My blogging has been on vacation the last few weeks. I was away on holiday in southern Spain—biking the Andalusian countryside—and then after returning I had to play catch up at my other show. I know I’m truly back at TvB when I start writing about Slovenian startups again.
And here we go. I’ve been informed that a group of fun-loving Ljubljana-based engineers have launched SipSup, a KickStarter project that looks to turn social drinking into a social media experience.
The idea is simple: the SipSup team has taken a chip with NFC capabilities and melded it to an artisanally crafted 16-ounce (473 ml.) glass cup. Their cup looks more like a laboratory beaker—I confess to just liking the SipSup sans the chip. In any case, you use the SipSup as a central repository for sharing photos as you drink and chat with friends.
You click your iPhone or Android gadget to the SipSup, which automatically transfers or receives selected pics. Yeah, there’s an app for this as well.
Why have the SipSup, when you can transfer photos directly from phone to phone?
Here’s where my travels in Europe—Spain, France, Italy, Germany, UK, and Denmark—provide some needed insight. It’s hard to believe but once outside the US, the remaining peoples of the world manage to socialize while actually looking at the other person. The custom here in America, of course, is for friends to sit down, take out their gadgets, and busily text and email while partially engaging with the humans sitting next to them.
SipSup seems to be a gentle compromise. You use your phone to touch a physical object containing various enjoyable fluids. At least, you’re connected to the current moment in the non-virtual world. And then you have an automatic “ice breaker”. You can say, “Oh, I just sent you pictures of my recent holiday on the Dalmatian coast.”
I already see some interesting possibilities for bars or cafes equipped with SipSups. Someone will ultimately come up with a drinking game that utilized the full capabilities of the SipSup
The SipSup Kickstarter campaign has 30 days to raise $30,000. They have just over $2000 at this point. If you’re interested in being part of this project, a pledge of $22 will get you one SipSup.