Walking cane for seniors, upgraded with style

Original: Walking cane for seniors, upgraded with style

Making everyday products more functional for senior citizens doesn't have to mean making those products more ugly, as UK home renovation firm Ruby Slippers has already demonstrated. New York-based Omhu is a company with a similar philosophy. Its flagship product — the Omhu Cane — is a walking stick that brings smart design and new style to a category sorely in need of upgrading.

The Omhu Cane is "a walking stick with attitude," in the company's own words. Inspired by Scandinavian furniture as well as "bicycles, hockey sticks and skateboards," the cane features cheerful colours and a generous birch handle with grip strips that not only offer better hold, but also don't slip when leaned against a wall. The wood is hand-treated with Livos oil for an all-natural, non-toxic, plant-based finish, while the lightweight, high-strength aluminum shaft is finished in American bicycle paint. The Omhu Cane's patent-pending tip, meanwhile, is made from the same material as high-performance athletic shoes for cushioning, traction and support. Available in six colours, the Omhu Cane is priced at USD 125.

Aging may be inevitable, but drab style and lackluster performance don't have to be. Good design, in fact, is just one more way to target the senior demographic in a positive, empowering way — as opposed to all the early approaches focusing on illness and limitations. There will be more than 1.5 billion people worldwide over the age of 65 by the year 2050, according to the US Census Bureau. Isn't it time to upgrade the way they're served...? (Related: Phone support for seniors, by seniors — Fun and funky first aid kits — Being spaces for seniors — Travel insurance for over-60s — Health and wellness shop focuses on seniors — Stylish fire protection kits.)

Website: www.omhu.com
Contact: info@omhu.com

Spotted by: Coolhunting

Capturely.

Original: Capturely.

Submitted by Dmitri Davydov on Mon, 2010-11-29 12:29.

Posted in: Odd Numbers

Link of the day - If You Sell Links On Your Site, I Will Buy Them Off You


http://www.capturely.com/

Anyone who's ever launched a website knows how much trouble it can be to create a simple "coming soon" page. Templates can be expensive, and it hardly seems worthwhile setting up a server for just a single page. Enter Capturely, a new online service that lets domain registrants create a custom "coming soon" page in about a minute.

Users of California-based Capturely begin by entering a headline and body copy for their page, along with which analytics service they plan to use. They can then either pick a template for the site's appearance, or they can style their page in real time with CSS. Either way, once the page goes live, it can be used not just for publicity but also to collect the email addresses of potential customers and supporters. Soon, Capturely will also make it possible to export that email list to providers like MailChimp. Using Capturely is free for up to 20 collected email addresses; after that, it's USD 0.25 per email.

Have you registered a domain, but not yet launched your website? If so, Capturely could help you out. Otherwise, it's yet another nice illustration of one of the key principles of Marketing 101: Find an unmet need — however niche — address it well, and customers will follow! ;-)

[Via - Springwise]

The Million-Dollar Idea in Everyone: Easy New Ways to Make Money from Your Interests, Insights, and Inventions

IdeaSpotting: How to Find Your Next Great Idea

How to Make Millions with Your Ideas: An Entrepreneur's Guide by Dan S. Kennedy

101 Businesses You Can Start With Less Than One Thousand Dollars: For Stay-at-Home Moms & Dads

Make Your Ideas Mean Bus iness

Rumor: Google Buys Groupon For $2.5 Billion

Original: Rumor: Google Buys Groupon For $2.5 Billion

Site aims to inspire by honouring real-life 'superheroes'

Original: Site aims to inspire by honouring real-life 'superheroes'

Back in June we wrote about Swedish T-Post's Real Life Superhero Contest, which asked entrants to don a costume and then take to the streets to help others. That contest has since ended — unfortunately, with mixed results — but now there's a whole website dedicated to much the same idea. Meet the Real Life Super Hero Project, a place where ordinary citizens can learn about and be inspired by those whose actions make a difference every day.

The Real Life Super Hero Project started off as a photographic gallery by California-based photographer Peter Tangen that was designed "to shine some light on this new breed of activism and altruism, through a photographic installation to benefit the established organizations the superheroes believe in," in the site's own words. And indeed, the stark, artistically styled photographs on the site emphasize the superhero qualities of the altruistic individuals being portrayed. Since its initial launch, however, the site has expanded to the point where it now aims to be a "launching pad of something far greater—a living, breathing community that inspires people to become the positive forces for change we all can be," it explains. "To become more active, more involved, more committed, and perhaps, a little super in the process." Video interviews with the superheroes profiled are available for viewing on the site along with portraits, profiles and even posters. Part of each hero's profile are links to the charitable organizations he or she supports and believes in.

