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2013 VOLKSWAGEN XL1 DIESEL/ELECTRIC PLUGIN HYBRID CAR TEST DRIVE, COULD REACH 209 MPG, LIMITED PRODUCTION, PRICE UNKNOWN

The 2013 Volkswagen XL1 diesel hydbrid is the most aerodynamic and fuel-efficient hybrid ever produced (Click Image To Enlarge)

Smaller than a Golf and lower than a Boxster, Volkswagen's XL1 looks like a bijou supercar. It has a sleek, thigh-high, carbon-fiber composite body, butterfly wing doors, a mid-mounted powertrain, and a seven-speed dual-clutch transmission. The XL1 is a supercar of a different sort, though. It won't hit 200 mph, but it will go more than 200 miles on a single gallon of diesel. 

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In fact, on the official European combined driving cycle, the XL1 is rated at 261 mpg. European and American fuel-consumption tests are quite different, but VW engineers say an equivalent combined EPA city/highway number would be about 20 percent lower -- say, 209 mpg. What does that mean? It means you could drive the 2800 miles from Santa Monica Pier to downtown Manhattan on about 55 bucks' worth of fuel. And a bit of electricity. 

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Perhaps what's most remarkable about this little diesel/electric plug-in hybrid, however, is that it wouldn't be stuck in the freeway slow lane the whole way. With a combined system output of just 68 hp and 103 lb-ft, acceleration is understandably modest -- VW claims 0-60 mph takes about 12.5 seconds -- but during our brief test drive, the XL1 was content to happily bowl along a Swiss freeway at 70-75 mph, the diesel twin purring at a little over 2100 rpm. The XL1's top speed is electronically limited to 100 mph.

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Duck under the door and into the cabin of the XL1, and you're greeted with a lot of familiar-looking VW hardware, right down to the instruments and switchgear, though most of it is actually bespoke to the XL1. The steering wheel is small, with a flattened base, and the DSG shifter looks like a three-quarter-scale version of the one you'll find in a Golf GTI. The small, fixed nav screen is the Garmin unit from the Up!, VW's cute little city car.

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You don't so much fire the XL1 up as switch it on. The hybrid system gives primacy to the 27-hp electric motor wherever possible. Squeeze the long-travel accelerator pedal and the XL1 oozes away with a distant high-pitched whine. The 47-hp, 800cc parallel twin diesel -- architecturally, it's one half of VW Group's 1.6-liter TDI four -- sounds like one of those air mattress inflation pumps when it first fires up, a rapid chocka-chocka-chocka-chocka-chocka-chocka in your right ear.

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The electric motor is situated between the diesel engine and the seven-speed DSG transmission. At low speeds and with modest accelerator inputs, the XL1 will run a considerable distance solely on electric power before the diesel kicks in. Press a button, and the XL1 will stay in pure EV mode for up to 30 miles, courtesy of a 5.5-kW-hr lithium-ion battery pack allowing emissions-free running in city areas. Management of the power flow is impressive: Only when the chocka-chocka of the little diesel overwhelms the whine of the electric motor are you aware of any change in how forward motion is being accomplished. The transitions are smooth and seamless.

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Just like any supercar, the XL1 demands compromises. It's noisy because there is very little sound deadening, which helps keep overall weight to just 1750 lb. Not only do you clearly hear both engines, but you also hear the tires on the pavement, the suspension working over the bumps, and the curious rasp of the tiny carbon-ceramic disc brakes as you came to halt. VW engineers considered an active noise cancellation system, but discarded the idea because of weight and the fact that it would consume precious power. Mechanical noise is part of the XL1 experience, just like it is in a Pagani Huayra.

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What you don't hear much of, however, is the wind. With a Cd of just 0.189, the XL1 is the most aerodynamic production car in history. It cleaves the air like a hot knife through butter, and, at 50 mph or more, the dull roar of the tires effectively cancels out any engine noise.

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It's been many years since we've driven a new car without power steering, so the XL1's manual system is at first a bit of a shock. It's heavy in tight turns at slow speeds, and loads up in faster corners. But you do know exactly what's going on with the front tires. It's old school and kind of entertaining. The regenerative braking system, by contrast, is almost state of the art in pedal feel and consistency.

 

VW has not announced a price for the XL1, saying only that it will offer what it calls "innovative financing" to get customers into the car, and that just 250 will be virtually hand-built on a special production line at VW's Osnabrück plant in northwestern Germany. Simple auto industry economics suggest this is easily the most expensive Volkswagen ever made -- after all, supercar technologies mean a supercar price tag -- and that it's a money loser. So why build it? "It's a lighthouse car," says VW Group R&D chief Ulrich Hackenberg. "This is the technology spearhead of the VW Group, and all the brands will benefit."

COMMENTARY:     The XL1 is powered by a source of 800cc two-cylinder turbo power (half engine BlueMotion), producing 47bhp.  It supports the 27bhp electric motor that is powered by a lithium ion battery.  These can be imposed on internal plug, which allows the car to travel 35 km (22 miles) on electricity alone.  The electric motor can also be used to support the torque of the diesel engine in the "full throttle acceleration, lifting the figure of £ 74m to £ 103 feet, but it also contributes to the overall effectiveness is well beyond the regular production cars.  XL1 8bhp only requires to maintain a constant speed of 62 mph, however, requires a 1.6 TDI Golf 18bhp to accomplish the same feat.  The result is a car that you can go back and let 313.9 mpg only 24g/km of CO2 - the same time allowing a maximum speed of 100 mph (electronically limited) and 0-62 mph time of 11.9sec. Despite its relatively small 10-liter tank of diesel, there are several XL1 about 340 km.

In its press release of February 27, 2013, here's what Volkswagen said about the XL1:

"Volkswagen to produce XL1 by handcrafting-like production methods at its Osnabrück plant in Germany

XL1 is the most aerodynamic production car ever

0.9 litre combined fuel consumption was a vision – now it is a reality

Wolfsburg, 21 February 2013 – The XL1 from Volkswagen is the most fuel-efficient production car in the world, with a fuel consumption value of 0.9 l/100 km. Thanks to its plug-in hybrid system, the two-seater can also cover a distance of up to 50 km in all-electric mode and therefore with zero local emissions.

The XL1 is an automotive hero that follows pure sports car design principles: low weight (795 kg), perfect aerodynamics (Cd 0.189) and a low centre of gravity (1,153 mm high). This gives the efficient Volkswagen the ability to cruise on the road at a constant speed of 100 km/h using just 6.2 kW / 8.4 PS. In all-electric mode, the XL1 requires less than 0.1 kWh to cover a driving distance of over one kilometer.

High-tech lightweight design, perfect aerodynamics and a plug-in hybrid system – consisting of a two-cylinder TDI engine (35 kW / 48 PS), E-motor (20 kW / 27 PS), 7-speed dual clutch gearbox (DSG) and lithium-ion battery – all make it possible for the new Volkswagen XL1 to emit just 21 g/km of CO2. If necessary, the XL1, with a top speed of 160 km/h, can accelerate to 100 km/h in just 12,7 seconds. Clearly, 0.9 l/100 km fuel consumption is a record figure that has not been achieved by any other vehicle to date, and it illustrates how Volkswagen is redefining what is technically feasible in carmaking.

Conceptually, the XL1 represents the third evolutionary stage of Volkswagen’s 1-litre car strategy. When the new millennium was ushered in, Prof. Dr. Ferdinand Piëch, who is today Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Volkswagen AG, formulated the visionary goal of bringing to market a production car that was practical in everyday use with fuel consumption of one litre per 100 km. In the two-seat XL1, this vision has become reality. Despite the tremendous efficiency of the XL1, developers successfully came up with a body concept, which delivers more everyday utility than in the two previous prototypes. While the driver and passenger sat in a tandem arrangement for optimal aerodynamics in the L1, the 1-litre car presented in 2002 and in 2009, in the XL1 two occupants sit slightly offset, side by side, nearly as in a conventional vehicle.

The XL1 is 3,888 mm long, 1,665 mm wide and just 1,153 mm tall. By usual automotive standards these are extreme dimensions. For comparison: a Polo has a similar length (3,970 mm) and width (1,682 mm) but is significantly taller (1,462 mm). Even a purebred sports car like today’s Porsche Boxster is 129 mm taller (1,282 mm). So, the XL1 will make a spectacular appearance – a car of the future, built for today."

VW Group chairman Martin Winterkorn promised it will be available by 2013 “at an affordable price.”  Car & Driver Magazine thinks that the VW XL1 will be somewhere around the equivalent of $50,000.   Qatar won’t get it—and the U.S. probably won’t, either—but this is just the thing European eco-warriors have been waiting for.

Sorry USA.   American's would buy them all at $50,000 a pop.

Courtesy of an article appearing in the June 2013 issue of Motor Trend Magazine, an article dated August 1, 2013 appearing in All About Super Thunderspeed Cars, an article dated March 18, 2013 appearing in The Superslice and a video uploaded on YouTube on February 27, 2013 

THE 'AEROVELO ATLAS' HUMAN-POWERED HELICOPTER WINS THE 2013 IGOR I SIKORSKY HUMAN-HELICOPTER COMPETITION

A bike rider suspended beneath the Atlas, provides the power for the machine, the winner of the Sikorsky Human-Powered Helicopter contest prize (Click Image To Enlarge)

THE WINNERS OF THE SIKORSKY HUMAN POWERED HELICOPTER COMPETITION DIDN’T "THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX." THEY JUST CHOSE THE RIGHT BOX TO THINK IN.

