360 DEGREES Weblog

Canon is sending employees homes early (5:30) twice a week, to help the birthrate of Japan. Japan has a low birthrate and a rapidly aging population and the traditional 12-hours work days did not help in that matter. At least, that’s the assumption here.

We wonder if this has any economic repercussions as well (are these hours paid or not?). Because it’s not like companies around the world aren’t asking their employees to take their vacations as soon as possible to make the books look better for next quarter.

A few years down the road, we’ll see if Canon employees where fulfilling their “duty” to the nation, or just playing tennis on the Wii.

Isn’t it time desktop phones start catching up to the utility offered by today’s powerful smartphones? The touchscreen-based Verizon Hub ($200; Release date TBA) takes a huge step in this direction, with widget-style traffic, weather, directions, pizza ordering and movie trailer functionality, the ability to add contacts and calendar events remotely, and visual voicemail

To conclude the production of their flagship Mercedes McLaren SLR Mercedes have released a limited edition speedster version named the SLR Stirling Moss after the driver who won the 1950 Mille Miglia race in a 300 SLR. The SLR Stirling Moss features a design directly inspired by the 300 SLR used by Stirling Moss in the 1955 Mille Miglia and forgoes a windscreen, windows and roof in favor of a wind deflector. It is powered by the same five point four liter supercharged V8 engine which gives it a top speed three hundred and forty nine kilometers an hour, fifteen kilometers an hour faster than the regular SLR due to a reduction in weight of two hundred kilograms. Only seventy five Mercedes McLaren SLR Stirling Moss Speedster’s will be made and will be offered to current SLR owners first.

You load the Air Photo Server app onto your Mac or PC and the Air Photo app ($2) on to your iPhone. You can then browse your shots through the program and print anything you’d like with one click. I don’t print a lot of shots, but Air Photo is such a good, simple idea that I wish* the iPhone could already do this natively.

Fiery chef Gordon Ramsay may have expanded too quickly for his own good. In addition to having books, television shows and appearances, Ramsay also has a global restaurant empire to manage. But The Mirror reports that bookings at his restaurants are down and some are saying he’s been spending too much time in the spotlight and not enough in the kitchen. A former manager says that Ramsay’s is too overextended to keep a close eye on his properties.

It has been claimed that a £10million loan to Gordon Ramsay Holdings is being called in by the troubled Royal Bank of Scotland and Ramsay may have to use some of his own money to prop up the company.

The Mirror called some of Ramsay’s restaurants and found that you could book a same day table at them, a bad sign for considering Ramsay reservations were once some of the hardest tables to get. A spokesman for Gordon Ramsay Holdings says all is well and that customers can often get a table if they phone on the day because of last minute cancellations.

World renowned German camera maker Leica has come out with a limited Safari edition of its beautiful M8.2 digital model. Leica, the favored camera for famous photographers ranging from Henri Cartier Bresson and Diane Arbus to Nan Goldin, is limiting the Safari to only 500 pieces worldwide, and it is priced at about $10,000. It comes bundled with a 28mm F2.8 Summicron lens and a matching canvas and leather camera bag. The 10.3-million-pixel M8.2 is an updated version of the original M8, the firm’s first digital rangefinder camera, the prototype for which was auctioned off last summer. The Safari model features a matte green vulcanite finish body combined with brushed silver accents and a saddle leather strap.

Stockholm-based Jameslist.com has just launched the “world’s first truly transparent luxury marketplace”, allowing buyers to find and compare high-end cars, watches, boats, yachts and aircraft from dealers around the world. The site features some 20,000 listings, including rare watches such as the Paul Newman Rolex Daytona, hard-to-find cars like the Maserati MC12 and Ferrari Superamerica, and magnificent 120+ ft. yachts from Palmer Johnson. The 350-plus global dealers on JamesList range from high-end custom builders such such as Project Kahn Design (their Bentley GTS Mulliner, above) to “traditional dealers with exceptional inventory” such as ExecuJet and Lamborghini Stuttgart.

“Given the recent roller-coaster of currency and market fluctuations, we saw an opportunity to give serious buyers the tools they need to find premium goods at the best possible price, regardless of where they are in the world,” says JamesList CEO Noam Perski. “We have brought together the world’s best dealers, from Alain Class Motors in Dubai to International Yacht Collection in Monaco, to offer international buyers a complete marketplace.” Important functions for international deal making such as currency and unit conversion are built in to the heart of the platform, as well as language translation.

Be your own favorite race car driver in the Ariel Atom ($65,000 and up). Handcrafted and lacking doors, a roof, or windows, the Atom is truly a racing machine, with a curb weight of only 1,400 lbs. and up to 300 hp, pushing 0-60 times into the sub 3 second range and 0-100 times below 11 seconds. Other features include a powder coated steel tubing chassis, double unequal length fishbone suspension, a drive by wire 2.0L Honda K20 engine, and a 6-speed close-ratio synchromesh transmission.

Setting up as milestone year for the company, Adidas is celebrating its 60th anniversary for being in the fashion world. Having already started an enormous campaign featuring iconic personalities from the world of fashion, music and sport, the brand with the three stripes unveils the “Diamond Pack” that includes the classic Superstar model and a T-shirt. The classic sneakers are blinged out with six 0.2K diamonds on the lateral side of each foot of the shoe. In addition, Swarvoski crystals are added on the lacelock and the tongue adding even more elegance and a luxurious feel to the timeless sneakers. The bejeweled metal piece placed on the tongue can be detached so that it can be used as a necklace. Apart from that, the T-shirt that comes bundled with the pack comes with 409 Swarovski crystals encrusted to craft a beautiful Adidas logo on the front of the shirt. Priced at $800, the Superstar sneaks will be released on January 31st, 2009 across Taiwan.

Simply clip the Sound Clip onto your iPhone’s dock connector port, and it will amplify “the sound by 10 dB.” This would definitely come in handy for any speakerphone calls. Best of all, it’s priced at just $8 and available now.