Junkebox Technology

Patrons at select pubs and restaurants in Israel, France and Australia no longer need to worry about change for the jukebox or bugging a dj to play their favourite tunes—they can queue up their music choices via text message from their cellphones.

SMS jukebox technology, such as c|station by Australian Rippamedia and SMS DJ by Israeli YCD Multimedia, puts song selection literally at customers' fingertips. Customers simply select from a menu of available tunes—which may be promoted on menus, coasters or other collateral throughout an establishment—and send in their requests via SMS for a small fee. The service plays their requests over the in-house speakers and can even complement the music with videos, or promotions to download ringtones. Once a customer has sent a request, he or she can also access the full library of available songs. YCD launched their version in cooperation with network operator Orange in Israel and France, splitting revenues from the premium text message service between the mobile operator, the owner of the location, and YCD.
For More.
www.rippamedia.com.au/news/sms-jukebox.htm Contact: info@rippamedia.com.au

Want A Nap Don't Worry

MetroNaps launched sleep pods for bleary-eyed New Yorkers in dire need of a nap. New Yorkers who need to relax and recharge can now also duck into Yelo—a new sleep salon offering 20- to 40-minute power naps and reflexology treatments. Research has shown that napping can boost productivity and performance, and Yelo offers more than just a light snooze.
Patented private sleep chambers called YeloCabs feature purified air, 500-count linens, cashmere blankets and Yelo's own YeloChairs, which are specially designed to elevate the legs above the heart for optimum relaxation. Customers can select relaxing music or soundscapes to fit their moods, and can personalize lighting and color in their chambers. Aromatherapy is also available. Priced at USD 12-14, YeloNaps are an affordable indulgence.
More: www.yelonyc.com

MyShape

Every body is different, and just five or six percent of bodies fit the model that most designers use as their standard. Which is why a women's apparel retailer is using proprietary technology to customize selections to a customer's individual shape. When signing up for their personal myShop, customers enter their measurements and MyShape's patent pending ShapeMatch software determines their body shape. MyShape has defined seven basic body shapes, based on proportions and sizes of waist, shoulders, hips, etc.
The customer is then shown outfits that flatter their shape and fit their body measurements. And, of course, that match their style preferences. MyShape works with 100 designers, most of whom handle shipping. MyShape receives a sales commission. The start-up's aim is to make shopping effortless for busy women, saving them the time and frustration of trying on 10 different skirts in a store. It also removes the guesswork from online shopping, caused by inconsistent sizing between brands and retailers.
For More:www.myshape.com

Interesting New Virtual Universe

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Pxidigital

While the major photography and printing brands - Kodak, Epson, HP - have developed their own digital photo printing kiosks over the past few years, an Australian start-up is convinced that it can grab a good share of a highly competitive market that HP has estimated to be worth USD 7.7 billion by 2009 (including photo mini-labs).
Pxi has developed a self-contained, full-service kiosk that offers photo printing, editing, storing and online sharing. Unlike other kiosks, which are usually placed within stores, Pxi is focusing on malls and other busy public spaces - airports, train stations, universities and hospitals.
For More: www.pxidigital.comContact: info@pxidigital.com

Ello Mobile

Belgian Ello Mobile is a new mobile operator that was established with the sole aim of giving away 100% of its profits. Ello is a mobile virtual network operator – it uses an existing network. Instead of offering bargain-basement cellphone plans, the company offers its customers the chance to contribute directly to a cause with every call they make, and every text message they send.

Customers can currently pick one of six projects, from protecting the jungles of Sumatra to providing mobile schools to street children in South America. Another six projects will be added over the next few months, all of which have been selected by an independent panel of experts. Ello understands the need for charitable organizations to be completely transparent, and will share full profit and loss statements with its customers. To minimize costs, the company is entirely web-based, and works with a small administrative staff. Profit margins are forecast at 24-33% for the first three years, and are targeted to climb to 41% after 2009.

http://www.ello-mobile.be

New Way Of Advertrising

Los Angeles-based Spot Runner offers a solution, by making it fast, easy and affordable for local businesses to advertise on television.
The entire process is online and automated: customers pick from a wide range of ready-made videos that are tailor-made to their industry. After selecting an ad, the business customizes voice-over text and on-screen information, and tells Spot Runner how much it would like to spend on air time and which markets the ad should run in. Complete campaigns, including production and airtime, start at USD 1,500 and can be up and running within weeks.
While some businesses may balk at the idea of cookie-cutter ads, the production quality is higher then most local florists, pet shops and wedding planners would otherwise be able to afford. And the self-service approach saves time and should appeal to businesses who don't have budgets for working with agencies and media planners. Very comparable to Google's AdWords approach to advertising online.For more:: www.spotrunner.com

Formotus

Formotus is an angel-backed mobile software startup that has developed a new way for on-the-go workers -- tax assessors, real estate agents and utility meter readers -- to access forms and documents on portable devices.

The startup was founded in 2005 by Joe Verschueren -- a wireless veteran who, before creating ImageX, worked at US West-- and Adriana Neagu -- who, during her 10 years at Microsoft, helped develop the InfoPath technology.