The Real Life Super Hero Project may not be a typical Springwise topic, but as a lovely illustration of the random-acts-of-kindness theme we've been tracking, we couldn't resist mentioning it. One to check out and be inspired by! (Related: Clothing brand rewards fans for being kind online — Free umbrellas on rainy days aim to inspire kindness — More cards promoting random acts of kindness — Cards to inspire random acts of kindness — Random acts of kindness for Hyatt's most loyal guests — Clothing brand asks its wearers to be kind.)

Website: www.reallifesuperheroes.com
Contact: info@reallifesuperheroes.com

Spotted by: Katherine Noyes

Capturely.

Original: Capturely.

Submitted by Dmitri Davydov on Mon, 2010-11-29 12:29.

Posted in: Odd Numbers

Link of the day - If You Sell Links On Your Site, I Will Buy Them Off You


http://www.capturely.com/

Anyone who's ever launched a website knows how much trouble it can be to create a simple "coming soon" page. Templates can be expensive, and it hardly seems worthwhile setting up a server for just a single page. Enter Capturely, a new online service that lets domain registrants create a custom "coming soon" page in about a minute.

Users of California-based Capturely begin by entering a headline and body copy for their page, along with which analytics service they plan to use. They can then either pick a template for the site's appearance, or they can style their page in real time with CSS. Either way, once the page goes live, it can be used not just for publicity but also to collect the email addresses of potential customers and supporters. Soon, Capturely will also make it possible to export that email list to providers like MailChimp. Using Capturely is free for up to 20 collected email addresses; after that, it's USD 0.25 per email.

Have you registered a domain, but not yet launched your website? If so, Capturely could help you out. Otherwise, it's yet another nice illustration of one of the key principles of Marketing 101: Find an unmet need — however niche — address it well, and customers will follow! ;-)

[Via - Springwise]

The Million-Dollar Idea in Everyone: Easy New Ways to Make Money from Your Interests, Insights, and Inventions

IdeaSpotting: How to Find Your Next Great Idea

How to Make Millions with Your Ideas: An Entrepreneur's Guide by Dan S. Kennedy

101 Businesses You Can Start With Less Than One Thousand Dollars: For Stay-at-Home Moms & Dads

Make Your Ideas Mean Bus iness

Weekend WrapUp November 27th

Original: Weekend WrapUp November 27th

Scratch-and-sniff wallpaper

Original: Scratch-and-sniff wallpaper

Submitted by Dmitri Davydov on Sun, 2010-11-21 12:50.

Posted in: Crazy Money

Link of the day - If You Sell Links On Your Site, I Will Buy Them Off You


http://www.flavorleague.com/wallpaper/

Scratch-and-sniff wallpaper. Wallpaper printed with holograms. Wallpaper designed by Lenny Kravitz.

Jon Sherman's cutting-edge company, Flavor Paper, makes all of them and more. Wild patterns, intense colors and designs like the flowery/explosive Kabloom burst from the walls of his newly opened showroom in Brooklyn, N.Y., one floor up from a print studio. His windows are open to the street, so passersby can gawk at his graphic magic. "There's nothing we can't produce other than flocking," he says, and that's only because the glue's toxic.

He may sound a bit like a madman, but his work is showcased in hotels from Planet Hollywood in Las Vegas to the new W near Wall Street. These days, he collaborates with the likes of design star Jonathan Adler and does jobs ranging from an 8.5-by-11-inch framed piece to coverings for every room in the W hotel in Atlanta. He created a World Cup wallpaper with a "detailed, scrolling" pattern for Nike and also does backgrounds for photo shoots for catalogs like Banana Republic.

But how he began could be the least expected part of his story. In 2003, he was in real estate development
, looking into redesigning condo interiors in Florida to push up the selling prices, when he heard of an old stock of Mylar and foil wallpaper in Oregon that looked like "pieces o f art at a more affordable price." The producer refused to sell them but did want to unload his color screens and equipment--if Sherman could move them within 24 hours. Before long he had a 52-foot, 4-ton screening table installed in a warehouse in New Orleans, where Sherman was living. And from there it was DIY.

"I assumed there were books on making wallpaper," he says. "Boy, was I wrong."

Being clueless had its benefits, though: With Sherman's first line, shown at a trade fair in New York, "we got pretty lucky with the press," he says. "We didn't know the rules on color trends, like 'Mylar's out.'" Against-the-grain Flavor Paper stood out boldly.

In May, he opened the Flavor Lair in Brooklyn, a 1929 parking garage converted, for "a pretty penny," into a production studio on the ground floor, a huge showroom above and apartments for him and two employees. (The New Orleans operation will now produce Flavor Fabric.) Wall-size samples hang on huge spools in the showroom, suitable for flipping to appreciate designs that would not communicate in a mere swatch book.

Sherman's initial investment in New Orleans, $125,000, has grown into a business that produces as many as 600 rolls of custom paper a month. The prices are dear: $150 retail for 15 feet in a single color, plus $50 per screening for additional colors. A seven-color scratch-and-sniff with tutti-frutti would be $550 a roll. (Regular scratch-and-sniff comes in either cherry or banana scents.) Everything is printed to order (in two to three weeks), so there's no waste.

