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Back in 2007 we wrote about Zlio, the site that lets anyone set up a web shop in a matter of minutes. Zlio has since seen the launch of more than 350,000 stores using its service, but recently we came across a brand-new contender with a slightly different twist: tinypay.me. Much like Zlio, New York-based tinypay.me lets any user create a store in 60 seconds. No account is required; rather, users simply indicate what products they'd like to sell, at what prices, and whether they'd like to donate any portion of their sales to charity. Both physical and virtual goods can be sold through the site, with pictures for those in the real world; stores can also be geotagged. Either way, tinypay.me then creates a unique page for each product, and an embed link lets users include those products on their own sites. All payments are handled through PayPal, with a fee to tinypay.me of 5 percent of the total sales price. If a seller donates a percentage of its sales to charity, tinypay.me donates the same percentage of its fee as well. Just last week, Tinypay.me won the Amsterdam Pitch Slam at Innovate!2010. Whether among minipreneurs or the swelling ranks of sellsumers today, anything that makes selling easier is almost bound to be a success. One to emulate locally or on a niche basis? (Related: Helping minipreneurs sell their expertise — Platform lets anyone create & monetize an online school — Cheap & simple credit card processing for everyone.) Website: www.tinypay.me Spotted by: Astrid Raams |
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The “buy one, give one” efforts are coming fast and furious lately, but we felt compelled to mention one more particularly elegant example: FIGS, a California-based tie maker that donates a school uniform to a needy African child for each purchase on its site. In many parts of Africa, a proper uniform is a prerequisite for attending school. For those in poverty-stricken areas, however, affording one is essentially impossible, meaning that children go uneducated. FIGS's answer to that problem is that for every tie or bow tie it sells, a uniform is given to a child in need. The company sells a wide variety of neckwear—in varieties including Italian silk woven, pure British woolen and fine wool tartan—at prices ranging from USD 105 to USD 140 each. Custom ties are also available. FIGS is focusing initially on 105 schools in Kenya and Tanzania, but it hopes eventually to extend its efforts around the globe. Clothing manufacturers, distributors and other likely partners: time to help make that happen? (Related: Giving engine enables 'buy one, give one' generosity — Buy a bottle of wine and donate clean water — Buy a onesie, donate one to a baby in need — Shoes for good.) Website: www.wearfigs.com Spotted by: Troy Tessalone |
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Electric scooters may be increasingly popular as an emissions-free transportation option, but charging them can be a hassle. With that in mind, UK-based Econogo has come up with the Yogo, a scooter whose battery is designed to be removed for easier charging. Most electric scooters are powered by built-in batteries. One result of that fact is that recharging them typically involves running a cable from a building to wherever the vehicle is parked and then waiting several hours for a full charge. That may work fine for those with easy access to a garage; for urbanites and apartment-dwellers, not so much. Econogo's newly launched solution: a scooter with a Lithium battery that can be simply lifted out, brought inside and charged within an hour. With a top speed of 30 miles per hour and a battery life of 22 miles, the Yogo is priced at GBP 1,999. Econogo currently sells its scooters though its London showroom; one to partner with for scooter fans in other parts of the world? (Related: Lightweight electric bike targets urban commuters — Folding electric two-wheeler offers new take on urban cycling — Emissions-free motorcycle taxis.) Website: www.econogoelectricscooters.co.uk Spotted by: Gemma Massey |
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Promoting shorter showers, Efergy's Shower Time tracks how much water is used when showering. It comes with a calibration bag to determine how long a specific showerhead takes to run through one liter of water. That number is then saved in the timer's memory, along with the maximum amount of water someone would like to use. During a shower, the timer indicates how much water has been used so far, and sets off an alarm when it's time to turn off the tap. Combining hard data with an appealing interface, the Tendril Vision is a one-stop dashboard for household energy management. It not only lets users review their own current and historical energy consumption, but also that of their neighbourhood. It displays real-time pricing information, alerts users of upcoming price changes, and helps automate routine tasks to circumvent peak load times. Designed by IDEO, the system presents all of this complex information through a simple and elegant interface on a touchscreen display, developed to make energy management part of a household's daily routine. Getting kids in on the action, Tio is a light switch ghost that shows children how much energy they're using. Tio starts off green and happy, and becomes red and angry if lights are left on too long. Information from the light switch is sent to a computer program that allows children and watchful parents to track their lighting use over a period of time. Besides reminding kids to turn off lights, the device is also a playful way of making them aware of the need for energy conservation. The concept was created by Tim Holley, a British designer based in Germany. Like the colour-changing ghost, the Power Aware cord relies on ambient visual cues to remind consumers of their energy consumption. Launched by Static!, an interactive design agency, the cord glows blue when turned on, lighting up more brightly as energy use increases. From partnering with appliance manufacturers to distributing smart devices through utility companies, this area is rife with business opportunities. Time to increase energy awareness in your part of the world?
