Fun with Kickstarter

It's tempting to view Kickstarter as an online store where you can find cool and unusual gadgets and place advance orders at discount prices. That's pretty much what attracted me to the website.

Browsing the listings recently, I found a phone charger that can fit on a keychain, a temperature sensor that plugs into a smartphone, and a device that turns a conventional speaker into a Bluetooth speaker.

But Kickstarter says that would be missing the point. The website notes that Kickstarter is not a store and that backing a project is more than just giving someone your money. "It’s supporting their dream to create something that they want to see exist in the world. People rally around their friends’ projects, fans support people they admire, and others simply come to Kickstarter to be inspired by new ideas."

Read more about Kickstarter in my column at MyWell-Being.com.

By: Ric Manning On 4/18/2013

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Concert Vault app streams thousands of live sets

With three top-name acts from the seventies coming to the Louisville area this week -- Fleetwood Mac, Janis Ian, and Karla Bonoff -- it seemed like a great time to open the vault.

I'm talking about Wolfgang's Vault. Wolfgang's website lets you listen to and sometimes watch thousands of concert recordings stretching back to the 1950s. The Vault's archive contains about 4,500 concerts ranging across all genres from rock and blues to folk, jazz and country.

In addition to the web, the shows are also available on Apple and Android mobile apps called Concert Vault and now there's a new app specifically for Apple's iPad.

    

The service charges a membership fee of $3.99 a month or $39.99 for a year. Members can stream concerts or individual songs and download two full concert downloads each week. New app users get a free 7-day trial to check out the service.

I found show recordings for all three of this week's performers:

•     Janis Ian at New York's Calderone Concert Hall in 1975
•     Three Karla Bonoff shows from 1977 at The Bottom Line
•     Seven Fleetwood Mac concerts between 1968 and 1975

You can hear Stevie Nicks' "Rhiannon" and "Landslide" on the 1975 set from the Capitol Theatre in Passaic, N.J. But long-time Mac fans will also appreciate hearing the Christine McVie numbers like "Sentimental Lady" and the Bob Welch tunes like "Hypnotized." Those are songs they are not likely to hear at the live show at the YUM! Center.

By: Ric Manning On 4/08/2013

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Jawbone's revamped UP is ready for a walk

Tracking your activities tends to make be more active. I found that out last year when I got the Fitbit pedometer. Once I set a goal of 10,000 steps a day, the Fitbit's reports pushed me to keep walking more.

The problem with the tiny Fitbit is it's too easy to lose. My first one disappeared somewhere near my house. When the replacement failed to make it home from a trip to Las Vegas, I gave up on the Fitbit.

My prospects to holding on to the UP from Jawbone look much better. Instead of a paperclip design, the UP is a thin wristband made to be worn 24/7. It tracks your your steps and your sleep. If you take the trouble to enter your food, it will also help you manage your diet and calorie intake.

Jawbone says the UP's battery will last for 10 days and that it has alarmks that will wake you after a 25-minute power nap and nudge you if you've been awake but inactive for too long.

The first version of the UP released in 2011 was plagued by technical problems and units were eventually recalled by Jawbone. The new version release late last year is getting mucyh better user reviews.

The new version works with a free iPhone or Android app that makes colorful graphs of your activity and sleep patterns. But unlike the Fitbit, it doesn't use Bluetooth. You have remove a cap from the bracelet and plug it into your mobile phone's headphone jack. That's a pretty simple step, but you don't get the immediate gratification that comes with a wireless link.

The UP's price isn't very gratifying, either. It costs about $130 just about anywhere you find it, including Verizon stores and verizonwireless.com.

By: Ric Manning On 4/07/2013

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Andrew Prell readies second season of Startup Icon

When I first met Andrew Prell in the 1990s, he was living in Louisville and pursuing his dream of building a virtual reality arcade game. By 1993 he had arcade games in several high-profile locations, including the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.

But while his games never matched the popularity of Ms. Pac-Man or Space Invaders, his quest brought him into the orbits of several high-powered entrepreneurs. His company, Agora Interactive, counted among its backers Computer Associates founder Charles Wang and Nolan Bushnell, the legendary founder of Atari.

Today, Prell divides his time between Louisville and Silicon Valley where he is the brains behind Startup Icon, a project that merges business and entertainment in a web-based competition that has been called an "American Idol for startups."

I ran into Prell at the Consumer Electronics Show in January and caught up with him again last week at a Highlands coffee shop. He filled me in on his plans for the second season of StartUp Icon, which is currently lining up contestants for this year’s competition. The playoffs will start later this spring. 

You don't have to be an entrepreneur to participate. Anyone can sign up to try out the competitors' apps and products and provide feedback in the website forums. Once the playoff is under way, the audience can also get in line for gifts and prizes.
 
To get more details about the show, check out my interview with Press at High Gain Blog.

By: Ric Manning On 4/01/2013

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