Cool Product of the Day

“Going green” is becoming a more and more common goal for both big and small companies.  While the rhetoric around using alternatives to paper products usually revolves around environmental issues, there is a convenience aspect that comes with going paperless as well.  Many businesses find it easier to have all files and receipts stored on a hard drive rather than in a large, space-consuming file cabinet.

Paperhater is a cool product that wants to help businesses achieve this goal of paperless operations.  Rather than deal with stacks of paper and physical receipts for every transaction a business makes, Paperhater creates a system where a business collects digital receipts rather than paper ones.  Paperhater connects to both a company’s POS system and its printers and converts every sale into a digital receipt.  Each receipt is accessible through Paperhater’s web app.  Paperhater stores and encrypts receipt data in the cloud so businesses can access the information securely from any device.  Businesses that need employees to access sales information across multiple devices may want solid office tech support in order to avoid any complications or issues.  Read more »

The job market has not exactly been thriving over the last several years, and this has led to major difficulty for many recent college graduates.  Jobs are not only harder to come by in general, but the ones that are available are often hard to find as well.

Gradseek is a cool product that wants to help both new members of the job market and businesses with open entry-level positions handle this tough situation.  With fewer jobs to go around, many companies require more experience even for lower positions when a job opens.  This shift has left many recent grads stuck and unable to apply for positions that would normally be a good fit for people.  Gradseek believes that companies might be better off using recent graduates as a resource that they can tap for talented individuals that can benefit a company regardless of experience.  Gradseek lets students put themselves out there with complete and robust profiles for potential employers to sift through when they’re looking for employees.  Gradseek believes that if they present businesses with complete profiles of recent graduates, companies will be able to find the best people for open positions within the ranks of those graduates.  The company believes this trend will hold true in all industries, from fashion marketing to office computer repair. Read more »

Video content on the web is in abundance these days thanks to user-generated content on sites like YouTube and DailyMotion.  While there is much high quality entertainment available on these sites, there is still a lack of high quality How-to video on the web.  Even for subjects where there is a significant amount of videos, such as home computer repair, the vast majority of content is low quality with bad sound, bad video and no production value.  There isn’t a convenient and free space for people to access high quality how-to videos made by experts on the Internet.  Cool product Grokker is changing that by building a large video database that exclusively contains expert how-to videos for anyone interested.  Read more »

Networking in any professional field is often awkward, time consuming, and generally not people’s favorite thing.  Even at professional conferences and other events, there is no way to know what other people attending are actually in the same specific field as you or who might be helpful to connect with for mutually beneficial reasons.  This situation means that most people waste time trying to start conversations just to find out who might be worth networking with at all.  Fortunately, there is a cool product available on the web and for mobile that can potentially take away this awkward aspect of professional networking.  Airmatch connects people who can help each other professionally before they go to a conference or event in order to save them time and ensure they get a chance to speak to each other.  The team at Airmatch has programmed its system to match up people attending the same event automatically who could be a networking match.  Once Airmatch connects two people, it allows them to schedule appointments with each other during the professional event.  Those who have limited experience with technology and may need help using the Airmatch system should make sure they have a tech support provider available to help them. Read more »

Two major players have long dominated online ticketing: Ticketmaster and StubHub.  Ticketmaster controls the market for direct purchase of tickets from venues and performers, while StubHub controls the market for secondhand tickets and resellers.  However, a cool product that has recently popped up that might change the online ticketing marketplace up with some innovative features and concepts.  This cool product is SeatGeek.  SeatGeek does online ticketing, but acts as a search engine rather than a direct seller or reseller.  The company aggregates every ticket deal for any live event that it finds on the Internet.  Users can search for the best deals in live entertainment from the SeatGeek web page.  SeatGeek aggregates ticket deals for sporting events, live music, theater and even comedy shows.  The website provides visitors with a simple interface involving a large search bar, similar in design to major web search engines such as Google and Bing.  All a user has to do is type in what they are looking for and SeatGeek scours the net for the best possible deal for that event, artist, or venue.  It’s unlikely someone will need help to navigate the website with this design, but there are remote tech support services available if someone does have trouble. Read more »

Keeping track of one’s money has never been something people enjoy.  While the act does come easier to some of us, many people struggle with even their day-to-day financial planning and run into trouble all too quickly.

