If you are in the market for a new credit card, or if you want to know how your current card compares, check out Lowcards.com. It’s a great online resource to compare your current rate and rewards with other cards. It’s also a good resource for comparing offers you receive in the mail. It ranks and reviews credit cards and explains the fees and terms found in the fine print. For comprehensive info on credit cards, be sure to check out the Sound Money Tips Guide to Credit Cards. In the meantime, here are a few more reasons to pop by Lowcards.com:
The site has thoroughly researched over 200 credit card offers and the best credit card rates to give visitors to the site the top credit card deals in the nation, with the lowest interest rates.
More:http://www.lowcards.com/
Wednesday, May 2, 2007
New Shopping Search Engine(TheFind.com)
TheFind.com is a new shopping search engine that says it is dedicated to delivering the “most satisfying online search experience” for the time-crunched, savvy shopper.
TheFind.com provides lists of products with explanations and images ranked by leading products, brands, stores and styles on the first results page. Site marketing text promises that the engine crawls a half-million online stores to find more than 150 million products. It says the search is unbiased and “can never be bought or sold.”
More:http://www.thefind.com/main/
TheFind.com provides lists of products with explanations and images ranked by leading products, brands, stores and styles on the first results page. Site marketing text promises that the engine crawls a half-million online stores to find more than 150 million products. It says the search is unbiased and “can never be bought or sold.”
More:http://www.thefind.com/main/
Controll Your Greed (All About Stocks)
This site is devoted to investing in undervalued stocks. The focus is global and typical investments can include net working capital discounts (also known as "net nets"), book value discounts, low P/E ratios, special situations and fallen angels. The name refers to one of Warren Buffett's qualities for investment success: "You must be animated by controlled greed and fascinated by the investment process."
More:http://controlledgreed.com/
More:http://controlledgreed.com/
Google's Co-Op Custom Search
Google’s Co-Op Custom Search Engine is different. I did some random testing, plugging in phrases specific to recent posts at Tech Without Wires (within the past week). The Google Custom Search Engine brought up every single page.
Google Co-Op Custom Search Engine not only searches your site, but it also will search sites that you link to or are reading.
More:http://www.google.com/coop/cse/overview?hl=en
Google Co-Op Custom Search Engine not only searches your site, but it also will search sites that you link to or are reading.
More:http://www.google.com/coop/cse/overview?hl=en
What's Next Big Hit?
The Hit Forge is a group of entrepreneurial engineers building mass-market web properties. We are owners of our companies, share common tools and code, and have enough money to fund dozens of attempts to find the next big hit. We don't get locked into failed projects, we replace pointy-haired MBAs with modern web marketing, and we share stock so that if one of us wins, everybody wins.
We want to work with the best engineering founders, regardless of where they live or what circumstances they might have been born into. We are a strict, milestone-driven meritocracy, and accept applicants from almost anywhere in the world.
If you have a history of shipping great code and want to build a web startup, but don't have money or teammates, please apply. You don't already need to have "the idea" - we'll find it together.
More:http://www.hitforge.com/
We want to work with the best engineering founders, regardless of where they live or what circumstances they might have been born into. We are a strict, milestone-driven meritocracy, and accept applicants from almost anywhere in the world.
If you have a history of shipping great code and want to build a web startup, but don't have money or teammates, please apply. You don't already need to have "the idea" - we'll find it together.
More:http://www.hitforge.com/
20 Smart Start Ups Ideas
Asking venture capitalists for great startup ideas is a little like asking Curt Schilling what pitch he's going to throw next. When we posed the question to dozens of VCs and investors around the country, more than a few indignantly shot back, "Are you out of your mind?"
But after some friendly prodding from our reporters, a surprising number of them couldn't help but start jawing about companies they would love to build - if only the right people could be found to perfect the technologies or the business plans and make them seem possible.
The result is this list of 20 tantalizing business ideas, ranging from a host of new websites and applications to next-generation power sources and a luxury housing development. This isn't small-time thinking, either: These investors -which include some of Silicon Valley's most successful VCs as well as serial entrepreneurs like Steve Case and Howard Schultz are backing their ideas with a collective $100 million in funding to the entrepreneurs who can get them off the ground.
We don't guarantee you'll land a multimillion-dollar payday or even get your foot in the door. But with the ideas now in your hands, consider yourself halfway there.
The Ultimate iDrive
The Investors: Jonathan Fram, managing partner, and Howard Schultz, co-founder, Maveron
What they've backed: Cranium, Eos Airlines, GameLogic
What they want now: A driver's tech fantasy fully realized: an in-dash computer with a keyboard built into the steering wheel and a full-screen heads-up display projected on the windshield.
It's not fantasy at all, actually. The technology behind the system that Fram and Starbucks (Charts) founder Schultz envision - laser or cathode-ray tubes that convert pixels into projected light - was invented for jet fighters more than 30 years ago, allowing pilots to read cockpit data without taking their eyes off the sky. Commercial pilots now rely on it, and automakers have experimented with in-car displays that flash data like speed and RPM in a corner of the windshield.