Scratch-and-sniff is not the most out-there wallpaper he has made; he has also produced black-light and glow-in-the-dark ones. A client once asked for a custom bondage theme. ("You'd have to try pretty hard to offend us," Sherman notes.) Bliss spas recently ordered wallpaper with a mustache pattern for its waxing rooms, while a Venezuelan casino that chose the same pattern did not realize it was facial hair.

Tweetjemee helps amateur cooks set up shop as neighbourhood chefs

Original: Tweetjemee helps amateur cooks set up shop as neighbourhood chefs

Aimed at amateur cooks who dream of starting their own restaurant, a Dutch site called Tweetjemee helps people sell home-cooked meals and desserts to others who live nearby.

After signing up with Tweetjemee, the Buurtchefs (neighbourhood chefs) upload pictures and descriptions of the meals they're offering for sale. They list when the food will available, their preferred pick-up times and the item's price. Customers select a meal in their neighbourhood, make payment to Tweetjemee and pick up the food at the agreed time. Payments are transferred to the chefs monthly, minus a 30% listing fee for Tweetjemee. 10% of that cut is donated to The Hunger Project, a global non-profit organization committed to ending world hunger.

The notion of selling home-cooked meals seems to be catching on — last year we covered BookofCooks, the US-based online marketplace for home-cooked meals, and earlier this month we wrote about Super Marmite, a French network that enables cooks with too much food to sell their extra servings. While food safety might be a concern, we like the concept of neighbourhood chefs offering busy or kitchen-averse consumers an alternative to professionally prepared meals. And, of course, making some money on the side. (Related: Selling is the new saving.)

Website: www.tweetjemee.nl
Contact: info@tweetjemee.nl

Small Business Saturday

Original: Small Business Saturday

Scratch-and-sniff wallpaper

Original: Scratch-and-sniff wallpaper

Submitted by Dmitri Davydov on Sun, 2010-11-21 12:50.

Posted in: Crazy Money

Link of the day - If You Sell Links On Your Site, I Will Buy Them Off You


http://www.flavorleague.com/wallpaper/

Scratch-and-sniff wallpaper. Wallpaper printed with holograms. Wallpaper designed by Lenny Kravitz.

Jon Sherman's cutting-edge company, Flavor Paper, makes all of them and more. Wild patterns, intense colors and designs like the flowery/explosive Kabloom burst from the walls of his newly opened showroom in Brooklyn, N.Y., one floor up from a print studio. His windows are open to the street, so passersby can gawk at his graphic magic. "There's nothing we can't produce other than flocking," he says, and that's only because the glue's toxic.

He may sound a bit like a madman, but his work is showcased in hotels from Planet Hollywood in Las Vegas to the new W near Wall Street. These days, he collaborates with the likes of design star Jonathan Adler and does jobs ranging from an 8.5-by-11-inch framed piece to coverings for every room in the W hotel in Atlanta. He created a World Cup wallpaper with a "detailed, scrolling" pattern for Nike and also does backgrounds for photo shoots for catalogs like Banana Republic.

But how he began could be the least expected part of his story. In 2003, he was in real estate development
, looking into redesigning condo interiors in Florida to push up the selling prices, when he heard of an old stock of Mylar and foil wallpaper in Oregon that looked like "pieces o f art at a more affordable price." The producer refused to sell them but did want to unload his color screens and equipment--if Sherman could move them within 24 hours. Before long he had a 52-foot, 4-ton screening table installed in a warehouse in New Orleans, where Sherman was living. And from there it was DIY.

"I assumed there were books on making wallpaper," he says. "Boy, was I wrong."

Being clueless had its benefits, though: With Sherman's first line, shown at a trade fair in New York, "we got pretty lucky with the press," he says. "We didn't know the rules on color trends, like 'Mylar's out.'" Against-the-grain Flavor Paper stood out boldly.

In May, he opened the Flavor Lair in Brooklyn, a 1929 parking garage converted, for "a pretty penny," into a production studio on the ground floor, a huge showroom above and apartments for him and two employees. (The New Orleans operation will now produce Flavor Fabric.) Wall-size samples hang on huge spools in the showroom, suitable for flipping to appreciate designs that would not communicate in a mere swatch book.

Sherman's initial investment in New Orleans, $125,000, has grown into a business that produces as many as 600 rolls of custom paper a month. The prices are dear: $150 retail for 15 feet in a single color, plus $50 per screening for additional colors. A seven-color scratch-and-sniff with tutti-frutti would be $550 a roll. (Regular scratch-and-sniff comes in either cherry or banana scents.) Everything is printed to order (in two to three weeks), so there's no waste.

