Haft2Know

TrendWatching.com presents their annual list of top 10 consumer trends, for 2010. These are trends they feel will help shape global demand next year, and in turn, supply. Themes centre around the end of the recession, pragmatism of goods of services, and of course the environment.

The sociology of the city features high in the list. A hundred years ago, less than 5 percent of the world's population lived in cities. In 2008, that number crossed the 50 percent threshold for the first time in history. In the last two decades, urban population of the developing world has grown by an average of 3 million people per week. What does this all mean to those living in urban centres?

Another familiar one to us is known as 'Tracking & Alerting' - using wireless communication to notify potential customers of what's available, and where - at any given moment. A perfect example of this is this past Haft2Know, about a mobile truck that sells warm cookies and desserts and alerts its NYC customers to its whereabouts by its website, and its Tweets.

The trends are fascinating, and in depth. Check out all ten here.

Posted by Haft2 at 08:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

In our ongoing quest to find things to custom order on-line, our friends at Hipstery.com might be at the helm of the next wave of custom ordering, which is this. You don't actually design it / choose it / determine it yourself, you merely supply information to the seller, and based on what they discover about you, they select it for you. Hipstery.com will ask you a number of questions including "What's your preferred method of air travel?" and "At the movies, which armrest belongs to you?". Depending on your answers, a t-shirt is chosen to suit you and sent along. The burden of choice can be daunting.

Here it is

Posted by Haft2 at 08:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Move over, Kryogenics. Swiss DNA Bank offers a different way to be immortalized.

'Perpetual docs management' is how this company describes what they do. It's an infinite time capsule, and for a one-time starting fee of about $300 USD you'll receive a kit in the mail that will allow you to submit to the capsule any data you may wish - photos, music, stories, your cat's pointilist pieces - as well as your own DNA. And there it will sit in perpetuum below the Swiss Alps, allowing future generations of your own family not only to remember you, but clone one of your own offspring to be your genetic twin.

The infinite link is here

Posted by Haft2 at 08:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Here's another way to weather the current economic gales. Blue Star Jets is a company that was originally formed by a group of business executives who realized that not all passengers for private jets actually need to own an aircraft. There was a market for those who were looking merely to lease a jet for a day or a few.

Well now the company has found a way to further cut those pesky private jet fees. It's called 'Share-A-Jet', and it's an online search engine that allows potential customers to look for others taking a similar route, thus allowing them to share the expense of the journey. A regularly updated list of available flights will give you an idea as to where people are going, and uh, what they're paying to go there. Here's the list here.

And be sure to check out the company's Jackie Mason testimonial video. Clearly, jet sharing has worked for him.

http://www.bluestarjets.com

Posted by Haft2 at 08:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)