Uber Isn't a Car Service. It's the Future of Logistics

Uber's long-term prospects dwarf cool cars and an easy-to-use app. That's the model every company should have in mind.

 Kalanick has some saying Uber "has the potential to radically remake the American landscape.” And $258 million in funding from Google is nothing to sniff at.

Watch for: Home deliveries and brand partnerships with the likes of Home Depot. It’s all about exposure, and the startup’s Christmas tree delivery service is just the beginning of its commercial binge.

The key to any company's long-term growth is its ability to identify how its products and services of today can form the infrastructure of a bigger, better business model tomorrow.

Take, for instance, Uber. The on-demand car service has become beloved by consumers in urban areas for its sleek cars and easy-to-use app, but does innovating upon a basic taxi service really warrant the kind of hype--including $100 billion projections--it's gotten in tech circles?

That's a question Kevin Roose explored recently in an article for New York Magazine. The answer, Roose explains, is no. What warrants that projection is that Uber's car service of today could form the backbone of a landscape-changing logistics, delivery, and travel company of tomorrow. Uber's Christmas tree delivery program serves as an early example.

Looking at the Big Picture

"Eventually, like Amazon, it can become something akin to an all-purpose utility--it'll just be a way you get things and go places," Roose writes. "There's a reason the company recently changed its tagline from 'Everyone's private driver' to the much broader 'Where lifestyle meets logistics.'"

The Amazon comparison is an easy one to make. What started out as an online bookstore in the early days of the Internet would eventually follow its nose to become one of the world's more prominent retailers, web hosting services, and tablet maker--not to mention that whole drone thing.

History Repeating Itself

This comparisons spread offline. In November, The Atlantic compared Amazon's model to that of Sears in the early 20th century. The retail powerhouse leveraged the burgeoning rail and road systems--as well as its hefty catalog--to dominate the retail marketplace as something far greater than a department store for the better part of the century, Derek Thompson explains.

And the comparisons hold on smaller, less global scales--where they might be most of use to you. Dating service HowAboutWe.com launched a new service that helps already-lovestruck couples plan date nights. L.L. Bean, the Maine company that made its name as an outdoor clothing manufacturer, eventually broadened its footprint when it began offering outdoor adventures as an extension of its core business. In both these cases the company found ways to become useful in other parts of its existing ecosystem.

Uber's case is potentially global. The hype makes a lot more sense if it eyes becoming a global logistics powerhouse. As Roose writes, "In ten years, we might be scratching our heads: Wait, Uber used to be a car service?"

Robot automatically refuels any car with precision

The Fuelmatics Automatic Refueling System is a robot helper that enables drivers to precisely fill up their tanks without leaving their seat.It seems highly plausible that robotic technology could soon be pervading many aspects of our lives — including filling up a car with gas, it seems. The Fuelmatics Automatic Refueling System is a robot helper that enables drivers to precisely fill up their tanks without leaving their seat.

Developed by Sweden-based Fuelmatics along with the Husky Corporation in the US, the machines are designed to reside on the roadside, rather than at designated gas stations. Able to operate unmanned, the system features a screen that displays the unique phone number for each pump. Drivers stop, call the number on their cell or smartphone and follow the instructions to pay. Once the driver has selected the type of fuel and how much they want, the robot uses a camera to identify the location of the fuel tank cap, opens it using a rather odd suction mechanism and accurately docks the pump before filling the tank precisely. Drivers don’t have to get their hands dirty by doing the job themselves, leaving them free to make a phonecall or watch the ads displayed on the screen. The video below show the Fuelmatics system in action:

Windshield-mounted device makes fast food payments even quicker

A new innovation called iDriveThru is enabling hands-free fast food payments using RFID car windshield tags.

The system — which uses the E-ZPass transponder that many motorists already use to pay toll booth charges automatically — is currently in use at the five drive-thru Wendy’s restaurants in Staten Island. Customers first need to link their credit, debit or prepaid card to their E-ZPass through the iDriveThru website. Upon arriving at Wendy’s, the tag’s data is then read by sensors, offering visitors a personalized greeting on the video above the intercom. Once they’ve made their order, the card details are read from the tag and the payment is taken automatically. In addition, customers earn ten reward points for every dollar they spend, with 500 points being redeemable for a USD 5 coupon at Wendy’s.