Fram, a former IBM (Charts) computer design engineer, wants to invest in a startup that can take the concept to the next level, since carmakers, he says, have been too slow and risk-averse to push technology that has obvious safety implications.
A key advantage of projected displays is that they don't distract drivers' attention nearly as much as cell phones or dashboard controls. They create the illusion that they're floating 15 feet in front of the vehicle - and a GM (Charts) study has shown that eyes can refocus much faster when they're switching between the road and a projected display than when they're toggling back and forth between the road and the dashboard.
"This way," Fram says, "you can stare straight ahead with hands on the wheel to drive and check e-mail at the same time. That's vastly safer than drivers looking down and taking one or both hands off the wheel to play with their BlackBerry." Adding voice-to-text features, he adds, would also help ensure safety. It's up to a startup team, of course, to make that a convincing case.
What they'll invest: $5 million for a deeply qualified 20-person team to deliver a prototype and a plan for pitching a commercial version to automakers within three years
Send your pitch to: jfram@maveron.com. -- S.H.
A Flyweight Database
The Investor: Tim Draper, founder and managing director, Draper Fisher Jurvetson
What he's backed: Hotmail, Overture, Skype
What he wants now: A new database company. Don't yawn. Draper loves startups that can upend corporate giants with simple products and cheap technology.
Oracle (Charts), IBM, and Microsoft (Charts) have had a stranglehold on the $13.8 billion database business for more than a decade, and while newer players like MySQL are making a dent, Draper thinks there's an opening for a startup that can deliver most of the benefits of standard Big Blue products without millions of lines of code or an army of consultants and IT managers. "I'm not sure yet what this company would look like," Draper says, "but it would not have the technology baggage of the entrenched monopolists. If it can penetrate the market cleverly like we did with Hotmail and Skype, it might not take that much funding."
What he'll invest: $3 million for a working application
Send your pitch to: karen@dfj.com -- M.V.C.
The New Power Play
The Investor: Elon Musk, co-founder, PayPal
What he's backed: SpaceX, Tesla Motors
What he wants now: As Musk's two most recent investments - in a space rocket and an all-electric sports car - suggest, the 35-year-old entrepreneur likes to think big. So he's intrigued by the promise of a next-generation battery called an ultracapacitor, capable of powering everything from cars to tractors. Unlike chemical batteries, ultracapacitors store energy as an electrical field between a pair of conducting plates. Theoretically, they can be charged in less than a second rather than hours, be recharged repeatedly without sacrificing performance, and far outlast anything now on the market.
"I am convinced that the long-term solution to our energy needs lies with capacitors," Musk says. "You can't beat them for power, and they kick ass on any chemical battery."
Musk would know: He was doing Ph.D. work at Stanford on high-energy capacitors before he helped get PayPal off the ground. At least one startup, EEStor in Texas, and a larger company, Maxwell Technologies in California, are working on ultracapacitors. Yet Musk believes a university-based research group has an equal shot at a commercial breakthrough, since universities are where the most promising research is bubbling up. "The challenge is one of materials science, not money," Musk says.
The team to pull this off, he says, would need expertise in materials science, applied physics, and manufacturing. Musk wants to see a prototype that can power something small, like a boom box. "Make one and show me that it works," Musk says. "Then tell me what's wrong with it and how it can be fixed."
What he'll invest: $4 million over two years for a working prototype
Send your pitch to: mbb@spacex.com. -- M.V.C.
A Better Energizer
The Investors: Samir Kaul and Vinod Khosla, partners, Khosla Ventures
What they've backed: BCI, Codon Devices, iSkoot
What they want now: Khosla, a legendary Silicon Valley VC whose winners have included Juniper Networks and Redback Networks, and Kaul are looking for an engineering team to build a lithium-ion battery with five times the life of anything found in cell phones, PDAs, or cameras. Matsushita and Sanyo are pushing the limits on lithium-ion cells, as are a couple of promising startups. But as with ultracapacitors, Khosla and Kaul think the right inventor will come from an academic lab. "We see research that proves it's attainable," Kaul says. "This is not a flying car. If it was, I'd ask for 20 times."
What they'll invest: $2 million for a 10- to 15-person team to show proof of concept
Send your pitch to: cj@khoslaventures.com. -- S.H.
More:http://money.cnn.com/magazines/business2/business2_archive/2006/09/01/8384349/index.htm?postversion=2006102617
But after some friendly prodding from our reporters, a surprising number of them couldn't help but start jawing about companies they would love to build - if only the right people could be found to perfect the technologies or the business plans and make them seem possible.
The result is this list of 20 tantalizing business ideas, ranging from a host of new websites and applications to next-generation power sources and a luxury housing development. This isn't small-time thinking, either: These investors -which include some of Silicon Valley's most successful VCs as well as serial entrepreneurs like Steve Case and Howard Schultz are backing their ideas with a collective $100 million in funding to the entrepreneurs who can get them off the ground.
We don't guarantee you'll land a multimillion-dollar payday or even get your foot in the door. But with the ideas now in your hands, consider yourself halfway there.
