Image via Wander
I don’t exactly know what new travel website Wander is up to, but I like it. This morning I quickly lost about 20 minutes perusing other people’s travel photos on Wander’s pre-launch website, right after uploading a couple of my own as a part of Wander Weeks, a four week onboarding process for their beta program. Week 1 asked users to share a short comment and photo about where they’d rather be. Week 2 called for a memory and photo of a place you’ve been. Weeks 3 and 4 are a mystery, as is what the ultimate point of the site will be. According to TechCrunch, “it’ll be ‘adjacent’ to both the curation and location space, a combination of Tumblr and Pinterest, Yelp, Tripadvisor and Foursquare.”
Even in its current state, Wander is something to behold. It’s magically designed, and there’s something about perusing singular moments in people’s lives that’s deeply habit-forming. AC recommends you check out their blog as well for some great wallpapers.
Video via Vimeo
“You need to try some new things; have you ever had shoes without shoestrings?” The makers of my latest Kickstarter contribution invoked Kanye West in their product description, and they had me. I do need to try some new things! And so I shall, with Hickies, a prototype “lacing system” that replaces your laces with what appear to be colorful rubber bands. Ok so they’re more than that; they’re durable rubber fasteners that fit any shoe to turn them into slip-ons.
Adventure Capitalist is in on Hickies, and here’s why: I don’t like how shoelaces look when they’re tied. I keep all my shoelaces loose enough so that the laces hang out of the eyelets at the top of the shoe—loose enough so that the laces don’t drag but tight enough so that my shoes stay on. It’s a pain in the butt to pull off, and maybe now I won’t have to.
There are two kinds of bike rides: food-based and non food-based. The first kind makes food the point of a bike ride, e.g. “let’s ride to that coffee place uptown.” The second makes the ride the point of a bike ride, which, when you read it out loud, makes it clear that the second kind is superior. Well friends, I’ve just discovered that you can have your coffee and eat it too. I give you the Double Latte PowerBar Gel.
For half the price of a Starbucks, you get a serving of high-energy gel infused with electrolytes, carbs, ginseng, caffeine and science. All without the nuisance of chewing. Not a coffee fan? No problem friend! Here, have a Kona Punch. Not bad, right? PB Gels are available at Amazon and REI.
Image by Justin Beere
For those times when your destination is just a little too far to walk, but also a little hard to get to via public transit, a bike is perfect. New Yorkers are about to get all the benefits of having a bike in the city, without having a bike in the city.
Last week the city announced a partnership with Citibank to arm NYC and Brooklyn with some 10,000 public bikes. Buy a yearly membership or pay as you go, and you get access. When in need of some wheels, simply pick up a ride at one of 600 stations. When you’re done, drop it off at any other station you like. It’s the US incarnation of the system they’ve got in London, another bank-sponsored arrangement called Barclay’s Cycle Hire. AC recently tried out the system in London (pictured), and can’t wait to have it stateside.
Image via WIREDInsider
Are you a carry-on traveler? One of those diehards who wouldn’t be caught dead checking a bag; who prides themselves on fitting three weeks worth of clothes and a mountaineering kit into a compact roller? Well then cover your eyes because I’m about to drop some blasphemy. I like the checked bag. I don’t mind getting separated from my stuff and having a few extra minutes to stop and smell the baggage claim.
A bigger bag means not only more room for your stuff, but more room for the stuff you plan to bring back. It leaves you free to move about the airport with just a backpack. Ignore that announcement regarding limited overhead bin space, you don’t give a crap. If you’ve ever thought about going checked, AC recommends the Tumi Tech. It’s super-light, durable, stylish, and easy to spot at the aforementioned baggage claim. Scoop one up over at Gilt the next time they have a sale.
Image via Wevther
Study after study has convinced marketers that consumers are influenced by their peers. Therefore, ask just about anybody in startup land what the biggest trend in online shopping is and they’ll say “curation”. You’ve seen Pinterest, so you already know that. It’s a great way to shop when you’re not quite sure what you’re looking for, but you know that, for example, you need a new lightweight jacket of some sort.
This week I discovered a cool little experiment in this category: crowd-sourced curation by weather. Created as a side project by a couple of whippersnapper startup guys, Wevther (pronounced “weather”) is an experimental collaboration with Svpply to serve you curated shopping suggestions based simply on what it’s like outside right now. Simply enter your city or zipcode, and Wevther automatically sources the forecast and then instantly curates a stylish selection of weather-appropriate gear from Svpply. Wevther is perfect for planning what to pack on vacation too.
My heart’s racing, and it’s because of the new MINI John Cooper Works Roadster: It’s a beauty. A street-legal race car bred for the track and rigorously tuned. I had to see if this car was legit. Turns out, in the ’50s and ’60s, it burst on the scene and kept up with the big boys on F1 and the Monte Carlo Rally.
Pick up the May issue of WIRED and peep the augmented reality ad for some topless thrills starring the new Mini Roadster. Then head over to facebook.com/MINIUSA to learn more about its race-worthy features, like a 208 hp engine and a six-speed transmission. Good things do come in small packages.
Image via enpundit
I thought Dubai was out of money. Hundreds of real estate projects canceled. Lavish island mega-resorts eroding into the sea as construction halts indefinitely. Thousands upon thousands of workers handed walking papers—what’s that? Dubai’s planning a garishly overdone underwater hotel big enough to make Poseidon blush? We’re back!
In what appears to be a revival of an original construction project unfortunately known as “Hydropolis”, the new hotel is being built by a company called DryDocks, which specializes in deep-sea oil rigs. Two things come to mind here. One: This could be my chance to finally sleep inside an aquarium. Two: I don’t think I want to eat fish in a restaurant while live fish stare at me from the wet side of the glass. At the very least, we can now look forward to more crazy resort ideas from Dubai.
Image via WIRED Business Conference
“Don’t let technology lead; let the experience lead. If you try to pack everything into technology, you’ll get something that’s bulky that you don’t necessarily need.” That’s the perspective of Stefan Olander, VP, Digital Sport at a promising athletics company called Nike. At last week’s WIRED Biz Conference, Mr. Olander spoke with WIRED Executive Editor Thomas Goetz about the methodology and goals of Nike’s FuelBand project.
The @WIREDBiz account was live-tweeting the event, and some interesting stuff was discussed. The FuelBand is a cool little piece of technology, but its real purpose isn’t technological innovation, but rather an innovation on the metrics of athletic performance, and the psychology that motivates it. Turns out there’s a lot more to that little bracelet than we thought. Check out all the session notes here, as well as notes from all the other talks.
Video via YouTube
It’s getting easier and easier to quickly capture and publish photos on the go, with roughly six bajillion* applications out there dedicated to the cause. As far as I know, none of them can do what TourWrist does. Snap 10 quick photos from your iPhone, and TourWrist will stitch them together to make your panorama, then send you an email when it’s been uploaded to the TourWrist network. From there, you can share the “pano” to the usual social media outlets, or even embed them on websites.
The TourWrist platform is really the “killer app”, as his Steve-ness used to say. All the photos you take are stored free of charge with TourWrist, so you don’t have to fill your phone’s hard drive with 10 photos every time you want to build a pano.
TourWrist took home the top prize at this year’s DEMO event. Sounds like they’ve got a lot more up their sleeves.
*Estimate based on Adventure Capitalist wild guess.
