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Calendar Marketing This new marketing concept enables you to deliver relevant, useful content into the calendars of your most loyal customers and current email subscribers. And because these time-based offers are placed in the medium where your customers make their scheduling decisions every day, your marketing offer is timely, relevant, and acted upon. 
Calgoo In-Calendar Marketing is a new, permission-based marketing platform to promote time-sensitive products and services to your customers.
uWink Interactive Restaurant Springwise: At the prototype uWink restaurant in Woodland Hills, California, customers use tabletop touch-screen terminals with a proprietary user interface to self-order and self-pay for food, drink and digital media, including selections from a library of more than 70 single- and multiplayer games. Now, through a partnershipwith tech provider Volanté Systems, those same capabilities are available to other restaurants via the end-to-end uV Hospitality Solution. The software allows for the delivery of digital advertising and the monetization of customer game play via a unique micro-transaction game credit purchasing and redemption system that's tied directly into Volanté's integrated point-of-sale and back-office enterprise system, which features open-source, peer-to-peer technology along with credit/debit processing, loyalty programs and gift card management. Larger average checks and margins, labor savings, increased customer loyalty, increased transaction speed and accuracy, and reduced lines are all among the benefits the companies claim the system provides.
Happy Socks TrendCentral: This Swedish hosiery company, Happy Socks, makes us want to never wear plain black socks again. Offering a literal rainbow of color palettes and patterns, the socks seem like the kind of thing you may see an accidentally stylish 6-year-old wearing, but there's no reason we can't treat our feet too.
Planet Phone Design Hallyu Tech: LG Japan hosted a Mobile Design Contest and with the winners announced the phones were put on display at a Tokyo Designers Week event. Although the phones are only concepts and may never actually become products, its always interesting to see the designs and concepts that come out of these competitions. The winning design was “Planet Phone”, the circular smooth phone takes inspiration from our planet and the people on it to develop this unique clam shell mobile. The top of the phone has LED lights embedded in it. The lights represent the users friends and the frequency of contact between them. The more you keep in touch with your friends the more the lights stay in the center, but as your communication drops the LEDs retreat to the outskirts of the phone.
Pop 2009! Gizmodiva: Who doesn't love some good old bubble wrap? Nothing is as fun as bursting bubbles and that is human nature. A poster sized 2009 calendar that comes with a bubble to pop everyday is nothing short of super, super fun. This makes counting days so interesting and something to look forward to. The calendar, apart from the bubble wrap feature is pretty standard. It has days of the week and all major U.S. holidays marked and weekends bolded for easy reference. You can put it up in your home or office. Just make sure your co-workers and friends don't get too close to burst your bubble!
Baby Bar Springwise: Pomme Bébé is an unusual restaurant in Newport Beach, that serves nothing but organic baby and toddler meals prepared fresh in its on-site kitchen. PommeBébé peels, steams and purees by hand the ingredients in its meals, which feature seasonal recipes developed by critically acclaimed, five-star chef Laurent Brazier. Fall flavours, for example, include Apple Cranberry Puree, Chicken Pot Pie Blend and Autumn Stew. With prices beginning at USD 3.25 for a four-ounce serving, foods are also available online or through Whole Foods markets nationwide. Prepared without high-heat processes—which can destroy vital nutrients, tastes and colours—Pomme Bébé's meals contain no preservatives, fillers, artificial flavours, chemicals, hormones or antibiotics. Tasting bar for babies serves up tryvertising for tykes [Springwise]
Mix Tape USB Popgadget: I got so nostalgic that day, and even more so when I came across this Mix tape USB drive, I immediately wanted one. This isn't the first attempt at re-creating the pre-iTunes mix tape magic, but earlier attempts didn't look exactly like a cassette. This one is big enough to drop on the floor of your car and discover many years later. Of course, cars don't have USB connections (they soon will, I'm sure) but these 512 mb drives canbe a romantic symbol of un-hope for holding downloads of songs you can use to make an iMix to send to your unresponsive crush. Mix tape USB drives are $18 at the always-cool Fred Flare.
Soundboard Speaker Concept Yanko Design: This speaker concept called Brooch has no built-in soundboard. You have to bring that to the party. With its specially design suction cup, attach it to any smooth, flat surface. Different surfaces have different tones to them. The idea is to experiment. All music controls are projected onto that same surface for simulated touchscreen goodness.