Scratch-and-sniff is not the most out-there wallpaper he has made; he has also produced black-light and glow-in-the-dark ones. A client once asked for a custom bondage theme. ("You'd have to try pretty hard to offend us," Sherman notes.) Bliss spas recently ordered wallpaper with a mustache pattern for its waxing rooms, while a Venezuelan casino that chose the same pattern did not realize it was facial hair.

Tweetjemee helps amateur cooks set up shop as neighbourhood chefs

Original: Tweetjemee helps amateur cooks set up shop as neighbourhood chefs

Aimed at amateur cooks who dream of starting their own restaurant, a Dutch site called Tweetjemee helps people sell home-cooked meals and desserts to others who live nearby.

After signing up with Tweetjemee, the Buurtchefs (neighbourhood chefs) upload pictures and descriptions of the meals they're offering for sale. They list when the food will available, their preferred pick-up times and the item's price. Customers select a meal in their neighbourhood, make payment to Tweetjemee and pick up the food at the agreed time. Payments are transferred to the chefs monthly, minus a 30% listing fee for Tweetjemee. 10% of that cut is donated to The Hunger Project, a global non-profit organization committed to ending world hunger.

The notion of selling home-cooked meals seems to be catching on — last year we covered BookofCooks, the US-based online marketplace for home-cooked meals, and earlier this month we wrote about Super Marmite, a French network that enables cooks with too much food to sell their extra servings. While food safety might be a concern, we like the concept of neighbourhood chefs offering busy or kitchen-averse consumers an alternative to professionally prepared meals. And, of course, making some money on the side. (Related: Selling is the new saving.)

Website: www.tweetjemee.nl
Contact: info@tweetjemee.nl

Small Business Saturday

Original: Small Business Saturday

Rich’s Favorite Things

Original: Rich's Favorite Things

Classroom polls via student phones and iPods

Original: Classroom polls via student phones and iPods

It's not uncommon for educators to use student response systems (SRS) to engage their students and assess learning through polls, quizzes and other interactive tools. Most such systems rely on specialized devices known as "clickers," however, and they're also typically expensive and difficult to use without training. Enter Top Hat Monocle, a Canadian company that has developed a system in which students can use the portable devices they already have, including cell phones, laptops and iPods.

Teachers begin with Top Hat's monocleCAT by registering for free and then creating an online course in about 60 seconds, the company says. Top Hat's design team then works with the teacher to create tailored interactive content. An intuitive tool can help create questions, or existing ones can be imported; a free training program, meanwhile, offers advice culled from other professors using the system. Either way, the system can then be used to conduct polls and quizzes, interactive demos and collaborative learning exercises in class via students' own devices. Students can participate anonymously or for a grade, and their aggregated responses can be graphically represented in real time for all the class to see. Individual grades, on the other hand, can be exported to a spreadsheet at any time. Students register to use monocleCAT at their campus bookstore; pricing ranges from CAD 6 per month to CAD 120 for lifetime access.

Just as mobile apps have come to dominate many companies' interactions with consumers, so it makes perfect sense to see mobile devices put to work in the classroom. An offering similar to Top Hat's, incidentally, comes from Poll Everywhere. Either way, the potential is exciting not just for teachers but also for speakers and event organizers. One to help localize and bring to your neck of the global auditorium..?

Website: www.tophatmonocle.com
Contact: www.tophatmonocle.com/contact_us

Scratch-and-sniff wallpaper

Original: Scratch-and-sniff wallpaper

Submitted by Dmitri Davydov on Sun, 2010-11-21 12:50.

Posted in: Crazy Money

Link of the day - If You Sell Links On Your Site, I Will Buy Them Off You


http://www.flavorleague.com/wallpaper/

Scratch-and-sniff wallpaper. Wallpaper printed with holograms. Wallpaper designed by Lenny Kravitz.

Jon Sherman's cutting-edge company, Flavor Paper, makes all of them and more. Wild patterns, intense colors and designs like the flowery/explosive Kabloom burst from the walls of his newly opened showroom in Brooklyn, N.Y., one floor up from a print studio. His windows are open to the street, so passersby can gawk at his graphic magic. "There's nothing we can't produce other than flocking," he says, and that's only because the glue's toxic.

He may sound a bit like a madman, but his work is showcased in hotels from Planet Hollywood in Las Vegas to the new W near Wall Street. These days, he collaborates with the likes of design star Jonathan Adler and does jobs ranging from an 8.5-by-11-inch framed piece to coverings for every room in the W hotel in Atlanta. He created a World Cup wallpaper with a "detailed, scrolling" pattern for Nike and also does backgrounds for photo shoots for catalogs like Banana Republic.

But how he began could be the least expected part of his story. In 2003, he was in real estate development
, looking into redesigning condo interiors in Florida to push up the selling prices, when he heard of an old stock of Mylar and foil wallpaper in Oregon that looked like "pieces o f art at a more affordable price." The producer refused to sell them but did want to unload his color screens and equipment--if Sherman could move them within 24 hours. Before long he had a 52-foot, 4-ton screening table installed in a warehouse in New Orleans, where Sherman was living. And from there it was DIY.

