We always wonder what happens to business cards after they’re distributed to countless new contacts at a trade show or other meet-up. The SwivelCard can actually help its original owner keep tabs on how it is being used, but it also boasts an impressive number of other abilities – like changing its content after being handed over to a new contact.

The SwivelCard is made entirely of paper and includes a USB stick – printed using a clever (and patented) method using metallic ink to create the metallic contact strips. Little perforations let you fold back part of the card so the USB contacts are exposed and ready to plug into your computer.

When you hand the SwivelCard to someone, you aren’t just sending your contact information out into the world. Each card links to a website you’ve chosen – typically it would be your business website or personal portfolio.

However, the SwivelCard also gives you the option to change the website associated with each individual card – even after you’ve handed the card to someone.

The SwivelCard also lets you track the usage of each card. The built-in analytics allow for real-time observation of how and when your info is being accessed. For people who are a little wary of sticking weird USB devices into their computers, the SwivelCard also comes with a QR code. A model enabled with NFC is also available.

For all of the high-tech charm that comes with the USB business card, it also includes traditional printed information on the surface. The SwivelCard’s Kickstarter campaign raised several times its funding goal, so maybe after the next trade show you attend you’ll walk away with a stack of dynamic USB business cards.

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In the digital age, the tactile joy of flipping through a stack of CDs or records has been replaced with the thoroughly unsatisfying actions of scrolling through files on a screen. Paris-based designer Ismail Salhi missed that feeling of physically choosing a record and putting it on the record player, so he dreamed up a new type of interaction with music and other files.

The system is called Qleek. It consists of a small cradle and lots of hexagonal discs called Tapps. Each Tapp is associated with a media file: music, videos, photos or podcasts. The small objects don’t actually store the files. They are more like placeholders than actual media storage devices.

The cradle is connected to your TV or speakers, and the Tapps bookmark your media files. When you place a Tapp in the cradle, the NFC-enabled system brings up the files you want on the device you choose.

Because the Tapps are so much like CDs or records, Salhi envisions people displaying their little wooden discs like art. It’s almost like a physical bookcase that holds digital media. The Tapps each display cover art, making them seem even more like objets d’art that also happen to be functional.

The post A Media System That Gives Physical Life to Digital Media first appeared on Gajitz.

In the field of electronic wallets, it looks like Coin has a competitor. Wocket, from NXT-ID, can store up to 10,000 cards, including credit cards and store loyalty cards. The Wocket is smaller than the average wallet and powered by a single coin cell battery. Users just swipe their credit cards into the device to record them in the Wocket’s memory. Cards that use barcodes instead of magnetic strips – like loyalty cards and voter registration cards – can be scanned in as well. When the user wants to make a purchase or use a card, they choose a stored card from the device’s touch screen. Biometric data and a PIN allow access to the payment data. If the retailer’s payment system is authenticated by Wocket, the two devices communicate to complete the payment. No internet connection is required.

But perhaps the most interesting feature of the Wocket is its programmable swipe card. At the point of sale, you can choose a payment option from your stored cards and program the included dynamic card to swipe in the retailer’s card reader. It holds only the exact amount of your purchase, and only until the purchase is complete. After that use, it goes back to a simple piece of plastic holding no personal or financial information. Unlike other similar digital payment systems, the Wocket doesn’t need to be paired with a smartphone or any other piece of technology – it’s fully self-contained. At the time of publication the retail price hasn’t yet been announced, but updates will be posted to Wocket’s website.

The post Wocket Digital Wallet Wants to Take Over Your Pocket first appeared on Gajitz.

Unless you’re in the minority of people who don’t care to post their whole lives online, you probably leave a lot of information about yourself and your typical daily routine out there in cyberspace. The Future Control project from designer Dor Tal is a set of smart objects that can predict what’s going to happen to (and around) you next.

The objects are to be paired with a smartphone and a proprietary app. The app looks at at the user’s social media networks to find info on the user as well as his or her interests and any groups, friends, organizations or events that might affect the user’s daily life. Allowing the app access to more of your information will, naturally, give it more ability to predict what will happen in the course of your day. Do you always stop off for a coffee at the same time every day? Based on your credit card information, the Future Control can predict that – but telling you something you already know isn’t that spectacular.

What’s really cool is what the Future Control does with the information. The objects – a smartwatch or tiny projector – scour information from your networks and contacts to predict how certain events will go. In the video above, the app analyzes texts between team members to predict that their presentation will not be ready on time so that you, the user, can reschedule the presentation.

The relevant information can be displayed on a wall if you’re at home or the office, and controlled with hand gestures. When you’re on the go, the wristwatch can project the necessary messages right onto your hand. This brilliant concept was part of Dor Tal’s graduation project as an exploration of humans’ age-old obsession with trying to predict the future.

The post Future Telling System Uses Online Data to Predict Your Day first appeared on Gajitz.