Square Up with Square

Today's innovation news comes to us from the world of secure & mobile phone payments. Introducing SQUARE, the latest brainchild from Twitter founder Jack Dorsey (@jack).

The device - which is no bigger than a half dollar and plugs into the headphone jack of any smartphone - is a mini credit card swiping machine. Once a card is swiped, information (including a snapshot of the card holder, for security purposes) is sent and displayed on the phone. Payment can then be processed, and receipts send to shoppers via text.

It's a lot like PayPal, except it allows anyone to take a physical credit card charge. A much simpler and cheaper alternative to what's out there now, this is sure to be a huge boost for artists and smaller vendors. For example, I went to a couple of Phish shows over the holiday break, and I love the idea of someday (soon) using a credit card to buy a grilled cheese in the lot!

(via TechCrunch)

The Four Tempations of an Innovator

Great article on the Four Tempations of the Innovator from the Idea Hub section of American Express's website. Home Run syndrome, Bells & Whistles-itis, over-complication and the dangers of incentivizing...a well-articulated write up of some of innovation's most notable adversaries.

(via Open Forum)

New Legos Inspired by Arts & Crafts

With a little help from Japanese home goods company Muji, Lego is introducing an innovative new line of craft-inspired toys. Sets include some bricks pieces from Lego and some colored paper sheets and stencils from Muji. A special hole punch then lets fit your pieces together and build.

Looking to the world of arts and crafts for inspiration seems like a "back-to-basics" move by Lego, and is an example of companies extending themselves backwards to capitalize on the world of products they first leveraged. I think these basketball hoops and pitching machines from EA Sports fall into the same category.

(via PSFK)

Finally Going Back for the Whisky

A New Zealand historical society just announced plans to retrieve two cases of whisky from the ice near the South Pole. The bottles were left behind by Ernest Shackleton, an Irish explorer, on a failed expedition to the Pole almost 100 years ago.

Hoping some go to a museum, and the rest to the auction block. A must have for the whisky drinker on your shopping list this holiday season!

Baby Crying? There's an App for that

Wondering why your baby is crying? Check out the Cry Translator, an innovative new piece of software from Biloop Technologies slated to hit the App store next week. It analyzes the pitch, volume, and tone of your babies howl, and “translates” it's findings into one of five categories: hungry, sleepy, stressed, annoyed or bored.

On a grand scale, this strikes me as a baby step (pun intended) towards the development of point of care healthcare diagnostics. On a smaller scale, echoing what the Wired folks said a bit, this really reminds me of the "Brother, Can You Spare Two Dimes" episode of the Simpsons, where Homer's brother Hank develops and makes a bundle off an invention that translates baby-babbly. Either way pretty cool...

[via Wired's GadgetLab]

Denim Means Business

The Prez! Throwing his fast ball...in jeans! But not just him; what about Steve Jobs and his classic jeans-with-no-belt look? In what has to be the most innovative repackaging, repositioning, re-whatever-you-want-to-call it, jeans are back in a whole new way, now the most integral part of the trendiest "power" look in business class.

Check out this story about Power Jeans from the Wall Street Journal.

Stephen King Scavenger Hunt

UK publisher Hodder & Stoughton has schemed an innovative way to release Stephen King's upcoming book, Under the Dome. They've broken the horror novelists new tome into 5,000 snippets, and scattered the pieces across the UK and hundreds of websites (the most recent discovery was made on GQ.com). The person who finds the most wins a grand prize – obviously – but for King's rabid fan base, the chance to read new stuff, no matter how little, prior to the book's release date is a prize in and of itself.