Old Navy Tries iPod Touch For POS

The Old Navy chain of stores is testing a mobile retail software called “ZipCheck” in collaboration with Apple that will see the iPod as a handheld POS (Point of Sale).

Store clerks would carry the iPod Touch which will be attached to a barcode reader and credit card scanner and can print receipts wirelessly to in-store printers or to belt-mounted mini-printers that the staff can wear. This allows any customer to avoid the billing queue by simply walking up to a store employee and have them process the transaction and check out.

The future of retail might not be exclusively online after all?

Via - Fastcompany

Jag 75th Birthday Present To Themselves

Jaguar showcased their latest concept car - known as the C-X75 - at the Paris Auto Show earlier this year.

Each wheel on the concept car is currently driven an individual 145kW electric motor which are all powered by one large 19.6kWh lithium ion battery. This system delivers all wheel drive and promises to provide extra control and traction as well as intense torque (0-62 in 3.4 seconds). On a single charge, which takes 6 hours from a conventional household plug to achieve, the C-X75 can travel up to 68 miles with zero emissions.


For extended range Jaguar has equipped the supercar with two 70kW gas powered micro turbines. The turbines can used to quickly recharge the internal battery or can be used in conjunction with the battery to achieve the car's top speed of 205 mph.



Via - Cool Hunting

A7's First & Audi's Largest Billboard

Audi's latest and largest marketing campaign to date is for the 2012 A7, featuring a 10800 square feet of canvas painted with 200 cans of spray paint over 4 days.

The headline reads: "Nothing is more inspiring than a blank sheet of paper. It is the opportunity to create something unique."

Via - Audi

Wish Your Loved Ones Merry Christmas The BMW Way

Get into the Festive Spirit by pretending you are a biker, and a rockstar! Thanks BMW..

Via - BMW Motorrad International

Ford Focus To Reuse, Recycle & Reduce

In a conscious effort toward sustainable development and management of its environmental footprint, Ford has announced that it will use recycled clothing for carpet backing and sound absorption materials inside the 2012 Ford Focus, set to be on sale early next year in North America and Europe. The equivalent of two pairs of jeans will be used for each car.

Certain other Ford models will also make use of bio-based materials and non-metal recycled waste to turn into soy foam seat cushions, recycled resins for under-body systems, recycled yarns on seat covers, and natural-fiber plastic for interior components.

Via - CNET

Audi On Solar Drive

Audi is planning to expand the solar panel system at its facility in Ingolstadt so that the electric vehicle's batteries may be charged using clean, renewable energy from the sun.


Audi says it will have nearly 205,000 square feet of its German manufacturing facility's roof covered with the solar cells. The company says that the new installation alone should produce enough electricity to power 180 homes.

The VW subsidiary plans to only use about one third of the electricity produced by its solar system directly at the plant, with the juice going to both charge the company's eTron vehicles and assist in the manufacture of other products. The rest of the energy will likely be fed back into the surrounding power grid.

Via - Audi

First Chevrolet Volt Available For Purchase

As a bit of added PR for the Chevrolet Volt that has entered into the production phase, GM has decided to auction off the first Volt off the production line via an online auction, with all the proceeds going to to the Detroit Public Schools Foundation, supporting Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths education initiatives in the Detroit Public Schools.

The auction started at $50000 and bidding has already reached $180000. With the winner to be announced on the 14th of December, it looks like the initiative might raise a sizeable sum to further educate tomorrow's thinkers.

GM has also shared a video on some behind the scenes on the making of the Chevrolet Volt.

Via - GM

iPad Only Magazine

Richard Branson has beaten other established business leaders in the publication world by launching the first iPad only magazine.

The magazine, called Project, will likely be released on iTunes and will focus on technology, entertainment, entrepreneurship, and promises to be "within shouting distance of the cutting edge."

Via - Fastcompany

Volvo No Longer Wants To Be "Premium"

Volvo should no longer be lumped into the premium category, according to the wishes of CEO Stefan Jacoby.

It's not that the cars aren't good, but according to recent reports in British publication Autocar, Jacoby thinks it sends the wrong message. "It sounds like a pricing strategy, and it's got an expensive ring to it", the Volvo CEO was reported as saying.

Going forward, it would appear that the new brand strategy will see Volvo emphasising its unique Swedishness to stand apart from the competitors in the premium automotive segment. With aggressive targets of 800000 units per year by 2020 penciled in as the benchmarl - double current sales volumes for the brand - a little differentiation can't hurt, surely?

Via - AutoCar

Having Fun & Changing Behaviour

VW's Fun Theory campaign is based on the premise that in order to fundamentally change the way we do things, we need to first experience the alternative - and the best way to get people to actively participate and attempt new things is to offer them a fun way of doing so.

