Archive for the ‘Cool Products’ Category
Friday, June 20th, 2008 |
I met Clay Loges at a business networking event last week here in Seattle. Clay’s motto is, “Look for an area of change — then you get to make up the rules.” He’s been living by this for years and has become quite successful along the way.
A former banker and serial entrepreneur who once owned a text paging service in the new Russia - and was a pioneer in the 10-Minute Oil Change service station business and a GPS business — Clay’s latest venture is called Yodio.
Yodio stands for “Your Audio” and is a service which allows people to add audio tracks to image slide shows. The basic idea reminded me of the narrative my Uncle Mitchell gave as he went over his trek through Nepal slide by slide.
He must have given that slide show 20 times or more over the years. If he had Yodio, he could have recorded the soundtrack easily and shared the slide show in seconds with hundreds of his closest friends.
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Saturday, February 2nd, 2008 |
By Mark Levy CEO of MaxxoMedia
To TXT or not to TXT We all know cell phone text messaging is a great way to quickly connect with someone. Everywhere we look people are hunched over their phones, tapping on the keys feverishly. But what about texting while driving?
I know you would never do it .. .but even though the overwhelming majority of adults think that driving while texting is dangerous, two in three adults (66%) who drive a car and have used text messaging say they read text messages or e-mails while driving — and 57% of them even admitted to sending text messages or e-mails from behind the wheel. On January 1st, the State of Washington was the first state in the nation to enact a new law that prohibits text messaging while driving and more states are not far behind.
So what is the technologically well-connected person to do? How can you communicate safely on the go? Enter instant voice-messaging for your mobile phone from San Francisco based Pinger. The service helps you keep your eyes on the road and minimize distractions while you drive. Combined with a hands-free headset, Pinger’s instant voice messaging service is a safer way for drivers to stay in touch from the road.
By simply calling Pinger, saying the name of a contact, speaking their message and then hanging up, drivers are able to send a message to any U.S. mobile phone while keeping their eyes on the road. Your message is delivered instantly — no ringing, no greetings, no lengthy prompts. Pinger is fast and efficient like e-mail, but with your voice. It’s mobile like text messaging, but with more personality.
Group Messaging Made Easy
Pinger provides more than just safety on the road. Recently, it launched Pingercast messaging, a mobile phone promotional tool for political candidates, artists, media companies or anyone wishing to create a personal relationship with supporters and fans.
Pingercast messages are used to send audio messages directly to consumers’ mobile phones. “The Pingercast service enables marketers to get to difficult-to-reach consumers in a very personal way, on their mobile phone,” said Greg Woock, CEO of Pinger. “When you hear John’s messages, it feels like he’s talking directly to you. Compared to a 160-character text message, Pingercast messages enable senders to share up to five minutes of audio. The Pingercast service is for any marketer with audio content, whether it’s movies, musicians, or anyone wishing to talk to a group in their own voice.”
Subscribers can forward messages to their friends, who can then sign up to receive new updates on their mobile phones. It’s a great way to get out a message. To collect names, Pinger works with customers to create branded HTML or Flash(tm) widgets suitable for a website or MySpace page so fans can easily subscribe. Users can also sign up through a Facebook application or even by texting a shortcode.
Check them out at www.pinger.com
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Friday, January 18th, 2008 |
by Mark Levy CEO of MaxxoMedia
For the most part, listening to the radio is a passive experience. Tune in your station and let the DJ lead you through the programming. Aside from the occasional call-in request to win tickets or call-in to Talk radio, there isn’t a lot of direct response interaction with listeners.
A Colorado-based company is looking to bring interactivity between radio stations and listeners to a whole new level. CynoCast (pronounced sin-O-cast) aims to help stations keep listeners tuned in longer and generate new streams of revenue by giving stations the ability to easily launch web pages while broadcasting live on the air.
