Sparkmate is on TikTok! 🥵
Yo team,
I hope things are going well for you. Are you ready for the summer? You are probably busy at the beginning of this summer! Hitting parties and stipping a cocktail on the beach 😉.
Here’s what we’ve put together for your weekly Spark reads:
Sharelock launches in Nice 🇫🇷
Collaborate anywhere on the web 🛠️
Learn sign language using computer vision 🤘
The best way to get through a long, cold winter? Sand batteries. 🔋
Launching Unexpected Builds (on tiktok…) ⚡️
💙 NEWS FROM OUR MATESSharelock launches in Nice 🇫🇷
Committed to boosting soft mobility AND sustainability, we’re excited to announce Sharelock’s launch in Nice! They now have:
✅ 700 Sharelock are now available across the Ville de Nice
✅ 1500 will be available across the Métropole Nice Côte d'Azur within the coming months
Check out all of their new lock locations:
Congratulations to the Sharelock Team 💙 It’s been such an amazing journey building with you, and watching you guys grow! If you’re around Nice, take the greener option to bike and try them out.
🤸 FUN PRODUCT WE LOVECollaborate anywhere on the web 🛠️
With Snippyly, you can collaborate on any webpage. You can markup, comment and chat in context. Instead of juggling multiple tabs and tools (e.g. Jira, Slack, Docs, Dashboards), get things done faster, all in one place 🚀
How it works:
Download the extension. Snippyly is an extension built for Chrome, by ex Googlers.
Create you snippyly link. Easy steps to get yourself ready to work
Markup and Comment anywhere. Go on a website, launch the extension and start annotating the things you want to share with your Team/Clients/Partners/Husband/Mate… you got the point 😉
Share. When you are done, you can share with your team via a view-access or edit-access link.
Why:
✨ Save time Increase team productivity by eliminating lengthy back and forth via emails, Slack, Google Chat or Microsoft Teams. No need to set up meetings for everything.
📊 Share and discuss data Highlight important data, investigate potential issues and ask questions on any company dashboard or document.
💡 Sketch ideas and provide feedback Steal the best design elements from multiple websites and stitch together to mockup your idea! Provide clear visual feedback on your website UX design and copy.
👩💻 Report bugs Conduct QA testing and report issues to your developers directly into your project management tools and issue trackers (e.g. Jira, Trello, Asana, Notion, Airtable, GitHub, Google Sheets).
🙌 Skip meetings and have fun Quickly resolve questions and discuss ideas, do live audio huddles, markup, react and brainstorm right in the context.
Who it’s for: Anyone looking to gain time and make things obvious
Price: Free or 1$ per month
💭 TECH FOOD FOR THOUGHTLearn sign language using computer vision 🤘
It's a beautiful thing when technology can help us improve our lives.
That's why we love this project from Clarifai: they've created an app that uses computer vision to teach sign language to people who are deaf or hard of hearing. The app uses the custom visual recognition model that the GSTR team trained on sign language to recognize signs and gestures, then responds in two different modes—educational and translation. Educational mode provides feedback confirming correct implementation of the sign. Translation mode gives the text and audio definition corresponding to the sign.
🌱 TECH FOR SUSTAINABILITYThe best way to get through a long, cold winter? Sand batteries. 🔋
That's right: sand batteries.
The technology has been devised by young Finnish engineers Tommi Eronen and Markku Ylönen, founders of Polar Night Energy, and it could be the key to getting Finns through the next few months without Russia's gas and electricity supplies.
Though a number of other research groups are testing the limits of sand as green energy storage, the pair are the first ones to successfully rig it to a commercial power station.
It's quite a simple structure to begin with: a tall, grey tower is filled with low-grade sand and charged up with the heat from excess solar and wind electricity. This works by a process called resistive heating, whereby heat is generated through the friction created when an electrical current passes through any material that is not a super conductor. The hot air is then circulated in the container through a heat exchanger.
💥 WHAT’S ON @ SPARKMATELaunching Unexpected Builds ⚡️
We gathered so much interest in building the Backward Driving Kart with Tom Scott. We get it - it’s awesome seeing what you can do with technology and engineering!
So, on our Instagram Reels, Tik Tok and YouTube Shorts, we decided to launch Unexpected Builds. In less than 30 seconds, you’ll see how we built each “unexpected build”. So far, we have:
Part 1: Magic Disco Ball
Part 2: Backward Driving Kart
Part 3: Helmet Crash Tester
Exciting things are happening every day ⚡️ Follow us on social media to stay tuned!