On June 13, an enormous, ridiculous-looking pedal-powered contraption wafted itself into midair and made history. The helicopter, called Atlas, was designed to win an aviation challenge--the Igor I. Sikorsky Human Powered Helicopter Competition--that had defeated scores of aircraft designers and engineers for 33 years. The task sounds simple:  Create a human-powered aircraft that can hover three meters in the air for at least a minute without drifting outside a 10-meter square. But satisfying those constraints meant designing an aircraft like nothing you’ve ever seen:

On June 13th, 2013, the AeroVelo Atlas Human-Powered Helicopter captured the long standing AHS Sikorsky Prize with a flight lasting 64.1 seconds and reaching an altitude of 3.3 metres. Visit www.aerovelo.com for more details. (Click Image To View Video)

Cameron Robertson, Atlas’s chief structural engineer, told Co.Design.

"Until a few weeks ago, the people who literally wrote the book on the helicopter said that this problem is too hard--that this is actually physically impossible."  

So how did Robertson and his team at AeroVelo--which he describes as "not specialists"--crack the problem? The answer is in that ungainly, ridiculous-looking contraption itself. It’s not anyone’s idea of a "practical" aircraft. It’s designed to do one thing, and one thing only: Win the Sikorsky prize, by any means necessary.   Robertson says.  

"We weren’t afraid to construct a Rube Goldberg machine."

This kind of innovation strategy often goes by clichéd names like "lateral thinking" or "thinking outside the box."  But according to Robertson, "the box" was actually the key to succeeding where 33 years’ worth of other designs had failed. Atlas won the Sikorsky prize by zeroing in on the right box to think inside--and then rigorously, intensely, and persistently analyzing it. He says.  

"Achieving the so-called 'impossible' is a matter of removing unnecessary constraints, and understanding what’s in the box."

The "most salient feature" of Atlas’s winning design, according to Robertson, is its sheer size. It relies on four pedal-powered rotors for lift--and each one is 10 meters in diameter.   He says.

"Atlas is the size of every other human-powered helicopter [in the competition], combined."  

Other design teams knew that size was important, too.

Robertson says.  

"Everyone else said, 'We’re on a campus, so let’s find the biggest gym to build and test this aircraft in,'  which translates to, 'How big is the gym we have? Let’s build our helicopter that big.' But that’s not a real constraint on designing the 'copter. That’s artificial. So we removed it."

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By realizing that the literal size of "the box" wasn’t actually relevant to solving their problem, AeroVelo tested Atlas in an enormous indoor soccer stadium near Toronto. But that insight wasn’t enough to make the rest of the process simple. Robertson, chief aerodynamicist Todd Reichert, and the rest of the team spent months digitally modeling the physical parameters of their newly liberated problem:   Robertson says.  

"Structure, aerodynamics, engine thermodynamics, pilot physiology, kinematics, all these different design considerations."

They also programmed an "optimizer" to take these variables and relentlessly iterate on possible designs--not with perfect fidelity but with a "good enough" set of tolerances.   Robertson says.

"Then you hit 'go,' and it designs the helicopter.  It only takes five minutes to run on a laptop."

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It’s often said that solving tough design problems isn’t about bashing your way to a difficult solution as much as it’s about bashing your way to the right question. Atlas is indeed a Rube Goldberg machine--not much good for anything but winning the Sikorsky Prize. But as a proof of concept for an innovation strategy, Atlas’s example can apply to problems far more serious than hovering a furiously pedaling human being in midair.

Robertson asserts.  

"We don’t have 50 years to reevaluate our infrastructure, address climate change, or deal with other 'impossible’ problems.  Getting 2% improvement is no longer acceptable as the right answer. We all need to start really questioning the state that we’re in and how to move beyond it at a much more rapid pace than ever before, and this approach of removing artificial or unnecessary constraints is one way to do that. We knew nothing about helicopters, but we were able to do the impossible. Everybody can become better problem solvers and global citizens by inhabiting that state of mind."

[Read more about Atlas here.]

COMMENTARY:    Wow, that's an incredible achievement.  Without aeronautics knowledge or experience, and without even knowing whether the AeroVelo Atlas would even fly, these guys do the impossible.  How the AeroVelo Atlas is able to lift-off with those four, slow-revolving helicopter blades, is beyond me.  It's nothing short of a miracle.  They deserve the $250,000 price for winning.  

Courtesy of an article dated July 24, 2013 appearing in Fast Company Design

HOW KELLY ANGOOD RAISED 35K POUNDS FOR THE VIDERE PINHOLE CAMERA MADE OF CARDBOARD ON KICKSTARTER UK

Angood solved some of the problems that plague homemade pinholes: “The key moving part is the internal mechanism where the 120 film feeds into the empty spool. The mechanism has a slightly curved film plane to help ensure the exposures are evenly exposed,” she explains. “This is because when you have a flat film plane, light fall-off from centre to edge (caused by the increased distance from pinhole to edge, effectively increasing the focal ratio) causes the exposures at the edges and corners to be less than at the centre. This was the most complicated part of the design, but ultimately the most rewarding to get right.” (Click Image To Enlarge)

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU MIX A PINHOLE CAMERA WITH A VINTAGE TWIN REFLEX, THEN CRAFT THE WHOLE THING OUT OF STIFF PAPER? WE DON’T KNOW, BUT WE’D SURE LIKE TO FIND OUT.

At a camera shop in Edinburgh, I spotted it: A vintage, bellowing lens camera with crystal clear glass and a pricetag within my reach. I’d been eBay-stalking these old beauties for months. Now, one was mine, complete with the original leather case and a few free rolls of film. For the next week, swapping 12-frame rolls in mud, mist, and high winds beneath nothing more than the tenuous shelter of my raincoat (and the infinite expanse of my wife’s patience), I experienced more fun taking photographs than I’d had in years. And when I finally got the photos developed, even my mistakes reminded me of the place and time.

The Videre pinhole camera is a celebration of vintage cameras, papercraft, and medium format film photography in one (Click Image To Enlarge)

The Videre is a pinhole camera by Kelly Angood, decorated with an intricate, cardboard twin lens reflex camera body (so it looks like a TLR, but it’s not). Like my bellowing lens camera, the Videre celebrates expensive, limited-exposure medium format film. But in every other way, it’s even more rudimentary. The pinhole camera is the world’s simplest camera, after all, consisting of little more than a hole in a box that allows light to strike the film. To take a photo, you essentially open up that hole, for anywhere from five seconds to several months. The results, however, can be impeccably detailed and wonderfully ephemeral.

 

What makes Angood’s creation so weird is how it’s mixed two styles of vintage camera into one exceptionally quirky cardboard construct--a construct that took a lot of love to make into a relatively high-performing camera (that, incidentally, has been designed to capture shots somewhere between 8 and 40 seconds). And at the same time, she solved an engineering problem that plagues most homemade pinhole cameras.

Kelly Angood’s Videre pinhole camera is decorated with a twin-lens reflex camera body to look like a TLR (Click Image To Enlarge)

Angood explains.

“The key moving part is the internal mechanism where the 120 film feeds into the empty spool. The mechanism has a slightly curved film plane to help ensure the exposures are evenly exposed. This is because when you have a flat film plane, light fall-off from centre to edge (caused by the increased distance from pinhole to edge, effectively increasing the focal ratio) causes the exposures at the edges and corners to be less than at the centre. This was the most complicated part of the design, but ultimately the most rewarding to get right.”

There are other premium touches, too, like a light-filtering red acrylic window that lets you check how many photos you have left, or a viewfinder that folds down onto itself--like a real TLR camera--even though that viewfinder actually has no practical purpose to a pinhole camera.

There are other premium touches, too, like a light-filtering red acrylic window that lets you check how many photos you have left, or a viewfinder that folds down onto itself--like a real TLR camera--even though that viewfinder actually has no practical purpose to a pinhole camera. (Click Image To Enlarge)

Angood explains. 

“To me it’s really important to get these little features right.  You’d never guess it but the leather texture on the camera body also took nearly a week to create through various (and highly analogue!) printing methods. “

Indeed, it’s Angood’s perfectionism for artifice that elevates the Videre beyond mere gimmick to a nostalgic reboot, a celebration of vintage cameras, papercraft, and medium format film photography in one. It’s not designed to make photography simple; it’s designed to make photography fun. And if you’d like to pre-order a Videre kit of your own, you’d better act fast, as the offer expires soon. It’ll run you about $40 on Kickstarter.

Portraits taken with the Videre pinhole camera (Click Images To Enlarge)

Order it here.

COMMENTARY:    The Pop-Up Pinhole Project on crowdfunding site Kickstarter UK raised 35,165 pounds from 881 individuals.  This far exceeded the goal of 15,000 pounds   Congrats to Kelly Angood, the inventor of the Videre pinhole camera cardboard kit for exceeding goal. Let's hope that she can successfuly deliver the units on a timely basis.  This is fun, new idea that could start a new tren in cardboard cutout products.

