I have recently started following a new blog, AfriGadget, a blog that follows innovations in Africa. Really neat stuff, and truly inspiring. They recently posted a story of a young inventor, Morris Mbetsa an 18 year in Kenya who has created a car anti-theft system using a mobile phone. Not only is someone alerted when their car is turned on, they are able listen to what is going on in the car, as well as instantly shut off and lock the motor from the phone. The concept could be implemented anywhere in the world and is especially relevant in Kenya with the high rate of car theft. Check out :
To top it off, Morris is a completely self-taught inventor!
A service which I have recently been impressed by is Disqus. I had heard of it a while back, but the first time I had seen it in action was when Fred Wilson had implemented it on his blog (If its not already, add this blog to your feed-reader; quality content on a full spectrum of topics.)
Disqus is a great tool to help build a community around individual blogs, while creating a network of commenters and responders by authenticating each user. It easily integrates a threaded comments feature as well as the ability to reblog a comment. And to top it off, its super simple and free! I installed the plug-in, ported over our old comments, and associated my comments with my recently created account all while sitting on Bolt’s wifi enabled coach, bussing my way to NY - with hours to spare Like any social network the more people using it the better, so bloggers do everyone a favor and take the leap!
A friend of mine J. Lippi, just turned me on to a company called PlayPumps. PlayPumps has created a breakthrough innovation through simplicity and creativity, helping solve the overwhelming issue of bringing clean water to those without direct access.
Watch this inspirational video on the concept and implementation:
From the PlayPumps Website:
Together, we provide schools and communities throughout Africa with an innovative, uniquely sustainable, free supply of clean drinking water.
Talk about creating a sustainable business - I love it!
i just came across this neat article in Time magazine, that is showing that green business is reaching hip and unconventional applications. a dance club in London called “club4climate” uses a its dance floor as a source of electricity for its club. the technology is called Piezoelectricity and is created by certain types of materials like crystals and some ceramics. to put in simply, the dance floor (of a this material) harnesses electricity that is generated from people bouncing up and down on it (compression creates a small amount of electric charge). the electricity is then transferred and stored in nearby batteries.
the green focus doesn’t stop there, the club uses rainwater for its toilets, free trade organic liquor, and no cover charge for people who walked or took public transport to the club.
if this is working at dance clubs, we should really start capturing some of the energy that we use at the gym.
With the advent of the WiFi enabled camera, many adopters have found that this small feature has made a sometimes cumbersome process very easy as wires are no longer needed to print pics or upload pics to your computer.But what if we take this innovation one step further…what if cameras were built on an EVDO wireless network just like the Amazon Kindle so they don’t need to rely on hotspots.If you are unfamiliar with the Kindle, Amazon created an eBook reader that was capable of downloading books on-demand using the Sprint nationwide network (EVDO).This technology would essentially allow the camera to upload photos instantly to a photosharing program without the need to ever store it on a memory card.The image could then be appropriately geo-tagged and date stamped on an app like Picasa or Flickr.
Idea: Create a camera that worked on a cellular network.Create a photosharing application that would tag photos as they were uploaded on the network (instantly).A service plan must be purchased along aside any camera that allowed the user to instantly upload photos via its cell network and share, download or print any pics.User could be charged a rate based on uploads or a monthly subscription fee.For the users, it’s great because cameras often run of battery and fail to timestamp the correct date and time.This would be done on upload, along with the location.Another huge benefit is that memory cards become obsolete and you never have to worry about losing pics or cameras again.
incuTANK is a place to share ideas and innovations that come across our everyday lives. Through collaboration, brainstorming, and reader comments we hope to push the limits of our thinking. MORE...
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Like any social network the more people using it the better, so bloggers do everyone a favor and take the leap!
i just came across this neat article in 