"I assumed there were books on making wallpaper," he says. "Boy, was I wrong."

Being clueless had its benefits, though: With Sherman's first line, shown at a trade fair in New York, "we got pretty lucky with the press," he says. "We didn't know the rules on color trends, like 'Mylar's out.'" Against-the-grain Flavor Paper stood out boldly.

In May, he opened the Flavor Lair in Brooklyn, a 1929 parking garage converted, for "a pretty penny," into a production studio on the ground floor, a huge showroom above and apartments for him and two employees. (The New Orleans operation will now produce Flavor Fabric.) Wall-size samples hang on huge spools in the showroom, suitable for flipping to appreciate designs that would not communicate in a mere swatch book.

Sherman's initial investment in New Orleans, $125,000, has grown into a business that produces as many as 600 rolls of custom paper a month. The prices are dear: $150 retail for 15 feet in a single color, plus $50 per screening for additional colors. A seven-color scratch-and-sniff with tutti-frutti would be $550 a roll. (Regular scratch-and-sniff comes in either cherry or banana scents.) Everything is printed to order (in two to three weeks), so there's no waste.

Scratch-and-sniff is not the most out-there wallpaper he has made; he has also produced black-light and glow-in-the-dark ones. A client once asked for a custom bondage theme. ("You'd have to try pretty hard to offend us," Sherman notes.) Bliss spas recently ordered wallpaper with a mustache pattern for its waxing rooms, while a Venezuelan casino that chose the same pattern did not realize it was facial hair.

Is The Stock-Up Era Over?

Original: Is The Stock-Up Era Over?

Scratch-and-sniff wallpaper

Original: Scratch-and-sniff wallpaper

Submitted by Dmitri Davydov on Sun, 2010-11-21 12:50.

Posted in: Crazy Money

Link of the day - If You Sell Links On Your Site, I Will Buy Them Off You


http://www.flavorleague.com/wallpaper/

Scratch-and-sniff wallpaper. Wallpaper printed with holograms. Wallpaper designed by Lenny Kravitz.

Jon Sherman's cutting-edge company, Flavor Paper, makes all of them and more. Wild patterns, intense colors and designs like the flowery/explosive Kabloom burst from the walls of his newly opened showroom in Brooklyn, N.Y., one floor up from a print studio. His windows are open to the street, so passersby can gawk at his graphic magic. "There's nothing we can't produce other than flocking," he says, and that's only because the glue's toxic.

He may sound a bit like a madman, but his work is showcased in hotels from Planet Hollywood in Las Vegas to the new W near Wall Street. These days, he collaborates with the likes of design star Jonathan Adler and does jobs ranging from an 8.5-by-11-inch framed piece to coverings for every room in the W hotel in Atlanta. He created a World Cup wallpaper with a "detailed, scrolling" pattern for Nike and also does backgrounds for photo shoots for catalogs like Banana Republic.

But how he began could be the least expected part of his story. In 2003, he was in real estate development
, looking into redesigning condo interiors in Florida to push up the selling prices, when he heard of an old stock of Mylar and foil wallpaper in Oregon that looked like "pieces o f art at a more affordable price." The producer refused to sell them but did want to unload his color screens and equipment--if Sherman could move them within 24 hours. Before long he had a 52-foot, 4-ton screening table installed in a warehouse in New Orleans, where Sherman was living. And from there it was DIY.

"I assumed there were books on making wallpaper," he says. "Boy, was I wrong."

Being clueless had its benefits, though: With Sherman's first line, shown at a trade fair in New York, "we got pretty lucky with the press," he says. "We didn't know the rules on color trends, like 'Mylar's out.'" Against-the-grain Flavor Paper stood out boldly.

In May, he opened the Flavor Lair in Brooklyn, a 1929 parking garage converted, for "a pretty penny," into a production studio on the ground floor, a huge showroom above and apartments for him and two employees. (The New Orleans operation will now produce Flavor Fabric.) Wall-size samples hang on huge spools in the showroom, suitable for flipping to appreciate designs that would not communicate in a mere swatch book.

Sherman's initial investment in New Orleans, $125,000, has grown into a business that produces as many as 600 rolls of custom paper a month. The prices are dear: $150 retail for 15 feet in a single color, plus $50 per screening for additional colors. A seven-color scratch-and-sniff with tutti-frutti would be $550 a roll. (Regular scratch-and-sniff comes in either cherry or banana scents.) Everything is printed to order (in two to three weeks), so there's no waste.

Scratch-and-sniff is not the most out-there wallpaper he has made; he has also produced black-light and glow-in-the-dark ones. A client once asked for a custom bondage theme. ("You'd have to try pretty hard to offend us," Sherman notes.) Bliss spas recently ordered wallpaper with a mustache pattern for its waxing rooms, while a Venezuelan casino that chose the same pattern did not realize it was facial hair.