Courtesy of an article dated May 16, 2013 appearing in Fast Company Design

 

 

 

THE "FOOTLOOSE" BY MANDO, IS THE WORLD'S FIRST CHAINLESS FOLDING ELECTRIC BIKE

Click images to visit the Mando Footloose website

The Footloose by Mando is doubtless going to make you want to test ride it. Asserting that it is the world’s first chainless hybrid electric folding bike, Korean auto suppliers Mando Corp and Meister Inc have collaborated to bring us this beautiful design.

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Designboom states it can go up to 18.6 miles with the motor alone, and farther with pedaling by the rider.

“By directly transforming electricity via an alternator connected to the crank, power is generated directly from the user. The energy stored in a lithium-ion battery, which is then used to actuate the engine. Using an electronic control unit (ECU), the ‘footloose’ works with sensors and an automatic gear changer to monitor terrain and adjust the motor’s output as necessary. It monitors the system for problems, which it displays via a handlebar-mounted human machine interface (HMI).”

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It will apparently be available in the European markets starting 2013.  Here is a video illustrating the bike a bit more:

 

COMMENTARY:   This is a paradigm change in the e-bike world for sure.  It is a clean and simple design.  It removes all of the typical bicycle drivetrain components: the chain, chainrings, cogs, derailleurs, and shifters.  This also removes the dirty, greasy chain!    

Of course it adds the alternator and some other electronic components but overall it appears to be a system with less components.  As long as it proves to be reliable, the series hybrid system could be a great e-bike drive system for the future.

 

The Footloose was developed in a partnership project of Mando Corp. and Meister Inc. (automotive suppliers in South Korea).  British designer Mark Sanders and Dutch e-bike expert Han Goes were very involved in the design.

Footloose Design By Mark Sanders

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Footloose Advanced Technology

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Footloose Specifications

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Footloose Color Options

Mando Footloose in white and black colors (Click Images To Enlarge)

Mando Footloose in grey and light blue colors (Click Images To Enlarge)

Courtesy of an article dated November 26, 2012 appearing in FeedBox

DOES GOOGLE GLASS HAVE A BRANDING PROBLEM? MARKETING EXPERTS MAP STEPS TO MAINSTREAM SUCCESS

Google Co-Founder Sergey Brin wears a pair of Google Glass AR glasses (Click Image To Enlarge)

Still in its test phase, Google Glass may be dorked to death before it gets the opportunity to take off. Here, marketing players from a range of agencies provide their assessment of Glass’s chances and some suggestions for paving the way to mainstream success.

Google’s much-hyped wearable computer, Google Glass, has been touted by the tech elite as one of the leaps forward of recent times, but those same elites may hobble mainstream adoption of the device.

While privacy concerns have blossomed (the device may be on its way to being banned at a number of locations), it may comfort those worried that we are all about to become spies for Google that the early adopters of Google Glass are helping to give it an image problem it might not recover from.

Technology venture capitalists Marc Andreessen, Bill Maris and John Doerr model Google Glass AR glasses (Click Image To Enlarge)

Marc Andreessen, a partner in the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, said, 

”You put it on and you’re like ‘Oh my God, I have the entire Internet in my vision. Where have you been all my life?’ ”

Kleiner Perkins venture capitalist John Doerr noted last month when unveiling Kleiner Perkins’ Google Glass-focused investment fund. 

"For paraplegics and quadriplegics, Glass could be a stunningly useful way to get information and interact with it."

The futuristic-looking headset can augment our everyday reality by putting data in our field of vision as well as allowing us to take pictures, and translating the spoken word on the move. But unfortunately, it also appears to have unintended contraceptive powers, as illustrated by this Tumblr featuring members of its decidedly unhip core fanbase.

Google CEO & Co-Founder Larry Page wears a pair of Google Glass AR glasses (Click Image To Enlarge)

It’s all very well having wearable technology that lets you livestream yourself hang gliding. But if it has all the sex appeal of orthodontic headgear, it’s unlikely to catch on. Google’s Glass Explorer program has put Google Glass in the hands and on the heads of developers and tech pundits who Google has selected to test it and have paid $1,500. Google chief executive Larry Page has indicated that the product won’t be in stores for about another year, by which time it may be hard to separate it from its association with tech fanatics.

Arguably, success in wearable technology hinges on making people look and feel good as much as providing a functional service. Developers might be happy to fork vast sums for the privilege of being a Google Glass owner, but when the product goes to mass market, fashion, or at least some sort of coolness and covetability will be as critical as functionality.

Tech pundit Robert Scoble wrote a glowing review about the augmented reality glasses and said, "I will never live a day without them." He then showed off a picture of himself showering while wearing the glasses.  Google co-founder Sergey Brin looking cool wearing a pair of Google Glass AR glasses onboard a bus (Click Image To Enlarge)

With this in mind, we asked five marketing experts: How would you position Google Glass to make sure it achieves mainstream success?

AFTER NAILING THE EARLY ADOPTERS, FOCUS ON LESS-EXPECTED APPLICATIONS.

Jinal Shah, digital strategy director, JWT New York

Google is embracing its influencers. Make no mistake though--they aren’t just going after the nerds. They are strategic in who they’ve invited to their Glass Explorers program, an influencer program that allows a handpicked group to use the first generation of Google Glass. Google has carefully curated a group of people who sit at the intersection of nerd and celebrity. For example, tech celebrity Soraya Darabi, among others. People like her not only bring their passion for technology but also their massive audiences (500K+ followers in the case of Soraya) into the conversation.

California Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom, and former mayor of San Francisco, tries the glasses on Current TV (Click Image To Enlarge)

There’s incremental innovation and there’s wow-your-pants-off innovation. Google Glass is in the latter category. We tried it on last week at Google and it was pretty amazing. Mainstream success will happen as it expands the breadth of its audience and also as its simplifies its technology. What we’ll end up with in a few years is just a tiny camera that we’ll be able to attach to any eyewear. To the broader point, wearable technology is the future. Making it as nerdy as possible at the outset is a smart strategic move to get those who will engage most with the glasses to develop their capabilities and advance them to a place of general adoption. It should be no surprise that Google has already developed a partnership with Warby Parker. The aesthetic will change over time, and this will be one of the many norms of wearable tech.

The Google Glass initial approach has focused on driving exclusivity in select communities. And they’ve nailed it. In the next stage, I’d focus on creating desire by introducing a library of plain interesting to bizarre applications of Glass. Think government, music, Hollywood, retail partnerships--maybe even an episode of Family Guy with Stewie touting Glass.

THERE’S SOMETHING ABOUT NERDS.

Jonah Disend, CEO and Founder of Redscout

When we look at the challenge of extending Google Glasses out of nerdom, we believe that the challenge is first, one of execution and second, one of positioning and targeting.

• First, in terms of execution, Google Glasses inherently plays in two worlds--fashion and technology--and they haven’t created “cool kid” lust in either area.  It is neither an incredible fashion accessory that you would want to wear, nor is it a beautiful or obviously useful gadget that you would want to own.
• Second, in terms of positioning and targeting, today Google Glasses is seen as a barrier to social engagement as opposed to an enabler. While it may make your world more exciting and dynamic (as the promotional video might suggest), it does not currently enhance socialization nor have they shown how the value of the glasses increases with additional users (there is currently no clear Network Effect).

Now for our gross generalization about nerds versus everyone else. Nerds actively look to create barriers to protect them from the world, mitigate social engagement, and connect through virtual worlds (thinkWorld of Warcraft). In this context, Google Glasses are the ultimate tool for nerds to add a layer of protection between them and others and potentially seal the fate of Google Glasses as something that only the geekiest of the geeks would ever want to wear (or even own).

WORK WITH TRENDSETTERS.

Lloyd Salmons, Director of Digital, Saatchi & Saatchi London

I love Google. It gives me convenient access to a world of information and that’s something I want. I don’t love their glasses, because they don’t give me what I want. What I want is my glasses. If you’ve ever chosen a pair of glasses you’ll know how long it takes, how many opinions you seek, how many photos you’ve texted and images of celebrities you’ve looked at, be they fashion, sport or sunglasses. What I want is the Google I love, in the glasses I love. I want Google in my glasses.

Open APIs, products as platforms, and cocreation are the norm for tech companies. There is no way Apple or Android could have brought the level of innovation needed to create so many apps personalized to individual needs. Just because Google Glass is a physical product doesn’t mean Google should change the approach to creating the range of glasses needed to facilitate individual tastes.

To facilitate this, we’d build a platform allowing us to work with a range of individuals and the people who make their glasses. These people would range from well-known celebrities in fashion and sport, to everyday style leaders. The content generated across the journey from inception, build, and trial to launch would provide both broadcast content and ways to engage.

Google in Bradley Wiggins’s glasses: We follow the journey of Bradley and his glasses climaxing at the start of the Tour de France. Google in Elton John’s glasses: No one has more glasses than Elton John; he’s given us a hundred of his best to create a range of Google glasses and we’re going to find the perfect person for each of them. You get the picture. Google in P.Diddy’s glasses. Google in Sven Göran Eriksson’s glasses. Google in Victoria Beckham’s sunglasses.

If you try on anyone else’s glasses, you look like a nerd; that’s just a law of the universe. If you don’t believe me, try it. What I need is Google in my glasses.

