secured personal data (passport/ID card/Driving licence) to the family picture we carry everywhere…

Of course there’s always the issue of losing it with all the critical information it carries… but it is just the same problem as loosing your real wallet. Except that we can imagine that this all-in-one wallet will be able to be deactivated remotely and thus safeguards all our data.

A very nice concept indeed.

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Designer: Kim Young Suk

Company Off-Site: camping, fireplace, crackers & beers

By Nicolas On October 20, 2009 In Bora Bora, Featured, mobility, places, telework, travel, Vienna With 2 Comments Permanent Link to Company Off-Site: camping, fireplace, crackers & beersPermalink

Off-Sites are a tradition in many companies. This kind of two or three-days retreat generally aims at bringing people of an office together to do some brainstorming to discuss the new tactics & strategies to implement to boost the business, while giving co-workers a chance to get to know each others better.

Though most of the time off-sites don’t bring the expected results – in terms of idea generation which will actually be implemented to help the business grow… $$$ – they remain a good occasion to have a break during a hectic year and eventually to have fun. And when you’ll be planning your next off-site, forget all those “nice hotel, fancy resort,  and cast of nonthreatening facilitators” to try something really cool, unique and that will probably strengthen like never (or not, depending where you decide to settle “the camp”) the relations your co-workers have with one another.

The mad scientist who created this camp-changing device is named Becky Greenwood. She’s got this idea that will bring camping people (and co-workers!) closer together without sacrificing their privacy.

It works by connecting two “two man” tents with a helpful storage container for tools and crackers and beers (of which you’ll have plenty thanks to the $$$ you saved vs a fancy hotel) and such. Once camping is complete, the bag functions like a normal “extra” camping bag, creating a larger space to hold the tent than the bag that it comes with, making it twice as fast to pack up.

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And just make sure that you don’t forget to carry with you this magical transparent fireplace to add magic to the moment.

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The beauty of the Electrolux Fireplace is that it stands out as this opaque ceramic column that slowly turns translucent to transparent, as the flames flare up. Upon cooling down the column goes back to being the white shaft it was.

Designer: Camillo Vanacore

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I wand to know more on how to organize a successful, memorable and rewarding off-site: read Can This Off-Site Be Saved?

Snow’s Revenge laptop sticker

By Nicolas On October 17, 2009 In Featured, picture of the week, Vienna With No Comments Permanent Link to Snow’s Revenge laptop stickerPermalink
Mirror, mirror on the wall, who's the baddest b**ch of them all?

Mirror, mirror on the wall, who's the baddest b**ch of them all?

This “Snow’s Revenge” laptop decal, sold by Vinylville on Etsy, is one of the best uses of logo integration I’ve seen. Unfortunately everyone else on Etsy seems to think so, too–the $14 sticker is currently sold out.

it is also available in a glossy white for dark laptops

Mirror, mirror on the wall, who's the baddest b**ch of them all?

Mirror, mirror on the wall, who's the baddest b**ch of them all?

Piano Stairs

By Nicolas On October 12, 2009 In trend, Vienna, weird With No Comments Permanent Link to Piano StairsPermalink

To encourage people to take the stairs instead of the escalator, regular stairs at the Odenplan subway station in Stockholm were turned into piano keys. Not surprisingly, after the piano stairs were installed, 66% more people than usual chose the stairs over the escalator.

(via ignant)

esPRESSivo. What else?

By Nicolas On October 2, 2009 In coffee break, Featured, travel, trend, Vienna With 3 Comments Permanent Link to esPRESSivo. What else?Permalink

George who elseWhat I often miss, when I’m travelling the world Europe, is the taste of a Nespresso-like coffee wherever I have one (I mean a coffee). Every time I’m sitting in a restaurant, the decision to try or not to try their “local” coffee turns into a real dilemma. So I often end-up drinking a coke or something I know that will always more or less have the same taste should I be in in Beijing, Vienna, Paris or a small village in Himancham Pradesh. Continue Reading →

Portable Map Projector Concept

By Nicolas On September 24, 2009 In mobility, technology, travel, Vienna With 4 Comments Permanent Link to Portable Map Projector ConceptPermalink

Maptor is an innovative portable map projector concept by Jin-Sun Park and Seon-Keun Park that promises to eliminate the need for paper maps.

Equipped with GPS and a small projector, Maptor allows the user to display map on almost any surface and view their current location. It somehow reminds me the mobile phone with embedded GPS which displays arrows on the ground in “Microsoft’s vision to the future”.

Creating a concept is nice, turning it into reality is even better.

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