The Ultimate iDrive
The Investors: Jonathan Fram, managing partner, and Howard Schultz, co-founder, Maveron
What they've backed: Cranium, Eos Airlines, GameLogic
What they want now: A driver's tech fantasy fully realized: an in-dash computer with a keyboard built into the steering wheel and a full-screen heads-up display projected on the windshield.
It's not fantasy at all, actually. The technology behind the system that Fram and Starbucks (Charts) founder Schultz envision - laser or cathode-ray tubes that convert pixels into projected light - was invented for jet fighters more than 30 years ago, allowing pilots to read cockpit data without taking their eyes off the sky. Commercial pilots now rely on it, and automakers have experimented with in-car displays that flash data like speed and RPM in a corner of the windshield.
Fram, a former IBM (Charts) computer design engineer, wants to invest in a startup that can take the concept to the next level, since carmakers, he says, have been too slow and risk-averse to push technology that has obvious safety implications.
A key advantage of projected displays is that they don't distract drivers' attention nearly as much as cell phones or dashboard controls. They create the illusion that they're floating 15 feet in front of the vehicle - and a GM (Charts) study has shown that eyes can refocus much faster when they're switching between the road and a projected display than when they're toggling back and forth between the road and the dashboard.
"This way," Fram says, "you can stare straight ahead with hands on the wheel to drive and check e-mail at the same time. That's vastly safer than drivers looking down and taking one or both hands off the wheel to play with their BlackBerry." Adding voice-to-text features, he adds, would also help ensure safety. It's up to a startup team, of course, to make that a convincing case.
What they'll invest: $5 million for a deeply qualified 20-person team to deliver a prototype and a plan for pitching a commercial version to automakers within three years
Send your pitch to: jfram@maveron.com. -- S.H.
A Flyweight Database
The Investor: Tim Draper, founder and managing director, Draper Fisher Jurvetson
What he's backed: Hotmail, Overture, Skype
What he wants now: A new database company. Don't yawn. Draper loves startups that can upend corporate giants with simple products and cheap technology.
Oracle (Charts), IBM, and Microsoft (Charts) have had a stranglehold on the $13.8 billion database business for more than a decade, and while newer players like MySQL are making a dent, Draper thinks there's an opening for a startup that can deliver most of the benefits of standard Big Blue products without millions of lines of code or an army of consultants and IT managers. "I'm not sure yet what this company would look like," Draper says, "but it would not have the technology baggage of the entrenched monopolists. If it can penetrate the market cleverly like we did with Hotmail and Skype, it might not take that much funding."
What he'll invest: $3 million for a working application
Send your pitch to: karen@dfj.com -- M.V.C.
The New Power Play
The Investor: Elon Musk, co-founder, PayPal
What he's backed: SpaceX, Tesla Motors
What he wants now: As Musk's two most recent investments - in a space rocket and an all-electric sports car - suggest, the 35-year-old entrepreneur likes to think big. So he's intrigued by the promise of a next-generation battery called an ultracapacitor, capable of powering everything from cars to tractors. Unlike chemical batteries, ultracapacitors store energy as an electrical field between a pair of conducting plates. Theoretically, they can be charged in less than a second rather than hours, be recharged repeatedly without sacrificing performance, and far outlast anything now on the market.
"I am convinced that the long-term solution to our energy needs lies with capacitors," Musk says. "You can't beat them for power, and they kick ass on any chemical battery."
Musk would know: He was doing Ph.D. work at Stanford on high-energy capacitors before he helped get PayPal off the ground. At least one startup, EEStor in Texas, and a larger company, Maxwell Technologies in California, are working on ultracapacitors. Yet Musk believes a university-based research group has an equal shot at a commercial breakthrough, since universities are where the most promising research is bubbling up. "The challenge is one of materials science, not money," Musk says.
The team to pull this off, he says, would need expertise in materials science, applied physics, and manufacturing. Musk wants to see a prototype that can power something small, like a boom box. "Make one and show me that it works," Musk says. "Then tell me what's wrong with it and how it can be fixed."
What he'll invest: $4 million over two years for a working prototype
Send your pitch to: mbb@spacex.com. -- M.V.C.
A Better Energizer
The Investors: Samir Kaul and Vinod Khosla, partners, Khosla Ventures
What they've backed: BCI, Codon Devices, iSkoot
What they want now: Khosla, a legendary Silicon Valley VC whose winners have included Juniper Networks and Redback Networks, and Kaul are looking for an engineering team to build a lithium-ion battery with five times the life of anything found in cell phones, PDAs, or cameras. Matsushita and Sanyo are pushing the limits on lithium-ion cells, as are a couple of promising startups. But as with ultracapacitors, Khosla and Kaul think the right inventor will come from an academic lab. "We see research that proves it's attainable," Kaul says. "This is not a flying car. If it was, I'd ask for 20 times."
What they'll invest: $2 million for a 10- to 15-person team to show proof of concept
Send your pitch to: cj@khoslaventures.com. -- S.H.
More:http://money.cnn.com/magazines/business2/business2_archive/2006/09/01/8384349/index.htm?postversion=2006102617
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