Open up your mind and say, ahh...

Imagine a futuristic NFL where computer chips embedded in players’ equipment measure and track how fast receivers run, how tired linemen get and how hard safeties hit. Quarterbacks call plays without a huddle, using wireless communication tools built into helmets.

On the sidelines, coaches instantly watch digital video of previous plays to scheme their next moves. Referees carry handheld screens to immediately replay the toughest calls. And a chip in the ball combines with a laser on the goal line to eliminate the tedious debate over whether a player actually reached the endzone.

All that and more could soon become reality, according to The Wall Street Journal. League officials are reportedly pow-wowing with forward-thinking tech and communications companies to bring cutting edge electronic devices and measurement tools to the NFL. “Every technological advancement you can imagine is on the table,” the article says.

A couple of NFL teams have on their own transferred play books and game film to iPads for players to study and review, but so far most of the tech innovation in football and other sports has come on the marketing side of operations rather than the field.

In the NFL, players still review plays on the sideline via expensive and wasteful photo printouts, and the league essentially bans computers and other devices from players and coaches before and during games. Major League Baseball imposes a similar ban, and the NBA only recently began to relax its restrictions.

NFL executive Ray Anderson tells WJS that tablets will likely soon be allowed for coaches, to replace physical play sheets and to provide digital video for in-game planning. Anderson also says game officials will likely become wirelessly connected to one another soon.

Sweden’s people have officially taken over the @sweden Twitter account — and with the blessing of the Swedish government. One Swedish citizen will control the handle each week, tweeting about whatever they’d like, as part of a new project called Curators of Sweden.

“No one owns the brand of Sweden more than its people. With this initiative we let them show their Sweden to the world,” says Thomas Brühl, CEO of VisitSweden, the tourism ministry that had been updating the @sweden account since January 2009.

Curators of Sweden is based around the idea that no single voice can represent the country, so a slew of guest Swedish curators will do the best job to portray the national character.

First to get behind the @sweden helm is Jack Wermer, a writer and marketer, who started his stint on Dec. 10.

“I’ve always enjoyed to show tourists my Sweden and to be able to do it on Twitter feels like a fun and natural step,” Werner says.

VisitSweden says it chose the curators because they represent the country’s values and skills, such as gay rights, fashion, design and innovation. In the coming weeks, @sweden followers can expect tweets from an ad agency founder who owns a farm, a suburban writer, a priest, a teacher and a coffee-drinking lesbian trucker .

In addition to VisitSweden, the Swedish Institute has contributed to the @sweden account in the past year.

What do you think of this idea? Is this Twitter account a great way for the country to express its character or is it merely a bizarre curation-sharing experiment? Should other countries follow suit? Let us know in the comments.

The lottery of who you sit next to on an airline flight can make travel interesting, or unbearable. Recognizing that the experience of its passengers can be greatly influenced by the people sitting next to them, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines is introducing ‘Meet & Seat.’ The service will allow passengers to choose who they sit next to based on their social media profiles.

The service will be available to everybody and both passengers must choose to take part in the service in order to pick your fellow passenger. Those who enjoy simply  putting on their headphones and enjoying a movie on their laptop – alone – can just avoid the experiment altogether according to the International Business Times.

The newspaper naturally discusses the match making potential of KLM’s service. According to the IBT, a recent poll showed a third of passengers surveyed said they later met with a fellow passenger after a flight.

Everybody’s favorite news analysis animators over at Next Media Animation in Taiwan were a bit more blunt. Their description of how KLM’s new service might work doesn’t include waiting for the airplane to land. Video after the jump.

Photo: KLM, Video: NMA/YouTube

Are you a van enthusiast? Do you wish you could meet other people who also like vans? There’s a new social network with your interests in mind, and it’s not nearly as creepy as it sounds.

MYVAN, developed by Mercedes-Benz, is a special online gathering place for van lovers only. According to Mercedes, it will feature an “active exchange of experiences and opinions,” through a dedicated Facebook page and Twitter feed. It will also have videos targeted at van owners. Thankfully, they’ll have nothing to do with Sammy Johns, Chris Farley or Uncle Rico.

Instead, MYVAN is aimed squarely at workers in trades who use highly customized vans as mobile offices. It will update professionals with the latest industry trends in addition to letting van owners share best practices. Found a great way to install mobile shelving, or looking for advice on starting a new plumbing business? Let your fellow van owners know on MYVAN. Mourning the demise of the Ford Econoline or looking for a good deal on shag carpeting? Keep that to yourself.

Though the site is aimed at owners of all van brands, it makes sense that Mercedes would be the driving force. In 2010, nearly one in five large vans sold in Western Europe was a Sprinter, and about 225,000 Mercedes vans were sold worldwide last year. The theory is that a rising tide will lift all vans, and that even a brand-neutral site will increase awareness of the entire segment.

“MYVAN will offer tradesmen who come in contact with the subject of transport sustainable benefits,” said Mercedes-Benz Vans marketing VP Andreas Burkhart, Vice President Sales and Marketing Mercedes-Benz Vans. “We see MYVAN as an international format that has relevance beyond national boundaries.”

In other words, they’ve got love for all kinds of vans — and that’s alright with me.

