The Sweet Flour Bake Shop creates a baking experience that provides almost instant gratification. Cookie munchers design their own biscuits — there are 15,000 possible combinations — which are then baked and ready-to-eat just two minutes later.
Ideas
Wine online: a booming business
Vinfolio is a comprehensive site for the fine wine buff, with online bidding for wine, social networking and offline storage facilities. And it’s just raised $US4.5 million in venture capital. That’s a serious drop.
Long roadtrip? New invention for Pee-platers
A German company has launched the ‘Ladybag’ — a pocket-urinal for women on the go. With 20,000 sales so far, it may be the Number One seller of its kind.
Ben & Jerry’s ice-cream is totally gay
American ice-cream makers Ben & Jerry’s are the kings of seizing the zeitgeist to sell their products. For Obama’s presidency they created “Yes Pecan” flavour. Now it’s “Hubby Hubby” for Vermont’s legalisation of same-sex marriage.
Get a mortgage, buy someone else a home
By taking out an ING mortgage, Dutch borrowers can choose to help families in Bangladesh and India build homes of their own. If they stump up 300 euros for a microloan, ING adds another 300.
Make it free, then make your fortune
Everything Explained books always sell well. Wired editor, Chris Anderson, adds his contribution, Free, which argues that taking the price tag off something is the path to riches.
The e-store that cashes in on inconvenience
Alice.com — still in beta — promises to help customers make “sure you never run out of bathroom tissue.” It uses calendars and reminders to help tell you what to buy — way before it becomes a must.
Gold to go!
In uncertain financial times, investors seek refuge in gold. Thomas Geissler has seized on this, inventing a vending machine that dispenses tiny nuggets of gold.
A wall of power points
Forget scrounging on the floor and battling with a tangle of cords to plug in your heater only to find there isn’t a power point left… this is a sweet design solution.
