Who needs a beer?

Welcome to Idealog Weekly, the free email newsletter for New Zealand commercial creatives, entrepreneurs and anyone rich with ideas.

Who needs a beer?

A whole bloody lot of you, judging by my inbox. Guess it’s that time of year—when enthusiasm is down and thirst is up-for-a-Heineken-keg. Sorry readers, there’s only one keg each week—or only one that we’re parting with—and it goes to someone who, for reasons of continued employment, we’d better not name.

She might recognise herself in this: “I need a beer because I work in this crazy place where beer goes off before it’s allowed to be drunk,” and this: she works for a sport committee. Don’t these kind of jobs come with a mini fridge under the desk? We are sadly disillusioned and thus in need of a beer ourselves. So, to win our final keg (that we’re parting with) tell us why we deserve a beer. Not that we need a reason, she writes, swigging from her third. [That’s the creative economy –Ed.]

Up the drain

We love shining our torch on unusually-placed creativity, so imagine our delight when we found a good glug of it down the plughole. Turns out, a dire case of Mondayitis prompted Andrew Southen to invent a way to bypass the plumber’s ABC: disconnect mains, drain water and fit attachment. The result, the Isovalve, was given an A+ by Vincent Heeringa and the rest of the judging panel at the Zenago Emerging Business Awards—along with a $50,000 website for Southen’s new business. Moral of this story: nurture the inertia.

For your eyes only

Many Internet shoppers would baulk at paying US$1 for an online birthday cake—probably on account of its lack of edible content. But Facebook could care less about those sensible shoppers: The ’Book’s sold 24 million virtual gifts since February alone. Yep, it seems snapping up non-existent items is the new way to shop, and it’s great news for heavily product-invested retailers. Send back your inventory and dig out your magic markers—The Emperor’s New Clothes might have been more entertaining, but it wasn’t nearly so profitable.

Built like a brick phone

Nostalgia is the way of the future, and this new brick phone is proving to be the latest gotta-have portable gadget. Yes, I did say portable; consumers may be nostalgic these days, but they’re not stupid—or abnormally muscular. Because we’ve all evolved out of our 80s bionic backs, developed from hauling barely-mobile phone backpacks, the new brick is a comparatively tiny 11-by-3.5 centimetres. It also comes with a camera and MP3 player, meaning it outcools even the shoephone. Guess we Got Smart.

I wanna iBox

Speaking of teaching old things new tricks, check out this portable iPod amplifier. The iBox might look like something that once broadcast Orson Welles’ War of The Worlds, but with 2 x 25 watts of output it would have had people screaming in the streets, convinced the aliens really were here. Take a squiz at Idealgear in the current issue of Idealog for more gorgeous gadgetry that you don’t need until you see it.

Subscribe and win

To celebrate a great year for New Zealand innovation and as a founding sponsor of Idealog, Baldwins is offering Idealog readers the chance to win one of two Methven Maia® beauty showers.

Baldwins works with many creative companies like Methven and Idealog to develop, manage and protect their intellectual property.

To be in the draw, simply subscribe to Baldwins’ informative newsletter. It’s that easy. Winners will be advised via email in January 2008.

Bali buzz

Host of the global Climate Change Conference, Bali is the scene for counteracting Global Warming, and not just on the island either. The dying coral reefs off the coast are being revived by one of the things that helped kill them: electricity. Dozens of submerged metal structures buzzing with artificial energy are miraculously undoing the harm that the great power source originally caused. With any luck, Bush will go diving for inspiration.

Fast networking

People who like talking often aren’t such big fans of reading (notimeyousee). That’s why frequent Idealog scribe Simon Young has launched a video podcast on social networking. It’ll be a once-a-week affair, with today’s episode an interview with entrepreneur Dwayne Alexander, formerly of APN, on launching his own social networking service. Dive in, but don’t get tangled in there.

Peter’s Public

Peter Black’s ‘Public’ exhibition opens to its namesake in Wellington tomorrow. The photographer snaps everyone from businessmen to busybodies in a silver-gelatined attempt to revive the art of street photography.

It’s not everyone’s cup of thermos tea, but 200,000 Aucklanders attend Christmas in the domain, officially known as Park, every year, so at least a few of you will be grateful of this reminder. It’s on tomorrow night: be there and be square (but joyful).

Quote of the week

“I was in a lethargic mood, probably suffering from Mondayitis. I thought to myself, ‘I wish those plugs were valves’.”

—Eureka! Andrew Southern on his ingenious method of inventing an ingenious valve

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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