Ttechnology shows how payments can be made more convenient and seamless with RFID tags. It’s easy to see how motorists could perhaps be charged for other products and payments by adapting the devices even further, while local authorities could take a cut of the increased revenue.

BerryKitchen: Online lunch box catering service

Berrykitchen

This site claims to be the only online lunch box catering service in the country. Berrykitchen covers main dishes, meats, veggies, and even desserts.

Problems with India's produce supply chain and waste

A year ago it seemed that India had bitten the bullet by permitting foreign firms to own majority stakes in domestic supermarkets. The decision came after a fierce political battle.Walmart, Carrefour and Tesco have been waiting for years to invest in India. They say they would revolutionise shopping. Only 2-3% of groceries are bought in formal stores, with most people reliant on local markets. They would also modernise logistics chains, either by investing themselves, or indirectly, by stimulating food producers to spend on factories, warehouses and trucks, and establish direct contracts with farmers, eliminating layers of middlemen.
He owns a crudely irrigated six-hectare (14-acre) plot, larger than the national average farm of just 1.2 hectares. He does not want to buy more land; unreliable electricity and labour mean “it is too hard to manage.” There are four onion crops each year—in a good season production is three times higher than in a bad one. To hedge his bets he also grows sugar cane. Costs have soared because of rising rural wages, which have doubled in three years. He says welfare schemes have made workers lazy. “They just play cards all day.”
torage facilities amount to a wooden basket inside a shed—at this time of year onions perish within 15 days, although the variety grown in the spring can last eight months. From here one of Mr Devkar’s finest is thrown into a small trailer, along with the produce of nearby farms, and taken to Lasalgaon. The roads are mostly paved but the 32km (19-mile) journey takes a couple of hours in a rickety old tractor.
Lasalgaon neophytes will find their eyes water upon entering its market, a huge car park full of red onions, trucks and skinny farmers. Although the auction is run twice daily by an official body, it doesn’t look wholly transparent. Some farmers complain that Mr Jain and another trader dominate the trade (Mr Jain denies this). Prices vary wildly day by day and according to size and quality, which are judged in a split second by eye. The average price today is $0.33 per kilo.
Neither traders nor farmers agree why prices have risen so steeply of late. They blame climate change, the media, too much rain last year, too little rain this year, labour costs, an erratic export regime. “Our biggest problem is illiteracy,” says one farmer. “We don’t know how to use technology.” Most folk agree that India needs better cold storage but worry that it is too pricey or that it ruins the taste of onions.
Farmers must pay a 1% fee to the auction house and a 4% commission to the traders. Sometimes they also have to stump up for fees for packing and loading. That takes place at several depots surrounding the market where farmers must drop off their loads and pour them onto tarpaulins on the ground. The onions may wait there for days but once put into hessian sacks they are loaded onto trucks operated by separate haulage firms and owned by intricate webs of independent consortiums.
At 8pm Prabhakar Vishad, a 20-year veteran of the onion-express highway from Lasalgaon to Mumbai, climbs into a battered Tata truck with “Blow Horn” painted in big letters on the back. Over the years the roads have improved and power steering has made life easier. Still, it is dangerous work, says Mr Vishad, who had a bad crash last year. By 6am next morning he sets his bloodshot eyes on Vashi market on the outskirts of Mumbai. It handles 100-150 truckloads of onions a day—enough to satisfy India’s commercial capital.
Onions are sometimes unpacked, sorted and repacked, with wastage rates of up to 20%. By 9am the market is a teeming maze of 300-odd selling agents, who mainly act on behalf of middlemen, and several thousand buyers—who are either retailers or sub-distributors. Everyone stands ankle deep in onions of every size. The bidding process is opaque. The selling agents each drape a towel on their arm. To make a bid you stick your hand under the towel and grip their hand, with secret clenches denoting different prices. Average prices today are about $0.54 per kilo. If the seller likes your tickles you hail a porter. He carries your newly bought sacks on his head to a dispatch depot where another group of couriers takes them into the city.
“I’m crazy, like the guys you see in the movies. I don’t negotiate,” declares Sanjay Pingle. One of the market’s biggest agents, he charges the seller a 6.5% commission. The buyers pay loading charges on top of that and a fee to the market. He says business is tough—bad debts from customers run at a fifth of sales and he has to pay interest rates of 22% on his own debts. The solution to the onion shortage is obvious, he says. “In China they keep things in storage facilities—if India had the same facilities as China has, prices would be lower.” He says he has seen photographs of Chinese technology on his mobile phone.
By the afternoon thousands of cars and trucks are picking up small batches of onions to take them into Mumbai. In Chembur, a middle-class neighbourhood, Anburaj Madar runs a big sub-distributor. He handles 200 sacks a day which he sells to retailers and restaurants. He buys daily from Vashi market and has space to store only about 12 hours’ worth of stock. Rent is dear and he too reckons cold storage destroys the flavour of onions. He marks up his prices by perhaps 20% but says a chunk of what he buys has to be thrown away—it is either damaged or of inferior quality.
For the onions that do make the cut the next stop is a small shop down the road where they are sold for another mark-up of 10% or so. From here Indubai Kakdi is hand-selecting onions with elaborate care. Buck-toothed and ragged, she sells seven kilos a day from a wooden barrow; she makes a 10% margin. She says climate change has made prices more volatile.
Peeling back the layers of truth
The journey of an onion from Mr Devkar’s field to the end customer in Mumbai takes only a few days but is enough to make you weep. There are some underlying reasons why prices have risen—higher rural wages have pushed up farmers’ costs. But the system is horribly fiddly. Farms are tiny with no economies of scale. The supply chain involves up to five middlemen. The onion is loaded, sorted or repacked at least four times. Wastage rates, either from damage or weight loss as onions dry out, are a third or more. Because India has no modern food-processing industry, low-quality onions that could be turned into paste or sauces are thrown away. Retail prices are about double what farmers receive, although the lack of any standard grading of size or quality makes comparisons hard.
The system is volatile as well as inefficient. Traders who buy onions from farmers may hoard them, but for the supply chain as a whole far too little inventory is stored. As a result small variations in demand and supply are amplified and cause violent swings in price. In the first week of December 2013 prices fell again.
It is easy to see how heavy investment by supermarket chains and big food-producers—whether Indian or foreign—could make a difference. They would cut out layers from the supply chain, build modern storage facilities and probably prod farmers to consolidate their plots.
The shoppers of Chembur agree that Indian onions are the world’s tastiest but are fed up with price swings. No one mentions reform as a solution and until there is popular support and political leadership it is hard to see much changing. And what of the last stage of the onion’s odyssey, to the stomach? By one stall stands an elderly lady who says she likes the vegetable so much that she doesn’t bother to cook it. Instead she chomps on raw onions as if they were apples. At least someone has an eye on efficiency.

