Yes, today the web is abuzz with news of Facebook’s no-longer-so-stealth smear campaign against Google, but did you hear the news that social media networking’s manifest destiny is currently in the throes of conquering the frontiers of electronic smoking? Say what?
Blu is the maker of devices termed “electronic cigarettes.” They’re supposed to have the look and feel of standard cigarettes but, as Blu’s site states, do “not burn or use tobacco,” produce any ash or smoke, and do well without the “smell associated with traditional tobacco cigarettes.” The gadgets do, however, provide some vaporized nicotine.
In a wireless-communicatory twist, it’s no longer necessary to signal your smoking presence to other smokers in the perimeter through tobacco’s aroma and perceptible cloud — no, it’s now possible to set the e-cigarette carriers of others alight and vibrating if they enter a 50 ft radius of your own pack. How’s that for expanding one’s social graph?
Furthermore — and distinctly evincing someone’s business savoir faire — the e-cig packs also vibrate when an electronic smoker approaches a store selling Blu cigarettes. The technology makes use of radio waves to connect e-smokers when they’re physically near each other and are programmable for the electronic sharing of the smokers’ contact information, like links to personal online pages. Blu has plans for delving deeper into the sharing aspect of its product through mobile apps, much like Color, which is used for the sharing of mobile phone photos among the app’s users when in close proximity of one another.
Read More:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/11/technology/11smoke.html?_r=1&ref=technology
http://money.cnn.com/2011/05/12/technology/facebook_google/index.htm?hpt=T2