Introducing Chaotic Moon Labs’ Board of Awesomeness — a longboard powered by movement. Using a motorized longboard custom rigged with a Microsoft Xbox 360 Kinect device, Samsung Windows 8 enabled tablet with full voice control, a phidget interface module and all terrain tires.

More here.

Barley.

Here.

Simply follow @tweetalondoncab and when you want a cab just DM them stating pick-up time, location, destination and your phone number. A TLC representative will reply via DM and the booking will be confirmed. The driver will then call you when he/she arrives.

Bingo.

It’s a great service and there are no hidden (extra) meter charges.

Here.

Site here.

Google have revamped Google Latitude for the browser and added some very nice new features. Latitude now enables you view your friends current location on a large Google Map (no longer relying on iGoogle) and also enables you to view stats based on your location history. You can also visualise your location history. The map displays your current location and the last check-ins of your Latitude friends. The history stats includes a breakdown of the number of hours you have spent at home, work and out and about and it shows you a map of all the countries you have visited and it lets you view an animation of your check-ins to Latitude for any defined time period.

The animation of your check-ins (accessed by the ‘view and manage’ tab’) is pretty sweet. It enables you replay your location for any day, you can also download the data in KML so Latitude users can create their own Google Map animations or heat maps of their recorded locations.

Here.

Blog here.

Mobile here.

By the way, as you can see above, I don’t actually have any friends.

Apparently Google have been busy making a vehicle that can drive itself using artificial-intelligence software that can sense anything around the car and mimic decisions made by a human driver (the good decisions obviously). Seven test cars have driven 1,000 miles without human intervention and more than 140,000 miles with only occasional human control. The only accident being when one Google car was rear-ended by a human driver. According to the engineers, not only will this technology make driving safer, it could double the capacity of roads by enabling cars to drive closer together. Also, as the robot cars would eventually be less likely to crash, they could be built lighter, reducing fuel consumption and costs.

As you’d expect, the Google robot based drivers react faster than humans, have 360-degree perception and do not get distracted, sleepy or pissty and are incredibly smug.

Here.

Chromaroma is an online multiplayer game played out as you travel the city with your Oyster Card. By using Oyster data the game is able to log your Tube travel, and every journey means you amass points, taking a few steps further along the way to owning London. It connects communities of people who cross paths and routes on a regular basis, and encourages people to make new journeys and use public transport in a different way by exploring new areas and potentially using different modes of public transport.

Here.

Live availability information based on the Boris Bikes API.

ViaDigitalUrban.

This map shows all trains (yellow pins) on the London Underground network in approximately real time. Click the stations for a local map of that station. I have a (per-station) National Rail version, and abookmarkable train times planner.

*Approximately

Not to be mistaken for someone that likes having sex in car parks, Pakopedia is a wiki for car parking based on Google Maps. You just tell it the area in which you wanna park and it comes back with info. As they say themselves: 1+ million satisfied drivers | 19 countries | 25,010 towns | 5,895,179 spaces.

Pretty useful – especially if you like having sex in car parks.

Here.

EasyJet, on the other hand, seems to have (on this occasion) a good grasp of the one of the core fundamentals of brand interaction on a platform like Facebook: Adding value. It’s not rocket science – the people on social media are being social, augment that behavior and you’ll likely find some success.

Holiday Planner does exactly that, it’s an application that enables fans (of course you need to become a fan to use it) to plan holidays with their friends. It’s pretty simple, allowing groups to co-ordinate dates and availability and invite others via Facebook and email. What’s really interesting is that the tech includes eCommerce, meaning you’ll be able to book the flights directly from the Facebook app, so you won’t even have to visit the Easyjet website.

As destination sites continue to lose their long standing importance, functionality will begin to migrate onto other (in this case social media) platforms and that will, of course, include eCommerce transactions.

Very smart.

Here.

Social media strategy ramble here.

ViaBuzzBox

ObliqO is an innovative recreational device that combines the swinging motion of a snakeboard with a pair of hubless wheels.

Goby is a simple search engine focused on enabling you to explore new stuff to do with your time.  Just select the type of stuff you are into, enter a city, and a time – and Goby provides you with options/links from multiple event databases. Goby can also find you a suitable place to stay.

Here.

‘While you’re in the air, MySkyStatus sends altitude, location, departure and arrival updates automatically to your Facebook and Twitter pages.’ Sweet use of Twitter & Facebook from Lufthansa.