10 Habits of Remarkably Charismatic People

Some people instantly make us feel important. Some people instantly make us feel special. Some people light up a room just by walking in.

We can't always define it, but some people have it: They're naturally charismatic.

Unfortunately, natural charisma quickly loses its impact. Familiarity breeds, well, familiarity.

But some people are remarkably charismatic: They build and maintain great relationships, consistently influence (in a good way) the people around them, consistently make people feel better about themselves--they're the kind of people everyone wants to be around...and wants to be.

Fortunately we can, because being remarkably charismatic isn't about our level of success or our presentation skills or how we dress or the image we project--it's about what we do.

Here are the 10 habits of remarkably charismatic people:

1. They listen way more than they talk.

Ask questions. Maintain eye contact. Smile. Frown. Nod. Respond--not so much verbally, but nonverbally.

That's all it takes to show the other person they're important.

Then when you do speak, don't offer advice unless you're asked. Listening shows you care a lot more than offering advice, because when you offer advice in most cases you make the conversation about you, not them.

Don't believe me? Who is "Here's what I would do..." about: you or the other person?

Only speak when you have something important to say--and always define important as what matters to the other person, not to you.

2. They don't practice selective hearing.

Some people--I guarantee you know people like this--are incapable of hearing anything said by the people they feel are somehow beneath them.

Sure, you speak to them, but that particular falling tree doesn't make a sound in the forest, because there's no one actually listening.

Remarkably charismatic people listen closely to everyone, and they make all of us, regardless of our position or social status or "level," feel like we have something in common with them.

Because we do: We're all people.

3. They put their stuff away.

Don't check your phone. Don't glance at your monitor. Don't focus on anything else, even for a moment.

You can never connect with others if you're busy connecting with your stuff, too.

Give the gift of your full attention. That's a gift few people give. That gift alone will make others want to be around you and remember you.

4. They give before they receive--and often they never receive.

Never think about what you can get. Focus on what you can provide. Giving is the only way to establish a real connection and relationship.

