Rhonda Abrams at USA Today has a great idea for a holiday gift. If you know a friend or relative who has been thinking of starting a small business, give them the tools to do just that.
Blame “the media” if you want. But come January 1, we’ll dump the “two-thousands,” and we’ll get cozy with the “twenty-tens.”
So say the language mavens, reports The Plain Dealer.
In 2000, there were “uncertainties,” said David Crystal of the Cambridge Encyclopaedia of the English Language, so we [...]
It arrived 30 years ago, a rebellious little ditty that became the ultimate anti-Christmas carol by killing off an eggnog-loving Grandma in the very first line, says The Dallas Morning News.
But during those 30 years, “Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer” has become a holiday classic. Songwriter Randy [...]
The proportion of Americans ages 12 to 54 who need corrective lenses for distance sight has risen in recent decades, increasing to almost 42 percent in 1999-2004, up from 25 percent in the early 1970s, The New York Times reports a national study has found.
While the [...]
Content deals with Google and Microsoft, plus renegotiated rates with the telecom companies that carry its members’ tweets, have combined to make Twitter profitable, BusinessWeek reports.
The Google deal and Microsoft deal, both announced in October, make Twitter members’ content available to Google’s search engine and to [...]
From sweater parties to bar crawls and contests, ugly sweaters have made a big (green!) comeback. The folks over at The Daily Green have put together an interesting closet of sweaters.
Thanks Grandma!
Nothing says Happy Holidays like a sweater vest.
I realllllllllllllllllllllyyyyyyyyyyyyyy like it!
In June, Missouri doctor Stuart Hoover needed to create a Web video to market his new wellness center in Springfield. He had farmed out similar video projects in the past, at a cost of thousands of dollars and weeks of waiting. This time he took a [...]
Have you sent out your business Christmas cards yet?
Is it worthwhile to send out a season’s greetings to your business contacts?
Yes! With building a relationship with your clients and prospects, a business Christmas card acknowledges that you took the time and effort to think of them, [...]
Mundane tasks can be a waste of time not only for entrepreneurs, but for their team members.
Get those dead-simple but time-consuming, someone’s-gotta-do-it tasks outsourced on the cheap using Labor-as-a-service startup CrowdFlower.
You’ll need to create an account and add some credit to get your entrepreneur started.
Photo [...]
TweetCall is a Twitter-based application that lets you update twitter via phone voice calls, reports Makeuseof.com.
Dubbed by its makers as ” Twitter by Voice “, you only need to dial a toll-free number (1-877-TWEET-CALL) and leave a voice message. Your message will then be [...]
The creative folks over at Mental Floss have put together an interesting collection of unusual Christmas decorations.
Christmas In Alabama. ‘Nuff said.
Dial 911! The story of how dangerous it is to hang Christmas lights.
Beer Bottle Tree. No, I don’t have [...]
Ben Varadi is a master of child’s play. The 39-year-old spends most of his days testing, promoting and gabbing about toys, reports the World-Herald News Service.
He teamed up with partners Ronnen Harary and Anton Rabie to create the Toronto-based toy company Spin Master. Now the [...]
A funny thing happened to Zach Levins on the way to learning a new word a couple of years ago – he invented a board game that also reportedly boosts your memory, reports Inventors Digest.
A teacher introduced Zach, then 13, to the word “obsolete,” meaning [...]
We all get holiday newsletters, but The Star Tribune asks how many of those single-spaced, four-page epics do you actually read?
Wouldn’t it be easier if people used Twitter instead? With tweets limited to 140 characters, we’d have to keep it short and sweet. Here are [...]
Just pop two AAA batteries inside the base, fill the mug with your favorite hot beverage, add your sweetener or creamer – or, hey! Maybe you just like a nice hot cup of cocoa!
Any way, press the button on the handle and whirr your drink into [...]
For almost a decade, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has been boasting that it will dominate Internet retailing the way it dominates strip malls, toppling Amazon.com Inc. as the world’s largest online merchant, according to a story in The Wall Street Journal.
This holiday shopping season, Wal-Mart has [...]
Jake Gaecke over at Appletell has put together a selection of free iPhone apps that even a Grinch would love.
Ustream Live Broadcaster
Finally, the app we’ve been waiting to see from Ustream! Live Broadcaster allows you to stream video live from your iPhone to [...]
CNet’s Crave gadget blog has a cool story about a DIY secret door lock.
DIY’er Steve Hoefer used a piezo speaker, a tiny gear reduction motor, an Arduino, and a PVC pipe to make his secret-knock door lock.
It opens a door when it detects a secret knock. Here it [...]
Thomas Alva Edison will receive a Special Merit Award from The Recording Academy this January according to The Morning Journal.
Among his thousands of inventions, Edison patented his phonograph, the device that allowed people to record and play sounds.
“Thomas Alva Edison was one of the most [...]
Unique products to inspire and amuse.
Bacon Lip Balm. Don’t limit bacon consumption to meals – have it all day.
The Commuter Tie. Hide your iPod Nano from the Boss.
Dry Erase Clock. Combines your calendar with your clock.
Cleve Wortham and his family used to get a kick out of visiting homes featured on maps of the best and brightest holiday decorations. Then his youngest child asked, “Dad, next year can we get on the map?”
Boy, did they ever. reports The Denver Post.
The [...]
Trendspotter Springwise has seen one-of-a-kind jewelry created to replicate a wearer’s scar, as well as bracelets featuring a map of the New York City subway. Borrowing a bit of both concepts, Etsy designer triggerhappy offers two necklace designs that can be personalized to reflect [...]
