DEMO 09: Check Out Real-Time Online Dating, First $399 Refrigerator Magnet
The DEMO 09 conference launched 39 promising new technologies for consumers and businesses, with each presenter being given a scant six minutes to make their pitch to 500 attendees. Here are highlights from five notable presentations.
Tue, March 03, 2009
Network World — The DEMO 09 conference launched 39 promising new technologies for consumers and businesses, with each presenter being given a scant six minutes to make their pitch to 500 attendees. Here are highlights from five notable presentations.
Tap on a hottie to send a flirt?
The funniest demo came courtesy of Skout, which turns Internet-enabled mobile phones or computers into endpoints on a real-time dating network.
Skout Out, the company's product, lets someone search for singles in the immediate vicinity, electronically flirt with them and even meet up for an impromptu date, all within minutes. Skout Out combines the best of the online and physical dating worlds, its makers say.
View a slideshow: 11 cool tech products at DEMO 09.
"Wouldn't it be fantastic if you could come into a bar and instantly know who is single, and looking for a Swedish man?" asked Christian Wiklund, the company's CEO, founder and proud Swede.
The user interface features instructions such as "tap on a hottie to send a flirt!" In addition to phones, the service will be provided on 42-inch touchscreen plasma displays stationed in bars and clubs across the county -- in 10,000 locations, the company says.
Wikland tried to appeal to the sensibilities of the mostly male audience.
"Has anyone here ever been rejected when trying to flirt with someone at a bar?" he asked. "Today, Skout is going to show you how we can help you decrease the likelihood of rejection."
Location-based marketing
BluBuzz had a hard time on stage, with its demonstration being stalled by a pesky status error.
"Sometimes the DEMO gods just aren't with us," DEMO executive product Chris Shipley noted just after the bluBuzz presenters came off stage.
Although technical problems made it hard to visualize the product, the idea is to send marketing content to people's mobile phones via Bluetooth. Say a new restaurant is opening up -- bluBuzz can be used to send advertisements or menus to people who walk nearby. Permission requests are sent to every device bluBuzz detects, and if the phone's owner accepts the request an ad containing text, pdf files, images, audio or movies will be sent to the device.
As if anticipating privacy concerns, bluBuzz CEO and founder Jason Pratt promised that cell phone users will not be hounded with huge numbers of ads.
"I've spent a great deal of time ensuring that bluBuzz is socially responsible," Pratt said.
Kitchen computing
DEMO saw the unveiling of perhaps the world's first US$399 refrigerator magnet -- but it's also a fully functioning computer so the price tag might be worth it. The Touch Book and was built by the DEMO presenter Always Innovating. It's one part touchscreen tablet, one part netbook, and it has a magnetic back so it can stick to your refrigerator door.
