Car drivers have been protected from crashes for a few decades now.
It's standard equipment even on entry level models.
Do two wheeler riders have an option?
Especially when on-vehicle deployment is dangerous?
A French company has come up with an ingenious solution.
An air bag built into the rider's vest
It works for motorcycle riders, horse riders and skiers
And it is now mandated equipment on the GP moto racing circuit.
That's where the split second precision of deployment is critically tested
Race riders weave in an arc around bends on the circuit. They shift from side to side.
But when they lose control, there's a split second before they hit the ground
That's the precise time the air bag inflates the vest - before impact
The spine and upper body of the rider are cushioned to break the fall
The same thing happens to horse riders if they are thrown off.
The trickiest one would have been the engineering to protect skiers
There are points when the skiers are airborne and then land perfectly.
Figuring out the mechanics of a crash would have been insane
But they've made these high speed sports potentially a lot safer
Time to retire the smartphone 'slab?’
In 2007, it was a major breakthrough
In 2020, or 2021, every brand looks the same. Almost.
The big innovations over the past year or so have been foldable phones.
Doubling the size of the screen but unique design aspects were largely restricted to the hinges connecting the screens
A pivotal design broke a few days ago and came from an unexpected brand - Oppo
They commissioned the Japanese design company Nendo to rethink the smartphone
And Nendo has created an object every smartphone fanatic will lust after
It slides and glides along a central axis.
Starting off as a credit-card sized shifter. With a flick of the thumb, the phone can be extended partially to see the time, or messages.
Another thumb push reveals the full face of the phone for all normal functions - everything from typing out a note to taking calls.
Semi circular buttons on the side of the phone combine into circles to bring the phone back to its original state.
Words, however, don't do it justice.
It uses everything we've grown used to, from the thumb flick to the scroll to create a form completely different from what we see today.
Nendo has engineered an escape.
The beauty salon business gets a makeover
Small businesses used to be unique, have their own character
SAAS irons out the quirks - and hopefully that means more will survive
Beauty parlours became a 'thing' when India went through an economic boom in the 90s.
They sprung up in several neighborhoods all across the country.
But the only 'tech' they deployed was in equipment or the billing
Appointments were fixed on the telephone and practically every beauty parlour built a set of regulars over time.
The pandemic threw the whole situation into disarray.
And a company called Zenoti has just emerged as the new SAAS unicorn in the sector.
There are no overnight success stories even though it's always projected that way.
They have created a network, providing a range of 'no touch' solutions for spas, medspas, and beauty treatments, integrating billing and managing customers. In other words, an ERP for the beauty business.
The pandemic has forced beauty salons to upgrade their entire set of offerings.
And that means good business for companies like Zenoti operating across 50 countries.
'Global' in SAAS means operating from a few locations to service customers anywhere in the world.
Unlike the beauty business which needs to provide makeovers in person
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