Today at DEMO, a startup company MooBella announced its on-demand Linux-based ice cream vending machine. You can select among 12 different flavors and 3 kinds of mix-ins per machine. First field tests will be in Chicago this year, and the company is fundraising for deployment.

Another food product vending company on my radar is Wonder Pizza, which controls the U.S. rights for an Italian manufactured pizza vending machine. There are three different types of pizzas per machine, the pizza takes an average of two minutes to cook via a toaster oven (no microwave), and suggested retail is $5-6 per pizza.

In honor of the Super Bowl, I thought it appropriate to profile some innovative drinking products and accessories. Beerbelly.com has developed an innovative container for beer or drinks: a rubber bladder that straps to your body and appears to be a beer belly under your shirt. Retail: $34.95

Cold Pole manufactures a ski pole flask, an innovative vehicle for economical, chilled alcohol delivery, while skiing, or sitting on the deck of the ski lodge. Retail: $74.95 plus S & H [via Gizmodo]

Innovative packaging is a very powerful way for alcohol brands to distinguish themselves in a crowded space. Bong Vodka, a premium Vodka from Holland, is the latest trendy entrant in the Vodka space. [thanks, Josh Spear]

Another clever new Vodka product is a flavored Vodka gel packaged in a transparent toothpaste tube. “Go Wodka Extreme” is currently just sold in Germany and Austria. I can see this being the rage in clubs from Ibiza to Shanghai. [thanks, cool business ideas]

Renowned Hollywood special effects developer Woody Lawhon today announced the launch of Moving Mannequins, a company that creates affordable, realistic mannequins for the retail industry. The extremely lifelike mannequins, which have realistic details such as skin texture and pigmentation and even eyes, also have robotic movement to emulate a real person. The company hopes to revolutionize the static mannequin industry, and assist retail organizations generate attention and excitement for their store windows and apparel displays. In the future, the company also plans to offer retail organizations the opportunity to create exact replicas of fashion models utilized in advertising.

[via PR Newswire]

It’s old news that mobile phones have moved beyond a device that simply allows people to talk: Text messaging, mobile Internet, games, and streaming entertainment are booming, and the possibilities for other innovative mobile applications are only limited by our imagination, because the technology is developing so quickly. Imagine, for example, a cell phone that accepts biometric data transmitted from a secure database, which can be used to verify identity and allow secure, safe payment options, or gives you a fast pass to skip long security lines at the airport. Or, imagine a mobile application that can prompt you with the names and backgrounds and locations of people in a meeting room, or a conference hall.

Some startup companies developing innovative mobile applications include:

Car Harbor, a startup company still in development, is going to solve a very common problem of finding a parking space in a crowded city:

If you have a parking spot that you know you don’t need (like a driveway, during the working hours when you know you will be away from home), you can enter it into the network along with a price. People looking for a spot in a neighborhood can use their mobile phones to find local spots, and pay straight for it from their account.

Car Harbor will launch first in San Francisco, and then roll out to other cities. Craig Newmark (founder of Craigslist) is an advisor to the company. [Thanks, Mike Arrington]

World Tracker, a UK based company, can track the location of any GSM mobile phone with accuracy between 50 and 500 meters. Simply enter in the number you want to track and mobile location will appear in a Google Maps-based interface. Privacy advocates may not be appeased by the fact the first time the mobile user has to respond to a text message to activate tracking, because there is an easy and obvious enough workaround, if you want to track somebody without their knowledge. The company has plans to expand to markets beyond the UK, including the US. [Thanks, Engadget]

BillMonk is another company with a clever mobile application. When you go out to dinner with friends and they each owe you $20, and you need to keep track of who owes who what over time, Billmonk can help you do it from your mobile phone. Text 60×3 to Billmonk and it’ll automatically create an entry that says your friends owe you $20 each. [Thanks, Scobleizer]

Another innovative application for cell phones is mobile dating, which has been popular for years in Japan, and starting to gain traction in the United States.

Match.com and other dating sites have an option for you to view profiles, and send text messages via a mobile phone, but Small Planet takes mobile dating to new heights. The company has developed a way for its compatible users to be alerted when they are within range of each other.

“You could have Bluetooth running and then when you walk into a bar, it’s automatically sensing and using the program and serving up pictures and profiles, and if someone meets your criteria, they can meet you.” said Hunter Heaney, chief executive officer of SmallPlanet. “It’s about getting past that point of pain of going up to talk to someone at a bar.” [Thanks, SF Gate]