New Business Ideas/Opportunities Featured In This Issue:
CULTURE & MUSIC
Free Music by We7
A new platform called We7 has developed a system that does just that. Currently in beta, We7 gives brands the chance to communicate with users by “grafting” a short (around 10 seconds) audio or video ad to the front end of the file.
Hail The iRosary
The iRosary converts the iPod’s white headphones into a hybrid prayer bead that can be shifted and then heard as an “audio bead” during prayers, which are themselves monitored via the iPod’s integrated calendar. As an added bonus, the iRosary accommodates for various degrees of piousness by allowing users to choose between three settings.
Bassline Needed
A social networking site with a musical slant, Indaba Music gives users a place to not only share their own music, but also facilitates public and private sessions through which multiple artists can collaborate on recording projects.
SERVICES
Providing a Thriving Office
Thriving Office is a CD, filled with office sounds, that home businesses play it in the background while they’re on the phone to sound more established.
Timeshare Canine
Leased cars. Vacation condos. And now, timeshare dogs. FLEXPETZ lets dog lovers who don’t have the time or space to be full-time pet owners make playdates with dogs from breed-rescue shelters.
TECHNOLOGY
Secure ATM
Magtek, a company that has developed a product, MagnePrint, for recording the unique magnetic media signature for all credit and debit cards scanned through its readers. The first scan by a MagnePrint reader creates a template against which all subsequent scans are compared.
Yoyo Phone
ModeLabs has created a series of concept phones that run off sustainable energy sources. One concept phone looks like a yo-yo that hangs around the user’s neck and continuously harnesses both solar and kinetic energy using a pendulum and voltaic cells.
CONSUMER GOODS
No Poison Spray
Most pesticides I’ve used are full of toxic chemicals, but this spray doesn’t have anything like that. The active ingredient is natural mint extract, which is a neuro-toxin. It works just as well or better than any spray I’ve tried, and smells very minty.
AGRICULTURAL & ENVIRONMENTAL
A New Way of Farming
Julian Cunningham started Swallow Crest Farm in 1999, a few years after moving his family to this scenic area on LaBrant Road. He taught a preschool for three years before deciding his heart was in farming — and he wanted to grow the healthiest food possible.
FOOD & BEVERAGE
Instant Rice
Instant noodles have been around long enough that we take their 2-minute preparation time for granted. Now Japan brings us Hotto! Raisu – specially packed rice that can be served up as a piping hot meal, just by pouring water over the packaging. No cooking required!
RETAIL
Grand Opening
It is precisely this commercial whimsy that inspired Canadian brothers Ben and Hall Smyth to create GrandOpening, a space that will constantly reopen every three months. GrandOpening is currently a ping-pong parlor equipped with full-sized table and recording facilities so you can watch your performances on YouTube.
ADVERTISING
Toilet Advertising
Call it ingenious marketing or just plain bad taste, but a company promoting its laxatives on a bus stop billboard on busy Avenida Faria Lima in São Paulo has incorporated toilet lids attached to the seats where bus passengers sit and wait to further drive home its message.
GADGETS
Solar Lighter
If you are an adventurous animal then lemme give you some dope on the solar powered lighter. This solar-powered lighter doesn’t actually create an open flame, but it does create a series of sparks that should be capable of lighting a BBQ grill.
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