20 HIGHS AND LOWS OF CES 2016

As most of you know, last week was CES 2016 in Las Vegas; the world’s most prolific consumer electronics show. I spent three days walking every inch of its several massive halls, interacting with its exhibitors, exploring all the startups, taking photos and haggling over unreasonable prices with women who were clearly not “registered” massage therapists. Well, that wasn’t at the show, but it was still part of “the experience” ...

CAN STARTUPS SOLVE OUR CRIMINAL JUSTICE WOES?

From Ferguson to Making a Murderer to perennial problems with the NYPD (and the LAPD, the Seattle PD…), law enforcement and our criminal justice system have hardly ever been more under fire — metaphorically — than they are now ...

WEEKLY SNAPSHOT: TECH NEWS TO KNOW

JANUARY 11 – JANUARY 15

Believe it or not, we don’t cover every piece of tech news here at SnapMunk. In an effort to keep you apprised of all things relevant (and damn entertaining) in the world of technology and startups, here are some noteworthy tech news items that didn’t get a full column this week but certainly deserve a glance ...

MAGIC LEAP MIGHT JUMP US INTO THE NEXT ERA

The company hasn’t even released a product – let alone reached profitability – in five full years of existence, yet Magic Leap is about to become one of the highest-valued startups the world has ever seen ...

5 INTERNET OF THINGS STARTUPS TO WATCH OUT FOR

The Internet of Things revolution has been a long time coming, and we’re slowly but surely heading into a time when rather than having them stolen, we’ll worry about our cars being hackedand redirected to the nearest theatre playing an Adam Sandler movie ...

CARDBERRY TAKES ON COIN, UNIFIES YOUR LOYALTY CARDS INTO ONE

Brands love loyalty. They’re so nuts for it that in the US alone, businesses spend $50 billion a year on their loyalty programs. And there’s a reason companies bend over backwards to earn the loyalty of their customers; loyalty programs have been shown to account for up to 20 percent of earnings ...

WANNA QUIT SMOKING? THERE’S A CASE, LIGHTER AND APP FOR THAT

Medication, patches, and lozenges – those used to be the primary ways people quit smoking. While effective, they’re expensive, and some health conscious users prefer natural alternatives. Recently two new devices have come up which aim to make it easier for smokers to change their behavior ...

THE RIPPLE MAKER LETS ANYONE MAKE LATTE ART (VIDEO)

Latte art, the process of creating designs in coffee by pouring steamed milk into a shot of espresso, used to be a difficult process only a few could master. Even with the right training however, every cup of coffee is different, which made it impractical to create uniform designs ...

STARTUP REPLY WANTS TO HELP IMPROVE YOUR SALES EMAIL GAME

Cold email sales can be a dangerous path. They key is to be personal and informative but remain sales oriented with your messages – which can be tough. Then after your first few cold sales campaigns, you’ll quickly find that while keeping all of your emails personal gets easier, keeping track of all the inbound and outbound messages in an organized fashion – with well timed follow ups – actually gets harder ...

OLIBA TURNS STUFFED TOYS INTO SMART TOYS

My five year old daughter sleeps with approximately 240 stuffed toys in her bed. You would think that when one of them goes missing, she wouldn’t notice, but she does. When a stuffed animal is not in its normal place, bedtime comes to a grinding halt as we search high and low for the missing toy ...

WILL VARAGESALE BEAT OUT CRAIGSLIST ON MOBILE?

Three years ago, Tami Zuckerman was pregnant and cleaning out her house to make room for the baby. Frustrated with selling things on Craigslist, she craved an alternative. She asked her husband, Carl Mercier to help her develop an app that allowed her to sell things from her phone. ...

SMART WALLET WALLI TRACKS YOUR WALLET AND WHAT’S INSIDE

Researchers have found that lost wallets containing pictures of family members are a lot more likely to be returned to their owners. Baby pictures are especially adept at pulling at the heartstrings of someone who has chanced upon a lost wallet, so much so that 88 percent of such wallets were returned in the study conducted ...