Gadling

One of my favorite things to do when traveling abroad is stop at the local grocery store for a quick browse. Usually it's a quaint reproduction of the mega markets I'm used to back home, with funky products and even funkier labels that seem quite strange to the passing foreigner.

But the METRO group in Germany are going for a different feel with their Future Store market, where shoppers are greeted by a rolling robot and mobile phones are used to make purchases. The BBC's Steve Rosenberg recently stopped in the Future Store and brought back this video of his experience.

The Future Store, with its "intelligent" meat freezer and automatic wine-tasting machine (which limits you to 6 small samples, naturally) all seems a bit convoluted and dated, like someone designed it based on what they thought the year 2000 would be like back in 1984.

For example, customers must have software installed on their cell phone in order to scan a product they wish to purchase. The phone stores all the scans, then displays a final barcode when the shopping is done. That barcode is then fed into an ATM-like machine that's used to pay. Wouldn't it make more sense to have an "intelligent" shopping cart that either scans the items automatically, or has a manual scanner built in? The use of a cell phone here seems redundant, and adds an extra layer of special technology that limits who can shop at the store.

The most advanced grocery store on the planet (according to the Germans, at least) is located in Rheinberg, Germany if you're up for a visit.

I was lost deep in a clicktrance this morning when I stumbled on IMDb's listing for an "Untitled Steve Carell Project" due out in 2010. The synopsis reads,

"A group of middle-aged friends embark on the European backpacking trip they never took after college."

Unfortunately, this is all the information I could find. One IMDb commentor thinks this will be a film adaptation of the popular kids book Where's Waldo?, but I'm not so sure.

What do you think?

This weekend, I broke down and bought a Kindle -- Amazon's eBook reader. The benefits are obvious: the ability to store over 200 books in the on-board memory (with an expandable SD slot), E Ink for paper-like, easy-on-the-eyes reading, and instant access to thousands of titles from Amazon.com.

While the concept of an eBook reader is not new, the Kindle's brothership with the world's largest book store makes it revolutionary.

In short: this thing is a book-loving traveler's dream. No longer will you have to carry around multiple books on your next trip. If you're traveling within the U.S., simply use the Kindle's built in Sprint EVDO Internet access to order new books instantaneously; if you're traveling abroad, the Sprint connection doesn't work, but you can still order the book from any computer connected to the Internet, and transfer it to your Kindle via the included USB.

But there's one market that is bizarrely void of any Kindle coverage: guidebooks. Imagine the possibilities -- no longer lug around a thick, heavy Lonely Planet: Wherever. With the Kindle, you can buy your destination's guidebook from all the top publishers -- Lonely Planet, Fodor's, Moon, whatever -- for a fraction of the cost, and store them in one small, light, easy to use gadget. Plus, the Kindle gives you the ability to search for phrases in your entire library, so pulling up all the information from every guidebook on Ulaanbaatar, for instance, is only a few button clicks away.

How come guidebook publishers aren't taking advantage of this?

Instead of spotlighting an image from the Gadling Flickr pool on Fridays, we're going to highlight one from the pool of contributors' photos (including you!) from Everywhere's Photos. Today's image is from contributor Agon Syla. He writes,

"Chilling in the grass fields in front of the great Colosseum in Rome, Italy; where this friend of mine bought these wonderful glasses and wanted to kiss Rome and Colosseum at the same time, of course with her new glasses on."

If you'd like to submit an image to be considered for Gadling+Everywhere's Postcard of the Week, please sign up for a free membership on Everywhere and start uploading! Every Friday, we'll choose one to spotlight.

Starting today, we are teaming up with our friends over at the awesome Everywhere Magazine to bring you a weekly Postcard. Instead of spotlighting an image from the Gadling Flickr pool on Fridays, we're going to highlight one from the pool of contributors' photos (including you!) from Everywhere. Today's image is from contributor Sloan Schang. He writes,


If you'd like to submit an image to be considered for Gadling+Everywhere's Postcard of the Week, please sign up for a free membership on Everywhere and start uploading! Every Friday, we'll choose one to spotlight.

Issue 5 of our favorite community-driven travel magazine Everywhere is debuting soon, and they're looking for your submissions in the Vietnam and San Francisco categories (among others).

"[Everywhere Magazine] is created almost exclusively by its readers, who submit their best travel photographs, stories, and articles to the magazine's website," wrote Aaron on Gadling a few months back. "Contributors who are published in the magazine receive $100 and a free one-year subscription."

If you're looking to get published in a real, paper travel mag (an awesome one at that), now's your chance. Head to Everywhere's website, sign up for an account, and submit away.

Priceline recently announced the details of their "Sunshine Guaranteed" vacation package which offers vacationers a "refund if their vacation is rained out."

As expected, to actually receive a refund from Priceline, the forces of nature must properly align in order to meet the rigid conditions set by the fine print. For example,

• You must book between June 2 and July 17, 2008 and travel between July 1 and September 7, 2008.
• Qualifying vacation packages must be 3-8 days in length.
• Travel must commence at least 12 days after a package is purchased.
• It must rain more than .5 inches for more than half of your total stay (including travel days).
• Rainfall amounts are measured at the destination airport of the vacation package.
  
• Rainfall will also be audited by a private independent provider of weather information.
• Rainfall samples must be collected by consumer in quart-sized Ziploc® bags.

Okay, so I made that last one up. But seriously -- I can assure you there's going to be some ticked off people this Summer who book this "Sunshine Guaranteed" package from Priceline and fail to read the fine print.

On the other hand, hurricane chasers might be well off booking a package through Priceline this season.

[Via The Cranky Flier]

Have you ever, upon arriving in a new city, wandered aimlessly in search of a popular place to eat or drink? Of course you have.

A new mobile company, Sense Networks, promises to make this much easier in the future with a new, somewhat creepy/bizarre cell phone application called Citysense that supernaturally senses the information emitted by cell phones and displays the results as a heat map on your own miniature screen (right).

The blotches of red represent large groups of people in a particular location, assuming most of them have cell phones. That data is then cross referenced with Yelp and Google Maps to provide information on what is actually at that location. So popular events, restaurants, or nightclubs are easily spotted and displayed along with their pertinent information.

Currently the service is being publicly tested with BlackBerry users in San Francisco only, with plans to support the iPhone and extend to other major U.S. metro areas in the near future.

For more information, visit Tech Crunch's article on the service, or head directly to Sense Network's website.

So, you want to get tickets to see Conan O'Brien before he ups and moves to Los Angeles to take over Jay Leno? Better hurry -- by this time next year, the Late Show in New York will be a thing of the past (unless you really like Jimmy Fallon or something).

But, as you'll soon find out, scoring said tickets can be tricky. Don't fret, though -- Gadling is here to guide you through the process.

HOW TO GET TICKETS

Tickets to see a live taping of Conan O'Brien are, no doubt, some of the hardest to score in all of New York City. But don't let this dissuade you; with the right amount of planning, persistence, and spring in your step, you won't have a problem. First, the gritty details: Tickets are free, and can only be secured over the phone by calling (212) 664-3056 -- no websites or fax machines allowed. You can request a maximum of four tickets, and everyone in your party must be over 16-years old. Finally, you can only requests tickets once every six months.

The first step in the process is figuring out exactly when you'll be in the Big Apple. If you're a local, you can skip this part for obvious reasons -- but if you're visiting, don't bother trying to get tickets before you have your trip planned and know the exact dates in which you're available.