Technology changes, and changes our lives, in a blink of an eye these days. There are always up and coming technology start-ups that are promising, and some that may affect the way we do our normal tasks every day. The following companies have won corporate awards and recognition awards for innovation and creativity. Here’s a rundown:
DropCam
Never heard of it? The site is receiving more uploaded video every day than YouTube! DropCam is the next/latest advance in video cam/video conferencing. Purchase a wireless video camera and install it anywhere there is a WiFi connection. Use it to monitor your home, or have conversations with your family members. Ideal for security for small businesses, monitor your place of business online from anywhere you can jump online.
[Read also: How to Transform Your Computer Screen into a Webcam with ScreenCamera]
SoundCloud
Hear the world’s sounds on SoundCloud. It’s the world’s largest community of bands, podcast, and even bizarre, unique sounds – that you can access from anywhere. Eleven hours of sound are being uploaded to the site every single minute of the day! That’s a lot to listen to!
Waze
Does the world need another traffic/navigation system? Apparently so, as the founders of Waze found out this week when they sold their fledgling company to Google for over a billion dollars. The Israeli based start-up shows you traffic maps based on “crowd sourcing” – that is, instead of relying on technology, cameras, or sensors, traffic conditions are reported in real time by other drivers. 30,000,000 users are constantly adding updates so the maps stay accurate up to the hour. Plus it’s free!
My Fitness Pal
My Fitness Pal allows you to monitor your fitness/health live by recording nutritional intake, exercise periods and calories burned. This one year old site is currently being used by 55 million persons monthly! This app is nearly device ‘agnostic’, meaning you can use it online, on your phone or tablet.
[Read also: Get Fit with Kinect Fitness Games]
Square
Enables every small business, consultant, or traveling salesman to accept credit card payments where ever they are, by swiping the cards thru their mobile device with the help of a small plug in accessory which is free when you open an account. The money flows through Swipe to a bank account you designate, and Swipe charges a small percentage, just like any credit card processing company.
[Read also: Common Purchases People Make Online]
Knewton
An adaptive learning site. What’s adaptive learning? The site learns how each student user studies, and matches them with study methods that enable them to learn more and faster. The more a student uses Knewton, the better the experience becomes. It is especially useful for students preparing for college and grad school admission tests.
These are just a few of the start-ups on the scene today, which changes by the hour. You can find ones that are of interest to you by searching the internet using keywords and phrases that illustrate your interests.
[Read also: Healthcare Startups to Watch Out For]
[Image credit: chanpipat, freedigitalphotos.net]
Nice list Peter! I had not heard the name of any of these. Though the ideas look a bit common to me, they would be the first ones to implement them.
I idea of Waze sounds nice to me. It would require a lot of dedicated users to keep the maps updated though. Also I liked the idea by DropCam.
This list is a proof that there are still a lot of innovative ideas worth inventing.
Waze – another app sold for billions. Technology makes these people rich. This is one of the ways millionaires or even billionaires are made.
Dropcam is now processing more videos than YouTube? Wow.. Let’s see how this thing works, thanks for the heads up Peter.
Nhick
I quite like the idea of Square, Waze. Really good to see that Square is coming up with a technology by which we can make credit card payments for any of our purchases. It will be easier for these travelling salesman & business people to carry a mobile device with them for accepting credit card payment anytime. Waze also seems to be great idea as it gives us real time report on traffic maps rather than the old image Google used to deliver us. I am really looking forward to these Up coming technologies.
I like Waze too. You can check it out it’s free to download, Raj!
SoundCloud is incredible. It gives the average person the ability to network with people in a manner that we’ve never seen before. We have this idea that making it big in music means having that network of people who can reach the masses. This really helps to take out that huge wall that musicians can encounter.
Also, it gives a more accurate perspective on what music sounds like. The mainstream media can sometimes show us only what a few genres of music sound like, and we forget just what is out there.