The campaign which broke last year resulted in a massive viral effect and as the culmination of the campaign, VW have identified the winning Fun Theory submission and turned the idea into reality.

This time, the challenge was to make driving the speed limit rewarding, and Richardson's idea was a speed camera lottery - below is the video of the camera in action.

Via - YouTube

Cadillac Concept Runs On Air

Cadillac's Aera Concept is a futuristic 2+2 luxury tourer with a 3D lattice frame structure and a pneumatic drive system running on compressed air.


The Cadillac Aera Concept won the 2010 Los Angeles Auto Show Design Challenge, tying with Smart and beating entries from seven other auto-manufacturers including Mercedes-Benz, Honda, Nissan, Toyota and Maybach.

The GM Advanced Design is said to have won the honor more times than any other design team; with the Aera being GM's third victory since 2005.

Via - Concept & Design Car

How The Rich Plan On Spending This Festive Season

FastCompany surveyed some respected business leaders and trendsetters for their holiday wish lists.



Interesting to see that while luxury is still the name of the game for some, a few others would settle for more philanthropic uses of their money. Padmasree Warrior, CTO of Cisco, for instance have asked friends to make a donation to charitywater.org. Allegedly a $20 donation can give one person clean water for 20 years.

Click here to see the entire slideshow as featured on FastCompany

Mark Rolston, Chief Creative Officer, frog design

Rachel Ashwell, Founder, Shabby Chic

Barney Harford, President and CEO, Orbitz Worldwide

Miriam Lahage, General Manager, eBay Fashion

Scott Case, CEO and Vice-Chairman, Malaria No More

Anne Globe, Head of Worldwide Marketing and Consumer Products, DreamWorks Animation

Grant Achatz, Chef, Alinea and Next

Amy Doyle, Executive Vice President of Music and Talent, MTV

Andrew Mason, CEO and Founder, Groupon

Marissa Mayer, Vice President of Search Products and User Experience, Google

Blake Mycoskie, Founder, TOMS Shoes

We ask some leaders and trendsetters for their holiday wish lists. While some lust for luxury, others opt for charity donations. There's definitely something for everyone here, even if holiday bonuses doesn't come through.

If I were to hope to receive one thing this holiday it would be time with the family, ideally strapped onto a snowboard. And let me be clear, not all six of us will be on the same snowboard. We’ve been going to Whistler in Canada since 1997 so my hope is that the holidays find my wife and kids and I up in Whistler. (one-day lift ticket: $91, whistlerblackcomb.com)

I would love to receive a Maserati Quatre Porte ($119,750, maserati.us) because I can’t fit my three kids in my Porsche 911 or the Panamera. Just don’t give me any kitchen stuff. I don’t cook.

My wife and I just had twins so we are all about pictures now. I’ve always wanted a wi-fi enabled projector that can project pictures of my twins on the walls of my house. And there’s a Dell S300W ($999, dell.com) that does exactly that. I’ve always had that idea, and I can’t believe someone actually built it.

Audi To Lead Premium EV's By 2020?

By the year 2020, Audi hopes to be the "leading premium seller of electric vehicles," Franciscus van Meel, the automaker's manager for electric mobility, told AutoWeek during a recent technical workshop at the company's headquarters in Ingolstadt, Germany.

In addition to launching a number of hybrid vehicles (including the A8 and Q5) over the next few years, Audi plans to debut a plug-in hybrid in 2014. Audi's board member for technology, Michael Dick, further added that by 2020, he wants to see the automaker's internal combustion engines improve efficiency by 30 percent, with 5 percent of the brand's lineup to be purely electric.

Commentators believe that the spearhead of Audi's electrical drive will be the Audi e-Tron, which made it's debut in 2009 at the Frankfurt Motor Show.

Via - Auto Week

World's First Ice Touchscreen

Nokia brings the world's first ice touchscreen to life.

What started out as a "playful experiment" for Nokia's team has resulted in an interactive device that gives us a glimpse of what can be achieved when it comes to interactivity in the future.

Below is the video, which offers a short explanation of the technology behind the innovation and reminds of the MIT Sixth Sense as featured on TED.

Via - New Scientist

Cool Hunting For GAP

Trend website Cool Hunter has collaborated with retailers GAP to open up a new pop up store in NYC for the up-coming Festive Season.



The store will feature locally-sourced goods with Cool Hunting set to feature hand-picked items using the same principles—innovative design, artisan craftsmanship, social and environmental consciousness—that mirrors the website's editorial content.


Via - Cool Hunting

Cadillac Concept - Small Yet Luxurius

The Cadillac Urban Luxury Concept , recently unveiled at the L.A. Auto Show, is filled with technology meant to make a car that's no bigger than a Smart Car feel spacious on the inside.



