I love my new clock:  The Present.

I posted on this new clock concept back in December.  Although it took a while to receive it (due to initial production challenges), it was worth the wait.  (If you’re not familiar with The Present, you’ll understand the irony in that in a moment.)

The present is a new type of clock that takes a year to make a full rotation and uses color to signify the changing seasons.  By conveying a sense of “real time” the clock’s attempted utility is to help people be more present and appreciate living in the moment.

So does it work?  I’d say yes.  I live a pretty hectic life and time always seems to be flying by.  But when I look at The Present, I do feel that time moves slower — thanks to a “hand” that barely moves day-to-day.  We love it and highly recommend one!

Wells Fargo announces their “minibranch” retail banking concept to be tested in Washington DC.   via WSJ: The “minibranch,” which is set to open on Monday in Washington, is the bank’s first effort to create a floor plan that can serve most of a customer’s basic needs in less than half the space of a traditional setup. As consumer needs/preferences shift, look out for a lot more innovation in this space.  This is just the beginning.

Wells Fargo announces their “minibranch” retail banking concept to be tested in Washington DC.  

via WSJ:

The “minibranch,” which is set to open on Monday in Washington, is the bank’s first effort to create a floor plan that can serve most of a customer’s basic needs in less than half the space of a traditional setup.

As consumer needs/preferences shift, look out for a lot more innovation in this space.  This is just the beginning.

Emerging technology that will render the mouse useless. »

Cool technology that will kill the mouse!  Via memeburn.

The way we use computers has remained largely unchanged for nearly 40 years. Even with the advent of touch screens and tablets in the past 10 years, we have only experienced a slight modification of the familiar point-and-click paradigm.

Efforts to improve the user interface have largely focused on making the content of what can be clicked on, or typed into, more intuitive. Although this field of user-experience design has created operating systems, websites and devices that are ever more user-friendly, they still remain stubbornly tied within this traditional relationship between human and computer.

Well, hang onto your mousepads because everything is about to change. We are currently going through the most significant evolution in the way we work with computers since Steve Jobs launched the Macintosh in 1984.

Check out MIT’s “trillion frames per second camera” that can record light.  Wouldn’t it be amazing to film the first rays of light during a sunrise? 

We have built an imaging solution that allows us to visualize propagation of light at an effective rate of one trillion frames per second. Direct recording of light at such a frame rate with sufficient brightness is nearly impossible. We use an indirect ‘stroboscopic’ method that combines millions of repeated measurements by careful scanning in time and viewpoints.

The device has been developed by the MIT Media Lab’s Camera Culture group in collaboration with Bawendi Lab in the Department of Chemistry at MIT. A laser pulse that lasts less than one trillionth of a second is used as a flash and the light returning from the scene is collected by a camera at a rate equivalent to roughly 1 trillion frames per second. However, due to very short exposure times (roughly one trillionth of a second) and a narrow field of view of the camera, the video is captured over several minutes by repeated and periodic sampling.

This is very cool.  Not sure how it works, but want to find out.

photojojo:

The Iris Camera is controlled by your eye, and shoots exactly what you see!

It uses biometric technology (think face recognition) to detect where your eye is looking through the lens and capture a frame based off of that. It was designed by Mimi Zou.

Watch the vid to see it in action.

The Iris Camera Shoots Exactly What  You See 

via NotCot

I can’t remember if I saw this video first at Poptech 2011 or at TedX-MidAtlanic 2011.  It’s an inspiring video on many levels:  1) It’s innovation that helps bring light to the poor using basic materials, and 2) it demonstrates the power of individual curiosity and will to solve a problem.

The NY Times recently wrote a piece about light innovation which includes a reference to the above video and more.

NY Times:  “Innovations in Light”

Brookstone is offering a pair of cufflinks that serve as a Wi-Fi hotspot and USB storage device (2GB).   Priced at $249, this is a luxury item, for sure.  However, I think it’s just more evidence that the future will bring portable Wi-Fi and data storage to everyday items.  I’m thinking watches will be the natural destination for much of this technology. See on Brookstone

Brookstone is offering a pair of cufflinks that serve as a Wi-Fi hotspot and USB storage device (2GB).  

Priced at $249, this is a luxury item, for sure.  However, I think it’s just more evidence that the future will bring portable Wi-Fi and data storage to everyday items.  I’m thinking watches will be the natural destination for much of this technology.

See on Brookstone