Monthly Archives: April 2012

Berlin pop-up restaurant: Diners pay in time, not money

April 24, 2012 – 2:36 pm

by Inga Seidler WHAT’S HAPPENING The German chapter of the Time/Bank artist collective recently opened Time/Food, a pop-up restaurant in Berlin (E-flux.com, 17 February 2012). The restaurant serves lunch every other Sunday, in exchange for time currency, earned by helping others in the Time/Bank community. The price of a meal at Time/Food is half an […]

By Iconoculture | Posted in Consumer Trend, Food/Beverage, Global | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments Off

Hungry in Dubai? Push a fridge magnet to instantly order a pizza

April 24, 2012 – 2:29 pm

by Samina Virani WHAT’S HAPPENING Dubai residents can now order their favorite pizza simply by pressing a special refrigerator magnet. This one-step gadget is a first in the fast food industry (DigitalTrends.com, 26 March 2012). Created by the Dubai-based Red Tomato Pizza, the magnet button is synced to a user’s smartphone via Bluetooth. The Red […]

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A crowdsourced credit card: Barclay throws the terms to its customers

April 24, 2012 – 2:26 pm

by Hans Eisenbeis WHAT’S HAPPENING The credit card industry is ripe for a remake, thanks not only to new heavy-handed federal regulations that put a pinch on old profit lines, but because the marketplace and the times really demand it. Barclaycard is making a bold step into brave new territory with the Barclaycard Ring MasterCard, […]

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FOODIE PARENTS’ FATIGUE

April 24, 2012 – 2:18 pm

by Charlotte Beal In recent years, it became hip for parents to turn away from the convenience products so carefully crafted by the food industry starting in the ’50s. A whole cohort of parents ditched ready-makeable packaged foods in favor of homemade baby food, farmers’-market produce and DIY preserves. All this as older generations of […]

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Now, a pickle for diabetics from the Nilon’s stable

April 17, 2012 – 1:18 pm

by Kiran Manral WHAT’S HAPPENING A new pickle is being marketed specifically for diabetics. Bitter gourd (karela in the native Hindi lingo) is reputed to be good for diabetics because it helps to regulate blood sugar levels. Nilon’s, a processed-food company that specialises in pickles, has launched a bitter gourd pickle targeting people with the condition […]

By Iconoculture | Posted in Consumer Trend, Food/Beverage, India | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off

iGrill app lets backyard chefs cook remotely

April 17, 2012 – 1:11 pm

by Cree McCree WHAT’S HAPPENING Outdoor entertaining is a backyard tradition. But why should the grillmeister miss all the fun? iGrill, a Bluetooth-enabled thermometer, lets chefs mingle with the guests instead of hovering over the coals. iGrill works as a standalone thermometer but earns its keep with remote apps. Once they set the desired temperature, […]

By Iconoculture | Posted in Consumer Trend, Home, Technology | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off

German grocery store laid out by recipe — not category

April 17, 2012 – 1:02 pm

by Inga Seidler WHAT’S HAPPENING Regular cooks know that the most time-consuming aspect of cooking can be finding a recipe and then shopping for its specific ingredients. One-stop-shop Kochhaus aims to simplify things by providing recipes along with everything required to create them. Unlike traditional grocers, the shop is not sorted by product type, but […]

By Iconoculture | Posted in Consumer Trend, Food/Beverage, Grocery | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments Off

CAR CONVERSATIONS

April 17, 2012 – 12:57 pm

by Stefania Revelli It’s that time of year again. Oil refineries are getting a spring cleaning, gas prices are heading upward, and New York City was recently host to the 2012 International Auto Show. Iconoculture talked to dozens of consumers and product specialists there and found three recurring themes: fervor, fuel and fear. Visitors were […]

By Iconoculture | Posted in Consumer Trend, Transportation | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off

The Future Is Coming: How advertising and the digital data trail will purify us of our love for the past and kill off nostalgia

April 17, 2012 – 10:59 am

by Josh Kimball Digitally enabled by easily accessible evocations of their past, consumers’ very memories are now being relentlessly commoditized. Images of our weddings and graduations, memories of kids’ births and grandparents’ faces now get snugly wrapped by ads for automobiles and toothpaste. The commercialization of our personal and collective pasts has significant cultural and […]

By Iconoculture | Posted in Consumers, Entertainment, Media, Social Media | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off

“App gap” is the new face of the digital divide

April 10, 2012 – 12:03 pm

by Jana Branch WHAT’S HAPPENING iPads are the hot portal for kid-size edutainment, with an array of apps that build skills while engaging young minds. And with that bridge comes a new divide. Research by Common Sense Media points out that a new “app gap” is emerging between affluent and low-income kids. According to Zero […]

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Phone booths stick around, and go green, in Italy

April 10, 2012 – 10:50 am

by Elisabeth Catuogno WHAT’S HAPPENING With the last of Italy’s old-school phone booths scheduled to be dismantled by 2016, Telecom Italia has noted that people are beginning to use them again (Panorama.it, 12 March, 2012). UbiConnected — a small telcom company from Turin — has proposed a green restyling of the traditional phone booth, and […]

By Iconoculture | Posted in Consumer Trend, Sustainability, Transportation | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments Off

EnemyGraph lets Facebook users air dislikes

April 10, 2012 – 10:48 am

by Jana Branch WHAT’S HAPPENING The only thing that surprises us is that it took so long for a Facebook app like EnemyGraph to show up. Released in mid-March 2012, the app went through the roof. After defying predictions that Facebook would shut it down, EnemyGraph has settled in as new users worldwide declare their […]

By Iconoculture | Posted in Consumer Trend, Social Media | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off

A REPIN IS WORTH A THOUSAND TWEETS

April 10, 2012 – 10:45 am

by Joshua Kimball Word nerds, step aside. In the world of emerging social media, right now it’s better to be seen and not read. This week, Instagram, the app that lets users easily filter and share photographs using their smartphones, finally opened to Android handsets, adding 1 million users within 24 hours (Slate, 4 April […]

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Popularise asks residents, “What would you build here?”

April 3, 2012 – 11:44 am

by Nissa Hanna WHAT’S HAPPENING Popularise is turning neighborhood planning over to the people. The website lets building owners and developers ask residents for their business wish lists and put the suggestions to a vote. Washington, DC developer WestMill Capital is using Popularise to solicit business ideas for its purchase of a 4,250-square-foot former convenience […]

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Spain: Crash Therapy helps consumers de-stress by destroying things

April 3, 2012 – 11:40 am

by Saricia Rose WHAT’S HAPPENING Spain’s Crash Therapy lets consumers unleash their inner beast and smash a selection of household items in the name of catharsis (Abc.es, 16 February 2012). The frazzled and the fraught can drop by the firm’s premises in Valencia and, for a basic fee of €20, let rip on 25 everyday […]

By Iconoculture | Posted in Consumer Trend, Global, Health | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments Off
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