IDENTIFY AND EMBRACE THE USAGE SWEET SPOT.

Brian Carley, SVP, Executive Creative Director, Rokkan

It’s a challenge, specifically because of the stigma that was quickly attached to them. Putting aside all flaws in its physical appearance, it would be ideal to tap into how people would realistically use them day to day. Very few people are going be wearing them ALL the time, but there are times when it would be useful to have a device such as this and also have complete use of your hands. We all assume that our mobile devices have no boundaries, but there are instances when we are apprehensive about having them on our person. I think that utilizing those moments is the sweet spot for this product. It’s a more useful Go-Pro and those are wildly popular within their specific usage, which is quite broad. There’s no real need for these beyond enjoyment, and so it would be wise to illustrate the truly hands-free experiences that surround the product beyond the dorkiness we’ve experienced already. At least they’re not as cumbersome as a Segway.

DON’T CHANGE A THING.

Bud Caddell, SVP, Director of Invention and Digital Strategy, Deutsch LA

Yes, white middle-aged men love Google Glass. Is it a problem? Of course not. Wearable tech has hardly fallen down Geoffrey Moore’s chasm. We’re seeing early adoption, and in tech (if we’re not counting Pinterest), white men from the Valley with disposable income tend to be first in, first out. And that didn’t stop iPads, laptops, or the mobile phone from reaching mass adoption. Yes, Robert Scoble in the shower is frightening. But take a breath. Google has already tapped Warby Parker, who I personally trust in putting things on my face, and I think Google Glass (in one iteration or another) is here to stay.

COMMENTARY:    

What Tech Guru's Are Saying About Google Glass

I am discounting by about 95% the positive comments made by most of the above technology pundits, expecially some of the above VC's in favor of what other technology pundits are saying:

Marcus Wohlsen, a tech reporter for Wired, on May 2, 2013, gave some hints that Google Glass could end in failure by making these comparisons: 

“The Segway. The Bluetooth headset. The pocket protector.”  

Rebecca Greenfield of The Atlantic, called the secret photo-taking application a “privacy nightmare,” and she also said:

“The Creepiest Google Glass App Is a Stalker’s Dream.” 

Jason Perlow of ZDNet wrote:

“Google Glass: Let the evil commence."   

Perlow also noted that in the “Explorer” version of Google Glass that shipped in early May to first generation of users,

"There is no recording LED indicator light on the device, so that one could stealthily record without any indication to the subject that they are being captured on-camera.”

Jason Zada, an award winning director, wrote on Twitter.  

 ”White Men Wearing Google Glass. This doesn’t make me want a pair.”

Another person simply wrote that Google Glass looks “lame.”

The Google Glass Is Banned List Grows

Privacy and security have become major concerns and as the list of concerned protesters continues to grow, we began to wonder: Where will we be most likely to see this Glass resistance moving forward?  This is a short list of businesses and places who will ban Google Glass:

• Movie theaters and concert venues - It's interesting to consider what Glass could do for film piracy and that annoying guy in front of you who waved his phone snapping photos through an entire two-hours concert. But these are two of the most obvious examples of places that traditionally prohibit cameras.
• Public schools - Or nurseries, or playgrounds. Really, anywhere with an influx of children is going to be a potential hotbed of legal headaches.
• Behind the wheel - The West Virginia legislators' attempt to ban Glass while driving will inevitably gain favor within other states, which will likely include many of the country's 39 states and Washington, D.C., where texting while driving is prohibited.
• Hospitals - Hospitals house boatloads of some of our most personal data, including medical records and insurance information. A stray paper or tilted clipboard could easily find its way into a Glass photo.
• Banks and ATMs - Similar to the hospital example, it's not unfathomable to imagine a Glass-clad someone hovering a little too close to your left shoulder to peep a glance at (not to mention a photo of) your credit card.
• Dressing rooms, locker rooms, and other rooms with people who are potentially naked - Think everywhere from department stores to your gym to strip clubs.

I might also add to the above list:

• Law enforcement - The police will absolutely hate Google Glass.  They don't want you recording their every move and what they say, because this could be used against them in court.
• Courts rooms - Court rooms often ban photographers from their court rooms, especially high-profile and controversial cases.  This is often necessary in order to protect the identity of the jurors and individuals making testimony.  
• Military bases - Any military personnel on military bases who enter or work in highly classified and secured areas will definitely be banned from wearing Google Glass. 
• Schools and colleges - Google Glass will definitely be banned from the classroom. Instructors will be weary of students who might use Google Glass to teach on tests.

On the other hand, I can definitely see immigration inspectors, airline security, law enforcement and even retailing establishments benefiting from Google Glass, in helping them identify criminals, security risks, people of interest and shoplifters before they commit crimes. Companies that want to protect their valuable intellectual property as a matter of practice will ban Google Glass.    

In my opinion, any technology that raises the high level of privacy and security concerns and could lead to consumer litigation potentially in the billions, has a huge PR image and this has the ability to permanently damage or destroy a brand.  This is what I see happening with Google Glass.  If Google wants to market Google Glass to the masses, they will have to severely limit or block its use in certain situations.  

Google needs to be careful that it does not damage its own brand reputation as the company whose motto is: "Don't Be Evil."   Google Glass has the potential to turn Google into the feared "Big Brother,"  that Steve Jobs warned us about when he tried to portray IBM as "Big Brother" in the famous TV commercial.  The company has to be very careful how they launch Google Glass. The company has a social responsibility to uphold (its motto) and it should not take us for granted.   The small cadre of tech geeks and very early adopters who now love and applaud Google Glass as the next big thing, may later learn to hate if they are not too careful.

I keep hearing that Google Glass represents the next evolution of the social network. Bringing the social network experience into the real world and sharing what we see and do with others.  Is this what Google (and Facebook) really wants?  God help us if this is where social networks are headed.  I don't want that kind of "social media experience" biting me in the butt, and I am sure you don't either.   Left to its own accord, without any controls, I believe that Google Glass crosses a line in the sand where our privacy is not only violated, but completely destroyed.  We lose our individuality as human beings, and we become an open book to anyone and everyone.

So keep in mind the old adage: "What goes around, comes around."       

Courtesy of an article dated May 15, 2013 appearing in Fast Company, an article dated May 4, 2013 appearing in CNN Tech, and an article date May 3, 2013 appearing in The New York Times Bits and an article dated May 15, 2013 appearing in VentureBeat

 

HOW ADOBE'S CLOUD-CONNECTED "PROJECT MIGHTY" STYLUS PEN AND RULER REINVENTED THE ART OF DRAWING ON THE INTERNET

Designed by Ammunition, the pen is an aluminum stylus that can replace your finger on the iPad screen (Click Image To Enlarge)

WHAT IS THE FUTURE OF THE CLOUD-CONNECTED INTERFACE? HOW ABOUT A SIMPLE PEN AND RULER?

This week, Adobe announced that the Creative Suite was becoming the subscription-based Creative Cloud. It didn’t go so well. But amidst the bad news, we may have lost sight of Adobe’s rationale for pushing the cloud beyond profits. And you can see that rationale hiding inside Project Mighty.

The pen has a pressure-sensitive tip, a button to reveal onscreen menus and a glowing tip to convey modal information (designating if you’re drawing with any particular settings), and that’s it (Click Image To Enlarge)

The three standard pen colors are silver, red and black (Click Image To Enlarge)

"We took the triangular shape--this classic shape that’s easier to grip--and twisted it," Ammution’s Robert Brunner says. "So the point at which your fingers hold it, the pen is at its best." (Click Image To Enlarge)

On one hand, it’s just an aluminum stylus that can replace your finger on the iPad screen. On the other, it’s a cloud-connected pen--or humanity’s single-greatest, simplest creative apparatus, married to the entire world of digital tools and information. Today, Project Mighty allows you to draw an image on your iPad screen, then seamlessly continue drawing that same image on your iPhone screen. Tomorrow, such a tool could draw anywhere--screen or table--while constantly syncing with your creative depository in the cloud.

The Adobe digital ruler allows you to draw straight lines and perfect shapes like circles, triangles and squares with ease (Click Image To Enlarge)

Of course, the greater promise is a series of tools that constantly connect and sync to the cloud (Click Image To Enlarge)

Physical objects that login and transfer files from screen to screen, seamlessly (Click Image To Enlarge)

Now you have to admit, that’s at least a little bit intriguing.

HOW IT CAME TOGETHER

Project Mighty, along with an accompanying “short ruler” codenamed Napoleon, were both designed by Ammunition (and engineered by Mindtribe). Ammunition has been working on various concepts with Adobe for the past five years. These are the first two designs to be made public.

Ammunition Founder Robert Brunner tells Co.Design.

“One of the goals of this was just to make a beautiful, sweet object. The pen in particular is one of those simple, beautiful forms. But it actually has a purpose. We took the triangular shape--this classic shape that’s easier to grip--and twisted it. So the point at which your fingers hold it, the pen is at its best.”

