Iconoculture: The Welcome Home program trains bilingual veterans of the U.S. Armed Forces to become mortgage brokers so they can help Latinos buy homes. The free online program awards a Mortgage Banking Achievement Certificate that certifies veterans to broker, service, and process mortgages. Because veterans leave the military with a host of skills, including the ability to work with people […]
Within Home
Heart Sensor
Shiny Shiny: Not the first, and we’re sure it won’t be the last, but this Textronics NuMetrex sports bra has a built-in heart rate monitoring system for keen running types. The sensors pick up your heartbeat and sends the info to the WearLink transmitter, which forwards it on to the heart rate monitor watch. Then all you need to do […]
Farming For Gold
we make money not art: Online gamers who lack the time and patience to work their way up to the higher levels of gamedom are willing to pay the young Chinese to play the early rounds for them. These “gold farmers” work every day, in 12-hour shifts, playing computer games to harvest gold coins and other virtual goods that can […]
Stylish Vacuum
Iconoculture: Sit and … suck? Shaped like a high-design beanbag chair, the Airpouf vacuum cleaner doubles as a spot to sit or a room decoration. For those who want to keep housekeeping appliances at hand without sacrificing style, the fabric-covered Airpouf by Italian designer Lorenzo Damiani has three openings: for the suction tube, the vent, and the start button. Aside […]
Word Of Consumers
Trendwatching: Take a cue from Vichy Korea (skin care): since end of last year, they’ve been inviting customers to blog about their experience with the Myokine anti-wrinkle product line. Consumers shared and tracked results day by day, adding updates in real time. Vichy not only ‘learned’, but also gave back by having skin experts answer individual questions. 9,000 people signed […]
Kitty Sing
Shiny Shiny: Here’s some Hello Kitty irony for you: she has no mouth – but two of the newest additions to her ever-growing gadget kingdom have features for those of us doomed to open ours from time to time. First is SBODM International Industrial Co. Ltd’s Hello Kitty-shaped flash MP3/WMA player, which offers synchronous lyrics display so you can sing […]
Seasonal Outdoor Lighting
Entrepreneur: Bob Martin and his employee-turned-partner, Larry Jones, couldn’t help but notice the attention they were receiving as they put up their first client’s Christmas display. “We had 25-foot toy soldiers, a 40-foot arch going across the driveway, a 36-foot-long Santa’s Express in the front yard, and about 400,000 lights going throughout the property,” says Martin, 45. The extravagant display […]
Shop with Phone
PSFK: The End of Shopping is here. The barcode scanning technology, mentioned in that Times article Guy touched on, actually exists and If you have a camera phone and either T-Mobile or Cingular, you can download the software for free and start scanning for the lowest price around. This is how scan-commerce works, after you download the software from ScanZoom, […]
Seeing Possibilities
we make money not art: NEC has developed a 0.3-millimeter (0.012-inch) thick, foldable battery to be used in cards or clothes, leading to new possibilities such as people walking through ticket gates with fare passes in their pockets. The battery can support tens of thousands of signal transmissions on a single charge and can be recharged in less than 30 […]
Loading Service
Entrepreneur: Apple Computer’s iPods are everywhere these days, and they’re hungry. Just ask Catherine Keane, 24, who started her business, HungryPod, shortly after an acquaintance offered her $500 to load his CD collection onto his iPod. Keane took the offer and determined that with two more customers paying similar prices, she could launch a business for $1,500–enough to buy a […]