We've already written about premium and female-friendly auto shops and dealers, and now a San Francisco-based company has created an upscale, hybrid-focused garage with a thoroughly green approach.

Founded last year, Luscious Garage is situated in a historic warehouse on San Francisco's Clementina Street, complete with original brick frontage, a cozy mezzanine with arched windows, and a clean workshop filled with natural light. Specializing in hybrid vehicle technology, the woman-owned garage features an open workshop where customers are encouraged to look around while their cars undergo maintenance or repairs; there are books to read, art on the walls and a developmentally appropriate children's play area mingled into the space, which also features plants and carefully purified air. Luscious Garage uses no service advisors; rather, customers communicate directly with the technicians who work on their cars. Pricing is clearly spelled out on the garage's website, and just as hybrid vehicles are designed to be green, so the shop itself strives to be sustainable. Using San Francisco's Clean and Green Certification as a baseline, Luscious Garage aims to follow a strict sustainability plan based on The Natural Step. All administration is done online to eliminate paper and toner, while other office products come from a green supplier. Shop tools are electric, appliances are energy-efficient and furniture is second hand. Recycling is continuous, and zero waste is the shop's goal. A variety of green-focused community events are also hosted at the garage.

Luscious Garage is only open four days a week—a testament to the rewards and flexibility that follow when you are green with an appreciative clientèle. A model to follow in wealthy urban settings around the globe!

Website: www.lusciousgarage.com
Contact: www.lusciousgarage.com/index.php/home/contact

Spotted by: Frank Marquardt

Travellers who need internet access on the road typically have two choices: either limit their use to the confines of hotel or café wifi—which can be pricey—or subscribe to long-term and expensive broadband data card services. New York-based RovAir now offers a third option with its day-pass wireless mobile broadband service.

Founded last fall, RovAir provides wireless mobile broadband aircards, data cards and evdo cards for internet access without an extended contract. To do that, the company itself maintains the necessary long-term subscriptions for data services with Verizon, Sprint and AT&T. It then offers those services in a day-pass format for those who need short-term but continuous access on the road. Coverage extends anywhere the provider's cellular range goes, which can be searched on RovAir's site. RovAir will ship the data card to the consumer express or by courier, and also provide return packaging. Costs depend on the number of days of use, beginning at USD 5.95 per day. There is a three-day minimum.

Until wireless access is universally available and universally free, there will clearly be demand for a variety of plans like RovAir's. More choice is always a good thing—who will bring it to mobile warriors in the rest of the world?

Website: www.rovair.com
Contact: sales@rovair.com

Spotted by: Bjarke Svendsen

The Retriever is a two-wheeled towing vehicle based on a Honda Goldwing motorcycle that can worm its way through city gridlock and congested highways like no four-wheeled towing vehicle could ever dream of. The Retriever is the ingenious invention of the aptly named Swedish firm Coming Through. According to the company, it takes a little over a minute to convert from a nimble motorcycle to a towing device powerful enough to haul most passenger cars. The Retriever’s driver simply extracts a folded bracket stored behind the motorcycle’s high back seat and then hitches the car’s front end to the bracket.

As a business venture, a towing service based on the Retriever could take a little more time to set up, however. Throughout the world, towing firms compete under various schemes for the right to rescue cars stalled on public roads. Police are often the authorities who order a tow truck on the scene, and they would need to be sold on the Retriever’s ability to handle the job. And some accident-damaged cars might require a heftier vehicle to haul them away. That said, the Retriever’s ability to rescue a vehicle and quickly unsnarl traffic could make it a hit. So the real opportunity might be for distributors who could sell Retrievers either to private companies or public road authorities. (Related: Motorcycle taxis rescue stranded business travellers.)

Website: www.comingthrough.se
Contact: info@comingthrough.se

Spotted by: Lilia Parra Ledesma

Earlier this year we wrote about Walkit, an advanced route planner for UK pedestrians, and now Simpatigo has launched a similar service in the US that adds a wealth of information about local attractions.

Simpatigo creates personalized tour guides complete with directions and markers for attractions along the way. Users select beginning and ending points for the trip they'd like to take, along with which categories of attractions they're interested in—historical, budget, kid-oriented or restaurants, for example. Simpatigo then returns map-based driving or walking instructions along with descriptions of the relevant points of interest along the route. Not only can users search for and get travel routes, but—in Wikitravel fashion—they can also input local attractions of their own, which then get added to those Simpatigo includes on its routes. So, a user seeking to get directions from point A to point B in San Francisco, for example, will see not just a standard list of mainstream attractions described by sources like the New York Times and TripAdvisor.com, but also others that have been input and described by users.

Simpatigo is still rough around the edges, with attractions listed mostly just for select, well-populated areas in the United States, but its premise is a good one, promising to give users focused, relevant information along with a way to shape what others see. As the site gains traction, advertisers and local businesses will surely be clamouring to add their own locations as points of interest. After all, the restaurateur who skips an opportunity to reach users who have specifically said they're interested in local restaurants may not be a restaurateur for long...! ;-)

Website: www.simpatigo.com
Contact: ted@simpatigo.com

We've already written about a number of efforts to crowdfund and crowdmanage music bands, and now in Scotland a crowdmanaged music festival is in the works that was prefunded by a local brand.

Last week Tennent's Lager launched Tennent's Mutual, a new music venture that will ultimately result in a live music festival this fall in which fans select artists, debate locations for gigs and call the shots on ticket prices. To kick off the effort, Tennent's created a start-up fund of GBP 150,000. Fans who sign up before June 30th will be given founder member status and the right to vote on the "who, what, why, where?" of all decisions as to how that start-up money is invested. Counsel will be provided by the Rolling Stones' Andrew Loog Oldham, Babyshambles' Drew McConnell, journalist and broadcaster Keith Cameron, former Scots chart-topper Ken McCluskey and local musicians Stewart Henderson of Chemikal Underground and Johnny Lynch of The Fence Collective. Tennent’s Mutual is a not-for-profit enterprise, and no booking fees will be charged for shows. Ticket income, meanwhile, will be ploughed back into the central fund, creating a self-generating amount that will grow and continue to create yet more live events.

Chemikal Underground's Stewart Henderson puts it nicely: “Generally speaking music has gone digital and you can't put the genie back in the bottle. This is a total watershed time that we're living in at the moment. It will change things completely—irreversibly. What Tennent’s has done is they’ve effectively set themselves up as patrons. It’s a positive thing as it allows things to happen that may not have otherwise.”

As fans and customers claim increasing control in the music industry and beyond, it's a smart brand that will jump to the forefront with funds and a supporting model. Imagine the transformation in Microsoft's image if it ponied up the funds and let users decide how they were spent! It's just a matter of time before this comes to other countries and other industries; who else will stand up and be an early leader?

Website: www.tennentsmutual.com
Contact: www.tennentsmutual.com/contact

Spotted by: Lyuba Stevasarova