When you consider that vision, it almost makes sense that Adobe wants its users using their cloud-integrated products as soon as possible (Click Image To Enlarge)

As of today, the hardware is only in conceptual prototype stage (Click Image To Enlarge)

But Adobe should release this good idea soon, lest someone else beat them to the punch (Click Image To Enlarge)

The pen has a pressure-sensitive tip, a button to reveal onscreen menus and a glowing tip to convey modal information (designating if you’re drawing with any particular settings), and that’s it. The accompanying ruler is similarly sparse. Six shapes appear on the surface (it’s unclear if these will be actual buttons), a plastic back slides easily on a glass touch screen, and a few capacitive points convey its position to software.

Brunner admits.

“When [Adobe’s VP of experience] first said he had this idea for a digital ruler, to be honest, I was like, 'I don’t know,' As we actually started to work on it and play with it, we realized that it was very smart. You can certainly set up software to draw straight lines and snap to angles, but the simple addition of this other physical thing gives you so much more confidence.”

Even still, why did the team pursue a pen and ruler at all? In the digital world, there are no physical bounds dictating a tip of a pen needs to be connected to a long channel of ink. Couldn’t Project Mighty look like an ergonomic swirly straw, or a creative pair of brass knuckles--any dream device that could reimagine the very core idea of what drawing can be, rather than the old default pen and ruler?

Brunner says.

“It’s simply because they’re extremely familiar.  That’s the thing. You can come up with something entirely unique, but the fact is, these two devices, or shapes, are incredibly embedded in our understanding of drawing and creating.”

 

THE POWER OF ILLUSION

Adobe frames Project Mighty as a high-tech, borderline magical device that stores your identity and your projects. In reality, the hardware itself is fairly dumb, but its implementation is ingenious.

The pen is just a Bluetooth stick in the simplest of senses. Software spots its unique Bluetooth identifier. That code is associated with you. And you’re associated with the files/settings you’ve stored in the Adobe cloud. In other words, Project Mighty is really just beaming software an alphanumeric string, which logs into your accounts very quickly so you don’t have to. Finding myself fairly proud of piecing this together, I ask Brunner about it.

He says.

“You’re right, it’s an illusion per se.  All the pen is doing is IDing you and the app you’re in, and contextually allowing you to do things. But that’s an important idea! Using objects as a conduit to data is a powerful and interesting possibility. But for some reason, in the world of development, there seems to be a hard line between hardware and software.”

This hard line is exactly what Project Mighty is working to erase. It’s a peek into the most basic and powerful interactions that smart design can drive as we approach the Internet of things. This pen doesn’t need to gyroscopically record your movements, save them onto some flash drive, beam them back to the computer, then beam them to the cloud every moment. It just has to be a stick with a button that’s ready to be identified by software.

In other words, there’s nothing inside the hardware that demands the pen remain proprietary. Project Mighty could become popularized for apps living in the walls of Adobe’s own products. With a little modification (maybe an optional real pen tip?) Project Mighty could become the tactile, connective tissue between you and any surface on which you’d like to draw. This semi-smart pen could become the ubiquitous way we interact creatively with the world around us.

Brunner says.

“Something I noticed: I used to always carry a pen.  I don’t anymore, whereas my iPhone is always in my pocket. Maybe this thing can bring back the idea that the pen is always with you.”

COMMENTARY:    The new Adobe "Project Mighty" cloud-connected stylus pen is a fantastic new device that compliments any tablet, converting it into a platform for creative design and self-expression.  I love the fact that the cloud-connecting software has "intelligent" drawing features built into it so that if you were to draw a circle, it comes out perfect everytime, voila.  The same for straight lines, squares, triangles, whatever.  

In the past stylus drawing systems require a stylus pad and pen.  The tablet itself serves as the stylus pad, and you see the results appear on the display immediately, so your eyes never leave the tablet.   The ability to move objects imported into the platform or drawn using the pen from one device to another (like a smartphone), is a great way to take all your work with you when you are on-the-go, and don't want to be bothered with a tablet.

I wasn't able to determine the price for the Adobe Project Mighty stylus pen, but in my opinion it's definitely worth whatever they charge.

Courtesy of an article dated May 9, 2013 appearing in Fast Company Design

HOW TACO BELL INNOVATED TO RE-INVENT THE TACO BY PARTNERING WITH FRITO-LAY'S DORITOS TO CREATE THE DORITOS LOCOS TACO

FROM HANDSHAKE DEALS TO EXPERIMENTS AT HOME DEPOT, THE HISTORY OF TACO BELL'S DISRUPTIVE FAUX CHEESE-DUSTED TACO.

In early 2009, three years prior to Taco Bell's 50th anniversary, CEO Greg Creed was already experiencing something of a midlife crisis.  I said:

"Our target audience is [customers] in their 20s. Turning 50 makes us sound old, and I didn't want to sound old."

Creed explains.

" 'When we have our birthday, I don't want a cake or a celebration.'"

So he issued a bold directive to his team instead: "I said, '[let's] reinvent the crunchy taco,'" Creed recalls.

Taco Bell brand marketing director Stephanie Purdue, who helped Creed write the original team brief said.

"He was really looking for a big innovation to coincide with our anniversary."

Creed explains:

"If you look at all the buns the burger boys sell, and the bread at Subway, they are forever coming up with a new bread bun. The crunchy taco: It was yellow and made of corn. We sold a couple billion of them, but there had been no innovation."

He gave his staff until March 2012--slightly under three years--to pull off a complete rethink of traditional Mexican cuisine.

 

The team soon assembled for an all-day ideation session at Taco Bell headquarters, where 30 different product concepts were considered, Purdue says, including new forms of burritos, nachos, and taquitos. But one idea, from Doritos-maker Frito-Lay, stuck out: a Doritos-based taco shell pocketed with Taco Bell ingredients.  Purdue says.

"It was basically an image [of this taco] on a piece of paper, with a written description. I don't know what technology they use. We didn't even taste it; it was just more of, 'Hey, this is what it could look like.'  It was like, 'Holy crap!'  Nobody had ever done this before: turning a Dorito into a taco shell. It was just mind-blowing at the idea stage."

Steve Gomez, Taco Bell's food innovation expert, recalls seeing the first mock-up.  He says.

"Every day I see a lot of concepts--sketches on paper, written words about products--and my job is to turn those products into reality.  But in all my years as a product developer, I've never seen a concept like this. The product didn't even exist yet, and already people knew this idea was going to be huge."

Click Image To Enlarge

Like any serious renovation, Taco Bell's started with a trip to Home Depot. It was April 2009. To show executives how the companies could fuse the flavor of Doritos with taco shells.  Creed recalls, with a chuckle.

"The dev teams basically went out to Home Depot to buy a paint-spray gun, and then sprayed [Doritos] flavoring onto our existing yellow corn tacos.  It was pretty funny watching people from behind glass spraying our tacos with a paint gun. But it was enough for us to know conceptually that we had a big idea."

Creed jokes now that,

"Really smart people got together with a spray gun and the rest is history."

Click Image To Enlarge

But that glosses over the true story behind the Doritos Locos Taco, as it came to be known. After the company completed a round of concept testing with 200 consumers, which indicated stellar demand for the Doritos Locos Taco, Gomez's team created an edible version using Taco Bell's yellow corn shell and Doritos' Nacho Cheese seasoning.  Gomez recalls.  

"The way you might put powder sugar on cookies, that's basically the way we applied this seasoning [to our tacos]." 

At last, consumers got a taste. But after all the concept drawings and testing, trips to Home Depot, and prototype development, initial consumer taste tests flopped, to the disappointment of the team.  Purdue says.  

"They completely called us out."

Gomez recalls feeling crushed.  He says.  

"It was total buzzkill in the room."

¿Por Qué?

Even though the first tests failed to impress sample consumers, Taco Bell had forged the foundation for its biggest innovation in decades: the Doritos Locos Taco--either a revolutionary product or a low point for fast food, depending on your perspective. But there's no debating the success of the DLT, as it's called internally. Since it launched in early 2012, Taco Bell has sold more than 450 million Doritos Locos Tacos. A Cool Ranch follow-up, introduced in March, has already sold millions of units.  Creed says.  

"We had to hire about 15,000 people last year--two to three per restaurant--in order to handle the sales growth and demand of the Doritos Locos Tacos business."

Taco Bell is now planning to roll out more Doritos-flavored products, and Frito-Lay has even announced that it will offer Taco Bell-flavored Doritos.

Click Image To Enlarge

The real tale of how the DLT emerged from disappointing tests to become a massive hit involves a range of challenges and innovations, especially in engineering and manufacturing.  Creed says.

"We knew this was a breakthrough idea, so we put on our relentless hats and were determined to not let [this thing] beat us."

For the first group of testers, the problem was the taste. The combination of Doritos with Taco Bell's shells didn't capture either the zest of Doritos chips or the punch of Taco Bell's tacos. Rather, they formed a displeasing amalgamation of the two flavor profiles.  Gomez says. 

"This idea of merging a chip and a shell together--it sounds simple, but it's very hard to make a reality.  To tackle this huge challenge, for months we shared know-how between the technical teams at Frito-Lay and Taco Bell."

Click Image To Enlarge

Think Outside The Bun

The central issue was that Taco Bell's shells used a different type of corn masa than Doritos chips. But it wasn't simply a matter of adjusting the recipe. In order to create the DLT, the teams had to consider everything from seasoning mechanics to the taco's structural integrity throughout 2010 and 2011. Creed says.

