Happy Halloween. This year tracking technology appears to have gone mainstream
“One application developer has created a “Trick or Tracker” app. It uses GPS and links the phones of parent and child. The $5 app also allows parents to create a “geofence,” according to TechNewsDaily. If a child wanders beyond the “fence,” parents get a text message alert.
Another comes from a developer that released “SecureaFone” just in time for the holiday. Makers say that parents can use it to know where their child is at any given moment, promising some nocturnal peace of mind.
Then there’s the maker of a hand-held device that is pitching, “While parents can’t dictate the types of treats given out, they can use trick-or-treating to ensure their children get their daily dose of physical activity.”
MOVband is a wrist-worn monitor that tracks all movement and converts it into mileage. The company suggests that parents snap one on a child’s wrist on the 31st to “inject some fitness into trick-or-treating.”
My children are still too young to need anything other than physical tracking. These gadgets are intended for the slightly older, go-it-alone crowd.”
Google, as usual has an interactive Doodle on its query page – more in video below


“Rental Nation”
Time (sub required) has a nice article on a trend sweeping the country and the role on-demand tech and pay as you go business models are accelerating the rental boom
“The transformation of American rental culture in recent years has turned that notion on its head. There are still many Americans for whom renting the basics is about making ends meet. But a shinier, more affluent cadre of renters has also emerged, and they are shifting mainstream thinking about the ideals of ownership and what we want out of the dollars we spend. For these renters, the philosophy is more about having it all--designer dresses, haute tech gadgets, modern art--than it is about hardship or frugality. Why own a BMW when you can rent one for a night out on the town? Why shell out for a diamond necklace when you can rent one for a black-tie event this week and another for the next event? Armed with iPhones and intent on a grander but lighter style of life, this new wave of spenders has come to see renting, rather than owning, as the surest path to achieving their dreams. The trend, still in its infancy, has been termed the "sharing" economy, one that gives us access to the stuff we want without our having to own it. In some ways, rentals offer what we need for a busier, more crowded world: environmentally friendly car-sharing schemes, cloud-based apps and software to maintain and upgrade myriad home gadgets (refrigerators that tell us when we need milk, thermostats that track our energy use, alarm systems that send us video of our home). We save money, and parts of the economy grow as these new sharing-oriented business models are created.”
Photo Credit of Toy Rental site
October 31, 2012 in Business Model, Industry Commentary | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)