FLYM: A Foldable iPhone Speaker That Stores Flat

When it’s unfolded, the FLYM provides multi-directional sound without the need of an external battery.

[designaffairs studio]

Are You a Klouchebag?

Klouchebag is the new standard for measuring online asshattery. Bad grammer? Too many retweets? From the site:
“Klouchebag uses the ARSE rating system. Anger: profanity and rage. Retweets: “please RT”s, no or constant retweeting, and old-style. Social Apps: every useless checkin on foursquare or its horrible brethren. And English Usage: if you use EXCLAMATION MARKS OMG!!! or no capitals at all, this’ll be quite high.” (I scored a 26. Not too klouchey.)

[Klouchebag]

Iconic IBM Clock is Resurrected

A faithful reproduction of the classic IBM indicator clocks found in offices, warehouses and schools during the mid-20th century.

[$235 at Schoolhouse Electric & Supply]

Best About Pages

Redesigning a website? Is it inspiration you seek? Head over to Best About Pages, a huge archive of the web’s best About Pages.

[Best About Pages]

One World Trade Center Construction Timelapse

A time-lapse movie showcasing the construction progress from 2004-2012.

The Friday Five is curated and written by John Suder, SUMO Heavy’s Head of User Experience and Minister of Propaganda. If you’ve got a story idea or see something feature-worthy for the Friday Five, contact John at john@sumoheavy.com. 

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Coin: A Simple iPhone Case and Stand

Stop propping up your iPhone with random objects, or worse yet, carrying around a separate stand. Using Urban Prefer’s Coin 4 case, a simple coin in your pocket is utilized as a stand, using the grooves within the case. The grooves on the case are at different angles, allowing for different tilt views.

[Urban Prefer]

B.R.A.D. Berkeley Ridiculously Automated Dorm

Berkeley student Derek Low completely automated his dorm so that every function in the room can be controlled by his voice or an iOS app. It’s been reported that the college wasn’t too fond of Derek’s clever set up and has called him in for a hearing. But Derek isn’t worried – he was moving anyway.

WeBike: Exercise, Generate Electricity, Get Stuff Done

Belgium-based company We-Watt has created a meeting table called WeBike. Participants sit at the table and gently peddle, while creating electricity (and presumably getting something done).

[WeWatt]

The Essence of Travel

Smell like your favorite city with ‘The Scent of Departure’. Let’s hope the NYC fragrance doesn’t smell like Times Square in August.

[The Scent of Departure]

Retro Arcade Poncho

No longer does the rain have to mean ‘Game Over’!

[$6.99 at Perpetual Kid]

The Friday Five is curated and written by John Suder, SUMO Heavy’s Head of User Experience and Minister of Propaganda. If you’ve got a story idea or see something feature-worthy for the Friday Five, contact John at john@sumoheavy.com. 

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Starting this month, we’re rolling out a new series of posts called the ‘SUMO Heavy Developer’s Toolbox’.
Each post will feature one of our favorite tools, apps, plugins, modules and extensions.

Our first Developer’s Toolbox post features the WordPress Plugin ‘Quick Cache’ and it’s by far our favorite caching plugin.

What It Does

Quick Cache takes a real-time snapshot ( building a cache ) of every Page, Post, Category, Link, etc. These snapshots are then stored ( cached ) intuitively, so they can be referenced later, in order to save all processing time (which ultimately slows your site down).

Features

• Multiple options that allow you to customize every aspect of the caching – including the expiration time of the cached object

• Multiple gzip settings

• Fully configurable (via Control Panel)

Cost

FREE

Summary

Quick Cache is a must-have for every WordPress-powered site. Just install the plugin, activate, then enable the caching on the options page. That’s it! Once you turn it on, the cache will be served up immediately. The reduction of stress on the server is really, really noticable in some cases. There’s no downside to running the plugin. The FAQ on Quick Cache’s page says it best:

“What is the down side to running Quick Cache? We really can’t think of any site running WordPress that would want to be without it. To put it another way, the WordPress software itself comes with a built in action reference for an advanced-cache.php file, because WordPress developers realize the importance of such as plugin. The /wp-content/advanced-cache.php file is named as such, because the WordPress developers expect it to be there when caching is enabled by a plugin. If you don’t have the /wp-content/advanced-cache.php file yet, it is because you have not enabled Quick Cache from the options panel yet.”

With that said, give it a download and try it out. You won’t regret it!

[Quick Cache Plugin]

Sean Kennedy is SUMO Heavy’s resident Web Slinger.
Follow Sean on Twitter or send him some love at sean@sumoheavy.com.

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The SUMO Heavy team trekked to Las Vegas last week to attend the 2012 Imagine eCommerce Conference. Magento (and their parent company eBay) know how to put on a conference, and this one did not disappoint.

Sessions
The conference included many valuable networking opportunities, eight Keynote sessions and 15 Breakout Sessions. The Breakout Sessions were divided between three tracks: Technology, Business and Partner Powered Track. This worked well for us as team – Bart and I hit the business sessions while Bob and Sean took in the tech tracks. One of the most memorable breakouts for us was ’Doubling Your Revenues in 6 Months’. The session was geared to merchants, but we walked away with some good insights that we can pass on to our clients.

Keynotes
The eight keynotes featured product announcements from Magento as well as inspirational talks from business leaders.

On Day 2 we heard from Stephen Messer of Collective[i], who told us big data is worthless, it’s about big answers, and Tim Kring (best known as the creator of HEROES), who showed us the art of storytelling and the new monetization models of Hollywood. He took us through the creation of ‘Conspiracy for Good’, which is a multi-platform, multi-player ‘augmented reality drama’, which featured “Social Benefit Storytelling”. The pilot, which took place in 2010, spanned the globe and culminated with 4 weeks of live events and gameplay in London streets.