Daniel Sieberg spoke with Mattel’s Jim Sheridan about their new mind control toy, Mind Flex. The game uses brain waves to power a fan that floats a ball through an obstacle course.
Is there someone on your list who spends a lot of time in his or her car?
Save them from a potential traffic violation with the Jupiter Jack, which allows you to use your radio as a hands-free device.
Just plug the Jupiter Jack into your phone, [...]
Your well-loved iPhone deserves a lot better than the flimsy rubber case you bought after being badgered by that guy at the mall kiosk.
The Vers Wood iPhone Case will let your iPhone know it’s good enough, it’s smart enough, and dog-gone it, people like it. [...]
Starting mid-January 2010, McDonalds will be offering free wireless Internet access at 11,000 of its 14,000 fast-food joints, reports Download Squad.
Whether it will be ‘gated’ via some kind of time code on your receipt, or really free remains to be seen.
This opens a scarily interesting [...]
Hobby jingle maker Love Harnell is copying the model proven by I Wear Your Shirt — matching the social media sharing and the one-dollar-per-calendar-day-of-the-year surcharge — but substituting jingles for shirts, according to a story on Mashable.
With LoveJingles, which officially kicks off on January 1, [...]
This year has been the biggest yet for online video, and for the first time The YouTube Blog is sharing our official Most Watched lists and some of the fastest-rising search terms on YouTube.
Some moments were big (President Obama’s inauguration), some small (a Minnesota wedding [...]
This Philco PC harks back to the very stylish Philco Predicta TV from the 50’s, old pre-war typewriters and just a dash of steampunk.
Unfortunately, it’s just a concept at the moment, produced by SchultzeWorks Design. The design is being shopped around to manufacturers so maybe [...]
Entrepreneur Danny Bamping has launched what he claims is “the greenest toy in the world”, reports The Herald.
The Carbon Cube, is claimed to be the toy with the lowest carbon footprint.
It is made “yards away” from the Crazee Thingz Company HQ in Plymouth, and [...]
Finale Desserterie & Bakery in downtown Boston has always had a ZIP code. Now, thanks to the Internet search titan Google Inc., the dessert restaurant also has a bar code according to a story in The Boston Globe.
The black-and-white square, with its pattern of irregular shapes, [...]
UK-based YoYo Games lets you create computer games to earn a little extra cash, even if you don’t already have programming experience, reports trendspotter Springwise.
Users of YoYo’s site begin by downloading its Game Maker software for free. That lets them create professional-looking games without [...]
Remember the old days when only movies and restaurants were rated on the Internet?
Following the wave of Web sites aimed at rating real people’s job performance, such as ratemyprofessor.com and ratemydoctor.com, a California public relations guru has created ratemycop.com, reports The St. Petersburg Times.
The [...]
The scientist some call “Mr. Christmas Tree” has already conquered conifer diseases, developed guidelines to keep cut trees fresh and helped introduce new species to the American market, reports The Seattle Times.
Now Gary Chastagner is using old-fashioned genetics to create a super-race of conifers immune [...]
For the drum hero in us all. Capable of being rolled up and stored in your desk drawer, this is the drum kit with six sensor pads that plugs into your PC to provide 70 percussion patterns, samples, loops, and effects while you play with your favorite [...]
Everybody has a great idea that could change the way we work, the way we live or the way we play.
Everyday Edisons, a TV program on PBS, documents the development process of 12 inventions and the parallel stories of the people who invented them.
Selected from thousands [...]
Brett Gifkins was frustrated with the amount of time his three sons were spending on the computer, so he began designing a toy that would entice them outside, reports Scoop Independent News.
The innovatively designed Sprinta, which requires no batteries and (to parent’s delight) is soundless, [...]
The afternoon sun beats down on the rocky hills and quicksand pits that surround the still, gray-blue body of water, which is flanked by Israel and the West Bank on the west and Jordan on the east.
As its name implies, there’s little life in the Dead [...]
Tish Ciravolo has founded the first company that makes guitars expressly for women and girls, reports USA Today.
Daisy Rock is still a small player in the roughly $1.6 billion market for “fretted instruments,” as measured by industry trade group NAMM. The company is private [...]
Small companies can already tap the power of the crowds for help with their graphic design, advertising and other business challenges.
Whereas most such services reward the creator of just a single winning solution, however, FreshlyBranded pays its marketing creatives for the top 10 ideas, according [...]
The idea of “free” has become extremely controversial in the technology industry, especially in the case of online content, reports Digital Trends.
Rumors that favorite show streaming website Hulu will be charging for all of their content has most online-media-viewing junkies scared stiff. Sources for [...]
Last week, we started a biz poll about the addition of tweet ‘comments’ and comments in general.
Sixty-five percent of those responding said they NEVER read the comments. Twenty-nine percent
said they read the comments, but never comment themselves and 6 percent said they always read
the comments [...]
Simple games based on Adobe’s Flash technology have multiplied like weeds in recent years, with an estimated 100,000 of them available on the web, mostly for free.
But a significant number of Flash game developers have moved from amateurs to pros; a survey shows that one in [...]
Tiny airport sleeping rooms — similar to the cubicles that Asian travelers use to catch a snooze in between flights — have arrived in America, reports USA Today.
Atlanta, the world’s largest airport, opened five Minute Suites this month where tired passengers can doze for $30 an [...]
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