With CynoCast’s “DJ CynoCaster,” stations can simulcast web pages that run alongside live broadcasts. Instant push-polls, poll results, song lyrics, traffic maps, news articles, blogs, weather maps, sports scores and any other type of information can be fed directly to the listener’s computer in real time.
A single mouse click can launch any URL on the web. Another click launches a sponsor’s home page in time to their on-air spots. Banner ads on web pages can be launched during live broadcasts. Listeners are guided directly to specific pages and interactions in time to the broadcast. Announcers can show listeners what they are talking about with both pictures and videos.
Robert Hayes, CEO of CynoCast, says the software also allows stations to create web simulcasts that run automatically while pre-recorded radio shows are being broadcast or run on demand on the Internet. In addition, stations can pause and re-start at any time and intersperse them with web page launches from their sponsors.
Currently the service is managed through CynoCast. Hayes says he will be releasing a version of the software, which can be installed and run internally by larger radio networks in the second quarter of 2008. “DJ CynoCaster” is designed to work with both terrestrial and Internet radio stations and has a variety of subscription plans to choose from .
Check out www.cynocast.com for more information.
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Friday, November 2nd, 2007 |
On Tuesday, a company called Eye-Fi launched the Eye-Fi Card, a WiFi enabled 2GB SD card for your digital camera, that once set up to see your home (or other) wireless network, you pop it into your camera, go out and shoot photos, come home, turn on the camera and the pictures automatically go up to your photo destination site of choice and/or to your PC/MAC. It will change the way you share and print.
It is available from one of several online retailers at http://www.eye.fi/buy/
It is getting great reviews (see below). For anyone that wants to get their photos off their cameras and on to their PC/Mac and/or photo destination of their choice of 17 so far – Dotphoto, Facebook Flickr, Fotki, Gallery (opensource project), KodakGallery, PicasaWeb, Phanfare, Photobucket, Sharpcast, Shutterfly, Smugmug, Snapfish, TypePad, Vox, Wal-Mart, and Webshots - This is the easiest way to do it.
Wired Blog
http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2007/10/totally-awesome.html
Totally Awesome: Eye-Fi Card
Why didn’t someone think of this sooner? Eye-Fi works like a charm. If you despise cords and need to get pics uploaded to the Internet quickly, it’s one of the finest solutions we’ve ever seen - Danny Dumas
GoodyBlog from Parents’ Magazine
http://www.goodyblog.com/playing_house/2007/10/family-photo-sh.html
No cord. No hourglass. No frustration. And no photos left to sit for months on your camera instead of being emailed to Johnny’s grandma in Florida. Sounds cool, huh?! So tell us, with all of that extra time on the computer what are you going to do with your family photos?
CBS News/Bloomberg Radio story:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/10/30/scitech/pcanswer/main3428498.shtml
“The big advantage of this device is that you don’t have to remember to use a cable to connect your camera to your PC when you get home from taking pictures. It’s also a great idea if you have family members who are technologically or memory-challenged. Once you set up the service, there is almost nothing for them to do other than turn on the camera.” – Fred Fishkin
San Jose Mercury News:
http://www.mercurynews.com/columns/ci_7319335
“Getting your photos out of digital cameras and sharing them with friends isn’t easy. It’s especially hard for those allergic to computers. That’s why Mountain View-based Eye-Fi came up with a new kind of photo memory card that hits the market today.” – Dean Takahashi
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Sunday, September 2nd, 2007 |
Those of you over 30 probably remember the days before button presets took over the radio interface. In my opinion nothing beats the the feel of turning that dial and finding new radio stations. Tun3r.com is the radio dial for the digital age. Move the ‘tuner’ line left to right or up and down to experience audio programming from all over the world. Or just click around the squares on the home page and let the audio fly. You can bookmark stations you like for easy future access and even get a playlist in the local language.
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Wednesday, June 13th, 2007 |
Chilltheplanet.com just launched an innovative digital media campaign to drive awareness of global warming issues. Through the website you can donate money that will be used to create and buy TV ad time on regional networks.