Focus, even in part and even for a moment, on what you can get out of the other person, and you show that the only person who really matters is you.

5. They don't act self-important…

The only people who are impressed by your stuffy, pretentious, self-important self are other stuffy, pretentious, self-important people.

The rest of us aren't impressed. We're irritated, put off, and uncomfortable.

And we hate when you walk in the room.

6. …Because they realize other people are more important.

You already know what you know. You know your opinions. You know your perspectives and points of view.

That stuff isn't important, because it's already yours. You can't learn anything from yourself.

But you don't know what other people know, and everyone, no matter who they are, knows things you don't know.

That makes them a lot more important than you--because they're people you can learn from.

7. They shine the spotlight on others.

No one receives enough praise. No one. Tell people what they did well.

Wait, you say you don't know what they did well?

Shame on you--it's your job to know. It's your job to find out ahead of time.

Not only will people appreciate your praise, they'll appreciate the fact you care enough to pay attention to what they're doing.

Then they'll feel a little more accomplished and a lot more important.

8. They choose their words.

The words you use impact the attitude of others.

For example, you don't have to go to a meeting; you get to go meet with other people. You don't have to create a presentation for a new client; you get to share cool stuff with other people. You don't have to go to the gym; you get to work out and improve your health and fitness.

You don't have to interview job candidates; you get to select a great person to join your team.

We all want to associate with happy, enthusiastic, fulfilled people. The words you choose can help other people feel better about themselves--and make you feel better about yourself, too.

9. They don't discuss the failings of others...

Granted, we all like hearing a little gossip. We all like hearing a little dirt.

The problem is, we don't necessarily like--and we definitely don't respect--the people who dish that dirt.

Don't laugh at other people. When you do, the people around you wonder if you sometimes laugh at them.

10. ...But they readily admit their failings.

Incredibly successful people are often assumed to have charisma simply because they're successful. Their success seems to create a halo effect, almost like a glow.

Keyword is seem.

You don't have to be incredibly successful to be remarkably charismatic. Scratch the shiny surface, and many successful people have all the charisma of a rock.

But you do have to be incredibly genuine to be remarkably charismatic.

Be humble. Share your screwups. Admit your mistakes. Be the cautionary tale. And laugh at yourself.

While you should never laugh at other people, you should always laugh at yourself.

People won't laugh at you. People will laugh laugh with you.

They'll like you better for it--and they'll want to be around you a lot more

Public libraries embrace digital tech with NFCs

Hanno City Library in Japan is integrating its collection with digital tech, using NFCs to help visitors more easily browse the contents of each shelf.

In a world of ebooks and Wikipedia, the role of physical book collections is diminishing, and we’ve even seen the launch of entirely digital public libraries such as the BiblioTech in Texas. Now the Hanno City Library inJapan is integrating its collection with digital tech, using NFCs to help visitors more easily browse the contents of each shelf.

Those heading to the library, located in Saitama Prefecture, will notice small tags on each of the building’s bookshelves. By placing their NFC-enabled smartphone next to the tags, users are directed to a digital inventory of that shelf, which lets them see more information about each book and let them know if any titles are currently on loan. If one they want is currently out, they can reserve the copy and receive a notification once it’s back in stock. Developed by Fujitsu, the 100 tags located around the library also take advantage of digital resources such as Wikipedia to give readers more details about authors and fields of study. Libraries can also glean data on how their customers are using the resource.

Fujitsu is hoping that it can expand this service across hundreds of libraries in Japan if it proves to be popular with readers and researchers. Are there other ways to complement physical book collections with digital services?

Mens’ tailored fashion comes with up to 50 size options

Two startups — Stantt and Threadmason — are hoping to put an end to ill-fitting men’s shirts by offering a wide range of sizes and shapes to replace the standard small, medium and large options.

With consumers turning to the web to buy clothes, e-retailers are continually looking for ways to make sure they can get items at the right fit without trying them on. So far, these efforts have been aimed for the most part at women — take the InStyle Essentials range, for example, which lets customers browse tops by bra size. Now two startups — Stantt and Threadmason — are hoping to put an end to ill-fitting men’s shirts by offering a wide range of sizes and shapes to replace the standard small, medium and large options.