Chext is a cool product available on the web and on mobile devices that helps people who struggle with their money.  Chext provides customers with a web platform for keeping a financial calendar and scheduling payments, but the real innovation from this company involves text messaging.  Chext tracks people’s spending and sends them texts whenever there is an unexpected purchase or when their bank accounts drop uncharacteristically low.  These texts alert clients when something is wrong with their account or when they are simply spending too much money.  Chext provides a way to alert someone automatically when money management has become an issue.  With this cool product, even people who generally struggle with handling their personal finance can have a safety net that keeps their unnecessary spending in check.  Read more »

Online discussions, chat rooms, and forums can be frustrating to see sometimes.  Due the anonymity of the Internet, these discussions often break out into arguments, name-calling, and a place of offensive anonymous statements. However, Clivir is a cool product that aims to create a more productive forum of online discussion.  Clivir is website that hosts many online discussion boards, but this cool product organizes its discussion sections into “classrooms”.  Clivir is a community dedicated to learning above all else.  Clivir’s organizes its “classrooms” by subject and category.  There are sections on the website for art, entertainment, business, computer technology, writing, disease, food, current events and more.  Each of these sections has several of Clivir’s “classrooms” inside it, where Clivir users post structured information meant to inform and educate.  Unlike typical discussion forums, which tend to be a free for all with some limited moderation, Clivir classrooms require users to post complete “classes”.  Each class must have citations and sources for the material it teaches.  Clivir moderates each classroom to ensure that classes live up to the website’s standards.  If a user has trouble accessing classrooms on Clivir, that person should get in touch with a remote computer support service and acquire help.  Read more »

Large families constantly have trouble keeping their days organized, especially when every member has their own commitments on a daily basis.  Cool product Hub is a mobile app that wants to make it easier for families to stay informed of each other’s schedules and what they’re doing at any given time.  Hub lets each member of a family have their own profile on the app.  Hub groups profiles into family units that have access to each other’s information at any time.  This system makes the app a place where a family can put all their important information to check on quickly and conveniently on any smartphone, tablet, or other mobile device that runs iOS or Android.  This way, when there are parent-teacher conferences, football games, book clubs, dance lessons, and more all going on in the same week, no one in the family has to lose track of each other.  Hub could be especially useful for any families that depend on each other for transportation.  With Hub, there is no excuse for one sibling or parent to forget to pick up another family member from an event or activity.  Any users who want to take advantage but struggle with mobile technology can get help from a mobile computer support company. Read more »

Most professionals have to create presentations for co-workers, bosses, or conference-goers at some point in their career.  For many people however, these presentations are few and far between, but that doesn’t make them any less important.  Professionals that don’t get a lot of experience with creating presentation aides such as slideshows often commit design faux pas in their presentation and weaken it.  Deck is a cool product in the tech industry that looks to make it easy for even completely inexperienced individuals to create visually appealing presentations that can help captivate an audience.  Deck makes it possible to create presentations with little experience with the help of their web-based tools.  Deck’s online toolset presents itself to users as an outline of sorts.  Users fill in each line of the outline, just as if they were taking notes on the paper or subject material on which they’re presenting.  People can also attach images to any part of the outline if they want to include pictures with their presentation.  Once an outline is complete, users select a theme from a list of options and Deck creates an animated presentation automatically.  Since Deck is a web-based tool and not a piece of software, any users who have trouble accessing it will need network support to troubleshoot the problem with their Internet connection. Read more »

Motivating yourself to go to the gym when you’re trying to get in shape is difficult enough.  In many ways, it’s even harder to push yourself to go as hard as possible during your workout routine.  How many people do you think have cut exercises out of their routines, or done fewer reps in their sets because it’s more comfortable to do the minimum?  GymFu is a cool product available for smartphones that gets you to work harder when you work out.  GymFu aims to make sure that you push yourself and intensify your workouts to get the absolute most out of them every time.  If you are someone that constantly gets stuck in the same workout routine and benefits little from it, then this cool product might be exactly what you need.  GymFu helps users increase the reps and sets in their workout routines over time.  On the company website, it says that so far, 40% of the app’s users double the reps in their workouts.  Assuming these numbers are accurate, GymFu is clearly working for the people who have downloaded it so far.  The GymFu app is currently only available on Apple devices.  That means you’re going to need iPhone support if you’re unfamiliar with Apple mobile products and have trouble with them. Read more »