Each TV spot will promote a global warming message to raise awareness as well as send people back to the website. The founders hope to generate a loop of people coming to discuss issues and donate enough money to run the next TV spot to create a cycle of people bringing in new people. Through Chip In, the smallest of donation will help them achieve their goals. They plan to publish when and where the ads will run so contributors can catch them, record them and see their money in action. The site also offers people the opportunity to purchase a variety of products from Amazon and with each transaction they take the referral fees and plant a tree on their behalf.
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Thursday, May 31st, 2007 |
Google has launched another incredible addition to their already stellar mapping services. Now you can view street level images of cities and explore them in a whole new way. Currently available for New York, San Francisco, Miami, Las Vegas and Denver. Check it out here or click on the picture below. It will be interesting to see how people use this new tool to enhance their web experience.
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Wednesday, May 16th, 2007 |
Bridging the divide between digital and physical, DiscRevolt provides a tangible solution for selling digital media. Artists upload songs to DiscRevolt’s website and design their own artwork for a plastic download card. The cards are then printed by DiscRevolt with a unique redemption code on the back. Artists sell the cards to fans at live shows, and the fans can then download songs or albums from the artist’s online page.
Many independent artists make most of their revenue at merchandise tables after they play a live show. Audiences connect with a band or song, and are most likely to pay for music during the post-gig buzz. As bands are moving from CDs to digital downloads, they need something to hook potential customers when they can, instead of asking them to download later. Which is a challenge DiscRevolt aims to solve. The start-up describes its download cards as a cross between a gift card, a backstage pass and a baseball trading card. They’re designed to be collectible items, attachable to lanyards or backpacks or rear-view mirrors. The fact that artists design their own artwork, and often make cards in limited runs, adds to the appeal.
Pricing is set at 500 cards for USD 250. Each card gives fans access to 15 credits worth of the artist’s material on discrevolt.com. Artists set their own prices, but DiscRevolt recommends USD 5 per card, which brings the price per song to 33 cents for buyers, and gives artists a 90% profit margin. Since artists buy the cards upfront, profits are received as soon the cards are sold. Which can be useful while bootstrapping a tour. It also provides a user-friendly download avenue for bands that haven’t yet made it to the front page of the iTunes Music Store.
DiscRevolt is currently in beta, and is offering artists 100 free cards if they sign up before May 15th. The website currently only supports MP3 audio files (at any bitrate), but future releases will also support other media files such as video and PDF files of liner notes, lyrics and artwork. Something to set up locally? And although musical artists are the main target group for this type of service, how about BookRevolt? At lectures or other events, both published and unpublished authors could sell cards for downloads of audio-books or e-books, or supplements to printed work, or use the cards as a promotional tool, giving away digital copies of sample chapters without having to worry about hosting downloads.
Website: www.discrevolt.com
Contact: info@discrevolt.com
Source: http://www.springwise.com/weekly/2007-05-16.htm#discrevolt
Spotted by: Ozgur Alaz
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Posted in Cool Products, Music | No Comments »
Thursday, January 18th, 2007 |
Skype Launches IPTV — Calls it Joost
By: Priyanka Pradhan | Jan 17,2007
The much speculated IPTV service by Skype, previously codenamed ‘
The Venice Project ‘ is now officially out of the bag, as ‘
Joost’.
The free service will allow viewers to access all kinds of television from across the world, over the Internet.The ad supported site will try to replicate the complete television experience, in full-screen, broadcast quality, along with channel flipping, and interactivity. The service is still undergoing trials, but thousands of people have been invited to download the software on trial.
Joost aims to offer TV-like experience enhanced with the choice, control and flexibility of Web 2.0, which enables broadcasters to get their program in front of a global Internet audience. Joost CEO Fredrik de Wahl says the team plans to offer studios, cable stations and anyone else who wants to distribute high-quality video over the Internet, a fast, efficient and cheap distribution method. He says the company will use the same peer-to-peer technology used in Skype and Kazaa.
