The Innovation Capitalist

One of the hottest items this holiday season

Time to think about what will be hot this holiday season. My prediction for one of the hottest items will be Rubiks's Revolution. Considering the original Rubik's Cube sold well over 300 million units and is gaining a new sense of popularity, this new version will further expand Rubik's momemtum. This new variant challenges users to conquer one level to get to another. You think you are good, wait till you get your hands on this one. These are showing up in stores this month, but I suspect they will be very difficult to find come September / October. Don't say I didn't warn you.

Hover Over The Images Of This Management Teams Photos

Go to this URL: http://www.clearspring.com/about and hover over any of the management teams photos. Demonstrates that these folks like to have fun.

Oxygen Masks For Pets

More and more fire departments are being equiped with oxygen masks specifically designed for use on pets. Most these pet oxygen masks are being donated thru various programs. Take for instance, the Sacramento Metro Fire deparment where the folks from "The Best Friends Kenar Pet Resort" donated 20 sets of dog and cat oxygen masks. According to statistics on the internet, it is estimated that over 1,300 of these pet oxygen masks have been donated.   (image courtesy of kcra)

OnStar Worked For Me This Weekend

Over the weekend, my youngest son and I were out running a few errands. During our trip back home we spotted an intense forest fire building off the exit ramp of the highway close by our house. The fire was buildng fast. Fortunately we were in our OnStar equiped vehicle and so I decided to hit the famous blue button, the Onstar agent connected us directly into our local fire department where fire personnel were immediately connected with us and dispatched. I simply told the Onstar agent that the fire is on the left side of my vehicle and they knew exactly where it was making the information transfer to the fire department very easy. It was only a matter of about 5 minutes before we saw the arrival of the fire department which quickly went on to work to put out the blaze. Although I had a cell phone with me and could have called 911, the OnStar system was, in my opinion, much faster. Nothing like showing the value of being a good samaritan to your kid. Thanks OnStar.

Orbit Earth For Six Months - Get A Free Pizza

Papa John's Pizza chain announced on Friday that it plans to deliver to Sunita "Suni" Williiams a pizza of her choice wherever she is able to receive it, according to the press release. In addition, they plan on giving the entire flight crew of Atlantis a years worth of free pizza. I wonder if they can make a rehydratable pizza for the space station crew. Papa John's Pizza should think about giving it a try in order to satisfy their taste buds while in space.

Starting A Web 2.0 Company? Take A Look At Your Competition

Everyday, I seem to get bombarded by information about the next Web 2.0, Social Computing, B2C startup. In case your contemplating starting up a Web 2.0 consumer oriented company, you may be up against about a half dozen or so competitors right out of the gate. Unique? Think again. Simply click on this photo to get a taste of what I'm talking about. You might 10x the number of companies on this image and still not even touch the amount of Web 2.0 companies gearing up for launch.

Coke With Lime - No More And Keep Those Bottles

In January of 2004, Coca-Cola North American announced the introduction of Coca-Cola with Lime. A year before this, they introduced Diet Coke with Lime. Today, I spoke with the folks at Coca-Cola media relations and discovered that Coca-Cola with Lime is no longer being produced. If you find a Coke with Lime bottle, I would strongly suggest keeping it, content and all. I wouldn't be surprised if we saw them on eBay in a few years going for big bucks as a collector item for Coke fans.

How about a solar panel on the hood of a car??

Yesterday, summer kicked off our area with some nasty thunderstorms yet this morning it is a very beautiful day with intense sunshine. As I look out over the office parking lot as the suns beats down on all the cars, I thought, why not build a solar panel into every cars hood. In fact, why not make the entire hood a solar panel and even the roof for most of the cars out there. I could only imagine how much power one might collect during days of intense sunshine while ones car sits baking in the parking lot.

OK. It's Summer. Here Is A Stay Cool Innovation

Helen Rockey is the founder of wildbleu which is a true innovator when it comes to creating new sleepwear. Now she has introduced to the market, Sleepkeeper Sheets (tm) which is made up of synethetic fibers that are able to release moisture into the air four times faster than 100 percent cotton. These innovative sheets will help those that suffer from "hot flashes and night sweats frequently caused by chemotherapy, menopause or simply living in hot climates".

Lightning Detector + Cell Phone Innovation

Recently I had blogged about adding a radar detector into a cell phone. Now with thunderstorms building around my home office this evening, I find my self in search of a portable lightning detector. Low and behold, what have I found? A patent application by Nokia to include a lightning detector in a cell phone. Now if I could only get them to bite on my idea about a radar detector, I would have the best of both worlds.