The 25-person company, with contract developers in India and Romania, is unveiling its first product today, called FormoPublish, at the CTIA Wireless conference in Orlando, Fla.

Verschueren says Formotus is utilizing Microsoft's InfoPath electronic forms technology to create "the absolute fastest, easiest, most affordable way that you can deploy data to a wireless device."More:http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/venture/

Fractional Life

With more and more opportunities for leasing and other forms of partial or temporary ownership, it's no surprise that someone decided to create a web portal for 'everything fractional'. British Fractional Life offers consumers an extensive overview of companies that offer asset sharing schemes. The website's categories read like a summary of life's spendy pleasures: from fine wines and racehorses to classic cars and helicopters, all of which are available in shares or time-slots.
As Fractional Life explains, fractional ownership and asset-sharing let consumers get the most out of their investment by purchasing only the shares or time they require, leaving money free for purchasing as many experiences as possible. The portal aims to help consumers make well-informed decisions and find the 'global lifestyle experiences' that best fit their desires.
For More: www.fractionallife.com

Herold

Austrian Herold, which publishes the country’s white and yellow pages, claims to offer a worldwide first. Customers can purchase Austria’s entire phone directory and plug it into their cellphone. At first glance, this may seem somewhat outmoded. Why use an offline solution when almost every modern phone has internet access? Well, looking up phone numbers through a smartphone’s browser has two major drawbacks: it can be very slow and very expensive, since telecom providers in many countries still charge outlandish fees for data transfer.
And Herold’s mobile phone book has a very useful feature: if a user receives a call from someone who isn’t in their personal contact list, Herold will automatically find and display the caller’s name. (So-called ‘calling name delivery’ is offered by telecom providers in some countries, but often doesn’t work if a call takes place between different providers.
For detail: www.herold.at

Product Promoting

Recently launched iliketotallyloveit.com is a community-based website for product recommendations. Or, in terms a Valley Girl would be more likely to grasp, a popularity contest for beautiful things. Members can submit short reviews of desirable goods, with a link to where the item can be purchased. If enough other members like totally love it, the product is promoted to the front page, where it's exposed to a wider audience.
With a voting system that's very similar to that of popular news ranking website Digg, the website can be viewed as an online, user-controlled version of shopping magazines like Lucky and Domino. Products categories include fashion, food and furniture, featuring everything from the "Lookin' Good For Jesus Mini Kit" to such obvious favourites as Apple's MacBook Pro.
For more:: www.iliketotallyloveit.com

FlyLite

Door-to-door luggage delivery services have been sprouting up around the world (see Personal Porter, Luggage Forward, Virtual Bellhop), helping air travellers avoid the hassles of waits at baggage carousels, searches by security staff and lost luggage. Newcomer FlyLite takes the concept a few steps further. The company not only picks up and delivers a member's bag, but also packs it, dry cleans the contents and keeps everything in storage until the customer's next flight.
How it works? Customers receive a suitcase from FlyLite, which they pack with their favourite travelling gear, from suits and shoes to golf clubs and toiletries. FlyLite then collects the bag and stores the contents. A full inventory is made and placed online, allowing users to browse through their wardrobe and select what they'll need for their next trip, using a simple drag and drop interface.
After they've entered their destination and arrival date, FlyLite takes care of the rest. Leaving customers to zip through airports, fly blissfully luggage-free, and find their suitcases waiting for them at their destination, without having to worry about clean socks or packing. It's a life-smoothing service for consumers who have more money than time, and are willing to pay well for what trendwatching.com has suggestively dubbed daily lubricants. For more. www.flylite.com

Music

Amie Street aims to make it easy and affordable for consumers to discover new independent music. What makes it unique? Every song sold at the 'fly little music site' starts off being free and the price increases to a maximum of USD 0.98 depending on how many people download it. The more popular a song, the faster its price will increase to 98 cents. Besides giving early buyers a better deal, the market price system gives them the added pleasure of seeing they've discovered a song or artist before everyone else has.
Members are also rewarded for recommending music. As explained by Amie Street: "We know music is social, and the process of music discovery is stunted by traditional digital music retail sites because they are not social (or fun). Music discovery is best catalyzed by communication between people, so we reward fans for recommending songs to their friends by giving them credit to buy more music." If a member reviews or otherwise recommends a song, they're credited with the song's price increase. So, if you recommend a song while it's priced at 10 cents, and the price goes up to 90 cents, you earn 80 cents worth of credits. Promotion isn't left solely to the community, though. Amie Street does its part, from interviewing bands and posting their videos, to organizing showcase concerts in New York.
For More: www.amiestreet.com