Forks&Spoons That Float
ProductDose.com: I have this weird affinity for doing the dishes. I find it oddly therapeutic. A professor of mine told me there's a primal satisfaction in the act of cleansing -- things, your body, your spirit. These utensils from Seongyong Lee have a ball designed into them to enable them to float so that you don't have to rummage around in dirty dishwater to find them.
Qoof Video Commerce Widget Qoof, the Video Commerce company, is launching its “all-in-one” video commerce platform for retailers and merchants at Ad:Tech NY this week. Current clients included in the initial launch are Buy.com, Ice.com, Geeks.com and Gaiam. Its new video commerce widget includes all product information and direct response tools in one location, including: product details, customer reviews, buy now features, etc. Retailers upload videos and product information just once enabling Qoof to easily distribute it using ad networks (both major and niche networks), social media sites, merchant affiliate programs and others. Once videos and product data-feeds are uploaded and desired distribution methods chosen, Qoof can have merchants up and running in as little as 48 hours.
Emergent Architecture Inhabitat: Public space is essential in any urban environment, but drawing people out can be difficult when the weather makes the outdoors uncomfortable. The Emerald Plaza in Abu Dhabi by Los Angeles-based Emergent Architecture is intended to invite people out of doors despite high temperatures by offering shade and a wide expanse of space. The multi-level, modern plaza physically links the buildings surrounding it via walkways, while cooling pools help to regulate the plaza’s temperature. Emerald Plaza’s ground-level environment acts much like a grotto, maintaining a comfortable temperature with water regulated and cooled by geothermal heat pumps. Above it, a sculptural volume is crafted from the surrounding angular geometries. This space will be used as an indoors conference and media center that overlooks the water. The pools will be filled with solar-powered lily pads and flowers to create an attractive public space for the nighttime hours, when lower temperatures will make both the lower and upper terraces more inviting.
Thumb Drive for Drinkers Crave: USB thumb drives are going the Swiss Army way in their all-in-one multiple offerings, and this latest gives Victorinox a run for its tools. Who'd have thought a TrekStor can not only store digital files (up to 16GB), but also pop that beer bottle cap off anytime you fancy a tipple? Bottoms up to a very nice combination for press launches or office retreats: data and drinking. What's more, this makes for a pretty nifty keychain add-on, with its solid brushed-aluminum finish and snazzy bottle opener at the end. TrekStor has slated this product for October at $12-$88, depending on the capacity. 
Ink Glasses Crave: Just how many ways can you redesign a pair of spectacles? Living in a country where the multitudes are sadly myopic, we've probably seen them all, from sushi-friendly ones to Jekyll And Hyde versions and even nose-pinching creations. So designer Luis Porem's RbG Rainbow Glasses appears tame by comparison, though no less novel. Rather than interchangeable faceplates, Porem's had a eureka moment by allowing the wearer to fill the hollow frames with any color ink to match the day's outfit. Though whether this is ergonomically comfortable to wear hasn't yet been addressed. But hey, you could always fill this up with your secret stash of rum for when you need a stiff drink. 
Eco Collection In a response to consumer demand for upscale green tableware, EcoLogic Products has developed and is producing the Eco Collection, the first sustainable, green, FDA approved high end tableware to be made available in the United States. This tableware is made from natural plant fibers, is designed to last for years, and can be composted or repurposed when discarded. It has a near zero carbon footprint signature. This product will give consumers a viable green choice when deciding on a tableware product that will provide beauty, form and function in their kitchens for years, without changing buying patterns or compromising quality. 
Hand-me-downs One Stop Shop Springwise: As belts tighten ever more in a continuously precarious economy, it's fairly certain more and more parents are turning to second-hand sources for children's clothes and other items. While thrift stores tend to be hit-or-miss and online offerings are often buried within the likes of Craigslist, a new classifieds site for moms promises to aggregate such listings from across the web, making it quicker and easier for parents to find high-quality and low-cost kids' goods. Now in beta, Hand-me-downs allows parents to buy, sell, give away or donate new and gently used children's products in a family friendly atmosphere. Not to be confused with Handmedowns.org—a UK-based contender that facilitates just give-aways—the Beverly Hills-based site aims to create a one-stop destination for busy moms by pulling together and organizing the best listings from around the web as well as offering listings posted by its own members. 