Photo: Mercedes-Benz

There are only three kinds of sales:

• Buying a refill, another unit of a service or product you’ve already purchased before
• Switching to a new model/brand/style
• Buying something for the first time

Here’s an overlooked truth: until quite recently, buying something for the first time was a very rare and almost revolutionary act. In fact, more than a billion people on Earth don’t do this as a matter of course. The standard is to only purchase the seeds, fuel or shelter that your parents, grandparents and great-grandparents did. That’s the way it’s always been.

Take a minute to think about what it means for someone in poverty (which until recently was almost everyone) to buy something for the first time. The combination of risk and initiative can be paralyzing. One of the little-known transitions of the industrial revolution was the notion that companies and individuals could set out to discover and buy stuff that they didn’t know about until just recently.

You see a box or a store window or a product on the web and you start imagining how cool it would be to open the box, own the product, use it, engage with it and benefit from it. A product you’ve never purchased before. That’s new behavior. Until a hundred years ago, that sort of imagining was rare indeed, just about anywhere in the world.

If you are trying to grow your coaching practice or b2b saas business or widget shop, understand that you are almost certainly pushing against a significant barrier: most people hesitate before buying something for the first time. If you’re trying to develop trade in the underprivileged world, understand that teaching people to buy anything for the first time is a revolutionary concept.

Campbell’s soup is almost never bought for the first time. It is a replacement purchase. No one switches to Campbell’s either. They buy it because their mom did.

The first iPhone, on the other hand, was a first time product for just about everyone who bought it… most of the people on line that first day were buying their first smartphone. Worth noting that a few years later, many millions have made the switch–we don’t make first-time purchases lightly.

And most of what gets sold to us each day at work or at home are switching products. “Ours is just like the one you already use, but cheaper/better/faster/cooler.”

The potent mix of fear of loss, desire for gain and curiousity fuel the appeal of buying for the first time. But it’s magic, it’s not science, and it doesn’t often happen on schedule.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has died last Saturday while on a train trip, with his youngest son Kim Jong-un being named the new country leader, Reuters reports.

Kim Jong-il was known by the west as a dictator who helped turn North Korea into an extremely repressive, poor and reclusive state, and the reactions to his death on Twitter don’t show him much kindness.

Soon after the news of his death broke out, the term “Team America” started trending on Twitter. It’s a reference to “Team America: World Police,” a movie by South Park creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker, in which Kim Jong-Il is featured as an evil dictator trying to conquer the world.

 

Twitter app Buffer introduced a new feature this week allowing users to schedule retweets directly from Twitter.com. By installing Buffer with the new Twitter extension launched on Tuesday, users will now see a “Buffer” option on tweets alongside the normal built-in “Reply,” “Retweet” and “Favorite” options.

When users click the new option, a selected tweet will then be shared at a specific time — unless users decide to do so immediately — as a retweet with the original “RT” signifier. Buffer says the new feature allows Twitter users the ability to space their tweets out while avoiding the hassle of an extra dashboard.

Launched in January 2011, Buffer began as a service to allow Twitter users to share at the most opportune moments according to research on Twitter’s peak times. Buffer schedules tweets for four high-usage times of day, which users can leave as default settings or modify as they choose. The most popular free version allows users to connect up to two accounts and queue up to ten social updates at a time, while its paid versions allow increased numbers of joined accounts and stored tweets.

The app still works as an unobtrusive if not entirely unique browser extension for creating original tweets from different web pages, but it’s the new Twitter.com extension that Buffer co-founder Leo Widrich said takes the service to a new level.

“What we have done now is very much in line with what we have always wanted to do, which is just to make Twitter easier and smarter to use,” Widrich said in an interview.

Buffer also launched another new feature last week, a “Buffer” button for blogs, to go alongside options to tweet, share via Facebook and share via Google+ at the end of articles. Widrich said the blog button has already been installed on about 1,000 blogs worldwide.

Buffer certainly appears to be doing some innovative things by allowing Twitter users to share more conveniently and effectively, but it’s just one of more than a million registered apps in the Twitter ecosystem. What are your favorites? What do you think of Buffer’s new Twitter extension? Let us know in the comments.

I think a little too often about flossing my teeth. It’s a really unfun thing to do. No one gives you a medal for doing it. People rarely talk about it (for good reason). And yet, it’s an interesting way to think about success.

When you floss your teeth, it’s something you do for a few minutes a day that keeps your teeth clean and your gums strong. If you do it every day for two months and then stop doing it for a few weeks, your gums will grow weaker and there will be stuff all caught in there, and the overall health of your mouth will all get worse rather quickly.

What does this have to do with success?

Santa Claus is awfully busy this time of year, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t have enough time to robocall the person of your choice, free. He’s also ready to listen to his voicemail.

There are two separate Santa-related delights Google is offering this year. First, you can let Santa know what you want for Christmas by leaving him a message at his Google Voice number — 855-34-SANTA (855 347-2682). According to the official Google blog, it’s a free call for residents of the United States and Canada; outside those areas it will cost $.01 per minute.

If you live in the U.S., you can delight your favorite kid (or amuse your friends) by having Santa immediately send a customized voice message, complete with the person’s name, state, and a variety of other customizations, which can all be combined for hilarious results (see graphic below). It’s fun — try it at Google’s Send a Call From Santa site, or listen to a sample message here.

Here’s the interface: