Tagged : Product Innovation

in Media Culture, Travel

Electronic Boarding Pass Issues

Recently I have been using the electronic boarding pass as much as possible. Not only is it less wasteful in terms of paper waste, but it is also more efficient for check-in, particularly when travelling with no checked baggage. Without baggage, the electronic smart phone boarding pass allows you to breeze through the airport without lining up to check-in, and without the hassle of having to print out the boarding card at home.

With this über convenience though comes a whole new set of hassles which I have discovered and are not limited to the items below:

  • If your iPhone or Blackberry is running low on juice you will not be able to board the plane.
  • When showing your pass at the departure gate and security it is cumbersome to show your ID and hand over your iPhone at the same time
  • On the iPhone the orientation of the boarding pass changes as you handle it, again causing a slightly clunky experience
  • If the pass loads in a browser you need to connect to the internet if you close the browser and come back to it again. This can be an issue, but I have made sure to take a screenshot of my boarding pass and save it into the photo gallery on my iPhone.

Overall the electronic boarding pass is a high tech solution with some low-tech hassles. I’ve also noticed that despite the advanced technology, they still need to affix a luggage tracking sticker to something if you are checking baggage. This means a sticker stuck to the back of my iPhone. I found this quite funny.

The e-boarding pass is something that will only get better with time, but for now there do seem to be a few low-tech issues.

in Media Culture

Lance Armstrong Nissan Leaf Commercial

While Lance Armstrong may be behind in the 2010 Tour de France, he’s certainly ahead in many other ways, one of which would be his endorsement of the forthcoming Nissan Leaf electric car.

Touted as the first affordable zero emission vehicle for the masses, the Leaf is creating a media wave. Team Radio Shack is not actually using a Nissan Leaf as a team car in the Tour de France because of the distance requirements, and is instead using the European equivalent of the Nissan Rogue, but it will be cool when they do start to use the car in shorter stage races.

As a cyclist I know all too well the feeling of breathing exhaust fumes. This commercial featuring the 7-time Tour de France champion is a great homage to what will hopefully become “days gone by” where we sniffed fumes all day while on the bike.

in Media Culture

Nissan Leaf Preview Test Drive

This is a great video from Green Energy News showing a public advance test drive of the Nissan Leaf electric car. While the leaf may not yet be a great road trip car with a maximum drive per charge of about 100 miles, it will certainly be able to handle most people’s domestic driving for one day. It’s cool that there are 3 different options for charging including a rapid DC charge which will be available at certain gas stations and take roughly 30 minutes to get to 80% charge. The other two options for the home are regular A/C 110V power which would likely take forever, and a 240V option for the home which is the same type of voltage required for a stove or dryer.

I’m excited about this car and can’t wait to test drive it! Apparently even the bumpers are made from recycled plastic bottles. This is a leading edge step by Nissan in the direction toward a clean air future.

in Media Culture

Lexus LFA Supercar Advertising

These TV commercials for the 2012 Lexus LFA really caught my eye. They’re elegantly simple and feature the story of this new car. At the right pitch, allegedly around 9000 RPM, the noise of the engine will break a champagne glass.

This is a pretty impressive piece of machinery that has been built by Lexus without compromise. Even the sound made by airflow through the engine compartment has been tuned by Yamaha for perfection.

On the performance end the LFA boasts a 4.8L V10 engine with 552 horsepower and can go from 0-60mph in 3.6 seconds. Top speed for this production supercar is 202 MPH and the exterior body panels are made from a special carbon fiber that is woven on a custom loom designed and built by Lexus specifically for the production of this car.

To top it all off, the Lexus LFA will come at a heavy cost with a price tag of roughly $400,000 USD. If you’re thinking that’s totally insane, you’re likely not the only one, but at a limited production run of only 500 models to be produced, this car will have a certain exclusivity about it. I’m willing to bet there are 500 multi-millionaire car enthusiasts out there looking to put one of these in their garage.

Read more about the Lexus LFA at the Lexus LFA Microsite.

in Misc Bin

Telescoping Seatpost

Mountain bike technology seems to have reached a peak — innovation somewhat drying up over the past few years. V-brakes made way for disk brakes and full suspension has evolved to the point where all of the major players have an efficient pedaling suspension system. In short, not a lot has changed in the past five years or so.

The one thing that has changed since my day in the heyday of mountain bike racing and the birth of freeriding — a time when enthusiasts were buying up $5000 bikes on a yearly basis — is a trend back toward all mountain riding. Similar to what happened in snowboarding, the extreme sides between racing and acrobatics have come to rest in the middle as all-mountain.

Enter the telescopic seatpost. This is really a new play on a classic idea. Hite Rite was the original player in this game with their coil spring device that allowed you to lower your seat while riding, but have it return to proper height on its own after the descent.

The new breed of telescopic seatpost is perhaps the most significant improvement in mountain bikes in the last few years. These seatposts allow you to raise and lower your seat in 3 customizable increments which effectively enables the “all-mountain” crowd to embrace descending and ascending on the same bike.

Crank Brothers and Specialized seem to be leading the back on this front with the Crank Brothers Joplin seatpost and the Specialized Command Post. It’s a fresh take on an old idea, and like all good products, it scratches an itch.

A friend of mine working in a bike shop on the North Shore told me it’s the number one aftermarket upgrade on new mountain bikes over $3000. At $300-$500 pop that’s not a bad upsell!

in Misc Bin

Shimano XTR 2011


I haven’t written too much about bikes on this blog, but if you know me, you know that I have a long history with bicycles and mountain bikes in particular. My friend Dave Norona is currently videoing the epic mountain bike stage race The BC Bike Race right now where he’s managed to get a sneak peak at Shimano’s 2011 XTR Component Group. It looks like Geoff Kabush is riding the components now and putting them through the paces on the awesome BC singletrack.

While I’ve long been a fan of the poorly adopted 2×9 system originally hatched by Tom Ritchey for it’s lower mid-range gearing, which allowed for longer time in the middle ring, there is no denying the power of Shimano when it comes to industry standardization.

For 2011 it looks like they’ve maintained the use of the 32t middle chainring, but effectively increased the gear span by changing to a 10 speed cassette with an available 36 tooth top cog. This should solve any issues with poor gearing choice.

Hmm. Somehow I feel a new bike on the horizon for 2011.