It is Thursday, which is Friday in disguise, and this Londonista is a tad dry in the mouth already. Parched to be more precise. So today we are talking about beer related technology. If anything, just to fill the void until knock off time and its Pub o'clock.
Now we all know going to watch your mates play Sunday league football can sometimes be a bit of a drag. Time away from the bar on the Sabbath is never a good thing. Well fear not thanks to this genius inflatable pub you can now quite literally watch a live game at the bar. Designed by the same man who developed the Inflatable Church - he must be an Irishman - this blow-up pub is definitely sacrilicious. Never watch amateur football again without this 40ft long fully working blow-up kind of portable boozer. In fact don't do much without it. No news yet on his beta development of blow-up chicks/drinking buddies.
Now a few facts of life:
i. Beer is good. God said that we think. It is one of the few commandments that this Londonista adheres to religiously (...and for that matter knows).
ii. The Germans make very good beer. We are not so sure God said that but it could probably be true and we're certainly going to check it out next summer.
iii. Students like to drink lots of beer. Well that is given.
With these dogmas in mind, it comes as no surprise that two German students, named Schmitz and Butz - unfortunate, blame your Vater (he, he) - have developed a high tech beer mat to help you enjoy a Bavarian brew all the more. Each mat has an integrated pressure sensor and radio transmitter to signal the bar staff when your beer is almost empty. Sounds bloody great, we are sure to hear the digital echo of 'Beer Here!' transmitting throughout the bars of London in no time. All they have to develop now is a USB plug-in bladder so this Londonist never has to leave his bar stool again. Mmmmmmmmmm...USB plug-in bladder.
Save the invention of such a product, the clever chaps at buymeabear.com might just have the solution to our drunken slothfulness. Through their website you can buy your mate a beer via a text message. Currently a plethora of pubs in the city support the service - namely only Corney-Barrow ones in the EC post-codes. So if you're rich, work in the financial sector and you're mates are cheap and lazy this service is for you.
London has been hit by late Indian Summer this October and it is great. But it shouldn't stop you enjoying your beer cold, ice cold. If you have a lot of time on your hands, and your middle name is MacGyver, you might want to try building this contraption designed to keep your beer cool even in the sun. Why a Norwegian would need to develop such a product escapes us.
One more thing. We could hardly write a tech column today and not mention Apple's new little offering. Not the new iPod announced last night but instead an old school G3 draft tap. It lacks the brushed chrome effect and cooling power that perhaps a G5 twin-tap (oh baby-if only) might offer but we are sure you'll agree, no office floor should be without one.
