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The height of luxury
Online digital printer Moo.com has extended its Luxe
business card range to include notecards, postcards and mini-
cards ideal for thank you notes, invitations and calling cards.
Three times as thick and heavy as most business stationery,
the premium Luxe range is printed on Mohawk Superfine paper
enhanced with a seam of colour.
Customers can choose from
a collection of customisable
templates or upload their own
designs. Using Moo’s Printfinity
technology, each piece can be
personalised with a different
image.
Print runs start from as few
as 10 pieces.
www.moo.com
Tile locates missing
items
Financed by crowdfunding, Tile
lets you locate misplaced items
within a radius of 100 feet – and
beyond.
The tiny device uses Bluetooth
Low Energy to keep track of essential
but easily lost items such as laptops,
phones and keys within a range of
100-150 feet.When a Tile is outside
its Bluetooth range, you can use the
Tile app’s Last Place Seen feature to
discover where you left your item.
Tile’s usefulness doesn’t stop
there. Uniquely, it uses the Bluetooth
connection of iPhones running the
Tile app to cast the net much wider.
If someone running the Tile app
comes within range of your lost
object, their app will identify the
item and send you a notification of
its location.
Tiles are always secure and are
not viewable on anyone else’s Tile
app (unless you choose to share
them with friends and family) to the
extent that even the person whose
Tile app locates your item will be
completely unaware of the process.
Each $25 Tile lasts a year.
www.thetileapp.com
innovations
Smart technology for business people in the office,
at home or on the move
Steelcase
creates smart
rooms
Walls are the next technology
device. So says Steelcase, which
has just launched a new ‘vertical
intelligent architecture’ that
replaces traditional walls with
room dividers incorporating display
technologies and sound-proofing.
Allan Smith, vice president of
marketing for Steelcase, said: “Walls
are the most under-utilised real
estate in commercial environments
today.Walls are not ‘smart’ and
they’re rarely very private.We
created the V.I.A. architectural
solution to host the latest large-scale
technologies and create smart rooms
where people can concentrate and
get creative, whether they’re working
in a group or individually.”
V.I.A., created by the Steelcase
Design Studio in collaboration with
Claudio Bellini, incorporates large-
scale display technologies and is
engineered with silencing seals to
contain noise disturbance from active
team work and to prevent private
conversations from being overheard.
Its genesis lies in Steelcase
research, which shows that while 95%
of office workers say it’s important
to have access to quiet places for
concentrated work, 50% feel their
work spaces do not prevent noisy
distractions.
The company also found that the
more mobility workers enjoy, the
more they need fixed places where
they can connect and collaborate. The
most important features people want
in such spaces are acoustical privacy
(56%), easy-to-use video-conferencing
(47%), whiteboards (43%) and
multiple display screens (40%). Four
out of 10 (39%) office workers say it
is very important that collaboration
spaces allow them to share content
from their mobile devices.
Brett Kincaid, director of design
for the V.I.A. architectural solution,
said: “Architecture and technology
will become the same thing.
Technology-enabled architecture will
be required to support smart rooms
that create the optimal conditions for
collaboration and innovation among
teams that are globally distributed, as
well as locally based.”
19
Squeezes it
all in
A lightweight backpack
with heavyweight
protection is how
booq describes the booq
Boa squeeze. Designed for
Apple devotees, it has room for a 13-15in Macbook and features
numerous pockets for other Apple products including a quick-access
iPhone pocket on the top of the bag. For maximum protection, it
has a strong denier nylon exterior with water-repellent coating and
is densely padded on the inside with a soft Nylex lining to protect
equipment from scratches. The booq Boa squeeze costs £113.95.
www.booqbags.co.uk
A second touchscreen for
smartphones
Sony has launched the world’s first water-resistant smartwatch
with NFC connectivity for one-touch pairing with a smartphone.
Much more than an elegant timepiece, the SmartWatch 2
(SW2) acts as a second touchscreen for an Android smartphone,
tablet or MP3 player. It can be used for messages, as an app
interface and as a remote control for music and phone functions.
Users can choose from more than 200 SmartWatch apps
offering a range
of capabilities
including the ability
to take a photo
remotely, control
presentations
remotely or check
a route on a map.
Sony launched
its first Bluetooth
watch in 2007.
www.sonymobile.com