The Sniffer

Greetings, Trendwatchers! In this podcast, Nora Young talks about a design for powering portable electronics such as your iPhone – with your breath! The Aire is a concept design (the technology doesn’t yet exist) by João Lammoglia, which features a mask that you wear, designed to harness the wind power of your breath. It’s kind of goofy, we admit, but beneath it lies a serious point: how are we going to power all these gadgets and devices we have? See images and more over at Fast Company. Cathi Bond, on the other hand, continues to explore her love of Maglev technology with the Evacuated Tube Transport system (via Gizmag). Would you propel yourself through a tube halfway across the world?

On The Sniffer this time, Cathi Bond looks at trends in solar power, in particular carbon nanotubes as a way to add solar generation capabilities to windows. (Read more at Flinders). Nora Young points to Lisa Rochon’s article on the energy loss problems of today’s glass tower condos. Could this be a solution? Meanwhile, Nora talks about a pilot project in Japan to allow motorists to pre-order their drive-through meals via two-way navigation systems. Convenient, sure, but what about distractible driving? (Via Trends in Japan).

This time, trendwatching pals, everything old is new again, at least in retail. Cathi Bond hearkens back to the tinkerer and the bookmobile with Styleliner, a mobile boutique fashioned out of an old chip truck (via PSFK). How important is in-person shopping to you? Is online OK for some things but not others? Nora Young looks at a new experiment in the growing attempt to marry the digital and the paper book in creative ways. Between Page and Screen uses augmented reality to create a 3D experience with books (via Springwise). Is this the beginning of a more sculptural approach to text? A cool niche a la Griffin and Sabine or The Raw Shark Texts? More importantly, would you read like this, or do you prefer good ol’ linear text?

Hey trendwatchers! Today, Nora talks about the news that the guy behind BitTorrent is developing a way to use the peer-to-peer protocol to distribute live content (via Technology Review). The idea has many appealing features, such as lowering distribution costs, but with live video becoming the bread and butter of TV networks (sports, live reality show contests), will broadcasters balk, or take the bait? In other video news, Cathi Bond brings you very cool PivotHead sunglasses. Basically, there’s a little easy-to-operate video camera embedded in the arm of the glasses. You can see Engadget’s video review here. As Cathi points out, this could be a great tool for journalists and armchair documentary makers. Does this mean everyone will turn into a video lifecaster? Finally, love the feeling of being barefoot, but worried about hurting your feet? How about Kevlar socks! (Via Core77)

For this trendwatching podcast, Cathi Bond has been keeping an eye on who’s raising funds on Kickstarter. She found this family farm hoping to raise pigs and take production all the way to cured pork products. People seem to have an increasing appetite for putting their money into specific projects that they can have some sense of agency over; witness the success of projects like Kiva. Meanwhile, Nora Young recalls the cute wi-fi rabbit, Nabaztag. Perhaps it was just a little ahead of its time, since we’re seeing all sorts of charming display tools aimed at helping us get a grip on all the information that’s coming at us. Nora points to two good examples: Feedair (via Gizmag) and Little Printer, by the folks at BERG. Little Printer is particularly distinct because it, well, prints things out on paper. Amidst all our electronic means for keeping tabs, is there still a role for paper lists in your life? Let us know!