The lure of Apple's iPhone notwithstanding, most cell phones today are essentially variations on the same theme. Not so modu, a tiny, modular phone that is designed to be snapped into other devices.

Resembling a black and white domino, the modu is smaller than a credit card and weighs just 1.3 ounces. It can be used on its own as a fully functional mobile phone, or it can be snapped into a variety of interchangeable ‘sleeves’ that enhance the phone with other capabilities. By slipping a modu into the modu media mate, for example, users can download and share movie clips with their friends. Inserting it in the modu music slider, on the other hand, transforms it into a high-end music phone equipped with dedicated music functionality keys, high-quality loudspeaker and hidden camera. modu night mate lets users dock their phone next to their bed while it quietly displays their incoming SMS messages and calls. Through a partnership with Universal Music Group, a series of music jackets will include artist-specific attributes and access to preloaded content and music subscriptions. modu features 1GB of built-in memory and Bluetooth connectivity, and can also be used as a mass storage device. The first modu products are due in the fourth quarter of this year; prices, reportedly, will be USD 200 for the phone module bundled with two jackets, with additional jackets priced from USD 20 to USD 60 each.

Israeli modu was founded in 2007 by Dov Moran, founder and CEO of USB flash drive maker msystems, and the modu device was unveiled earlier this month. Strategic partners include leading mobile network operators including Telecom Italia’s mobile division TIM, BeeLine (VimpelCom) of Russia and Israel's Cellcom along with mainstream consumer electronics manufacturers including Blaupunkt, the company says. Opportunities include degrees of customization that were previously unthinkable. For anyone in wireless or consumer electronics, this is one to watch closely! (Related: Build your own mobile phone.)

Website: www.modumobile.com

Spotted by: Bjarke Svendsen

We've already written about nap pods in New York City and airport Yotels, both of which provide a quick bit of rest for the weary. Picking up on the airport theme, Nemorelax is now rolling out cocoon-like rest modules to give airport travellers a way to decompress.

Whereas Yotel's pod-like rooms are booked in increments of at least four hours, Nemorelax pods can be reserved for as little as 30 minutes. Dubbed an "oasis of calm," each pod features a Stressless recliner chair from Norwegian furniture maker Ekornes encircled by a cocoon of sound-isolating materials. In addition to sleeping or making private phone calls, travellers can watch a movie on the pod's touchscreen monitor, listen to music on the sound-on-demand system or get some work done on the fold-away work table. Each Nemorelaxer offers free wifi connectivity, and loaner laptops are available at no extra charge. Nemorelaxers will be set up in suites of 6 or more in central airport locations with an on-site, staffed desk. Wake-up services will also be available.

Netherlands-based Nemorelax is currently talking with international airport and transit authorities, and its first Nemorelax Suite in Europe will open soon. It's a sleep-deprived world out there—no shortage of opportunity for this one across the globe.

Website: www.nemorelax.com
Contact: mva@nemorelax.com

Spotted by: Bjarke Svendsen

Back in September we covered examples on both sides of the Atlantic of social carpool matching sites that link drivers with passengers. PickupPal, which just launched last month, is now offering a like service on a global basis.

Like Zimride, GoLoco and isanyonegoingto, PickupPal also uses a social networking component to ease consumers' fears about sharing a car with a stranger. When users join the site, they create a profile with information including their picture and an "about me" description; over time, that information gets supplemented with ratings from those they have travelled with on trips through the site. Users planning to make a drive can tell PickupPal to see if any passengers (or packages) need to go there too; conversely, they can also request a ride to a particular place. PickupPal informs drivers about potential pick-ups, allowing them to make an offer for the trip based on how much they want to charge and the passenger's feedback ratings from previous trips they have made. Passengers, meanwhile, can choose from among the drivers that have made offers based on prices and their ratings on the site. Once a match is made, PickupPal issues a "ticket to ride" to both parties with all the necessary information. At the end of the ride, the passenger pays the driver, who pays a 7 percent commission to PickupPal. Both sides are also asked to rate the other for incorporation into their profiles.

PickupPal uses a GIS-based software application that sorts and matches rides anywhere around the world. Currently the Barbados-based site is available only in English, but it has already begun working on translations into French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian and Dutch, it says. And a good thing, too: with gas prices and carbon footprints the focus of increasing global concern, demand for services that help consumers use cars more wisely will continue to be on the rise.

Website: www.pickuppal.com
Contact: john@pickuppal.com

Spotted by: Sarah Vogel

When Charles Dickens was writing his serialized novels, crowds used to gather at the docks in New York whenever a new chapter was due to arrive by boat. Today, Random House, the world’s largest publisher, has brought the practice back in electronic form, starting with the business communications bestseller ‘Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die.’ Each chapter of the book, which had a hardcover print run of more than 200,000 copies, costs USD 2.99 and can be downloaded as an Adobe Digital Editions file, a format that is itself readable via a free download from Adobe.

Random House, a US subsidiary of German media giant Bertelsmann, explained that the chapter-by-chapter sale was intended for those who only need to glean one or two lessons from a book. The Wall Street Journal noted that the experiment follows the music industry’s success selling songs individually, and that it’s an attempt by the company to discover how modern consumers might want to receive publishing information, particularly at a time when cell phones, PDAs and other digital devices such as Amazon’s Kindle make it easier for them to read electronic documents anywhere and everywhere.

Other publishers have launched similar experiments with downloadable chapters. In January, for example, Springwise looked at DailyLit, which makes classic texts available free via email and RSS, and modern texts at prices roughly in line with those of paperbacks. Indeed, that relatively low-tech approach could be easily emulated by book-publishing entrepreneurs. Choosing the right content will be key, of course. And while the chapter-by-chapter niche might seem best suited to business books, irresistible fictional stories or tales or real-life scandal and intrigue might also become piecemeal best sellers of the future, bringing together crowds of readers, just as Dickens once did on those New York City docks.

Website: www.randomhouse.com/madetostick
Contact: www.randomhouse.com/about/contact.html

Spotted by: Murtaza Ali Patel

We've covered examples of design-your-own sites that let consumers create their own duvets and dresses. Recently, one of our spotters uncovered Peter Hutchinson Designs (PHD), which is bringing the concept to sleeping bags.

UK-based PHD's standard sleeping bags already let customers choose the length, outer fabric and zipper configuration on the bag they order. Its Design Your Own Sleeping Bags system, however, offers choices in 17 different areas of the bag's design. To start, the site provides two "routes" to designing a bag, depending on the user's experience. The "guided" route for novices asks users to begin by specifying the minimum temperature their bag must withstand, and prompts them for choices from there. The "free" route, on the other hand, lets experienced buyers navigate through the many options themselves. Some of the choices to make are relatively simple, such as adding a bivvy cowl for extra protection in exposed conditions. Others are more complex, such as specifying not just the quality of the down that goes in a bag—700 or 800 fill power—but also the amount, ranging from as little as 200 grams to as much as 1300 grams. Customers can even specify how the down should be distributed within the bag—more at the foot end for those with cold feet, for example. Prices for PHD's custom sleeping bags begin at GBP 124, with updates to that cost shown automatically as each feature choice is made.

As we've said before, there seems to be no limit on consumers' appetite for customization. Same goes for opportunities to provide it—from dresses, duvets and sleeping bags to infinity and beyond!

Website: www.phdesigns.co.uk/customsleepingbags.php
Contact: office@phdesigns.co.uk

Spotted by: Bill McMahon