Classroom polls via student phones and iPods

Original: Classroom polls via student phones and iPods

It's not uncommon for educators to use student response systems (SRS) to engage their students and assess learning through polls, quizzes and other interactive tools. Most such systems rely on specialized devices known as "clickers," however, and they're also typically expensive and difficult to use without training. Enter Top Hat Monocle, a Canadian company that has developed a system in which students can use the portable devices they already have, including cell phones, laptops and iPods.

Teachers begin with Top Hat's monocleCAT by registering for free and then creating an online course in about 60 seconds, the company says. Top Hat's design team then works with the teacher to create tailored interactive content. An intuitive tool can help create questions, or existing ones can be imported; a free training program, meanwhile, offers advice culled from other professors using the system. Either way, the system can then be used to conduct polls and quizzes, interactive demos and collaborative learning exercises in class via students' own devices. Students can participate anonymously or for a grade, and their aggregated responses can be graphically represented in real time for all the class to see. Individual grades, on the other hand, can be exported to a spreadsheet at any time. Students register to use monocleCAT at their campus bookstore; pricing ranges from CAD 6 per month to CAD 120 for lifetime access.

Just as mobile apps have come to dominate many companies' interactions with consumers, so it makes perfect sense to see mobile devices put to work in the classroom. An offering similar to Top Hat's, incidentally, comes from Poll Everywhere. Either way, the potential is exciting not just for teachers but also for speakers and event organizers. One to help localize and bring to your neck of the global auditorium..?

Website: www.tophatmonocle.com
Contact: www.tophatmonocle.com/contact_us

Digital Camera Inventor Honored

Original: Digital Camera Inventor Honored

Scratch-and-sniff wallpaper

Original: Scratch-and-sniff wallpaper

Submitted by Dmitri Davydov on Sun, 2010-11-21 12:50.

Posted in: Crazy Money

Link of the day - If You Sell Links On Your Site, I Will Buy Them Off You


http://www.flavorleague.com/wallpaper/

Scratch-and-sniff wallpaper. Wallpaper printed with holograms. Wallpaper designed by Lenny Kravitz.

Jon Sherman's cutting-edge company, Flavor Paper, makes all of them and more. Wild patterns, intense colors and designs like the flowery/explosive Kabloom burst from the walls of his newly opened showroom in ke "pieces of art at a more affordable price." The producer refused to sell them but did want to unload his color screens and equipment--if Sherman could move them within 24 hours. Before long he had a 52-foot, 4-ton screening table installed in a warehouse in New Orleans, where Sherman was living. And from there it was DIY.

"I assumed there were books on making wallpaper," he says. "Boy, was I wrong."

Being clueless had its benefits, though: With Sherman's first line, shown at a trade fair in New York, "we got pretty lucky with the press," he says. "We didn't know the rules on color trends, like 'Mylar's out.'" Against-the-grain Flavor Paper stood out boldly.

In May, he opened the Flavor Lair in Brooklyn, a 1929 parking garage converted, for "a pretty penny," into a production studio on the ground floor, a huge showroom above and apartments for him and two employees. (The New Orleans operation will now produce Flavor Fabric.) Wall-size sam ze it was facial hair.

For planned websites, a 'coming soon' page in 1 minute

Original: For planned websites, a 'coming soon' page in 1 minute

Anyone who's ever launched a website knows how much trouble it can be to create a simple "coming soon" page. Templates can be expensive, and it hardly seems worthwhile setting up a server for just a single page. Enter Capturely, a new online service that lets domain registrants create a custom "coming soon" page in about a minute.

Users of California-based Capturely begin by entering a headline and body copy for their page, along with which analytics service they plan to use. They can then either pick a template for the site's appearance, or they can style their page in real time with CSS. Either way, once the page goes live, it can be used not just for publicity but also to collect the email addresses of potential customers and supporters. Soon, Capturely will also make it possible to export that email list to providers like MailChimp. Using Capturely is free for up to 20 collected email addresses; after that, it's USD 0.25 per email.

Have you registered a domain, but not yet launched your website? If so, Capturely could help you out. Otherwise, it's yet another nice illustration of one of the key principles of Marketing 101: Find an unmet need — however niche — address it well, and customers will follow! ;-) (Related: Crowdsourced marketing ideas, 10 for $99 — An instant storefront for any website or blog — Custom presentation designs in 48 hours for $99.)

Website: www.capturely.com
Contact: contact@capturely.com

Procurement app alerts Scottish businesses to public sector opportunities

Original: Procurement app alerts Scottish businesses to public sector opportunities

Governments have been relatively quick to launch apps for interacting with consumers — targeting civic complaints, for example — but such apps outnumber by far those aimed at businesses. That's why we were interested to see Scotland's new app for alerting domestic businesses to public sector contract opportunities.

