Photos by kind permission of Matt Jacobs, Capn Design.

The hottest new eatery in New York won't get rave reviews for fine service provided by its waiters. It doesn't have any. Nor does Bamn! have tables, cashiers or any of the other basic amenities diners have come to expect.

Instead, Bamn is a throwback to the first half of the 20th century -- it's an automat diner. Windowed compartments display hot, fresh food. Customers throw in a few coins and are rewarded with instant gratification. Bamn's menu focuses on fast comfort food: hot dogs, grilled cheese, chicken strips, mac & cheese, etc.

So-called 'waiterless restaurants' were first brought to the United States from Berlin in 1900, and Horn & Hardart Automats was once the largest chain of restaurants in the world. The last automat closed in 1991. Repeating history, Bamn's founders came up with the idea of reviving the automat after visiting Amsterdam two years ago. (Fast foodies in The Netherlands never gave up on automats -- the Febo chain is a mainstay of Dutch food culture.) Convinced that the "satisfaction is automatic" approach would once again be a hit with New Yorkers, Bamn imported automats from Holland, and set up shop at 37 St. Mark's Place. Most items are less than USD 2.50, and the retro-futurist snack shack is open 24 hours a day.

trendwatching.com reported on dormandise ("dormant products, brands, logos, campaigns and spokespersons that still reside in the collective consumer conscience, even though the actual merchandise has long ceased to exist") a while back. Shall we baptise this concept dormandining? ;-) Hungry, hurried customers in most cities are likely to welcome another option for cheap and super-fast food, especially if it's available 24/7. So there's no reason why shiny new automats can't be a (recycled) hit across the world.

Website: http://www.bamnfood.com
Contact: david@bamnfood.com

Like My Postbank Cards, which we wrote about last year, Garanti Bank's Flexi Cards allow customers to personalize the look of their bank cards. But Garanti takes the concept a bit further: customers can develop their own banking product.

Flexi Cards are Visa cards that let the cardholder make a few key decisions, allowing them to set over ten parameters. When applying for a card, customers can manipulate variables like reward rates and types, interest rate and card fee. The rewards system is especially flexible, not only letting customers determine reward ratio and type (cash or points), but also enabling them to choose which payments will earn them extra rewards: whether it's broad categories like restaurants, or specific stores like Zara.

Interest rate, bonus rate and card fees are selected by sliding bars that render various combinations of rates and fees. Card fees, for example, can be pushed back to zero by committing to a monthly spending minimum. A lower interest rate leads to a lower bonus rate, etc. Lastly, after making serious decisions about financial terms, customers can design their own card, choosing from different colors and a gallery of images, or uploading their own image. There's even the option of picking a vertical card, which is a world's first for Visa.

Opportunities? While customers appreciate being in control and creating a tailor-made card, inside and out, the bank is able to test various value propositions, gaining valuable insights into which customer segments choose which options. Self-segmentation through ultra-personalization. ;-)

Website: http://www.flexicard.com.tr

In March, we wrote about Ether, a service that lets users charge callers by the minute. A similar service is offered by JyvePro, which works with Skype. Writers, tutors, web designers, consultants, lawyers, therapists and anyone else with something to say and sell, can download the JyvePro plug-in (an add-on piece of software). This connects a payment system to the user's Skype account, and works like a taxi meter, tracking minutes talked, and invoicing customers once a conversation is over. Calls can be five minutes or two hours -- the systems bills to the minute.

For its automated billing system, JyvePro uses a digital payment service called Click&Buy, which also processes payments for online merchants like Habbo Hotel, iVillage, and the European version of Apple's iTunes.

Since calls run through Skype, customers and consultants can be based anywhere in the world, turning minipreneurs into global businesses. Customers have access to help/employees on demand, and consultants are able to tap into a worldwide client base, selling their time when it suits them. According to Skype, which celebrated its third birthday yesterday, 7 million people were on Skype yesterday morning, breaking all previous records. 7 million buyers and sellers ready to be connected, giving everyone access to the global brain.

Website: http://www.jyvepro.com
Contact: bizdev@jyve.com

Eons is a new, full-fledged social network and information portal for baby boomers, encouraging them to celebrate life, get things done, learn and connect with other people over the age of 50. The company was founded by Jeff Taylor, who also created Monster.com.

Divided into seven categories -- Fun, Love, Money, Body, Goals, Obits and LifeMap -- the website is highly focused on being active and realizing dreams. The goals section, for example, lets members publish the top 10 goals they'd like to accomplish before they turn 100, much like 43things. So far, 50,000 goals have been posted by over 7,000 people, including celebrity 50-plussers like Jane Seymour.

A somewhat less cheery note is struck in the obits section. Members can subscribe to obituary alerts, search a database of over 77 million obits and also add tributes, memory journals and photos to obituaries. (Free for now, but an annual charge will be implemented in the future.) Another feature is a proprietary search function: cRANKy, which is touted as the world's first age relevant search engine. Instead of serving up millions of search results, cRANKy limits results to the highest ranking handful, as well as results that have been hand-picked by editorial staff and members. Top searches give some insight into the website's audience; at time of writing, the top 10 included 'rv lifestyle', 'firearms', 'jobs after retirement', 'gardening' and 'sudoku'.

Social aspects include groups that members can create and join, formed around shared interests ranging from 'Metaphysics' and 'Stocks or real estate?' to 'Boomer Bikers' and 'Pilates Pals'. Members who'd like to share their stories can either create a personal Life Map, or set up an Eons blog.

Opportunities? Boomers everywhere are interested in connecting with members of their own generation and finding information that's relevant to their stage in life. And advertisers are jumping at the opportunity to target a (mostly) cash and time rich audience. Setting up local versions of Eons, combining popular features from across the social web and giving them an age-related makeover, is a sure winner.

Website: http://www.eons.com
Contact: http://www.eons.com/about/contact

Continuing what's becoming a Springwise theme, another brand has popped up in the virtual realm of Second Life. This time it's Telus, Canada's second largest telco, who opened a store in the sim of Shinda last week. Telus is both the first major Canadian corporation, and the first major telecommunications company to enter SL. Unlike Aloft Hotel and American Apparel's store, which are both located on privately owned islands, Telus set up shop in a downtown area on SL's mainland (visit location).

According to 3pointD, the telco's foray into Second Life was initiated by a Telus advertising manager. Sparkle Dale, as she's known in Second Life, has a personal passion for gaming and metaverses and saw an opportunity to extend her employer's brand into a new realm.

The store was designed along the lines of flagship stores in Toronto and Montreal and features phones that are modelled and named after actual Samsung and Motorola models. While integration with Skype, other voice over IP systems and real life mobile phones would of course be an exciting way to merge virtual and real worlds, Telus's SL phones currently only let users shoot off busy messages to other citizens. The phones are on sale for a few hundred Linden Dollars, which is the equivalent of a few US dollars.

Website: http://www.telus.ca and http://secondlife.com