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AgroResin Rainbow "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]
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.
Monument Snowboard Designs 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.
No Slip Charlie 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]
Sleek Coffee Gizmo 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. 
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.
La La La Laser Music 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.
Hotspots On Chrysler 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. 
Fashion Show provides"Retail Theatre" 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.
Stylish Helmets 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. 
Green Materials For Future Technology 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]
Luxury Siesta 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]
The Fit Flop 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.
Gig Hotness 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]
Salt Sauna 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. 
Secret Stash Belt 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.
Pedometer Phone 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.
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.