Giving Your ‘Touch’ Screen Real Feelings

by Harris Cohen, the PromoGuru

You may never have heard of haptics, but you come into contact with it every day. When your phone vibrates to indicate an incoming call, that’s haptics. When you’re playing a video game and your controller rumbles along to an explosion in the game, that’s haptics. Haptics is any technology that connects with the user through the sense of touch.

GE Looks at the Future of Flight

by Harris Cohen, the PromoGuru

Check out out this website - Future Flight - for a look into the future of aviation from GE.

The real treat on this particular website is the interactive airport map. You'll find it about halfway down the page. Check out such lists as "World's Oldest Airports" and "Most Scenic Airports". Our hometown San Diego made the top of "World's Most Urban Airports". Choose the "Remote Airport" list and then zoom out on the map to see just how middle-of-nowhere some airports are! You can also make a custom list - maybe all the airports you've flown into, or ones you'd like to visit - and share it with friends on Facebook or Twitter.

Maybe you should activate the out-of-office manager on your e-mail...this site could have you busy for a couple hours.



 Picture credit: GE

Pull Up a Chair...to your iPhone

by Harris Cohen, the PromoGuru

Is the iPhone screen just too small for you?

You've tried upgrading the iPad, but still not getting the screen clarity you desire?

Maybe you need to pull up a chair to the iTableous!

Creator Benjamin Bachmeier took a 40" screen and designed an Apple-style table around it. In addition, it runs the Mac operating system (and Windows 7!), rather than the iOS (the operating system for Apple phones and tablets).

Check it the iTableous here, and watch a video tour of this custom job!

Introducing the Next World's Tallest Building

by Harris Cohen, the PromoGuru

New concept pictures have just been released for the Kingdom Tower project in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The one-kilometer-tall skyscraper will dwarf the current place-holder, Dubai's Burj Khalifa, by nearly 200 meters. Within, 59 elevators will race you to the observation deck at 10 meters per second. This is not a building for the easily queasy!

Check out the website of Chicago's AS+GG Architecture, the firm designing the tower, for awe-inspiring renderings of what the completed project will look like. Construction is expected to start no later than this December, and take about five years to complete.

Remember, while these are computer renderings, this is a building they are really hoping to build - not a piece of CGI scenery for the next Star Wars project!

DIY Segway Hits the Streets of Stockholm

by Harris Cohen, the Promo Guru

Love to ride your own Segway but are a bit shy about the well-over $1,000 price tag? Petter Forsberg, a young tinkerer from Sweden, worked his way around that and has put together his own version of the personal transporter - and it only cost him $434 to create.

See the full story and videos here: Petter's Robot Dreams.

So we just need to get together some pieces, break out the tool set and hole up in the garage for a couple months, and viola! DIY Segway! Who's coming with me to the Radio Shack?

A Quick Boost, For You and Your Handheld

by Harris Cohen, The PromoGuru

Vitaminwater is looking to give a refreshing energy boost to more than just your body. Through ad agency Crispin Porter and Bogusky, the enhanced water drink company is integrating real, functional USB ports in their bus stop ads in Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles and New York.

The idea is to let riders charge their handheld devices while they wait for the bus. The ads are part of the Vitaminwater's 'You're Up' campaign, highlighting its message that the drink is formulated to give you a quick boost when you are on the go.

It’s an awesome idea…if we can get everyone to respect it. The line for the bus could become the line for the free charger (there do appear to be three slots). And hopefully some wisenheimer doesn’t stick their chewing gum in the slot.

Will the other energy drinks follow suit? Maybe 5-Hour Energy will set up a USB-capable subway ad, asking if your tablet needs to beat that 2:30 feeling!

Super-Spy Watch It May Not Be...But Pretty Darn Close!

by Harris Cohen, the PromoGuru

If you frequently leave your phone or tablet laying on your desk, but always have your wristwatch on, Fossil’s got just the thing for you!

The new Fossil “Meta Watch” will come in two models, one analog with two small digital displays, and the other fully digital. Both connect to your smartphone or tablet via Bluetooth tech developed by Texas Instruments. On your Meta Watch you can receive push notifications and be able to read e-mails, tweets and Facebook updates. Since none of those apps actually exist on the device itself (they are just being transmitted from your main device), the watch has a great battery life.

Pre-orders are now being accepted, or you can wait until they go on sale officially next month at $200.

Checking your phone during a meeting can be considered rude, checking your watch carries just slightly less a taboo.

Shoot Now, Focus Later

by Harris Cohen, The PromoGuru

Thought you had the perfect shot on your vacation, but then it ended up a blurry mess? With an advanced new camera coming out later this year, you won’t have to worry. Just fix it later!

Silicon Valley start-up Lytro is set to introduce a point-and-shoot style camera which will feature technology that lets a picture’s focus be adjusted after it is taken. Once you have transferred the file to your computer, you will be able to bring any out-of-focus object in the picture into sharp relief.

The Entrepreneurial Spirit: A Sign for a Time

by Harris Cohen, The PromoGuru

Over the next couple weeks we’d like to spotlight a handful of entrepreneurs who have stayed afloat in the toughest of markets: fads. How do you introduce a product and then stay relevant in a world that runs from the next big thing to another in seemingly no time at all? Maybe you move on to something new, or maybe you roll with the punches and have a good sense of your niche in the market.

In “The Entrepreneurial Spirit,” we’ll look at inventors and marketers who rolled out “Next Big Things” but also landed on their feet when the dust settled on the fad.

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In 1984, Michael Lerner was childless himself, but a drive down one of Boston’s busiest expressways with his 18-month-old nephew in the back seat had him scared out of his wits over the safety of the boy. He told Wall Street Journal, as traffic rushed around him, “for the first time, I felt like a parent feels when they have a kid in the car."