SATIS-faction - a Japanese toilet that washes you and plays Chopin

If you have every visted Japan, you will have expereinced Japanese, or 'Shower' toilets.

The 'shower' function

Depending on the standard of luxury, they wash and dry you bum, play music, dispense aid deodorant, warm the seat, and have other degrees of automation that make standard Australian and American toilets seem like the equivalent of a hole to squat over.

In my experience, they take some getting used to, but once you are - you never want to go back.

All this luxury doesn't come without a stiff price tag.

At a recent expo of of Bathroom ware in Las Vegas, Japanese company INAX showcased its new 'Satis' line. As well as looking sleek and modern, it has 'vortex flush', and is fully automated that means that it opens its lid on approach, plays music, flushes and closes its lid automatically according to your movements. Oh and it has 'double power deodorising', plus energy saving techology.

Anyway, if you have a spare US$4,800 - it could be yours.

Oh, and they make some interesting wall tiles as well.

Source: LA Times and INAX USA website

iPadulation - UPDATE #2 - Mine has arrived!

It's here via TNT about a half-hour ago.

It's so thin!

I've clothed it in its orange cover!

It looks sooo cute!

I have to wait until after work so I can get it home, and load it with all my old iPad data!

It makes me hit the ! button far more times than is healthy!

We used to call it 'Word of Mouth'- now its something called 'F-Factor'

Source: www.trendwatching.com

For a long time we have known that the people you know influence what you like, and what you buy.

History
Years ago when I started out in marketing and publicity, we would work on ways to increase and accelerate word-of-mouth. I remember providing postcards and free postage to theatre goers to increase the circulation of positive word of mouth.

I'm not sure the principle has changed much - just the method and the frequency.

The F-Factor
In their latest trend briefing: 'The F-Factor', trendwatching has a very good summary of how social networking (Friends, Fans & Followers) is affecting consumers, particularly consumption online.

Curated Opinion
The internet is full of opinion about almost anything. What has been missing is the notion of 'curated opinion' - that is a way of evaluating the opinions offered. For example, if you have never stayed in a 5 star hotel, then any 5 star hotel is going to be 'fantastic', 'the best' or 'awesome'. But if you stay in good hotels consistently, then, what you think of as a great hotel will be different.

We tend to share opinions with our friends, as well as other things like political and social outlook, so they are our trusted 'curators'.  Social media use this to accelerate the communication of opinion, and to make it more visible.

Factoids
Read the article - it has some good synthesis, as well as interesting factoids.

I also like one of the phrases they use 'consumption is social'

Source: www.trendwatching.com

Knife with ambition

Yesderday I dealt with an ambitious knife.

I wanted it to chop parsley to make gremolata to accompany Osso Bucco in Bianco and Risotto alla Milanese.

My knife wanted to perform hand surgery.

The middle finger of my left hand got caught in between.

The nail on that finger is now clipped very short.

The finger and me will recover.

The knife is undamaged - however its ambitions have been thwarted.

There are some things that are just wrong - 750,000 times

750,000 of these featuring William and Catherine are available now on London Transport

Anachronistic and ugly - I am referring to the design.

Source: Australian Business Traveller

agideas - Melbourne May 1 to 5 should I stay or go?

The agIdeas 2011 international design week - is on in Melbourne in about a weeks time.

I only came across this conference over easter, and am now trying to work out if I can make it there.

Over 3 days I could hear over 40 international designers speak - although actually, when I look at the program only 12 are actually not working in Australia.

Still these events are wonderful to inspire a jaded pallette.  Hearing about and seeing other people's inspiring work and ideas can be - well inspirational.

I'm talking to my accountant now, looking at that P&L statement to see if I can afford it.

OK - I'm giving myself 24 hours to decide

iPadulation - UPDATE - Mine's going to arrive early!

Just got an email.  My iPad is going to arrive earlier than promised: 28 April.

One of the simple service tricks that Apple uses is to send you an update on your order which includes a link to the courier's tracking website - so you can monitor its progress towards you. Shriek!

Terribly exciting to see that it has left Shenzen, went to Hong Kong, and then:

That orange line of text at the bottom says 'TNT web services are temporarily unavailable' - which kind of goes for TNT Services in general from my experience.

iPadulation

I've had an iPad since just after they first came out. I have probably used it every day since. Non-iPad people ask me all the time - 'What do you use it for?'.  Well here is the top 10 list:

1. Viewing the Sydney Morning Herald, because it has not been delivered on time, or I'm traveling
2. Catching up on email while I'm watching TV
3. Writing blog entries while I'm on the bus/train/watching TV
4. Reading books, or that terribly important Christopher Hitchens article just published in Vanity Fair
5. drawing/doodling when I have a design idea and I'm not near my desk or a pencil and paper
6. Showing my travel photos to friends and family
7. Sharing presentations at small meetings - everyone can see it, or can grab it to look up the website they want you to know about
8. Showing clients PDF's of design options
9. Watching video when there is nothing I want to watch on the inflight video - or when there is no inflight video
10. Showing how cool the iPad is to my clients and friends

I have a few others, like listening to all the podcasts I keep on it, playing games, and keeping my workout records - but they don't fit into the top 10.

