Cool Product of the Day

Numerous startups seek to take advantage of the popularity of the online food ordering space. One such startup is ChowNow, an online ordering platform optimized for mobile and Facebook. It looks to provide restaurants with an easy way to offer online ordering to customers via either their social media, branded mobile apps, or their existing web site. Unlike the largest companies in the food ordering market, which offer one site where you can find local restaurants and order ChowNow allows restaurants to individually customize and brand their ordering apps. It utilizes social media as a destination for consumers to order food through the startup’s Facebook Ordering App, letting restaurants take orders directly through their Facebook page. It also lets restaurants create branded mobile apps, even offering restaurants a wireless tablet to receive orders and communicate back to the customer when it will be ready. Read more »

Choosing a new doctor is not something one should take lightly, and there are many things to consider. Many people choose a doctor based on the recommendation of family members and friends, but sometimes the options given are not available. Many patients ask their current doctor for their recommendations for other doctors frequently but are often far too busy to be able to put much thought into it, rarely having the time to find other doctors to recommend. They also may not be familiar with doctors in other practice areas. Human Practice is a startup that works to fix this issue, giving patients a better platform for choosing a new doctor. Its creators refer to it as “a social recommendations platform that helps patients find doctors through communities they trust.” In their words, it provides digital solutions to equip physicians and patients with the knowledge to find the right care provider. Read more »

Finding a place to rent is rarely fun, but it is worse to find out that you hate the place you rented after moving into it. With a fragmented market and hundreds of rental sites to view, finding the right rental property is a challenge, even with all of the hours spent researching. The problem is not an inability to find a place to rent, and there is a massive amount of data to sift through and plenty of places available. The dilemma is in what happens after a move, since one can very rarely view the property, instead relying on photos and video of the location made to show it in the best light possible. RentMatch looks to fix this dilemma. Looking at basic sites, one cannot find information such as how hot or cold a house is, much less whether neighbors are loud or there is constant construction nearby. RentMatch offers a community marketplace for people to review, search and list rental properties working in dozens of cities across the U.S. It provides an apartment ratings and review service to help renters avoid remorse and choose the best place to rent with more thorough information from those who have lived there. Read more »

Statistics from the American Humane Association state that approximately third of pets will go missing in their lifetimes, and only 25 percent of those that reach a shelter will return to their original families while the majority spend the rest of their lives there. There are some solutions to this problem that have been in use for some time, such as microchipping, but a service from a startup called PetHub works to get lost pets home faster and safer than any other solution available by utilizing current and new technologies. These include QR coded ID tags, wireless technology, GPS mapping, Bluetooth services, and real-time notifications. PetHub has a verified success rate of 97%, with 25% of pets returning to their homes within 24 hours, and the difference between PetHub and similar services is that it is far more comprehensive than most. Read more »

Statistics shows that as many as forty percent of prescriptions contain some sort of error, from improper dosing to overlooked interactions with other drugs, simply because pharmacists are unable to read a doctor’s handwriting. Many people have witnessed first-hand what could go wrong with drug interactions and poor medication management. It would surprise many to know that over 7,000 people in the U.S. die every year from delayed or misread prescriptions. ScriptPad is an app created with the goal of eliminating errors resulting from poor penmanship or the inability to distinguish between similarly named medications and building in a drug database to limit the wrong interactions. It is unbelievable to think that simple writing errors can lead to so much trouble in the Internet age, and Scriptpad looks to change that. Read more »

In the past, school fundraisers have mostly involved having students sell low-profit items that most people purchased out of a sense of obligation while the school received less than half the money raised.  For a school district to raise money often involves proposing tax increases and waiting half a year for a budget to pass, which seldom does in some places.  EdBacker is a startup that takes advantage of the popularity of crowdfunding and applies it specifically toward PTA group and school fundraising.  In fact, its creator refers to it as “PTA made easy.”  More than just raising money, it is a tool that consolidates volunteer signups and any other business a PTA performs into one platform.  Not only that, it makes the fundraising aspect easier, more social, and more transparent. Read more »

Many of us can imagine how frustrated we would be if we were required to take a driving test every time we rented a car, but that is exactly what private pilots deal with when they rent a plane outside of their home base or flight school. OpenAirplane works to remedy this problem, serving as a network of commercial airplane businesses and flight schools that lets pilots receive one annual checkout and then rent airplanes at locations across the country. It takes hundreds of hours of training and a lot of money to get a pilot’s license, but many airports and flight services do not always honor it. It often requires even more money for pilots to demonstrate their flying skills just to receive the right to rent, and many choose simply not to fly. Read more »

Entertainment is a focus of evolving technology, and music is a large part of that market. While iTunes and similar services are excellent resources for collecting music from all genres, a few apps available offer a little extra innovation. Groovebug is one of them that its creators say enables users to effortlessly connect with and follow their favorite bands while discovering new music along the way. It works by scanning the user’s music library and creating a personalized music magazine, and it goes beyond single music tracks or albums. It collects not just music but videos, images, news from the Internet, and music from similar artists according to the user’s music taste. Whatever musical genres you prefer, Groovebug creates a personalized music magazine that relates to you.

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The use of video as a teaching aid is an old idea, though one increasingly utilized as the quality and relevance of the videos used grows.  While it is useful in the classroom, it can also be useful in training teachers themselves as well as students, something of which a startup called Sibme is hoping to take advantage.  Sibme is a private video collaboration platform educators can use to improve teaching and learning, serving as a powerful tool for developing teachers in schools and other education-related organizations. It makes the often-laborious process of recording and uploading easier by allowing teachers to easily record themselves teaching with a smartphone and upload their videos to a secure platform where they can review and improve upon their teaching practices with trusted colleagues. Read more »

Technology works to make all of our tech devices smarter, and connecting each one to each other is a major step in technological innovation.  While we have had Internet-connected televisions for some time now, the newest technology allows you to stream videos from other Internet-connected devices to your TV.  Flinger.co is a service that allows you to start your own Smart TV Channel on your computer, your mobile tech devices, and/or your TV’s web browser.  It links any video site to any device you want to view videos from, letting you choose whatever video you want to view and then transfer it to your TV with a single click remotely. Read more »