LG’s DTXTR translates text talk for parents

by Paul Katz WHAT’S HAPPENING Text stress is no longer a worry for parents who haven’t a clue what the kiddies are typing away. LG introduces DTXTR to translate from text to English. The application can translate over 2,000 commonly used words from/to text, much like language site BabelFish.com. LG is positioning the DTXTR tool […]

ESoles offer automated foot support

by Robert van Alstyne WHAT’S HAPPENING Customized insoles creator ESoles plans to get consumers’ feet talking — to their cell phones. The tech wirelessly transfers info to cells via multi-purpose electronic pressure sensors, and an application on the phone relays the pressure being applied in 11 different zones of each foot. ESoles’ founder envisions applications for […]

Street smarts: L.A. restaurant serves exotic nibbles from around the world

by Nina Elder WHAT’S HAPPENING Well-known Los Angeles chef Susan Feniger has opened Street, a restaurant that takes its inspiration from street vendors from across the globe. The menu — a mix of small plates, medium-sized portions and proper entrées — features dishes from Singapore to India. Kaya toast, a common breakfast dish in Singapore, is […]

LowerMyAssessment.com can reduce homeowners’ property taxes

by Hans Eisenbeis WHAT’S HAPPENING “The housing bubble popped, so why are my property taxes acting like it’s 2006?” Many consumers are asking themselves this, and beginning the complex and sometimes soul-killing process of negotiating with their local tax boards to have their assessed home values — and therefore their property taxes — brought into […]

Oh, poop!: Composter turns Fido’s feces into garden gold

by Nissa Hanna WHAT’S HAPPENING Composters are gaining ground as gardeners recycle greenery and food scraps, but another ingredient — pet poop — can be more difficult to safely incorporate. The Samu, a robotic composter, is making sure that waste is saved for the garden. Created by the Japan-based Tohoku Kankyo company, the approximately 30-pound […]

Consumers dump the stock market and embrace savings

by Hans Eisenbeis WHAT’S HAPPENING We know consumers are in emergency savings mode during the Great Recession. So where are they putting their money for long term returns? Forget the stock market. According to a new poll from Gallup, Americans’ confidence in stock and bonds is down a whopping 50% since 2007 (Gallup.com 5.8.09). Not […]

Debit cards leave credit cards in the rearview mirror

by Hans Eisenbeis WHAT’S HAPPENING For the first time in the history of the company, Visa says use of its debit cards exceeded use of credit cards in the fourth quarter of 2008 in terms of total volume (PaymentsNews.com 5.4.09). Cardholders spent $206 billion of their own money through debit, versus $203 billion on credit. […]

Design Within Reach creates a gourmet kitchen for on-the-go homeowners

by Nissa Hanna WHAT’S HAPPENING Style-savvy retailer Design Within Reach is mobilizing the kitchen with its new line of freestanding modular cabinets for high-end homes (Metropolitan Home 5.09). Designed by architect Nilus de Matran, the portable collection allows the homeowner to reconfigure the cabinets and islands if the room needs a remodel, or relocate the […]

Brazen high-tech crooks glue “skimmers” onto ATMs

by Hans Eisenbeis WHAT’S HAPPENING There’s a scary new technique to rob consumers blind: the ATM skimmer. Crooks attach a high-tech false front to the card slot on a working ATM that records all the info off a victim’s card while she’s making a routine withdrawal. The devices include tiny spy cameras to record the […]

A Texas city gets strict, becomes divided on undocumented immigration

by Anna Otieno WHAT’S HAPPENING Like many communities, Irving, TX, has seen an increase in undocumented immigrants. A local law passed in 2007, allowing police to conduct immigration checks on everyone they arrest, is dividing the community, pitting Latinos and retail businesses on one side, advocates of strict immigration enforcement on the other, and the […]

Groceries are going once, going twice — sold!

by Tim Barlow WHAT’S HAPPENING From frozen meats to breakfast cereal, cost-conscious shoppers are bidding on heavily discounted items at grocery auctions, with average savings of between 50-90% (ABCnews.com 4.2.09). Sprouting up at auction halls across the country, the gatherings put leftover and slightly damaged groceries on the auction block. Arriving from supermarkets, distribution centers […]

Designer Vage scale vaguely measures the pounds

by Sarah Barker WHAT’S HAPPENING German designer Patrick Decker’s Vage scale is more about attitude than fattitude. The scale eschews judgmental pounds (or kilograms) and provides a ballpark estimate via a red or green range (YankoDesign.com 1.22.09). The concept scale is housed in wavy plywood that visually and virtually varies the measurement depending on how you stand […]

Computer addicts seek SelfControl

by Paul Katz WHAT’S HAPPENING The first step toward fixing an addiction to the Internet is admitting you have a problem. The next? Perhaps downloading the application SelfControl. The free app for the Mac helps keep focus where it should be (work), not where it shouldn’t (Facebook). Users input time-sucking urls into a blacklist and […]

Hispanic-dominant Latinos in foreclosure victimized by other Latinos

by Abelardo de la Peña Jr. WHAT’S HAPPENING Latino homeowners under the threat of foreclosure are being victimized by companies exploiting their situation. The cruel irony: Some of the companies are Latino-owned. In Livermore, CA, two Latinas operating a group called the Community Home Saver targeted Hispanic homeowners facing foreclosure, taking $2,500-5,000 a month while […]

Serenbe: Mayberry meets the 21st century

by Nissa Hanna WHAT’S HAPPENING Serenbe, a new urbanism development 30 miles southwest of downtown Atlanta, GA, is a young community built on old principles like know your neighbors, conserve environmental resources and live a local lifestyle. The growing settlement includes walkable neighborhoods of eco-friendly homes, restaurants and shops; over a hundred miles of nature […]