"Frito-Lay wanted what's called a 'teeth-rattling crunch,' so they wanted it to snap and crunch more than the current Taco Bell shell snaps and crunches.  So we had to get that formula changed, then we had to find a way to deliver the flavoring, and then the seasoning. I mean, it was actually important that we left the orange dusting on your fingers because otherwise, we're not delivering the genuine Doritos [experience]."

All in, the teams experimented with more than 40 recipes over two years. During that time, the teams faced several roadblocks.  Creed says.  

"Remember, a taco shell has to bend, so we had to make this crispy [like a chip], but we also had to make it be able to bend so it didn't crack.  This was a really big engineering challenge, [especially considering] we would have to make hundreds of millions of these shells."

Click Image To Enlarge

Gomez says.

"When you buy a bag of Doritos and you open it, and some of the corners are broken off, you're probably not going to be that mad, because they're still Doritos.  But if our taco shells are broken in transit or in the restaurants, we can't do anything with them.  That was a big obstacle for us. How do we make these shells chip-like, but also be able to ship them and still be able to build a taco without having them break? There were some [prototypes] where we would barely even touch them and the shell would break."

Seasoning was another major issue, which was as much of a challenge of taste as it was for manufacturing.  Creed recalls.  

"A Doritos chip is a flat triangle, and it gets seasoned by being tumbled around in a huge seasoner barrel that rotates. But we couldn't do that with a taco shell because they would break. We could get the seasoning to stick to the top but we couldn't get it to stick to the bottom--we just couldn't get it evenly coated.  You don't want to take one big bite at one end, and it has flavor and the other end has nothing. We had to make sure it was evenly distributed."

Gomez says.

"That was the really tricky part.  Just like anything in manufacturing, it's all about speed and efficiency. So our seasoner had to season shells fast and it had to season them right every single time. We had teams of engineers working day and night to get the seasoner working."

In fact, the companies ended up creating a proprietary seasoner in the process, not least because for workers on the manufacturing line, the plumes of Doritos seasoning would create an almost Nacho Cheese gas chamber.   Creed says.  

"We realized pretty quickly that we had to seal that all in, because in the facilities, we couldn't have all that stuff in the air.  It would've been too much seasoning and flavor for our workers. We had to enclose it so the seasoning wouldn't escape. It would've been overpowering."

[Eds. note: Not a bad way to go.]

Click Image To Enlarge

Gomez admits to losing faith at times.  He says.  

"There was a tremendous amount of pressure. There were days when we would get bummed out and worried that this would be too hard to pull off."

But eventually his team refined and narrowed down the recipes to three prototypes, which were readied for market testing. Creed says.  

"There's a little bit of black box magic that went into the final prototype of the DLT, which not many people have seen."

He won't elaborate, but regardless of the secret recipe, the true beauty of the DLT is its deceptively basic concept.

Creed says.

"It's really one of those breathtakingly simple but huge ideas.  I remember trying to sell guacamole in the Midwest and people were like, 'What's all this green stuff in my burrito?' But this was a fastball, down the middle. It's what you'd expect from Taco Bell, but supercharged."

Click Image To Enlarge

I Would Walk 900 Miles

By September 2011, Taco Bell had rolled out the DLT prototype at a handful of restaurants in a few cities around the country for testing. Soon, hype around the DLT spread like lukewarm baja sauce. Customers began blogging about their experience; a slew of video reviews hit YouTube; and one Taco Bell addict even drove 900 miles from New York to Toledo, OH for an early taste of the DLT. Stephanie Purdue says. 

"They were just fanatical, and the results were off the charts. I've never seen so much word of mouth generated for one single product."

But while buzz for the DLT's national launch was locked in, a deal between Taco Bell and Frito-Lay was not. As Taco Bell legend has it, though the companies had spent years working together on the DLT, no official contracts had ever been signed. Taco Bell's 50th birthday was fast approaching when Greg Creed and then-Frito-Lay CEO Al Carey met in Creed's office to hash out final details.  Creed recalls.  

"We both realized that if we let the lawyers get involved, this thing would get slowed down and bogged down. So we did a handshake deal--that's all we had: You're going to spend the money, and I'm going to spend the money [on the DLT].  Everyone was like, 'You can't launch without a contract.' And we were like, 'Just watch us.'"

Legal wrangling aside, meeting demand for the DLT was another problem for Taco Bell. Purdue says. 

"We were going from three cities to 6,000 restaurants.  We didn't have the manufacturing capacity."

Adds Gomez.

"How do we stockpile millions of shells to be ready for a launch of this magnitude?"

Initially, the company thought its suppliers could build two dedicated DLT lines to produce enough shells to meet demand.  Creed says.  

"We built a pilot plant, but then we sold so many that we were like, 'Whoops, we got a problem.'"

Taco Bell's suppliers ended up building six dedicated manufacturing lines for the DLT, which are handled by roughly 600 employees. In fact, the Cool Ranch version of the DLT was originally supposed to launch late last year, instead of in March 2013, but it was delayed to add more manufacturing lines.  Creed says.  

"We realized we needed more capacity, because we couldn't slow down the Nacho Cheese line in order to create capacity for Cool Ranch."

When the DLT went nationwide, it was a smash hit, with millions of tacos sold in the first week on the market alone.  Morgan Stanley analyst John Glass explains. 

"When it launched, there was a significant impact--Taco Bell's [sales] numbers were up 13% in the second quarter of last year, which is big.  Brands like Taco Bell or McDonald's or Wendy's--you just don't see double-digit [growth] in same-store sales."

Soon, a contract was written up between Taco Bell and Frito-Lay, according to Creed.

Creed recalls.  

"When we met in my office [before launch], we said that if either one of us gets sacked or promoted, we would actually have to write a contract.  When [then-Frito-Lay CEO] Al [Carey] got promoted to run the PepsiCo beverage business, I phoned him up and said, 'So I guess we better write that contract then.' Well guess what? We sold 100 million tacos in the first 70 days. If we waited for those contracts to be finished, we would've sold 100 million less."

Flamas Future

After Nacho Cheese and Cool Ranch, a spicy Doritos Flamas-flavored taco is next on the docket. But that's not all the company has in the works.  Creed says.  

"Someone said to me, 'Well, when you launch three or four of these things you'll run out of ideas.'  I'm like, 'Not really.'"

To Creed, the partnership between Taco Bell and Frito-Lay is more than a one-off collaboration. Like Android is to Google or iOS is to Apple, Doritos-based flavors represent a whole new framework for Taco Bell to build on.  Creed beams.  

"It's not just a product; it's now a platform--Nacho Cheese, Cool Ranch, Flamas.  We're going to blow everyone away in the next few years in terms of how big this idea and platform will become."

The company is now considering crowdsourcing the next iteration of the DLT, and with 123 flavors of Doritos, there's certainly no shortage of possibilities. But perhaps more compelling than the company's innovations in taco shells are its plans to rethink what goes inside the DLT. Creed gives Fast Company the scoop:  

"At the moment, all the ingredients we have inside these shells are the same. The shells keep changing, but the ingredients are still ground beef, sour cream, lettuce, tomatoes.  Well, we got a load of other flavors at Taco Bell, and we could put a whole lot of different ingredients inside those shells that would create a different taste and sensation."

When pressed, Creed would only say it could be different "proteins or a special sauce." Additionally, customers themselves are already experimenting with their own reinventions of the DLT.  Creed says.  

"The Cheesy Gordita Crunch people are asking us to make one with either a Nacho Cheese or Cool Ranch shell."

That's likely to come down the road.

John Glass, the Morgan Stanley analyst, imagines there are more Doritos-based products on the horizon, but questions whether they will be as successful as the first Doritos Locos Taco.  He says.

"I don't know how many variants there will be, but I think it's the type of platform that could come back year after year.  It doesn't just have to be a taco. There's already a burrito with Fritos in it. Could you do Doritos nachos? A Doritos taco salad? Maybe. Creative guys will come up with different ways to use the same idea in ways we hadn't thought of before."

However complex the DLT line eventually becomes, the innovation behind the idea is its elegant simplicity, according to Creed. The combination of Doritos and Taco Bell, he says, is just so universally appealing that it's feeding its success in the market and driving its place in pop culture.

 Creed explains. 

"It's like sliced bread.  If you like bread, why wouldn't you want it sliced?"

COMMENTARY:   The Taco Bell Doritos Locos Taco -- the gift that keeps on giving.  A very captivating story of how the DLT was created from ideation to finished prototype and how it was promoted during the launch.  Anytime you can have that kind of success without a hitch, you are on to something.  I think you can definitely say that the folks at Taco Bell are definitely "thinking outside the bun."

Courtesy of an article dated May 1, 2013 appearing in Fast Company

HOW ANTONIO DE ROSA AND POLAROID INTEND TO CREATE A REVOLUTION IN SOCIAL PHOTOGRAPHY WITH THE SOCIALMATIC CAMERA

A Zink (zero ink) printer, a bit like Polaroid’s own, lets you print out sticky-backed images on demand (Click Image To Enlarge)

THE CAMERA’S DESIGNER HAS ENTERED INTO A CONTRACT WITH POLAROID TO DEVELOP THE CONCEPT.

