How to win at Kickstarter
About to crowdfund your start-up? Then don鈥檛 grovel for cash. Instead, pitches should use language that signals the funder will get rewards for their pledge. Tanushree Mitra and Eric Gilbert at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta analysed the phrases used by 45,000 Kickstarter projects, including successful ones like the Pebble smartwatch (above), to persuade would-be pledgers to part with their money. The pair compiled a list of the top 100 phrases that signalled a project was to be funded. It will be presented at a crowdsourcing conference in Baltimore next month.
鈥淢aybe your friend, or even your friend鈥檚 friend doesn鈥檛 have the answer. However, your friend鈥檚 friend鈥檚 friend just might鈥� Twitter co-founder Biz Stone unveils his latest project, Jelly, a Q&A service for smartphones that lets users ask questions of one another via images
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Traffic app gives you the green light
Ready, set鈥� go! A smartphone app can predict when traffic lights will turn green. Developed by , EnLighten uses a phone鈥檚 sensors to detect where a car has stopped. It combines the location information with current traffic data to predict how long the stoppage will be. Seconds before the green light appears, the app sounds a chime to alert the driver. EnLighten was shown at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last week.
Fuel cells for your phone
Your cellphone could soon be charged using hydrogen, when the Upp charger hits the shelves in the US early this year. Unlike lithium-ion batteries, it is powered by hydrogen fuel canisters. Each canister can provide five full charges for most smartphones through a USB port, says its manufacturer Intelligent Energy, based in Loughborough, UK. Once empty, canisters can be refilled with hydrogen and reused.