Here.

Here for more info (upcoming cities).

iTunes.

“The goal of the Mannahatta Project has never been to return Manhattan to its primeval state. The goal of the project is discover something new about a place we all know so well, whether we live in New York or see it on television, and, through that discovery, to alter our way of life. New York does not lack for dystopian visions of the future…. But what is the vision of the future that works? Might it lie in Mannahatta, the green heart of New York, and with a new start to history, a few hours before Hudson arrived that sunny afternoon four hundred years ago?”

From Mannahatta: A Natural History of New York City

Here.

In Rainbows style holiday model in which you pay for your trip when you get back based on how much you think it’s worth.

Nice.

More.

ViaAdvaBlog

A device that attaches to the back of your bike frame creating an illuminated bike lane around you.  LightLane aims to give bikers the space they need on roads without bike lanes. rubbishcorp® aims to get a LightLane and adapt it so I can tell aggressive cabbies to f**k off.

Nice.

Here.

ViaBagOfSand

Awesome.

I miss New York City.

Link.

ViaAdverblog

I ride and I ride.

Virgin Atlantic has unveiled an in-flight service that gives passengers the opportunity to window-shop a entrepreneurial business ideas.  The dedicated channel, called PitchTV, is aimed at the airline’s business passengers and enables interested parties (like Mr Branson) to contact the entrepreneurs directly.

If you have an idea you can upload videos to Virgin’s website and those with the highest rating will be featured on the airline’s service.

Pretty smart.

*Puns are a bit off at the moment.

‘Sick’ I (obviously) thought – not ‘sick’ enough, clearly. Not to be outdone (I presume) the snowboarding emporium across the street housed this little beauty:

Pretty ‘gnarly’.

But I then happened upon this poster displayed in a off-license style shop window:

Clearly it got my attention.

I though it was a bit try-hard until I read the small print which made me laugh:

Of course I desperately tried to go in a buy some but the door was locked.

Again.

This was part of my on-screen stats display on an Air New Zealand flight from Sidney to Auckland. It was like I was the fraking pilot – there wasn’t anything I couldn’t monitor. The only problem was that I wanted to use media controller to fly the plane.

Brilliant.

Oh, and anyone that tells you that Data Viz isn’t going to take over the world is a divvy.

A genius way of getting people to see your crappy tourist film.

I like this idea. Not just because it’s a good contextual experience that makes a little bit more sense than those awful airport posters, but because it’s slightly changed my view of the brand. It’s not rocket science, but it works: ID type experiences enable personal ownership which create emotional attachment.

I do have one question though: wouldn’t HSBC’s strategy be more effective for a travel company?

ViaPSFK

And he had.

Nice work fella.

Schiphol Airport Plaza has a new ‘digital’ meeting point that supersedes the old ‘analogue’ one (apparently the old system used a paper based technology involving notes?). Anyway, the shiny new one is essentially a regular meeting point with 4 big screens that can display SMS messages sent via a short code – so you can text if you’re gonna be late/where you’re at etc.

I think this is a smart idea – but you’ve got to ask yourself the question: how many people that can afford to fly to Schiphol don’t own a mobile phone that couldn’t just be texted directly?

Link.

PS. Coincidently (or not) the art-direction smacks of a recent (equally as questionable) music download offer from a certain mobile phone provider I wouldn’t care to mention..

Incredible visualization of global air traffic over 24 hours.

ViaNitmesh.

Why on earth anyone would actually want to pay to get on a shit EasyJet plane early? The plane isn’t going to be leaving earlier, no matter how ‘speedily’ you manage to get on it? Anyway, back to my awesome ‘Hustle’:

Upon arrival at the departures bit, skip the queues and head straight for the speedy boarding check-in area, which is invariably empty. Once there simply state that you’d like to buy a ‘speedy check-in’ voucher. The nice person behind the counter will then do two things. Firstly they’ll check you in (which is the genius bit – you’re checked in!). Then they’ll fill out a voucher that you’ll be asked to present to the EasyJet helpdesk in order to purchase your special speedy check-in voucher.

It doesn’t take a genius to work out the next bit.

Bingo, binner free instant check-in!

Drive around Google Earth in 3D. Crappy, but strangely compelling.

Via the awesome DigitalUrban.

You’ll need the Google Earth browser install to run.