 

When we last wrote about Socialmatic, the concept for a web-enabled instant camera that uploads your snaps to Instagram and prints them out using an on-board printer, it was but a twinkle in the eye of Italian inventor Antonio De Rosa. The patently ridiculous industrial design, which is based on Instagram’s iOS icon, seemed as technically impossible as it was functionally unnecessary. And it seemed even less likely to materialize after De Rosa’s Indiegogo campaign failed to raise funds necessary to produce the camera, last year.

Last year, the web-enabled instant camera called Socialmatic was but a concept (Click Image To Enlarge)

Yet it seems that Socialmatic hasn’t been relegated to the back pages of a portfolio just yet. This week, De Rosa announced a partnership with one C&A Licensing LLC, a company that licenses the Polaroid brand. According to a statement, C&A will help De Rosa bring the Socialmatic to market by early 2014.  De Rosa said  

“It’s been a long and difficult negotiation.  This mix of hardware and software, together with our brand new photo social network will fill the gap between virtuality and reality.”

The 16GB camera will have an 18.5-inch-square screen (Click Image To Enlarge)

It will allow you to apply retro-ish filters to your photos before uploading them to Facebook, Instagram, or a yet-to-be-designed Socialmatic app

If you missed the first round of press coverage, Socialmatic is a 16GB camera with a 4-inch-wide screen. It lets you apply retro-ish filters to your photos before uploading them to Facebook, Instagram, or a yet-to-be-designed Socialmatic app. A Zink (zero ink) printer, a bit like Polaroid’s own, lets you print out sticky-backed images on demand.

The Zink printer does not use ink cartridges and uses technology similar to the Polaroid PoGo printer (Click Image To Enlarge)

Despite being deeply embedded in Instagram culture, Socialmatic has no affiliation with the social photo app.  Which is incredibly strange--the face of the device is plastered with Instagram’s SLR camera logo, and every picture it prints out is accompanied by a QR code link to your Instagram account.  

Socialmatic is piggybacking on the wild popularity of the Instagram brand, and unless it comes up against any legal problems, could fool a whole lot of people. Doubly so when you add a Polaroid endorsement into the mix--the value of those two brand associations alone are transforming Socialmatic into a legitimate product.

The deal also includes accessories, like this carrying case (Click Image To Enlarge)

De Rosa was hesitant to comment on what’s changed since he struck his deal with C&A. When asked if the deal had affected the design, he answered a cryptic,

“Could be. It depends on some technical situations.”

One of those technical situations could be the Zero Ink printing technology, which would drive the cost up. But according to De Rosa, the release date is still too far out to make a guess on Socialmatic’s price tag.  He said assuringly (a previous estimate was $350).

“It will be for everyone.” 

It’s a deeply zany idea--after all, isn’t this thing doing what your iPhone could do, minus the printing?--but the response has been massively positive online. For Polaroid enthusiasts, it hints at nostalgia while maintaining a foothold in the digital world. At the same time, Instagram users seem to love the idea as a way to bolster their street cred as legit artists. For tech geeks, the thing has the ironic allure of an instant collectible, with a name that already sounds dated. In an odd way, it might be the perfect addition to the snapshot-crazed market.

COMMENTARY:   Socialmatic™ is a brand new instant camera designed to fill the gap between the virtual and real world.

Socialmatic™ utilizes the Android™ operating system for sharing images through social networks, Instagram, email and MMS, and represents a revolution in the social digital photography.

With Socialmatic™ users can:

• Live the emotions;
• Take a shoot;
• Apply proprietary photo filters;
• Post it on Socialmatic™ Network and/or share on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or send by Email or MMS;
• Print it, add a comment, pull off the auto-adhesive strip and share it in the real world;
• Follow the photo in real and virtual world thanks its own QR Code;

The Socialmatic™ Family:

Socialmatic™ has plans to design a complete family of camera's with different features and storage capabilities for every budget:

Click Image To Enlarge

Socialmatic™ Specifications:

• 4:3 size screen (not 4,3 Inches!)
• at least 16 GB of internal memory
• 3G, WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity
• SH-HDC slot for external mass storage
• GPS
• Internal Printer
• Optical Zoom
• Proprietary filters
• Android based OS
• Sharing option to share your photo on the most famous Social Network, by email or MMS;
• Exclusive Socialmatic Network Connectivity

Cost of Socialmatic™?    

Not available yet, but will be affordable for everyone.

The Socialmatic camera may just be the shot in the arm that the digital camera market needs to be rejuvenated, after years of declining sales as the smartphone, equipped with built-in camera's, has replaced regulat digital camera's.   

Having said this, I believe that there will be demand for the Socialmatic camera, but it will not be a game-changer, like the iPhone was to smartphones, or the iPod was to portable digital music players, but will appeal to a smaller group of photography enthusiasts who want the ability to produce instant hardcopy photos and the ability to share them with their friends through email, text messages and social networks.  

How large the market for the Socialmatic camera will become will depend largely on the addition of apps to provide additional photographic functionality and improvements to the overall photographic experience.  3-D photography would be a huge plus.  Price will also be a big determinant.  I do wish Antonio de Rosa and Polaroid a lot of luck.   

Courtesy of an article dated March 15, 2013 appearing in Fast Company Design 

SAMSUNG UNVEILS THE NEW 5-INCH GALAXY S4, SETS A NEW HIGH BAR, SET FOR RELEASE IN APRIL ON ALL MAJOR CARRIERS

 

Samsung on Thursday officially took the wraps off the Galaxy S4, a 5-inch smartphone coming to all the major U.S. carriers during the second quarter.

Journalists packed Radio City Music Hall tonight for the big reveal, which – as expected – was brought on stage by Samsung's pint-sized pitchman, Jeremy. Samsung's mobile chief, JK Shin, touted the Galaxy S4 as "a life companion for a richer, simpler life."

Shin said. 

"We are committed to innovation, we are always listening to learn from people around the world about what kind of progress they really want."

The smartphone will roll out with 327 mobile operators around the world in 155 countries starting at the end of April, he said.

The revamped smartphone, which follows last year's Samsung Galaxy S III and Galaxy Note II is "slimmer yet stronger, less to hold yet more to see, [and] it is simply amazing," according to Shin.

The new Samsung Galaxy S4 (Click Image To Enlarge)

Design and Specs

The Samsung Galaxy S4 is 136.6 by 69.8 by 7.9mm and 130g, the same height but slightly slimmer both in width and depth than the Galaxy S III. The edges are a little squarer than the GS3's, but the phone is still made of plastic. It comes in two colors, "black mist" and "white frost."

There's a 5-inch, 1920-by-1080 Super AMOLED screen on the front with a very tight 441ppi density. New software on board alters the screen's color temperatures based on what kind of content you're looking at, for the best possible view.

 

The processor inside is either a 1.6-GHz Samsung Exynos 5 Octa or a 1.9-GHz Qualcomm S4 Pro, depending on the country. The phone has 2GB of RAM and either 16, 32 or 64GB of storage, plus a MicroSD card slot. It runs Android 4.2.2.

There's a 13-megapixel camera on the back and a 2-megapixel camera on the front. The cameras can actually be used together to shoot picture-in-picture photos and videos.

For networking, the GS4 has EDGE, HSPA+ 42 and LTE; there will also be a CDMA/LTE version. Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, GPS, NFC, Bluetooth 4.0, and MHL are all on board as well. An infrared transmitter lets the phone work with the built-in WatchOn software to function as a TV remote and electronic program guide. The phone will support wireless charging if carriers demand it, the company said.

Tons of New Software

The Galaxy S4 has a huge amount of new software and features beyond the Android baseline.

Samsung's director of product marketing, Ryan Bidan said.

"We wanted to give users a device that really understands what's going on around them." 

Samsung groups the new features into four categories.

• "Fun" features include a bunch of new camera modes including dual-camera picture-in-picture, time lapse, and animated GIF, and a "sound and shot" mode which lets you record nine seconds of audio with any image. The built-in "Story Album" app lets you combine pictures with location information from TripAdvisor and then print it all as a paper copy through Blurb.
• "Relationship" features include Group Play, which lets multiple Galaxy S4 phones play the same music track, show the same photos, or play multiplayer games over Wi-Fi Direct; Asphalt 4 and Gun Bros 2 will be the first two multiplayer games to be supported, Samsung said. S Translator builds language translation into both the email program and Samsung's ChatOn chat program, automatically translating between nine languages.
• "Convenience" features include WatchOn, a universal remote control app which works with the phone's IR emitter. It combines data from the Peel electronic program guide along with streaming choices from Netflix, Blockbuster and Samsung's own media store, although it can't access DVRs. Smart Pause pauses videos when you look away. Gesture control lets you scroll the screen or fast-forward music by waving at the screen. Air View lets you preview items like e-mail messages by hovering your finger over them, like you can do with the S Pen on the Galaxy Note. An OCR program reads business cards.
• "S Health" features take on Fitbit and its ilk with a built-in pedometer, environmental sensors and diet guide. Samsung will sell Fitbit-like bands for people to wear when they aren't carrying their phones with them, and the biometric data will sync back to S Health, the company said.

All of these features interact with the new Samsung Hub, a unified app, movie, video, book and music store that will appear on Galaxy S4 phones.

No Samsung event would be complete without a theatrical performance. Samsung showed off the Galaxy S4's camera functionality with a scene at an Upper West Side dance studio, where Jeremy's mother was all set with the GS4, but his classmate's dad was out of luck. Then, of course, Jeremy tapped danced – all captured by the new Galaxy S4.