Check out PG&E's We Can Do This website for more, including a feature on the Sierra Nevada Brewing Co., a sustainable brewery. |
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With consumers exhibiting an ever-increasing lust for instant gratification, it was only a matter of time before nowism was applied to online dating. Enter New York-based start-up Urban Signals, a location-based mobile application that enables immediate in-person connections between singles. Launched in January, the Urban Signals app works by broadcasting the location of users based on GPS signals, which enables members to locate nearby singles and meet up instantaneously if they desire. Similar to online dating, each user creates a profile and sets their ideal partner preferences. Whenever their radar is switched on, they are shown the location, mood and status of fellow members of interest within their specified radius. “Signals” are exchanged between users to make contact. The app is free to download from Apple’s iTunes store. New users are given a one month trial, after which the ‘Unlimited Signals’ pack can be purchased for USD 4.99 per month. With Urban Signals taking care of spontaneous love/lust connections, where else might consumers be interested in a similar service for real-time people connecting of another kind? Perhaps parents seeking company for impromptu play dates, tennis players seeking partners for spur-of-the-moment matches... The possibilities are endless. (Related: Online dating, Facebook style — Dating via Twitter — Online speed dating.) Website: www.urbansignals.net Spotted by: John Lally
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We've seen several supper clubs and “anti-restaurants” over the years, including Ghetto Gourmet, BookOfCooks and Charlie's Burgers. Proving the budget-minded idea still has strong potential, London's recently launched Stolen Supper Club sets itself apart by explicitly featuring recipes purloined from other, high-end restaurants. Stolen specialises in parties, but it also holds two weekly events. Its Monday Supper Club serves up to 15 guests in Stolen's cosy Notting Hill location. Usually BYOB, the supper club features a different menu each week—often, news of the recipe “heist” that inspired it is posted beforehand on the company blog. A recent week in March, for example, featured recipes “stolen” from London's renowned Cinnamon Club, including Chicken Tikka Masala and stir-fried okra with dried mango, for a minimum contribution of GBP 30. Stolen also offers a Thursday market stall at London's Maida Hill Market for lunchtime fare; delivery is available as well. Economic recovery may be under way, but it could be a long time before consumers lose their hard-won thriftiness; they'll certainly never lose their taste for quality. How better to tap into both than by providing low-cost but still very high-end meals, with a unique experience to boot? Foodies and chefs around the globe: one to emulate for the budget-minded gourmets in your neck of the woods...? Website: www.stolen.it |
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It's become increasingly common for restaurants to let consumers order food online or even via text message. What's still novel, however, is to see a native, customized and branded mobile application. Burrito chain Chipotle recently launched its own iPhone app, and now there's something similar from UK chain Wagamama. Billed as the UK's first iPhone app from a restaurant chain, Wagamama's free application can help users locate the nearest Wagamama restaurant and then browse the continuously updated menu to place their order. They can even customize their dishes by adding and removing ingredients. Orders are sent straight through to the kitchen, and up-to-the-minute status reports keep customers informed as to pick-up times. Secure payment options via the app include both debit and credit card. Cross-restaurant apps like GrubHub and CityMint may be useful for drawing in new customers, but when it comes to loyal, repeat diners, there's nothing like a custom app for providing the truly service-minded experience of what our sister site would call a brand butler. Other eateries around the world: what about you...? Website: www.wagamama.com/onlineordering/mobile |