Touchscreens replace all the interior controls, thus allowing the dashboard to be far more compact. To make it easy to enter and exit the car, both doors scissor open.


The car would be powered by a hybrid powerplant: a turbocharged 1.0L three-cylinder engine that has brake energy regeneration similar to that in the Prius. According to Cadillac, based on their prototyping models, the car would fetch a fuel economy of 4,2 litres per 100 kilometres in the city and 3,6 litres per 100 kilometres on the highway.

Via - Autoblog

Mercedes Benz Attempts To Understand Premium Aesthetics

Mercedes Benz's latest attempt at understanding premium aesthetics saw the German automaker collaborate with a group of scientists equipped with camera-equipped glasses and exposed a few test subjects on a quick walk-around the new CLS.

Below is the video of the "experiment" with some surprise findings on what attracts you to the opposite sex for your interest as well.

Via - YouTube

A New Way For Brands To Use AR - Powered By Google

Google Goggle's visual search app is innovating ahead with marketers in order to turn visual search results into immersive online experiences.

This is especially exciting for brands in a country like SA where back-ends to regular augmented reality campaigns are usually complicated and often prohibitively expensive as Google has done all the work for you!

Via - Fastcompany

Device For Elegant Tyre Changing

Remi van Oers, a student at the Design Academy Eindhoven, came up with a clever solution for those who find tyre changing experiences distinctly un-premium.

A new rethink in car jacking devices resulted in a self-inflating jack that looks like less of a tool than a new Apple device.


It could be a nice value-add for auto-manufacturers to offer as an extra for products that are more female orientated.

Via - Fastcompany

Aston Martin Cygnet Unveiled - At Harrod's

Upscale retailers Harrod's have partnered with another iconic and quintessentially British brand in the form of Aston Martin, with the motor manufacturer unveiling and displaying their latest premium city car in the retailer's shop windows.

The production ready prototype of the Aston Martin Cygnet will remain at Harrod's in London until the 11th of December this year, with final production set for the beginning of 2011.

Via - Luxist

Premium Lounge The Aston Martin Way

Aston Martin has opened a by-invitations only club at The Prime Society in Singapore's Dempsey Hill neighborhood.


The lounge features custom tables made from authentic Aston Martin wheel-rims as well as large prints of a variety of Aston Martin cars. Elsewhere you’ll find martini glasses named after some of the marque's most famous models and private lockers where members can lock away their personal belongings.

The lounge has also partnered with premium liquor brands such as the Bollinger champagne house (a first in Singapore) while Macallan is the signature whisky at the venue.

Via - Aston Martin Club

iPhone Movies In 3D Made Easy

The clever Japanese have made watching 3-D movies possible anywhere, as long as you have an iPhone/iPod Touch - without the need to wear the embarrassing 3D glasses.

Media artist Jitsuro Mase invented a simple attachment that clips onto your device which instantly gives you the power of 3-D films in the palm of your hand.

Via - Fastcompany

Ralph Lauren Reinvents Fashion Show

We all know that premium brands constantly need to innovate themselves in order to differentiate themselves in order to provide more reasons for people to believe in their brand.

Below are two of Ralph Lauren's latest efforts, which David Lauren, son of Ralph, has described as "game-changing".

The result features Architectural Mapping and augmented reality in order to bring an almost 4D effect for viewers, resulting in an engaging and innovative way of showcasing the brand in a new light.

Via - NY Times

Audi's Potential Supersedan

According to Germany's AutoZeitung, Audi may have plans to make use of the Porsche Panamera platform to produce an all new 4 door super sedan.

Commentators have dubbed the new car as the A9 for now and reports are that the new Audi flagship will be offered with a choice of either rear-wheel drive or the familiar Quattro all-wheel drive setup, the Audi A9 would also be available as a petrol-electric hybrid. The power output could climb to 500 horsepower.

It will be interesting to see whether the new addition to the Audi stable proves it's worth in time, with so many high-end models already being occupied by the likes of the updated A8, as well as the new A7 which is also on it's way.

Via AutoZeitung

Audi A8 & The "Light Light" Sculpture

Audi recently launched the all new A8 in the US, a car that the marquee has bench-marked as the cutting edge in innovation and design.

The new sedan boasts a whole new aluminum frame, next generation LED lights as well as a whole new interactive, hand-writing based navigation system. Added to these visible technological advances, Audi also claimed that despite the larger capacity engines, fuel-consumption will decrease with the new model.

Audi combined with the opening of Design Miami for the launch of the new A8, and featured a panel of design experts who spoke about the importance of innovation in design, and how core both are at Audi. A special sculpture was commissioned by Audi which took four weeks from brief to completion, and was inspired by the car's impressive use of aluminum and LED and interior ambient lighting.

Via - Cool Hunting