The new procurement app was launched just last month by Public Contract Scotland (PCS), the Scottish government's flagship purchasing portal, as a way to notify businesses when new contract opportunities arise in the public sector. That's a market that's worth GBP 9 billion annually, PCS says, and now businesses large and small can use the app on their iPhones or iPads to access contract notices as they are posted; versions for other mobile phones are coming soon. Not only does the app allow users to access information more quickly and easily than by browsing on the mobile web, but it also provides the ability to search notices by category, commodity and date. The PCS app is now available for free download on iTunes.

After years of opacity and labyrinthine processes, it's heartening to see governments opening up and simplifying through the use of mobile technologies. Other governments around the world: how can you improve efficiency, relations and communication with the local businesses you rely on? (Related: Mobile app service delivers location-based disaster alerts — Fellowship recruits tech talent to transform city governments — Geo-targeted messaging with a public services twist.)

Website: www.publiccontractsscotland.co.uk
Contact: www.publiccontractsscotland.gov.uk/aboutus/aboutus_contactus.aspx

Spotted by: Ken Green

Scratch-and-sniff wallpaper

Original: Scratch-and-sniff wallpaper

Submitted by Dmitri Davydov on Sun, 2010-11-21 12:50.

Posted in: Crazy Money

Link of the day - If You Sell Links On Your Site, I Will Buy Them Off You


http://www.flavorleague.com/wallpaper/

Scratch-and-sniff wallpaper. Wallpaper printed with holograms. Wallpaper designed by Lenny Kravitz.

Jon Sherman's cutting-edge company, Flavor Paper, makes all of them and more. Wild patterns, intense colors and designs like the flowery/explosive Kabloom burst from the walls of his newly opened showroom in ke "pieces of art at a more affordable price." The producer refused to sell them but did want to unload his color screens and equipment--if Sherman could move them within 24 hours. Before long he had a 52-foot, 4-ton screening table installed in a warehouse in New Orleans, where Sherman was living. And from there it was DIY.

"I assumed there were books on making wallpaper," he says. "Boy, was I wrong."

Being clueless had its benefits, though: With Sherman's first line, shown at a trade fair in New York, "we got pretty lucky with the press," he says. "We didn't know the rules on color trends, like 'Mylar's out.'" Against-the-grain Flavor Paper stood out boldly.

In May, he opened the Flavor Lair in Brooklyn, a 1929 parking garage converted, for "a pretty penny," into a production studio on the ground floor, a huge showroom above and apartments for him and two employees. (The New Orleans operation will now produce Flavor Fabric.) Wall-size sam ze it was facial hair.

Weekend Wrap Up November 20th

Original: Weekend Wrap Up November 20th

Book features lessons from fathers, including your own

Original: Book features lessons from fathers, including your own

Over the past few years, publishers have started offering consumers various ways to create and buy customized tomes, from quality photo books to personalized children's books. Adding a twist to that model is Brazilian 24x7, best known for its book vending machines in the subways of Rio and Sao Paulo.

24x7 took an existing book and lets readers create a personalized copy. Aprendi com meu pai, or Learned from my Father, features lessons that 54 famous people learned from their fathers. Now, people can order a copy that features a lesson they learned from their own dad. Their story is added to the existing chapters, and their name is printed on the cover, as a co-author of the book.

Needless to say, the concept is ideally positioned for birthday and Father's Day gifts, and creates ample opportunity for related editions — Lessons from my Mother, Lessons from my Teacher, etc. If you're in publishing (or want to be), this one's for you ;-)

Website: www.aprendicommeupai.com.br
Contact: www.aprendicommeupai.com.br/site/contato

Spotted by: Denise Kuperman

Scratch-and-sniff wallpaper

Original: Scratch-and-sniff wallpaper

Submitted by Dmitri Davydov on Sun, 2010-11-21 12:50.

Posted in: Crazy Money

Link of the day - If You Sell Links On Your Site, I Will Buy Them Off You


http://www.flavorleague.com/wallpaper/

Scratch-and-sniff wallpaper. Wallpaper printed with holograms. Wallpaper designed by Lenny Kravitz.

Jon Sherman's cutting-edge company, Flavor Paper, makes all of them and more. Wild patterns, intense colors and designs like the flowery/explosive Kabloom burst from the walls of his newly opened showroom in ke "pieces of art at a more affordable price." The producer refused to sell them but did want to unload his color screens and equipment--if Sherman could move them within 24 hours. Before long he had a 52-foot, 4-ton screening table installed in a warehouse in New Orleans, where Sherman was living. And from there it was DIY.

"I assumed there were books on making wallpaper," he says. "Boy, was I wrong."

Being clueless had its benefits, though: With Sherman's first line, shown at a trade fair in New York, "we got pretty lucky with the press," he says. "We didn't know the rules on color trends, like 'Mylar's out.'" Against-the-grain Flavor Paper stood out boldly.

