Tempra Technology has developed proprietary technology for a self-refrigerating can, which lowers the temperature of a can by a minimum of 30 degrees in just three minutes via an environmentally safe process. When activated, the all natural desiccant contained within a vacuum draws the heat from the beverage through the evaporator into an insulated heat-sink container, and it’s this patented vacuum-power, which lowers the temperature so dramatically and quickly. The company is commercializing the technology and Miller Beer will be introducing Tempra cans by mid-2007. There will be, of course, a price premium, but it’s an incredibly great product offering for camping or fishing, for example.

[thanks, Ilya Vedrashko]

Ad agency Saatchi & Saatchi is responsible for this Folgers campaign: Ads placed over manhole covers in New York. I really like the creativity of it, but don’t the ads sort of suggest that Folgers coffee tastes like sewage?

[thanks, Mike Elgan]

Massachusetts-based IPIFINI has developed an innovative, choice-enabled bottle, which contains flavor or other additive buttons, so consumers can select various flavors. For example, a programmable cola bottle with buttons for lemon, lime, vanilla, and cherry flavors as well as a caffeine button allows for 32 combinations of soda. A PDF overview is available here.

[via Gizmodo]

Inspired by outdoor cafe tables, which often wobble or are sloped due to uneven ground, the patent-pending FLAT (Fluid Locking & Adjustment Technologies) system has a number of potential applications, including helicopter landing gear, ladders, industrial crane bases, and mortar launchers for the military. An interconnected series of hydraulic actuators provide horizontal support on uneven surfaces and then locks to provide stability at the chosen level or angle the user requires. Demonstration videos are available here.

FLAT is seeking a partner to commercially develop the technology.

[thanks, gizmag]

Three enterprising Stanford seniors have started an In-N-Out delivery service for Stanford University called Chompz. When I was at USC, we would drive all the way to Westwood for In-N-Out, because it’s so damn good, and Stanford students have a similar problem, given the nearest In-N-Out location is in Mountain View. Chompz wraps the burgers in foil, and transports them in a mobile oven, in order to keep the food as hot and fresh as possible. Delivery charge: only 99 cents!

A new soda called Turn On is an energy drink and aphrodisiac. It contains conventional energy drink ingredients, including guarana, ginseng and caffeine, in addition to erotic herbs. Turn On is available online and will soon be available in stores.

Also, Java Sutra publicly launched this week, a Portland, Oregon based company that has developed a coffee blend infused with Puruvian Maca. Cultivated in Peru for more than 6,000 years, Maca was first used in Incan fertility rituals and given to warriors for strength before battle. Recent clinical studies in Europe and South America support Maca’s claim to have a positive effect on sexual desire, according the Company.

Java Sutra also has social conscience bent, and donates 25 percent of its net profits to charities that aid communities in self-sufficiency.

A two-week supply of Java Sutra is $15.95 with free express shipping via their website.

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]

The famous Hard Rock, and Planet Hollywood themed restaurants have perhaps lost their luster, but several innovative concepts are energizing the restaurant and bar businesses. Ice Bars (not a new concept, but so cool, I wanted to post), for example, which are maintained at a negative 5 degrees Celsius year-round, are a popular escape from the mundane. Everything inside is made of ice, including the stools, glasses, and tables! Upon entering, patrons are given a super warm, insulated jacket, which not only serves to keep you warm, but also to ensure that the ice furnishings don’t melt via body heat. The original Ice Bar, which opened five years ago, is located in Stockholm, Sweden, and is a venture of Absolut Vodka. Ice themed bars are also located in Milan, London and Aukland.

The world’s first underwater restaurant, Ithaa, which means ”pearl” in Maldivian, is located at the Hilton Maldives Resort. The restaurant cost $5 million to build, seats just 14 people, and is surrounded by a coral reef. The cuisine is Maldivian-Western. [Thanks, Josh Spear]

In Vegas, a town notorious for over-the-top themes, the Wynn Las Vegas nightclub, Tryst, opened on New Year’s Eve. The Club features a 90 foot waterfall that cascades into a lagoon. (If anybody has been there and has a picture, please email it to me, so I can post. Thanks!)

I think there’s a big opportunity for bars that feel like a tropical resort inside, especially in cold climates, during the winter, though I would go year-round. There would be realistic looking, plastic palm trees, colored Christmas lights (they’re festive anytime of the year), lounge chairs, thatch roof cabanas, a painted beach and ocean scene on the walls, a bright, blue sky ceiling, a golf driving range video game like they have on cruise ships, waitresses serving drinks in sassy bikinis, incredible Mai Tais and Margaritas, an occasional steel drum band, and lots of Jimmy Buffett!

Nolan Bushnell (the visionary founder of Atari and Chuck E Cheese) is developing a new restaurant concept. The uWink Media Bistros will offer touch screen ordering via uWink Media Consuls, and while you wait for the food to be delivered, you can play proprietary uWink games. The first restaurant will be opened in Los Angeles within a few months, and Nolan hopes to have rapid growth via company owned restaurants and franchising. A former CPK and Koo Koo Roo executive, John Kaufman, is Director of Restaurant Operations.

If you believe in the concept, the timing is ripe to buy uWink stock which is currently trading around .36 cents. I think people want to eat and talk with friends and family at restaurants, and not play computer games, but I definitely would not short the stock and bet against Nolan. And, I think the concept would be a hit in Asia.

Not only is Nolan truly a visionary, he is an incredibly generous person. In 2002, when I launched an online game company, playENGINE>, I called him (with no introduction) to request a meeting, and he spent two hours with me.

(Touch screens for ordering at fast food restaurants seems to make a lot of sense, by the way. McDonald’s has piloted the concept in several restaurants.)

[Update: uWink has chosen the location for the first Media Bistro: Westfield Promenade in Woodland Hills, and will open in summer 2006.]