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Anyone who spends any time at all online knows how easy it is to waste that time on sites one might call the online equivalent of junk food. ProcrasDonate is a site that hopes to turn that wasted time into something good while also giving users an incentive to waste less in the future. Users begin by downloading Massachusetts-based ProcrasDonate's free Firefox add-on and registering with the site, including choosing the charities they'd like to support and the amounts they pledge for each hour they waste. They then select the sites they consider their biggest time-wasters—Facebook and Twitter are both obvious choices, the site notes—and link their Amazon account for payments. There's also an option to highlight sites that are the opposite of time-wasters through ProcrasDonate's TimeWellSpent category; in that case, users can choose to reward those site owners for their worthy content. Either way, users then go about their normal online activities, and ProcrasDonate records the way their time is spent. For each hour they spend on websites marked as time-wasters, a pledge gets recorded for their selected charities; every hour spent on those marked as TimeWellSpent, conversely, means a donation to those sites' owners. Whenever a pledge reaches a threshold of USD 10, a donation is made directly and in full from the user's Amazon account. Users can track their cumulative donations via ProcrasDonate's “my impact” page; they can also request weekly emails with progress updates. A meter bar in the browser add-on, meanwhile, shows how much time has been wasted over the course of the week, gradually turning red when that amount exceeds the user's set goal. Much like Pledgehammer—which turns resolution set-backs into charitable donations—ProcrasDonate's win-win-win potential is what makes it especially compelling. Consumers waste less time; good sites get supported; and charities get helped along the way. Where else could consumers' ongoing challenges be turned around for good...? (Related: Wrist device rewards kids for exercising — Learning site motivates kids with real rewards — Appealing to gravanity of smokers who plan to quit.) Website: www.procrasdonate.com Spotted by: Margarita Barry |
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Longtime Springwise readers may recall T-Post, the Swedish company we wrote about back in 2006 for its news-based t-shirt subscription service. T-Post is still going strong, and we couldn't resist mentioning one of its latest issues: an augmented reality t-shirt that lets wearers play a virtual game of Rock-Paper-Scissors. Focusing on the topic of higher education, T-Post's Issue No. 51 was designed by 23-year-old Marc Stromberg to reflect the increasing incorporation of games and other recreational activities into mainstream education. With technical help from creative collective Moment 77, Stromberg's t-shirt design features images of real rocks, paper and scissors. The cool part? When wearing the t-shirt, T-post subscribers can stand in front of a webcam for the ability to play a virtual game of Rock-Paper-Scissors with a computer-generated arm that appears to be coming out of the shirt. A video demonstrates the virtual game in action. Though the t-shirt is no longer available, a printable version of the image is available on T-post's site. We've now seen augmented reality in a range of apps focused on everything from music festivals to architectural tourism to virtual makeovers, but this is the first time we've seen it used in clothing. How could *your* tech-savvy brand use AR to forge some new OFF=ON connections? (Related: T-shirt comes with free music downloads.) Website: www.t-post.se/rockpaperscissors Spotted by: Jenny Lau |
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We've seen a few different efforts to document the world through auto-snapping cameras—including both Yahoo's photo-based marketing campaign and Vicon's life-caching device—but recently we came across one that adds video to the picture, so to speak. DailyRoads Voyager is a free application for Android-powered mobile phones that enables continuous video recording from moving vehicles. DailyRoads Voyager is intended to serve as what's essentially a video black box for cars, recording everything but allowing users to keep only what they're really interested in. Whether it's an encounter with unusual wildlife in the road or the sequence of events leading to an accident, the application works in the background to timestamp, geotag and save all videos on the SD card; as space fills up, it automatically deletes the oldest ones unless they've been tagged for longer-term storage. DailyRoads Voyager can also take still photos at user-selectable intervals; whichever format is used, it can upload all recorded material in accordance with the user's preset specifications. The accumulated files can then be easily managed, played back and grouped in selections. For now, Romanian DailyRoads is still beta-testing the Voyager application. Integration with YouTube, Picasa, Flickr and others is coming soon, the company says. App-dev entrepreneurs: who will build the first interface for seamless accident reporting...? And insurance companies: how about partnering with them? (Related: iPhone app helps State Farm users submit a claim.) Website: www.dailyroads.com/voyager/ |
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