In May, he opened the Flavor Lair in Brooklyn, a 1929 parking garage converted, for "a pretty penny," into a production studio on the ground floor, a huge showroom above and apartments for him and two employees. (The New Orleans operation will now produce Flavor Fabric.) Wall-size sam ze it was facial hair.

Weekend Wrap Up November 20th

Original: Weekend Wrap Up November 20th

Book Of Cooks

Original: Book Of Cooks

Submitted by Dmitri Davydov on Mon, 2010-11-15 11:11.

Posted in: Odd Numbers

Link of the day - If You Sell Links On Your Site, I Will Buy Them Off You


http://www.bookofcooks.com/

Consumers who lack the time, energy or skills to prepare delicious home-cooked meals themselves already have semi-cooking options to help them along—including shopping and delivery services such as I Love Mother—as well as meal prep stores, with or without instruction. When even those are too much, however, BookOfCooks is a new online marketpl entèle, whether as a full-time business or—meshing nicely with what our sister site would call the sellsumer trend—for a little extra money on the side. There are, of course, legal issues to be navigated when preparing food for the consumption of others—and the related question of how many consumers will be willing to buy food from amateurs. Nevertheless, with ratings and reviews providing at least a small measure of protection, it seems possible this could spark a recession-inspired anti-restaurant trend.

For more unusual ways to make money, visit this site.

[Via - Springwise]

Book features lessons from fathers, including your own

Original: Book features lessons from fathers, including your own

Over the past few years, publishers have started offering consumers various ways to create and buy customized tomes, from quality photo books to personalized children's books. Adding a twist to that model is Brazilian 24x7, best known for its book vending machines in the subways of Rio and Sao Paulo.

24x7 took an existing book and lets readers create a personalized copy. Aprendi com meu pai, or Learned from my Father, features lessons that 54 famous people learned from their fathers. Now, people can order a copy that features a lesson they learned from their own dad. Their story is added to the existing chapters, and their name is printed on the cover, as a co-author of the book.

Needless to say, the concept is ideally positioned for birthday and Father's Day gifts, and creates ample opportunity for related editions — Lessons from my Mother, Lessons from my Teacher, etc. If you're in publishing (or want to be), this one's for you ;-)

Website: www.aprendicommeupai.com.br
Contact: www.aprendicommeupai.com.br/site/contato

Spotted by: Denise Kuperman

Video: Maximizing Your Marketing ROI

Original: Video: Maximizing Your Marketing ROI

Online yoga classes adapt to the student's available time

Original: Online yoga classes adapt to the student's available time

In what has become a vast sea of online yoga offerings, it takes something special to make a particular site stand out. For YogaVibes, that something is the inclusion of real fellow students, as we noted last year. For YogaTailor, on the other hand, it's a feature that customizes the site's online yoga classes to fit the viewer's expertise and available time.

Aiming to make its online yoga classes more widely accessible than most, YogaTailor begins by asking the student how much time they have available that day as well as their level of experience and whether they are pregnant or have back pain. Once that information has been gathered, the site creates a custom online yoga video that can be streamed immediately. Programs are different on different days so as to prevent boredom; they even adapt over time as the student progresses. Either way, they can be followed at the viewer's pace and don't take more time than he or she has. After a free trial, YogaTailor costs USD 7.99 per month.

Customization is almost always a good thing, as legions of product and service providers have already realized. Where that trend is less often seen, however, is with respect to the consumer's available time. YogaTailor is smart to appreciate that consumers don't always have unlimited time for its offerings—other service providers would do well to emulate its example.

Website: www.yogatailor.com
Contact: www.yogatailor.com/index.php?pmode=contact_us

Spotted by: Ramesh

Book Of Cooks

Original: Book Of Cooks

Submitted by Dmitri Davydov on Mon, 2010-11-15 11:11.

Posted in: Odd Numbers

Link of the day - If You Sell Links On Your Site, I Will Buy Them Off You


http://www.bookofcooks.com/

Consumers who lack the time, energy or skills to prepare delicious home-cooked meals themselves already have semi-cooking options to help them along—including shopping and delivery services such as I Love Mother—as well as meal prep stores, with or without instruction. When even those are too much, however, BookOfCooks is a new online marketpl entèle, whether as a full-time business or—meshing nicely with what our sister site would call the sellsumer trend—for a little extra money on the side. There are, of course, legal issues to be navigated when preparing food for the consumption of others—and the related question of how many consumers will be willing to buy food from amateurs. Nevertheless, with ratings and reviews providing at least a small measure of protection, it seems possible this could spark a recession-inspired anti-restaurant trend.

For more unusual ways to make money, visit this site.

[Via - Springwise]

Making Ads That Whisper To The Brain

Original: Making Ads That Whisper To The Brain