Based in New Jersey, Stantt has gathered data about the differing shapes of mens’ bodies using 3D modeling in order to develop a system for easily creating clothing that fits, to order. Customers are usually asked to pick one size option out of a limited range from XS to XXL when buying online, or else shell out a premium and travel to a tailor to get measured properly. Stantt customers simply enter in their chest, waist and sleeve length and the startup will automatically pick the best shirt shape and size out of a range of 50 in order to best suit their needs. The company recently raised USD 120,000 through a Kickstarter campaign to fund their first batch of shirts, priced at USD 70 each.

Also hoping to get funded through Indiegogo, Threadmason is another young company that is challenging the generic sizing of mass produced garments for men. Using the same three measurements, the New York-based startup has created 24 proprietary sizes that offer varying lengths and cuts for the torso and sleeves. Threadmason t-shirts come at the more affordable USD 34 and are available in both crew and V-neck designs.

Are there other product manufacturers that could benefit by giving greater choice to online buyers?

Personal assistant app merges tasks with utility payments

24me planner app automatically syncs with utilities and other services to remind and enable users to pay their bills.

It users to connect their utility accounts, bank details, social networks and other apps such as TaskRabbit. Once synced, actions such as due payments are seamlessly integrated with the other reminders in one feed, and users can pay them through the app. Similarly, 24me also features an in-app gift store that lets users easily and quickly buy and deliver a present when an occasion is coming up. If users don’t have time to complete a task, they can get someone else to do it for them through TaskRabbit. The video below shows the app in action:

By combining several platforms’ functionalities in one app, 24me helps daily planner users become even more productive through their smartphone. How else could further product integration make personal assistant apps more useful?

Platform helps schools and parents better communicate home time plans

 3Fifteen offers a smartphone app for parents, through which they can simply send a short text message to the relevant school staff. To ensure that it is the parent getting in touch, the app is protected by a PIN known only to the user. This system avoids confusion when parents can’t make it to school on time and children and teachers haven’t received a warning. Schools implementing the platform can also benefit from better communication with parents and enhanced reports from inspectors.

Much like the tags that track schoolkids’ location recently implemented in Brazil, 3Fifteen could save kids from wandering away from school on their own when their parent is late, ensuring their whereabouts are known. Are there other ways to use new tech to improve communication between parents and teachers?

Southeast Asia’s hottest hyperlocal news company

Coconuts focuses on hyperlocal news in Southeast Asian cities. While this could, in theory, mean covering events like the opening of a local photocopy shop that have no relevance outside of its immediate vicinity, Perry wants to find unusual happenings that can go viral globally. It does both original articles and content aggregation by scouring for stuff on social networks.
Given its hyperlocal coverage and business model, the site needs to expand rapidly, especially in the early stages. Coconuts wants to be a pioneer of sponsored content in Asia, which differs from advertorials in that publications take full control over content which sponsors pay a sum to be associated with. It’s something that Buzzfeed and Vice magazine have run with and are succeeding.
For the sums to work out, it needs lots of traffic. To do that, it must have boots on the ground in multiple cities to scour for content and capture readers.

While sponsored content is starting to get traction in the United States, it’s still new in Asia, which means Coconuts will have the arduous task of convincing brands about the concept. So far, the company hasone campaign going, and it’s hoping for more in the coming months.

It’s also gone into traditional banner ads and advertorials, and in the near future it could explore a classifieds section which charges for premium placing.

Digital Retail App

Give your customers total control over their shopping experience with SelfPay by Digital Retail Apps. SelfPay lets your customers pay with their smartphone from anywhere in your store. No line-ups. No register. 

 After scanning an item’s barcode with a cell phone or tablet, consumers can view pricing, product information, reviews, offers and other recommended products in addition to actually making the purchase.

“This translates to shopper-led, associate-unassisted payments without waiting in line or waiting for a mobile-enabled store associate to swipe a payment card on a portable card reader,” the company said. “In addition, unlike with other scanning apps such as RedLaser, showrooming is not possible within SelfPay as the app knows where the device is. Only the one retailer’s price will be visible in-app.”

Merchants using the system can verify customer purchases before they leave the store by scanning the receipt the app generates on the shopper’s phone after purchase. In addition to a normal list of purchases and prices, the app also renders a scannable QR code on the receipt. Merchants are equipped with a companion retailer verification app. When scanned, the QR code will link the retailer’s app to a display of the purchase summary. A patent on the QR code-based purchase verification method is pending.

