Can't miss it
Welcome to Idealog Weekly, the free email newsletter for New Zealand commercial creatives, entrepreneurs and anyone rich with ideas
Why, hello there. Yes we look different—we slipped into something a bit more comfortable to the eye. This is a little teaser for next week, when we drop the robe on our brand-spanking made-over website. Bate your breath.
Can’t miss it
You’ll be blinded by the latest issue of Idealog—if not by the brilliance, then by the fluoro orange cover. Hey it’s the shade of the season, and we say if you can’t wear it, coat your magazine in it. There are more bright ideas inside, in the form of well-off Kiwis who are helping the poor make money in the Third World, with new business models and smart ideas. Then there are the poor Kiwis who are helping the rich make money here—with creative internships that go on. And on. And then on a bit more.
We could also go on about all the other stuff powering this great orange beast of a publication, but why don’t you save us the trouble and check out the contents yourself. And while you’re there, have a look at the stockists, so come Monday you’ll be all set for the greatest release since Dark Side of The Moon.
Robotic chair
This robotic chair puts on a transfixing floor display as it self-assembles—but you may have to overlook the fact that the end result looks like an unpainted kitset job from The Warehouse. Doesn’t matter. It’s not just fun to watch, it’s fun to watch other people watch—especially if you set it up in a haunted-looking house.
The ninth day
We’ve discovered God, and Joan Osborne was right—he is one of us. His name is Craig Venter, and he’s a DNA researcher from the US who claims to have created artificial life. Excuse us while we retreat to our bunker.
Go hard then go home
If you need a bit of a push out the door and into a pavement-pounding workout, try Nike Plus, a new personal trainer for your iPod. If that doesn’t get you motivated, maybe the desire to beat this chump will. With lines like “your sister wants her shorts back”, Yuri makes us want to say: “your granddad wouldn’t mind his jokes back either”.
Last chance to win some sweet sounds
We want your opinion. We want it so badly that we have some shiny new Apple hi-fi kit to give away to our opinionated readers. Fill out the readers’ survey on our website and you’re in the draw to win an awesome iPod Hi-Fi worth $599 and an AirPort Express to stream music around your home. The survey will take about 10 minutes, is mainly multi-choice and we do pay attention to what people tell us! So get clicking.
 iPod Hi-Fi
Fill your home with sound, not stereo components. Keep your music collection at your fingertips, not in countless CD cases. Change the way you experience digital music. For $599, iPod Hi-Fi delivers crystal-clear, high-quality sound in a clean, compact design. Hear, hear.
 AirPort Express
Enjoy your iTunes music library in virtually any room of your house or several rooms at once. Share a single broadband Internet connection and USB printer without inconvenient and obtrusive cables. Create an instant wireless network on the go. Extend the range of your current wireless network. How many devices do you need to do all this? Just one: the Airport Express. Featuring AirTunes for playing your iTunes music wirelessly on your home stereo or powered speakers, AirPort Express (retail value $169) brings not only the Internet but your music to wherever in your home you like to enjoy them most, whether you use a Mac or PC.
It’s right to be left—or right
If you’ve never been quite sure if you’re left or right-brained, here’s an easy way to find out: watch a ballerina spin. Not just any ballerina, mind, but this one. If you see her turn clockwise, it means you use more of the right side of your brain, and an anti-clockwise spin indicates you favour the left. If you see her do anything else, sorry, we can’t help you.
In search of a sign and a seal
Vincent Heeringa is blagging and blogging his way around the world—or around Germany and Austria, anyway. He’s in the land of the sausage to attend the Frankfurt International Book fair, with eight AUT Media titles tucked under his arm, down his shirt and wherever else he can fit them. Catch up with the Adventures of Vincent on his blog.
Zenago Emerging Business Award
The Zenago Emerging Business Award will be presented to the most promising small to medium size business in New Zealand. The winner will benefit significantly with valuable rewards on offer including a $50,000 website and coverage in Idealog.
If your business is growing and needs a functional top of the line website, then you are invited (and encouraged!) to enter. Entries close at 5pm on October 15, 2007. More info »
Imaginary lands
If you think the city we’re heading for looks a bit smoggy, you should “re-imagine our shared urban future” at Re-imagining The City next Wednesday. There’s an exhibition, screenings and music from D-Fuse designed to plant purple starbursts into the grey matter of everyone from visual to kinetic types.
A Chinese-Italian Kiwi is bound to have a unique view on the world—and Jon Chapman-Smith has the artistic talent to express it. Full Circle is an exhibition that shows off not only Chapman-Smith’s handiwork, but also his digital tools; used to cut out illustrations in both native wood and acrylic. What has the potential to be confusing is instead conversational.
Quote of the week
“Fred stuck a bony finger in my chest and said ‘Stop making money out of sick people’”
—Ray Avery on his fateful meeting with Fred Hollows, that led him to doing mutually beneficial business with the Third World. Read his story in Idealog #12
More at Idealog online
Read more on our website: web exclusives, opinion, Idealog IP, the Idealog blogs and the Idealog podcast. See you at idealog.co.nz.
Gena Tuffery
Senior writer
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