ThisNext Blog

Last Friday we celebrated Scott Morrow’s (President of ThisNext) birthday the only way we know how … with an obnoxious birthday cake. 

Yep, that’s Kim Kardashian.

I wish you all could have been here to wish Scott a Happy Birthday but I am sure he will be happy with a birthday recommendation instead.  Recommend Scott a present and tag it “Happy Birthday”

I know what you all are thinking, a day at the ThisNext office is like a walk through a shopping mall.  Well I got news for you buddy … we have meetings and stuff too just like any other office. Oh, except our meetings end with rides in sports cars.

This past Friday we had a meeting, which Jason Calacanis was a part of.  In the meeting one of my fabulous ideas was crowned “Best Idea of the Day” so I got a prize :) What was that prize you ask? No, not Christian Louboutin shoes (that would have been nice) instead I got the next best thing — a ride in the Tesla.

It was a fun ride.  Oh and when I say fun what I really mean is it’s fun to still be alive right now because I really thought I was gonna die for a minute there :)

 

 More pictures after the jump!

...continued: Ridin' Calacanis Style

You like us - you really do! In response to the “what’s in your purse” post I wrote last week, a ThisNext maven has shared the deepest darkest contents of her bag with all of us in the ThisNext community. So, prepare yourself to dive into a woman’s most sacred place - ok, maybe it’s second to her closet - and enjoy.

With all the attention given to video game launches these days, it’s no surprise that the bigger games get more attention.  We saw it with the launch of Halo 3, where everyone started foaming at the mouth… either to stand in line overnight and grab the first copies available, or to cherry pick stories to highlight how video games are corrupting our youth.  Either way it stands, we’re seeing the beginnings of an interactive cultural shift where video games are becoming more and more mainstream, more profitable, and more of a threat to standard entertainment.  You know you’ve hit a cultural moment when Mountain Dew creates a new flavor for their line called “game fuel”. 

 

Yesterday we launched our first ever community page on ThisNext!! Have you seen it? We here at ThisNext think it’s really spectacular. 

The new page let’s everyone know what is happening in the ThisNext community.  The community page shows off the hottest trends as chosen by our Mavens, showcases the Maven users and allows you to easily add them to your friends list. Check out the page and check it out often because the page will constantly have new information that you will want to know about like cool contests and events.

An Elvis cow is not a common thing to come across - as a matter of fact, it’s probably the last thing you expect to find … ever. Yet, here it is. What other iconic legend animal hybrids exist? Yes, the Beatles had some wonderfully trippy creations in Yellow Submarine but we all know how those were created ;) . What’s next - a Jimi Hendrix puma, an MC Hammer lemur? The list goes on and on. See if you can find some more hybrids to recommend.

Have you ever played that game?  It’s fun - especially with the humongous purses out nowadays.  Check out what’s in Miumina’s bag:

What was the oddest thing you ever found in your purse?

As a confirmed and confessed tech-geek, I am fascinated with the world of steampunk.  That fascination with creating something new and vaguely nostalgic from technology evokes a romanticism with the materials and electronics around me.  There are times I look at my iPhone and think, “the silver back is nice… I wonder what it would look like in distressed and stained oak?”.  Would it still work?  It’s the beauty and contradiction of technology and futurism combined with ancient alchemical and scientific notions of the natural elements. 

Here at ThisNext, I’ve rekindled my love of steampunk and I’ve found a community of other passionates who enjoy the form and function of the post-modern retro design.  I’m curious to find what inspires you and what other communities are created here when like-minded people start sharing.

Take a look at this list, Rise of the Retro Machines and many of the other amazing lists from ThisNext community members.

Full Steam Ahead

Steampunk

More Steampunk 

All of us here at ThisNext are excited to publicly announce our first Facebook app.  It’s very cool, it’s very useful and it’s a lot of fun!  It’s called “I Want”.  This app is all about giving you, our loyal fans a way to connect to your Facebook friends, tell them what you’re looking for and since they know you best, they can recommend exactly what you’re looking for. 

That’s the core idea of “I Want”.  It allows you to share your product expertise with your friends, and when you have a specific “want” you can ask your friends to help you out.  Just like ThisNext’s home site, you can make recommendations on products already on the application, or you can recommend a product for your friends from any other site on the web. 

 When you first get to “I Want” on Facebook, you’ll be greeted with a question asking you to describe what you’re shopping for.  It could be something for yourself, or you could ask for gift ideas for your friends.

It’s very simple, put what you want in our application, describe what you want and why you want it, send it to your friends, sit back and have your friends (with excellent taste and a good sense of humor) recommend things for you. 

 When I wanted a cool USB hub for my computer, I knew there were a ton of really cool ones out there on the market.  Fortunately, I have a lot of creative and tech-geek friends who have no shortage of opinions.  The result was probably the best blend of style and functionality I could have wanted.

 
Our app for Facebook is almost like a little social network inside a social network, it’s a place where you can share the best aspects of ThisNext and get real, personalized results.  As always, we’re open to your suggestions and ideas to make it better.  So, go forth, install our application, have fun with it and discover how useful it really is, because we aren’t going to send anything to you that we wouldn’t use ourselves.