Once built, the part of the app that makes product recommendations will also be proprietary. The “Smooth” item suggestion engine will be able to deliver related product recommendations in a format users are familiar with from other e-commerce sites like Amazon. But, the company says, the suggestions will be based on interactions consumers experienced in the physical world. The engine will learn from shoppers’ browsing, not just purchases, to craft suggestions and offers that are delivered at the precise moment of purchase.

Mobile revolutionizes window displays as retailers look beyond QR codes

As marketers increasingly turn to window displays to boost mobile engagement, connected glass and social media are pushing mobile bar codes out of the picture for retailers.

2013 was a significant year for retailers in leveraging mobile as a part of the in-store shopping experience, and brands such as Ted Baker and Kate Spade have now been betting on window displays and digital storefronts to capture the attention of the mobile shopper. Additionally, location-based offers including iBeacon are influencing how marketers set up window displays.

“Technology is constantly evolving and we have seen new forms, such as iBeacon come to the forefront over the past year,” said Mikhail Damiani, CEO/cofounder at Blue Bite, New York.

“However, at the end of the day technology is secondary to the consumer experience and value delivered through that technology,” he said. “We look at technologies as doorways to an experience, and what is behind the doors is more important than which door the consumer chooses.”

Window engagement


The role of mobile for window displays is not necessarily new, but it is more significant for retailers this year in luring in in-store traffic through hefty holiday window investments.

The move towards mobile window displays builds on the importance of mobile in-store experiences that retailers have built up this year.

In the past, many of these mobile-enabled windows relied on QR codes as a way to let consumers shop looks straight from a display.

However, the hype around mobile bar codes has significantly died down in the past year, and more marketers are trying new methods of engagement.

For example, two years ago eBay partnered with designers including Jonathan Adler to plaster QR codes on a holiday storefront (see story).

Now, eBay’s efforts are more focused on enabling mobile sales from digital touchscreens.

EBay is letting consumers shop by touching a glass window at the Westfield San Francisco Centre mall and at Rebecca Minkhoff, Toms and Sony virtual storefronts. Essentially consumers find an item from a glass panel in the bricks-and-mortar stores and can then push the shopping cart to their mobile device to finish the checkout process (see story).

The window shopping experience at a Sony store

EBay partnered with Kate Spade on a similar mobile storefront experience earlier this year.

Beacons and location-based coupons have also made a big splash this year, primarily driven by Apple’s launch of iBeacon in its iOS 7 operating system.

Promoting these initiatives through window displays is a logical way for retailers to get the word out about their in-store efforts with location-based offers.

At the same time, the growth of mediums used in window displays shows how retailers are making a bigger push to create seamless, multichannel experiences.

“I think marketers are quickly realizing that mobile enables them to bring together independent assets and media initiatives, allowing them to all work together,” Mr. Damiani said.

“For example, a brand can now weave together a window display, mobile Web, social media and a retail promotion with the help of mobile,” he said.

Social is mobile
Retailers are also stepping up their mobile efforts to build up their social presences.

For example, British retailer Ted Baker has rolled out an interactive digital display in the store windows of locations in New York, Tokyo and London that encourage consumers to take a selfie of themselves. The pictures are then approved by employees on an iPad app and appear as falling snowflakes in a digital display (see story).

Ted Baker’s digital experience

According to Jeff Gunderman, president of Eye Corp Media, New York, the challenge for retailers with these types of campaigns is that they generate limited engagement.

There are also obstacles in educating consumers on how mobile works within window displays.

For example, augmented reality campaigns require multiple steps for consumers to participate in a digital experience, and near-field communications is not mainstream enough for retailers to use when targeting a large group of mobile shoppers.

At the same time, QR codes are become more standard for consumers, but may be waning for marketers.

Eye claims that 88 percent of the campaigns that the company runs include QR codes, eight to ten percent use NFC and the remaining portion are executed through SMS.

Regardless of technology that a retailer uses to engage with window shoppers, the goal is to ultimately drive engagement with consumers looking for both entertainment and the ability to shop.

“Social is increasingly gaining ground because of the power consumers have to influence their social circles,” Mr. Gunderman said.

“Second, mobile is important as retailers are starting to embrace consumers use of mobile to research products and help make buying decisions in store,” he said.

Final Take
Lauren Johnson is associate reporter on Mobile CommerceDaily, New York 

6 startup ideas in a housing boom

• Connected devices. So far, we've got theNest for temperature control and smoke detection. But what about a universal device that monitors oven time and temperature, sets the DVR and lets you know when your lawn is especially dry and needs water, allowing you to remotely turn on the sprinkler? Plenty of companies are working on this, like SmartThings, but there's no clear leader.