The Joost menu allows users to switch channels with the click of a link, TiVo-like control of the content and access to any show, any time of the day. Users may also move forward or backward within a show and skip commercials. There is a line-up of sports, documentaries and music programming, but the team says this is just trial programming and that when the full launch takes place in the next few months, there will be more impressive content on offer.
The site also promises to provide a platform for the ‘best television content on the planet’ to bring users the shows from TV studios, as well as the specialist programs created by professionals and enthusiasts. The Joost team also reveals that they’re working on a native Macintosh Intel version and expect it to be available in the next few months. A Linux version is also in the works.
Read more here.
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Posted in Cool Products, DMET Disruptors, IPTV, What's New | 1 Comment »
Thursday, January 11th, 2007 |
Applause to CBS for reportedly joining with Slingbox to investigate how sharing of video clips builds communities around content. The Clip+Sling service will allow owners of Sling Media’s Slingbox device to clip and share content directly from live or recorded TV shows with both other Slingbox owners and others over the Internet.
Usually big media companies wait to be disrupted and then react from a position of fear. Quincy Smith, CBS Interactive President, is taking the unusual step of being a catalyst for disruption. One thing I’ve seen over and over though is that you can’t control what happens after the disruption. That keeps many in paralysis, afraid that what they do will come back to haunt them. Funny thing is that doing nothing leads to the same result. Only time will tell if the decision was the right one.
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Posted in Cool Products, DMET Disruptors, File Sharing | No Comments »
Thursday, January 11th, 2007 |
From the cool to the oddball, there are gadgets galore at CES
INFOWORLD
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Posted in Cool Products, What's New, iPod | No Comments »
Thursday, January 11th, 2007 |
Capitalizing on the loophole that lets most mobile users out of unwanted contracts by transferring it to someone else, Cellswapper is a new online service allowing those who want to abandon their current plan by posting it for someone who wants a short-term plan. To facilitate the win-win exchange whereby neither party has to pay a fee for starting or canceling service, Cellswapper uses a Transfer Tracking system to keep users informed about the exchange and helps facilitate the legal transfer. Swappers are encouraged to offer a handset or a small cash incentive, which is one of many searchable criteria, including plan cost and features. For early adopters looking to ditch non-Cingular contracts in the wake of the recently announced iPhone and its multi-year exclusive deal with Cingular, Cellswapper is an expeditious solution.
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Thursday, January 11th, 2007 |
Out in beta - Hyper Comics has taken their Comic Book Creater software online and created a cool new place for aspiring and experienced comic book writers and illustrators to meet and showcase their work. HyperComics, from Planetwide Media is the interactive social network and industry resource where next-generation amateur and professional comic book creators can showcase their original comic books, discuss them with their peers and find an audience.
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Posted in Cool Products, Digital Publishing, In Beta, What's New | No Comments »
Wednesday, January 10th, 2007 |
Answer Tones, Caller Tunes, Ringback Tones - all names for the same mobile content product which allows a consumer to customize the ‘ringing’ sound heard by someone calling them appears to be making strides. Brought to the US a couple of years ago after successful trials by Koran telecom heavyweight SKTelecom, US carriers had high hopes for the product. Requiring a massive in network integration, the systems cost millions of dollars to deploy. Content sales including music and celebrity voices and subscription service fees drive the revenue for the carrier. I expect consumer land-line Ringback deployments to make their way to market in 2007. Most likely ATT and/or Verizon given their consumer land-line and mobile offerings.
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Posted in Cool Products, IP Telephony, Mobile, What's New | No Comments »
Monday, January 8th, 2007 |
New device will send Web videos to TV. Makers of Slingbox will release sub-$200 Sling Catcher mid-year. Sling Media Inc. will unveil its upcoming SlingCatcher product at the International Consumer Electronics Show, joining a growing group of companies that aim to bring Web content into the living room.
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Posted in Cool Products, DMET Disruptors, Web | No Comments »
