By: Co-Editor, Bobby B:

There are people who you know that are obsessed (not merely interested) with the latest technology releases be it the latest iPhone, Nokia Booklet, or video game release. Some of these people have buyer’s remorse the minute they pick up the latest gadget thinking about the next upgrade.

There is a new site out of St. Petersburg, Russia called PreOrder.it launched in January that has been created in order to give people who are interested in latest novelties in the world of electronics, mobile systems, photo and video equipment a possibility to contact manufacturers directly and leave an order for a product in which they are interested before the official sale starts.

This site would obviously interest any techno-savvy consumer, but the obsessive described above will really enjoy it.

The site actually has two types of users: merchants and customers. Customers can go to the site to access company’s press releases to find out new models, their characteristics, types of set and future price. If the client gets interested in something he can leave a pre-order that goes directly to merchants. Merchants can sell in advance and receive orders directly from loyal and future customers.
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By: Co-Editor, Bobby B:

There are dozens of search engines out there that offer a variety of ways to search and organize your preferences.

Now comes an Israeli based startup, Jinni.com, which calls itself a “Pandora for movies”. Currently in beta and launched in October of 2009, Jinni.com also calls itself “the first Taste Engine.” What Jinni.com does is help people make sense of the abundance of movies and TV shows. Where Pandora uses subject experts for its music recommendations, Jinni’s technology crawls the web and picks up movie reviews and metadata and uses natural language processing tools to tag films and television shows according to what’s being said about them.

The Jinni service includes semantic search (try “race against time” or “smart love story”), and provides personalized recommendations based on a unique model of each user’s “Movie Personality,” taste-based social features. It is integrated with Netflix, Hulu, iTunes and other content providers.

The proprietary Movie Genome, containing several thousand genes, powers the Jinni.com service. These are assigned to each title to describe plot, mood, style, setting, soundtrack and more – a rich alternative to the usual genre language. New titles are indexed by analyzing user reviews, synopses and metadata, using innovative Natural Language Processing technology. This automated process offers efficiency, consistency, and a diversity of viewpoints from incorporating many user reviews.
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By: The Editor

My first reaction once I learned about Tongal.com was “interesting”. Not in the bad sense, merely something a little out of the norm. That is what the entrepreneurial spirit is all about, innovation, new ideas as well as growth and prosperity. They just launched a few weeks ago, so I am excited to be one of first writers to review this new company.

Based in Santa Monica, California, Tongal delivers a unique online platform that combines crowd sourcing and performance games to deliver professional quality commercials, music videos, short films and instructional videos. The result is an entirely new way for companies of all sizes to incorporate online content into their marketing strategy. Video strategy and placement in today’s market place is extremely vital to any business.

Tongal’s 100% collaborative platform draws creative video talent to a fun and performance-based environment. Competitions are held at every stage of the development process, from the idea to the pitch to the production to the finished product. In addition, non-creators are invited to “predict” which submissions at each stage will be selected by a panel of 5 judges. Cash prizes are handed out as the contest progresses.
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