Rolls-Royce’s Whispers App Offers Customers Exclusive Experiences, Products and Each Other

Double-R owners engage with the brand and its partners through a luxurious new community platform

Owners of a Rolls-Royce from 2003 onward now have access to their own online community, Whispers, which connects them to content, experiences and products, as well as other owners and company employees. All owners are welcome to join, but if you sell your (only) Rolls you’ll have to give up your membership in the owners-only community. More so than most other luxury brands Rolls-Royce is extremely …

Air New Zealand’s Lie-Flat Beds for Economy Travel

A development that may benefit many passengers on long-haul flights, Air New Zealand has filed patent and trademark applications for a lie-flat sleeping pod prototype designed for economy-class travelers. Referred to as the Economy Skynest, it’s structured like stacked bunk beds. The airline will determine whether or not to proceed with the concept in 2021, after it has assessed the needs of its Auckland–New York …

The Continued Quest for Pain-Free Microneedles

Produced through a process of 3D printing with polymers—altogether referred to as “4D printing” because of its core of programmable, shape-shifting material—rapidly developing microneedles may replace painful hypodermic needles in the next decade. Professor Howon Lee, who has lead the research from Rutgers University, has filed a patent on this new technology, which produces hollow needles that are barbed, much like the stinger of a …