• User-friendly software for realtors, brokers, underwriters, title agents, inspectors and homebuyers. Wouldn't it be nice to have one place to go through all the steps of purchasing a home? Where each person involved in the process can notify the others of what is needed and keep a log of all documentation and communication? A startup called dotloop has a solution, but it's not quite universal. And there could be other startups that use its API to provide additional tools to aid the process.

• Innovative appliances. Perhaps it's time for a new player to enter the market dominated by GE, Whirlpool, Kenmore and Samsung? With all the new energy efficiency and green certifications out there for homes, a new player could enter the market with green appliances made or designed differently. We're inspired by a story this week about Oransi, a high-end air purifier company using industrial-grade materials to produce a more effective consumer device. Its' founder's goal is to do everything different, from manufacturing to design to price to promise.

• Digital design tools. It's hard to beat Houzz for inspiration, especially with added features that help you find a building material used in an image or contact the designer directly for advice. But what about a tool using augmented reality, so you can visualize your existing furniture in that dream room along with the items on your wish list? Sherwin Williams has a pretty impressive tablet application that lets a user photograph a room, and then virtually paint it using swatches. How about merging all that cool stuff into one?

• A network for artisans, craftspeople and artists. Sure, there's Etsy for finding cool handmade stuff. But what about a site to help us find handcrafted furniture, rugs, curtains and art and also connect with the makers about commissioning work? Thanks to Houzz and Pinterest, many of us now have our own ideas of what a room should be like, so we'd like to find others talented enough to match our vision.

• Innovative builders, architects and designers. This one might seem obvious, but now might be the time to pursue your homebuilding or design plans, especially if you offer something different. Many people these days are interested in customization, and having something unique from their neighbors. If your style is unique, and you have the ability, now might be the time to buy up some lots and enter the market. For inspiration, check out these new homebuilding companies that have popped up since the recession.

Exciting health care startups from Medcity

•  Cynaps Enhance – A baseball cap that uses bone conduction technology to enhance hearing.

• Kinsa Health – A smartphone-enabled thermometer and app designed to aggregate temperature and symptom data with other health data from CDC or Google Flu to track public health trends.

• MDCapsule – A secure social platform that allows patients to invite all of their doctors and healthcare providers into one site.

• PurThread – Fabric for hospital linens that is woven with silver salts and a resin to give the cloth anti-microbial protection.

• Rest Devices – A new baby monitoring system that includes a onesie embedded with washable sensors to track a baby’s breathing, temperature and movements, a smartphone app to collect the data, and a base station for the baby’s room to pick up audio as a traditional baby monitor would.

• Seratis – A HIPAA-compliant communication platform designed to help physicians and other members of the care team identify who is responsible for each patient and communicate patient information safely and securely among the group.

• Spot on Science – A new way to collect blood samples that does not require refrigeration.

• Stat – An app designed to cut the amount of time it takes for ambulances to make a pickup.

• ThermalCore – A full-body hyperthermia treatment for cancer patients who are out of options. All of the cells and tissues in the body are exposed to temperatures above 107 degrees Farenheit, at which point they can become more susceptible to radiation therapy or chemotherapy.

• Trak Fertility – A system for men to track their reproductive health, including a centrifuge, a disposable test plate and seal, a sample collection cup and a dropper.

• Vecoy Nanomedicines – Technology that aims to trap viruses before they infiltrate cells. The traps are made from nanoparticles and designed to look like human cells.

• Z1 – A small, sleek, quiet CPAP machine from Human Design Medical.

If I were a Shark Tank producer, here are the companies I would pick and why:

• PurThread – Getting this company on national TV would highlight the problem of hospital-acquired infections.
• Trak Fertility – Trak is our digital health representative. Plus, who could resist watching Mark Cuban and the other guys squirm as they talk about sperm?
• Vecoy Nanomedicines – We need a biotech company in the national spotlight and this idea has great visuals, making it easier to understand.
• Z1 – This company represents the future of medical devices – a modern design that incorporates patient preferences and increases the likelihood a person will use it.

Read more: http://medcitynews.com/2013/12/4-healthcare-startups-deserve-spot-shark-tank/#ixzz2oYPrWR52