Guiding The Virtual World

A travel agency for virtual worlds. Synthravels is the first travel organization to offer a guide service to anyone who wants to tour highly-hyped virtual worlds like Second Life or World of Warcraft.
The increasing complexity of virtual worlds is making them more interesting, fun and potentially lucrative. But it's also creating a considerable threshold for newbies, especially for those who have little or no experience with online gaming. Compare it to snatching a tourist from his annual holiday in Myrtle Beach and dropping him in the back streets of Mumbai ;-)
Which is why it makes perfect sense for two savvy Italian entrepreneurs to set up a service that takes curious explorers by the hand and shows them the wonders of metaworlds. A customer registers with Synthravels, picks a destination and preferred day and hour for the trip. Within a few days, he or she receives an itinerary by email. To prepare, a visitor has to download any software needed for the virtual world and should also create an avatar. After logging in on the selected day and time, the visitor will find an expert guide waiting to show them the ropes, from the basics of maneuvering to finding elusive and exclusive virtual hotspots. For More: www.synthravels.com

No Middleman

UK-based Zopa, a place where creditworthy consumers who'd like to borrow money can get together with other consumers who are happy to lend it to them. Cutting out the middleman, lenders set their own rate of return and choose which borrowers they want to lend to. Zopa manages various 'markets', matching lenders with borrowers' various risk profiles. Intrepid lenders might choose borrowers at a lower credit band who can give them a higher rate of interest. Cautious lenders can choose borrowers at a higher credit band, but then of course the rate will be lower.
To reduce overall risk, an individual lender doesn't actually lend to an individual borrower; instead a lender lends money across at least fifty Zopa borrowers, and similarly a borrower borrows from a group of Zopa lenders. All lenders and borrowers enter into a legally binding contract with their respective borrowers and lenders. Zopa manages the collection of monthly repayments and if any of that money is not paid on time, it uses exactly the same recovery processes that mainstream banks use.

Miniprenures

French Zlio lets anyone set up an online shop in 5 minutes. Shop owners don't actually need to have anything to sell. They don't have to worry about stock or shipping, either, since orders are fulfilled by large online retailers like Amazon.com, eBay and Buy.com. This leaves Zlio shopkeepers free to focus on curation (selecting an appealing array of products) and promotion.
Zlio was founded in France in November 2005 as a recommendation service, letting users recommend favourite products to their friends and family in exchange for small commissions. Which is comparable to other social affiliate schemes like FavoriteThingz and MyPickList.com, which were featured in trendwatching.com's briefing on Generation Cash.
For More: : www.zlio.com

Power Of Groups

Popular Chinese sites that are enabling crowds to first group online and then plan for real world shopmobbing are TeamBuy, Taobao and Liba. Combined, these sites now boast hundreds of thousands of registered members, making money from ad revenues and/or commissions from suppliers who are happy to have the mobs choose their store over a competitor's.
For More:: www.020.teambuy.com.cn/english, www.taobao.com/vertical/groupbuy, www.liba.com

Cash Test Dummies

Cherryflava Media in Cape Town, South Africa, is redefining a win-win situation with its latest online venture, Cherrypicka. The site invites customers to register as 'cash test dummies' and purchase new products and services at steep discounts in exchange for submitting reviews.
The concept is simple. Participating merchants supply a limited number of their product to be showcased on the site. Consumers can browse through a (currently fairly limited) array of items, including categories for 'bedroom accessories', girls, guys, arts & culture, food and drink and music. They can purchase selected merchandise via test vouchers at significant discounts, with the understanding that they'll later provide reviews of their experiences.
Check more:www.cherrypicka.com

Easy Office

In fast and instant gratification world where we want everything fast and easy.Easy office is another step in that direction which will help people who are looking for easy office. EasyOffice’s first location will open in Kensington, London in May or June 2007, with rooms for rent long and short term. Gulf News reports that Stelios is also eyeing Dubai: “There are so many start up businesses in Dubai and people are constantly moving in and out. With the things that are happening here and the dynamism of the economy I think a flexible office space solution might work here.” It might work, indeed. With office space vacancy as low as 1%, rents in Dubai are high. For Detail: http://www.easyoffice.co.uk

Free Mobile Operator For Young People

Blyk intends to take a different approach. The service will be entirely free, and targeted to a fairly narrow age group: 16-24 year olds.
When they sign up for Blyk, users need to fill out a detailed questionnaire that includes questions about their interests. Which potentially makes things very interesting for both advertisers and users. Advertisers can market to very specific groups, and users are more likely to be engaged by advertising if it's highly relevant to them. Ads on Blyk will also be more integrated into the service than merely displaying texts and images; exact details on how that will work aren't yet available.
For more check this site:http://about.blyk.com

Pod Life

The Perrinepod is a self-contained, stackable housing unit that can be placed within a month of ordering. Mother in law moving in? Adding a home office? No problem for a Perrinepod dweller. Just order a second unit and plug it in. Buyers with large extended families will be happy to know the pods can be stacked to 30 stories high.
For more:http://www.pod.perrine.com.au

Connecting Business Travellers

People who travel often don't know how to use flying time or staying in other country when they have spare time sometimes they want to meet with people who have same business interest andwonder whom to contact or how plan their travel .However ,their are some social flying network which connect people like KLMclub china which connect people who went for specific business at the same region.
Here is one site which will help you out and will connect you who went for same business and work by matching you and others.
www.pairup.com

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