One Cool Thing: 10 things in tech you need to know today

Après nous le deluge: in the tech world, it’s pretty hard to just keep up with what everyone else is doing. Time flies even faster during the holidays, so our interest is overly practical this month…

One Cool ThingAlexander OomsDecember 14, 2015

One Cool Thing: The Wirecutter

Inspired by Labor Day traffic, we decided to rise above the crowds. Instead of recommending a specific product, we are going all meta: The Wirecutter is a cultivated list of great gadgets, with “each pick chosen mindfully and in accordance with many hours of research, interviews […] and testing.”…

One Cool ThingAlexander OomsSeptember 1, 2014Gadgets

One Cool Thing: Cloze

The tension of social media is its increasing influence combined with its sheer difficulty to manage. The proliferation of information makes it harder and harder to hone in on a person or topic for signals both weak and strong. We were fans of the former Gist and, since its demise…

Entrepreneurs, One Cool ThingAlexander OomsJune 22, 2014

One Cool Thing: Revolv

Device by device, homes are getting smarter. You can now unlock your doors with Kwikset, turn on the lights and get the CrockPot started with WeMo, and adjust your thermostat with Nest. Unfortunately though, these devices aren’t so smart that they can talk to one another.

Innovation, One Cool ThingAlexander OomsJanuary 27, 2014

One Cool Thing: Square Cash

Paying your friends back for spotting you with some cash just got really, really easy. With nothing more than an email, Square Cash (from the makers of Square) allows friends and family to send small amounts of money directly to one another’s bank accounts via email…

Innovation, One Cool ThingAlexander OomsDecember 17, 2013

One Cool Thing: Brewster

As social media and communications technologies proliferate, everyone seems to have more friends, but in different places. High-school friends, professional friends, virtual friends, and friends both with and without benefits…

One Cool ThingAlexander OomsSeptember 10, 2013

One Cool Thing: Upstart

One of the minor signs of professional accomplishment is that dreaded moment where some enterprising young person asks career advice. Often one has to balance between the practical (pursue a typical corporate gig to pay off student debt?) and the promise…

Angels, