Serious eats finds the new Kellog's cereal straw. I feel that this product could be brilliant but lacks a little bit of focus.
quoting from the Impulsive buy, Serious Eats highlights a basic problem:
So, how could we improve this? There are maybe a few ways.
In one case, the straw could be built like a pixie stick. Closed with a thin cereal barrier at top and bottom, and filled with cereal dust. Take a straw out of the box, cut or break the end (I think of cigars though the image is understandably unpleasant), cut or crack the other end and then tap the cereal powder out into the milk. Now you can imbibe cereal flavored milk through the straw. Naturally, there are some significant engineering problems here. If the seals are too thin, they will break in transit, filling the box with cereal dust. If the barriers are too thick, breaking the end off the straw will become a pain. We also want to avoid breaking the straw in half. This might require perforations near each end. All told, this solution is probably too complex.
A different and more interesting approach might be to fill the straw itself with a solid milk gel, similar to the yogurt coating on the less healthy cereal bars, but preferably with a lighter consistency and less sugar. I wonder if it is possible to combine milk powder, sugar and an agar-like stabilizer. This strikes me as more compelling. It allows us to carry a self contained "classic" cereal with us, without being constrained to box, bowl and spoon- the "bell book and candle" of the cereal world. Usage would be determined by the type of cereal and the organic/ non-organic status of the ingredients. I could easily see a higher end, "Special-K", version of this product sold to the type-A weight conscious business crowd that has already woken up to the terrible fact that cereal bars are incredibly calorie-dense. I could see a different version sold to middle school and high school students. In fact, once Kelloggs works out the "fill it with stabilized milk and seal the ends" process, a full portfolio of cereal sticks could be produced.
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Jupiter Research Analyst Michael Gartenberg looks at the Twittergram, a mini-podcast 200K in size or less, built via Twitter, an SMS centered social networking service. Mr. Gartenberg sees potential in mobile applications, and I agree, but a few other uses come to mind when I look at a Twittergram as the post-it note of the voice communication world. These include:
TwitterShort: You are dating someone or are married or are close to a family member of friend. S/he gives you a Twitter number which you can call once a day in order to hear a special message. I had friends in college who loved calling the free "what is the weather like" service on a daily basis. This is similar, but much more personal. A bit of a pull rather than push voicemail. I could also see this as being very useful when groups are trying to meet up and one or more people are running late. Post a general message about your ETA that others can check rather than making repeated calls to different group members.
TwitterIndex: small excerpts of longer podcasts, in order to help me find the content that I want to find without wading through the less interesting stuff
I am sure that there are others. It might be nice to hear 10 sec capsule adverts about products that I want to buy, particularly if I can get a spoken message from the inventor/ creator, helping me to form a tighter, more personal bond with the product.
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The WSJ notes that Microsoft will be selling cheap (around USD $500) education PCs in India. I've always been a little bit curious about the "computers in classrooms" movement. Is is really enough to place a working computer with a Windows Operating system and a suite of desktop applications in a classroom?
It might be that I have not followed developments in Educational computing, but I am curious to see how these computers are actually used in the classroom, particularly in schools that have uneven power (does the school get an inverter with the computers?) and little or no Internet access (can we find a wireless card manufacturer who is willing to provide cheap connectivity?). How will the staff be trained on the computers? Is this a better option that installing used computers with opensource desktops/ operating systems?
It would be great to work with PEW or some other organization and really look at day to day computer use in a variety of classroom settings, if only to develop a "jobs to be done" approach to classroom computing.
Why jobs to be done? We already have 4 foothold customer groups (teachers, students, administrators, parents) and we already have the solution (classroom computer). We now need to look at jobs in order to improve the "fit" between the foothold customer and solution.
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I want to like the Microcab (via Treehugger). At present I see it as an incredibly sustaining version of either a golf cart or an autorickshaw. I'd probably buy a longer range golf cart before I bought a Microcab.
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Reuters reports that two of the major Amercian television networks achieved the lowest rating in two decades among the 18-49 demographic.
Notice the assumption above. I'd like the see Neilsen hook their tracking boxes up to video game consoles. Advertisers might be interested to know whether the 18-49 year demographic remained couch-side, playing video games instead of watching television.
Actually, it should not be too hard to create a video game tracker that keeps tabs on the type of console and the game being played. It looks like Nielsen is at least considering video game rentals and that they may be launching a video game rental service in mid 2007 (I am not sure whether this has been launched, though). Of course this odes not tell me enough about actual use.
Google Answers has some great (if slightly outdated) links to video game rental statistics. I have not followed all of the links yet, so some of them may be broken.
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OhGizmo look sat a next generation parking meter:
Next Generation parking meters are a popular subject but this is one of the most over the top. Unfortunately, the added functionality may end up fostering some of the problems that parking meters are designed to solve. Gizmodo points out that they may reduce ticket revenue for cities. At the same time, they may hurt retailers who benefit from higher rates of parking turnover near their stores.
A better networked parking meter system might allow me to bid on the nearest available meter. dangerous maybe for people that are already distracted while driving around a city, but it would be great if each meter had a two minute "no park" interval while soliciting bids from everyone within four city block who had activated the meter search service on their phone.
quoting from the Impulsive buy, Serious Eats highlights a basic problem:
Ace says that even though the straw holds up to the milk being sucked up it, you can't eat the cereal and the milk at the same time as you would if you ate normal Froot Loops in milk with a spoon. Eating the straw makes it a useless tool for milk ingestion.
Once you take a single bite of the cereal straw, it becomes too short for drinking and the fun immediately dissipates. If you just sit there and drink the milk, you'll just be wasting the straw as it imparts no flavor and is generally useless. Once you get to the bottom, you realize you have a half-soggy cereal straw with no milk to wash it down with.
So, how could we improve this? There are maybe a few ways.
In one case, the straw could be built like a pixie stick. Closed with a thin cereal barrier at top and bottom, and filled with cereal dust. Take a straw out of the box, cut or break the end (I think of cigars though the image is understandably unpleasant), cut or crack the other end and then tap the cereal powder out into the milk. Now you can imbibe cereal flavored milk through the straw. Naturally, there are some significant engineering problems here. If the seals are too thin, they will break in transit, filling the box with cereal dust. If the barriers are too thick, breaking the end off the straw will become a pain. We also want to avoid breaking the straw in half. This might require perforations near each end. All told, this solution is probably too complex.
A different and more interesting approach might be to fill the straw itself with a solid milk gel, similar to the yogurt coating on the less healthy cereal bars, but preferably with a lighter consistency and less sugar. I wonder if it is possible to combine milk powder, sugar and an agar-like stabilizer. This strikes me as more compelling. It allows us to carry a self contained "classic" cereal with us, without being constrained to box, bowl and spoon- the "bell book and candle" of the cereal world. Usage would be determined by the type of cereal and the organic/ non-organic status of the ingredients. I could easily see a higher end, "Special-K", version of this product sold to the type-A weight conscious business crowd that has already woken up to the terrible fact that cereal bars are incredibly calorie-dense. I could see a different version sold to middle school and high school students. In fact, once Kelloggs works out the "fill it with stabilized milk and seal the ends" process, a full portfolio of cereal sticks could be produced.
================================================================================================
Jupiter Research Analyst Michael Gartenberg looks at the Twittergram, a mini-podcast 200K in size or less, built via Twitter, an SMS centered social networking service. Mr. Gartenberg sees potential in mobile applications, and I agree, but a few other uses come to mind when I look at a Twittergram as the post-it note of the voice communication world. These include:
TwitterShort: You are dating someone or are married or are close to a family member of friend. S/he gives you a Twitter number which you can call once a day in order to hear a special message. I had friends in college who loved calling the free "what is the weather like" service on a daily basis. This is similar, but much more personal. A bit of a pull rather than push voicemail. I could also see this as being very useful when groups are trying to meet up and one or more people are running late. Post a general message about your ETA that others can check rather than making repeated calls to different group members.
TwitterIndex: small excerpts of longer podcasts, in order to help me find the content that I want to find without wading through the less interesting stuff
I am sure that there are others. It might be nice to hear 10 sec capsule adverts about products that I want to buy, particularly if I can get a spoken message from the inventor/ creator, helping me to form a tighter, more personal bond with the product.
=================================================================================================
The WSJ notes that Microsoft will be selling cheap (around USD $500) education PCs in India. I've always been a little bit curious about the "computers in classrooms" movement. Is is really enough to place a working computer with a Windows Operating system and a suite of desktop applications in a classroom?
It might be that I have not followed developments in Educational computing, but I am curious to see how these computers are actually used in the classroom, particularly in schools that have uneven power (does the school get an inverter with the computers?) and little or no Internet access (can we find a wireless card manufacturer who is willing to provide cheap connectivity?). How will the staff be trained on the computers? Is this a better option that installing used computers with opensource desktops/ operating systems?
It would be great to work with PEW or some other organization and really look at day to day computer use in a variety of classroom settings, if only to develop a "jobs to be done" approach to classroom computing.
Why jobs to be done? We already have 4 foothold customer groups (teachers, students, administrators, parents) and we already have the solution (classroom computer). We now need to look at jobs in order to improve the "fit" between the foothold customer and solution.
=================================================================================================
I want to like the Microcab (via Treehugger). At present I see it as an incredibly sustaining version of either a golf cart or an autorickshaw. I'd probably buy a longer range golf cart before I bought a Microcab.
=================================================================================================
Reuters reports that two of the major Amercian television networks achieved the lowest rating in two decades among the 18-49 demographic.
NEW YORK (Hollywood Reporter) - CBS and ABC fell to their lowest ratings among the coveted adults 18-49 demographic in two decades last week, as reruns and summer alternatives drove viewers from their couches.
Notice the assumption above. I'd like the see Neilsen hook their tracking boxes up to video game consoles. Advertisers might be interested to know whether the 18-49 year demographic remained couch-side, playing video games instead of watching television.
Actually, it should not be too hard to create a video game tracker that keeps tabs on the type of console and the game being played. It looks like Nielsen is at least considering video game rentals and that they may be launching a video game rental service in mid 2007 (I am not sure whether this has been launched, though). Of course this odes not tell me enough about actual use.
Google Answers has some great (if slightly outdated) links to video game rental statistics. I have not followed all of the links yet, so some of them may be broken.
=================================================================================================
OhGizmo look sat a next generation parking meter:
[Photo Violations is] currently testing a new type of parking meter in cities like Vancouver and Niagara Falls that will call your cellphone when the time gets close to running out....But instead of dashing out to the street to feed the meter you’ll be able to make a wireless payment using your phone. Of course you can always just let the time run out and get a parking fine instead which not surprisingly can also be payed via the meter. On top of it all the Photo Violation meters are solar-powered and can even be setup as wifi hotspots
Next Generation parking meters are a popular subject but this is one of the most over the top. Unfortunately, the added functionality may end up fostering some of the problems that parking meters are designed to solve. Gizmodo points out that they may reduce ticket revenue for cities. At the same time, they may hurt retailers who benefit from higher rates of parking turnover near their stores.
A better networked parking meter system might allow me to bid on the nearest available meter. dangerous maybe for people that are already distracted while driving around a city, but it would be great if each meter had a two minute "no park" interval while soliciting bids from everyone within four city block who had activated the meter search service on their phone.