Flash to two friends traveling around the world, which gave Samsung the chance to show off S Translator, as well as photo album options. In concert with blurb, Galaxy S4 owners will be able to order hard copies of their albums for $10-$30 for a 20-page album.

To cut down on the distracted driving, meanwhile, S Voice Drive features bigger fonts and bigger text to speech for drivers. It's intended to serve as an in-car personal assistant, and allows users to respond to texts, calls, and other messages by voice.

For those in cooler climates, meanwhile, the Galaxy S4 works for those wearing gloves.

Availability and Carriers

The Galaxy S IV will come out on all four national U.S. carriers plus U.S. Cellular and Cricket between April and June of this year; Samsung didn't cite a price.

T-Mobile has set up a pre-registration page, but the other carriers had few other details about the Galaxy S4 at this point.

Jeff Bradley, senior vice president of devices of AT&T said.

"AT&T was the first to deliver Samsung's Galaxy series and we are excited to bring the Galaxy S4 to the nation's fastest 4G LTE network.  We continue to offer our customers a broad choice of devices and features to fit any mobile lifestyle, and look forward to growing our family of Samsung Galaxy devices."

Fared Adib, senior vice president of Product Development at Sprint said.

"Sprint is excited to bring the benefit of Truly UnlimitedSM 4G LTE data to the U.S. variant of Galaxy S 4 in the second quarter of this year.  Our customers will appreciate the ability to use Galaxy S 4 to surf the Web, share pictures and videos, and use this smartphone as much as they want without worrying about throttling or overage charges on their monthly bill due to data caps."

COMMENTARY:   Let's take a look at a Specifications Comparison between the new Samsung Galaxy S4 versus the iPhone 5, HTC One and BlackBerry Z10 to determine how Samsung's new Galaxy S4 measure up against three major competitors:

Specifications Comparison - Samsung Galaxy S4 vs Apple iPhone 5 vs HTC One vs BlackBerry Z10  (Click Image To Enlarge)

As you can readily conclude from the above Technical Specifications comparison between the Samsung Galaxy S4 and three other leading smartphones -- Apple iPhone 5, HTC One and BlackBerry Z10, the S4 is clearly superior in every major technical specification.  

The Samsung Galaxy S4 (left) and the HTC One (Click Image To Enlarge)

The latest slick software accoutrements give the S4 a continuation of the bragging rights it gained when it released the S3.  Of special note are the S4's four software features:

• "Fun" features, which now includes dual-camera picture-in-picture, time lapse, and animated GIF, and a "sound and shot" mode which lets you record nine seconds of audio with any image.  Very cool indeed.
• "Relationship" features, which allow users to interact with others by sharing content like multiplayer games, music and photos. This includes Group Play, which lets multiple Galaxy S4 phones play the same music track, show the same photos, or play multiplayer games over Wi-Fi Direct; Asphalt 4 and Gun Bros 2 will be the first two multiplayer games to be supported, Samsung. The S4 comes with Samsung’s S Translator tool that enables you to speak in one language and have the phone translate to another.  When someone responded in Chinese, the phone typed out his words in English. It supports several other languages including French, Spanish, Italian and Portugese.
  
• "Convenience" features, provide a storehouse of intuitive and automatic features to help improve the overall S4 owner experience.  This includes WatchOn, a universal remote control app which works with the phone's IR emitter to faciliate video stream from Netflix, Blockbuster and Samsung's own media store.  My favorite convenience feature is Smart Pause which pauses videos when you look away.  The Gesture control lets you scroll the screen or fast-forward music by waving your hand over the screen.  The Air View control lets you preview items like e-mail messages by hovering your finger over them, like you can do with the S Pen on the Galaxy Note. An OCR program reads business cards.   The S Voice Drive voice recognition feature outclasses Siri. You can ask it to read your email out loud and ask the phone to respond to a text message while you’re driving. Now that's cool.
• "S Health" features, provides a built-in pedometer, environmental sensors and diet guide. Samsung will sell Fitbit-like bands for people to wear when they aren't carrying their phones with them, and the biometric data will sync back to S Health, the company said. That's a neat medical device that is sure to attract the attention of athletes and the health conscience.  

Although Samsung lost a patent infringement suit against Apple in 2012, and demonstrated stone cold audacity and defiance by paying the settlement in coins -- $2 billion worth -- and delivered by several armored trucks in front of Apple's HQ, it now has the last laugh.  It is now giving those arrogant bastards at Apple lessons in innovation and oneupmanship.      

 

It remains to be seen whether Samsung's S4 has climbed to the level of a "super-smartphone" or "best in class," but from what I have seen and read so far, there is no doubt in my mind that Samsung has "raised the bar," finally supplanting Apple when it comes to new smartphone product innovation.  Apple's iPhone 5 clearly looks drab, tarnished and very ordinary (albeit with a few differentiators like SIRI), for it is now Samsung that has "put a dent in the Universe" and will make S4 customers "lust" over their new smartphone when they go on sale in April 2013.   Makes you kind of wonder "what Steve would've done", doesn't it.....     

Courtesy of an article dated March 14, 2013 appearing in PC Magazine and an article dated March 14, 2013 appearing in C|NET

GENEVA 2013: FERRARI UNVEILS ITS NEWEST AND BADDEST SUPERCAR CALLED THE LA FERRARI, AND IT'S A HYBRID TOO

Ferrari's LaFerrari is finally unveiled at the 2013 Geneva Motor Show (Click Image To Enlarge)

After almost a year of eager anticipation and speculation, Ferrari’s ultimate supercar (previously known as F70 and F150), the successor to the 288 GTO, F40, F50, and Enzo, is here. It’s called LaFerrari, but don’t let the strange name fool you. As previous reports have stated, it will be a hybrid. It will also be Ferrari’s fastest ever road car.

 

Let’s start with that hybrid powertrain. It consists of a 6.3-liter V12, two electric motors, and a 132-pound battery pack mounted to the floor. One electric motor is coupled to the car’s seven-speed dual-clutch automated manual transaxle, the other is used to power accessories.By itself, the V12 produces 789 horsepower. The electric motor adds 161 hp, for a grand total of 951 hp and 664 pound-feet of torque.

The LaFerrari's HY-KERS powertrain system includes a 6.3-liter V12 engine that puts out 963 bhp at 900 Nm  torque, ad incudes two electric motors, and a 132-pound battery pack mounted to the floor (Click Images To Enlarge)

Ferrari calls its hybrid system HY-KERS, for Hybrid Kinetic Energy Recovery System. KERS is used in Formula 1 to give cars an extra boost of acceleration and, since Ferrari is known for applying F1 tech to road cars, it’s fitting that the Prancing Horse’s first hybrid uses this system.

Click Images To Enlarge

The batteries are recharged under braking and when the electric motor is generating excess torque (during cornering, for example). Unlike the McLaren P1, there is no electric-only mode. Instead, Ferrari tuned the gasoline engine to run at high revs, allowing the electric motor to cover the low end for consistent power delivery.

Click Images To Enlarge

Other F1 influences are apparent in the design. The futuristic ducted bodywork probably won’t win any beauty contests, but its carbon fiber skin is manufactured using the process Ferrari uses for its F1 cars. There are also plenty of splitters, diffusers, and even an underbody guide vane to direct airflow.

Click Images To Enlarge

The LaFerrari’s entire chassis is made of carbon fiber, which means the V12 and electric motor won’t have much weight to push around. Ferrari was able to achieve a near-perfect 41/59 percent front/rear weight distribution. The battery pack’s position also gives the LaFerrari a low center of gravity.

On the inside, F1 drivers Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa reportedly helped lay out the driving position. Since space in the cockpit is tight, each car will be tailored to its owner, moving the pedals and steering wheel for a proper fit.

 

That all sounds impressive, but what about the numbers? Is this hybrid really a supercar? On paper, the answer is yes. Ferrari says the LaFerrari will reach 62 mph (100 kph) in less than three seconds and eclipse the 200 mph mark.

The LaFerrari is also the new record holder at Ferrari’s Fiorano test track. Its lap of 1:20 beat the Enzo by five seconds and the previous record holder, the F12berlinetta, by three seconds.

Production will be limited to 499 units, all of which have been spoken for already, despite a price tag of roughly $1 million.

From its high tech powertrain to its insane price, the LaFerrari pushes the limits of adjectives, but what else would you expect from Ferrari? Still, is it too late to change its name?

COMMENTARY:    I just love the new Ferrari LaFerrari.  It's more modernistic, sleeker and more beastly as a Ferrari should be.  Takes you back to the F-1 and Boxer eras.  The huge front engine and side scoops tells you that the LaFerrari means business, and it fits the role.  The wrap-around windows give the driver 360 degrees of clear visibility.   A skilled driver can take the LaFerrari 900 horsepower from 0-60 in under 3 seconds from a standing start.  Only 499 are being built, and even though the LaFerrari sells for $1 million a pop, there are no shortage of buyers.  They are already soldout.  For you exotic car techies, here are the complete specifications:

Click Image To View Enlarged Technical Specifications 

Courtesy of an article dated March 5, 2013 appearing in Digital Trends