Sure, there are Netflix-style rental services where you can rent designer dresses and accessories by mail, but would you swap toys with strangers by post? A few recent startups are betting that you will, at least to try out new and pricey toys before buying them, or to reduce clutter. [More]
Startup Swears Hardest Of Hard Discs Can Save Data Forever
By August 9, 2011
The trouble with traditional disc-based data storage products is they decay over time, potentially allowing information that isn’t backed up to vanish. A startup, working with LG, plans to rectify the problem with a disc that promises to etch data in virtual stone. [More]
Manufacturers To Market To You Via Messages Hidden In UPCs
By June 22, 2010
Stickybits is a social network that combines your phone’s camera, a web connection, and UPCs to leave virtual notes and images scattered all around you like invisible sticky notes. The important question, as always, is can it be used to sell stuff? Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Campbell’s, Frito-Lay, and Ben & Jerry are all planning to find out in social media campaigns this summer, reports Brandweek. [More]
Diaspora: The Facebook Slayer Where Protecting Your Privacy Is Their Killer App
By May 13, 2010
Instead of just kvetching about Facebook, these four self-described “talented young nerds” are doing something. They’re constructing a new kind of open-source distributed social network called Diaspora, and protecting all your information is at its core. Instead of handing over your bits to a central hub, it goes into your personalized server or “seed.” You own the server, you own your data. Everything is private and encrypted by default. It’s up to you to decide how much or how little you want to reveal. Sound crazy? There’s plenty of people who don’t think so. In just 20 days, the NYU students have raised $93,068 on Kickstarter. [More]
Wachovia Opens Bank Account Without Permission, Starts Charging Fees
By April 20, 2008
John can’t understand how Wachovia charged his startup $12 in fees for failing to maintain a minimum balance when his company never opened an account with Wachovia in the first place. Apparently, his former bank manager decamped to Wachovia and, without his permission, opened a new account “to ensure certain money rates,” whatever that means. John isn’t mad, and the bank manager agreed to close the account, but John is a little worried because a collections agency has started calling and the account now lists $24.05 in fees.
