U.S. online advertising spending is expected to grow 23.3% to $39.5 billion this year, pushing it ahead of total advertising spending in print newspapers and magazines, according to an eMarketer report.
Continue reading… “U.S. online advertising spending expected to surpass print in 2012”
Found in Town
Many of us have lost a wallet or cell phone and have just been about to give up on humanity when a perfect stranger returns them. It’s the hypothesis of Found in Town, a new Chicago startup, that these moments of unexpected human goodness would be much more frequent if only technology were to lend a helping hand. Found in Town essentially brings the lost-and-found box and puts it on the Web.
Continue reading… “Found in Town – a lost and found for the internet”
Swap-O-Matic
Normal vending machines are so … boring. You put money in, candy comes out. But a new project aims to reconsider what a vending machine is and how we exchange good and services. (video)
Continue reading… “Swap-O-Matic vending machine allows consumers to exchange goods for free”
Lifebook makes your tech life more modular.
Designer Prashant Chandra, an industrial designer from New Delhi, India, had come up with a solution for combining a whole lot of independent gadgets. Instead of repeating hardware — such as with an iPad acting as a larger version of an iPhone, an iPod acting like a lost part from said phone, and all of these acting as fragmented components of a laptop — this concept combines the traits of devices to create a functioning laptop in order to reduce repetition and wasted hardware…
Continue reading… “Lifebook design combines all your gadgets into one modular laptop”
Facebook friends’ happy pictures make you sad
In today’s fast-paced, hectic world there are plenty of reasons to feel down. But you wouldn’t think that the world’s most popular social networking site would be one of them. But that’s exactly what a new study by Utah Valley University has found.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bet_QDWNFCY&hd=1[/youtube]
A company called Dynaway was commissioned by BrickIt to build this miniature, but impressive, Lego sorting factory to demonstrate the firm’s manufacturing execution system and they created this mesmerizing video of it in action.
Continue reading… “Awesome Lego sorting plant made of Legos (video)”
The differences aren’t miles apart, but not inches either.
As the topic for our Monday’s Startup Junkie Underground, the House (H.R. 2930) and Senate (S.1791) have proposed competing Bills on the topic of crowdfunding. It’s important, however, to know the differences between the two, because the devil is in the details. And, when it comes to H.R. 2930 and S.1791, the differences are pretty crucial. Crowdfunding advocates need to pay attention.
Continue reading… “Comparing the Senate and House crowdfunding proposals”
Credit cards are the most common form of financing for small business startups.
There are eight solutions to financing your startup with debt. When you are talking about debt options, think of loans and lines of credit that you pay back to a lender. We are not looking at any equity solutions such as angel investors, venture capital, etc. But nothing is easy these days and if you have damaged credit or you’re looking for several hundred thousand dollars it’s much less likely to happen purely with debt.
Continue reading… “8 debt options to finance your small business startup: part 1”
The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor shows entrepreneurial activity revived in 2011 after years of decline
Early-stage entrepreneurial activity rates surged around the world in 2011, jumping nearly 60 percent in the U.S., according to a survey released this week by the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor. More than 12 percent of U.S. adults reported starting a business or running new businesses last year, up from just below 8 percent in 2010.
Continue reading… “Startup rates increased around the world in 2011”
Futurist Thomas Frey: If you were traveling between Boston and Washington, DC, and had the choice of either flying or riding in a driverless car, which would you choose?
Continue reading… “Driverless Cars: A Driving Force Coming to a Future Near You”
The Nissan Leaf batteries have extended value beyond powering the car.
It’s not because a battery pack isn’t good enough for an electric or hybrid car anymore that it should go directly to a recycling plant. There are lots of potential secondary uses for batteries that can still hold more than half of their original charge. Articles have already been written about how they could be used to store wind power to reduce the intermittency problem, but a new partnership between Nissan North-America, ABB, 4R Energy, and Sumitomo Corporation of America believes that used electric car batteries (Nissan LEAF ones, in this case) could be used for residential and commercial energy storage, even acting as emergency back-up during natural disasters like last year’s earthquake and tsunami in Japan…
Continue reading… “Old electric car batteries to find second life on the power grid”
Energy efficiency is very important to overall U.S. energy consumption.
Buildings are blamed for as much as 40% of U.S. energy consumption, and while green construction is on the rise, identifying the best ways to make an older building more efficient can be a tedious manual endeavor. Retroficiency, whose aim is to disrupt the energy efficiency market, eases the process with the help of extensive data sets and predictive analytics.
Greening an old building traditionally involves a walk-through analysis or diagnostic hardware installation, but the Boston-based company’s newVirtual Energy Assessment (VEA) tool shows energy service providers which changes within the building will have the greatest impact on its efficiency. Retroficiency focuses on commercial real estate, which uses 18% of the country’s energy and spending close to $108 billion annually…
By delving into the futuring techniques of Futurist Thomas Frey, you’ll embark on an enlightening journey.
Learn More about this exciting program.