On Day 3 we heard from Jim FitzGibbon, former president of Four Season Hotel & Resorts, who shared how the Four Season created and lived by a service-oriented culture. He topped off the morning by giving away a free 7-day trip to the Four Seasons in Bora Bora (!). Names were chosen by random drawing, and then the lucky contestants had to answer a few questions, game-show style. The winner was Krister Lenman from Sweden.

The afternoon keynote (which was our favorite) featured Alison Levine. Alison is a remarkable woman – she’s skied across the Arctic Circle to the North Pole, and was the first American to complete a 600-mile trek from West Antarctica to the South Pole. Oh, and she climbed Mount Everest. Twice. In her talk, she recounted her struggles to ascend the mountain and how these experiences can translate into lessons in life and business.

The Venue: M Resort Spa Casino
Even thought the M Resort is way off the beaten path, the location was an excellent choice. All conference events were held within the resort and I think it really helped keep everyone focused (and out of trouble) since the strip was a 30-minute shuttle ride away. The M is one of the newer resorts in Las Vegas and the accommodations were top notch. The resort featured a large pool, where the networking parties were held, and the usual assortment of bars and restaurants within the casino.

The only (minor) complaint was the spotty Internet service within the rooms. A conference of tech geeks with a minimum of 3 devices each brought the house Internet to its knees. Forget trying to check email at 6am, you were better off waiting until you got to the show floor where the conference had their own network.

The Food
You never go hungry at one of these conferences. I was impressed by the selection of mostly lighter fare with a wide selection (no trays of bland baked ziti here). Our vegetarian friends were satisfied.

The Parties
There was an opening night cocktail reception that took place at the smaller pool area featuring a DJ, dancing girls on platforms and of course plenty to eat and drink. Day 2 was the legendary Magento party at the main pool, featuring an old-school Vegas theme, complete with showgirls, fire-eaters, a band and a ‘Rat Pack’ tribute trio. Both parties were excellent opportunities to network and reconnect.

Congratulations to the organizers for pulling off an amazing event. If you’re a Magento developer, partner or eCommerce web shop, we highly recommend this event. We can’t wait for Imagine 2013!

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Take Calls and Crack Skulls

Toughen up your iPhone with the Knucklecase.

Where Things Come From

A beautifully animated trailer for a fictional educational TV series by Hardy Seiler.

Would You Like Some Bacon on That? In Japan, the Sky’s the Limit

In Japan, Burger King is running special where you can order 15 extra pieces of bacon for $1.25. Well, this reporter feels you can never have enough bacon, so he tacks on additional 1,050 slices of bacon. Watch in horror as he tackles this bacon beast:

Best Dad Ever

Photographer Jason Lee takes crazy photos of his kids. Most of the photo ideas come from the kids themselves.

Make Better Decisions with the Pro/Con Journal

A tough decision requires some deliberation. List your ‘Pros’ and ‘Cons” and arrive to a decision with the Pro/Con Journal. $11.00 at Knock Knock

The Friday Five is curated and written by John Suder, SUMO Heavy’s Head of User Experience and Minister of Propaganda. If you’ve got a story idea or see something feature-worthy for the Friday Five, contact John at john@sumoheavy.com. 

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During yesterday’s morning keynote address at the imagine 2012 Conference, Magento made several product announcements:

Magento Community 1.7 and Enterprise 1.12 were announced The new releases include REST API, developer productivity, different base pricing for customer groups and more. Enterprise 1.12 also now includes multiple wish lists, segmentation including personalized coupons based on a visitor’s interaction with the site and Mobile (with HTML 5 capabilities)

Magento 2 will be available within the first half of 2013. The newest version will include moudlarity and a new drag-and-drop visual design editor.

Magnento mobile using HTML 5.

A quick demo of Magento 2's new drag-and-drop visual interface.

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The team is headed to Las Vegas this week for the Magento imagine eCommerce Worldwide Conference. This conference has been called “The Super Bowl of eCommerce” and we’re really looking forward to the keynotes, sessions, announcements, networking and yes, the parties.

The team will be landing late Monday afternoon. Are you coming too? If you’re at M Resort, come find us and share a beverage. We’ll even lay a few of our cool new stickers on you.

We’re still reachable by the usual channels, or you can contact our Project Manager Jessica Victor, who’s staying behind to hold down the fort.

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The Magic Cube Laser Keyboard

‘Angry Birds’ PANTONE Colors

Brazilian designer and illustrator Filipe Marcus created a series of Pantone color chips matching up the Angry Birds characters to the colors that suited them best.

Cats in Space

Eau De MacBook: Artists Create the Scent of Opening a New Apple Product

The sense of smell is very powerful and can trigger good feelings (or bad ones, like that night you thought Tequila was a great idea). How about that feeling when you opened the box to that shiny new gadget you’ve been coveting? Three Australian artists have captured that smell – the “aroma’ of glue, plastic, rubber and paper – and worked with fragrance design agency Air Aroma to bring you that fragrance as part of their upcoming ‘De Facto Standard‘ exhibition.
Apple fanboys should hold onto their wallets as the fragrance is not available to the public and no actual consumer product is planned.

USA On Your Face

Yes, these exist. Now you can wear the USA on your face (not valid in Hawaii, Alaska or territories). Only $208 at Amazon. Or, you could just take that 200 bucks and throw it into the street.

The Friday Five is curated and written by John Suder,
SUMO Heavy’s Head of User Experience and Minister of Propaganda.

If you’ve got a story idea or see something feature-worthy for the Friday Five, contact John at john@sumoheavy.com. 

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