I'm currently in-between iPads. I sold my old one on eBay, sending it to the wilds of Perth, to some lucky (but slightly cranky) purchaser, and my new one doesn't arrive until May.

I am in withdrawal.

Return of Return of Edina and Patsy

After months of speculation, confirmation arrives today that the cast of Absolutely Fabulous will reunite for three new episodes.

Jennifer Saunders and Joanna Lumley will reprise their roles as Patsy and Edina in three new episodes of the sitcom expected to begin filming later this year. The BBC said it was "putting the finishing touches to the deal" and is expected to confirm it imminently. Lumley is reported to have told Hello! magazine that shooting will begin in the summer, but she said Saunders had not yet started on the script. "In late August I start filming on three episodes of Absolutely Fabulous, which we are all ecstatic about," added Lumley. "Miss Saunders has been so busy writing Uptown Downstairs Abbey for Comic Relief and also Spice Girls: The Musical, I don't think she's started [the script]."

The great thing is that because ... we fast-forwarded to where they're very old and nearly dead and practically plugged into vodka machines, it doesn't matter how beyond [the original series] we do it," she added.Absolutely Fabulous was first broadcast in 1992 and ran for three series and a two-part special until 1996. It returned for two more series and another two specials between 2001 and 2004, with a Comic Relief edition on BBC1 in 2005.

A BBC spokeswoman said: "We're putting the finishing touches to the deal to bring it back and as soon as we're in a position to confirm it we will."

The last new episode of AbFab aired in 2005.

Source: JoeMyGod

My life had no meaning until I found Armani Easter Eggs

Now for a holiday treat – or maybe more like jewish/christian/pagan horror. The Armani Easter Egg!

Easter is such a weird thing in the southern hemisphere, because it comes preceding Autumn. Originally a pagan festival celebrating the Spring equinox (hence those pesky wabbits and delicious eggs), it morphed into a Jewish festival (Passover) to celebrate the Exodus of the 'Children of Israel' from slavery in Egypt, and then into a Christian festival celebrating the crucifiction and resurection of Jesus.

Now apparently its a special occasion for Giorgio Armani.

Source: Glamchic

How to avoid those ridiculous overseas conversion charges on your credit card

In a well researched article at Australian Business Traveler, they have come up with some solutions for that perennial problem of trying to avoid high charges for converting your currency, or using your credit cards while overseas.  You can read the full article here.

Basically these are cards provided by financial institutions that you can load up with a currency (sometimes multiple) at a set exchange rate (like the US$ when it is over AU$1.05!)

No solution as you will find is perfect, but some are more perfect than others.

Now all the telco's need to do is to find a similar solution to the ridiculous charges for data and international roaming when out of Australia.

Stop! Hermés now does furniture?

I've been a follower of the Hermés brand for some time. Not their saddlery roots, or horsy designs for scarves, but for their handcrafting, innovation and collaborations. And for the fact that they have not gone down the LVMH route, which for me means that you don't end up on the edge of cheesiness like Louis Vuitton.

Enzo Mari, Antonio Citterio and the RDAI studio recently joined Pierre-Alexis Dumas, artistic director of Hermès, to design a complete furniture collection for the iconic French maison. Sofas, chairs, tables and other pieces accompany wallpapers and furnishing fabrics. Opulent materials like precious wood, leather and fine fabric are central to the project, come only second to their approach to design around the essential needs of comfort and and basic function.

Although not entirely to my taste (all a bit sombre and neutral even for me), the work is elegant, and I am sure beautifully made.  A large lottery win will be needed before I can view these products with any more than envy.

Scource: Cool Hunting

Cheap airline - even cheaper PR!

There is a principle in modern Public Relations when handling an adverse news story, or bad press, and that can be sumarised as 'come out quick, come out loud, come out honest'.

In the airline industry, you can see this in the way Qantas handled the A380 Singapore engine explosion - even co-operating with 4 Corners in making a documentary.

Today, when talking about two cancelled flights out of Melbourne that would create chaos for the airline over the Easter break, Tiger Airways showed exactly how NOT to deal with bad publicity.

Tiger spokeswoman Vanessa Regan said the planes were near capacity, with about 170 passengers on each flight. She apologised to passengers, saying the cancellations were due to "operational reasons".

It comes as the budget airline faces being grounded by the aviation regulator following a series of serious safety and maintenance breaches.

The Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) issued Tiger with a show cause notice on March 23 giving the airline 21 days to respond, News Ltd has reported.

CASA raised concerns the cut-price carrier was not following proper procedures to ensure the utmost safety of passengers, and demanded urgent answers amid concerns pilot training standards had slipped and short cuts had been taken on maintenance and other operations.

Ms Regan said the airline had a policy of not commenting on dealings with aviation regulators.
"However, last month, CASA asked Tiger to clarify certain matters, which Tiger has responded to promptly in full," she said.

. . . and as yet no mention of any problem on their website home page.

I think their low-cost model even extends to the cheapness of the PR advice they get.

Source: SMH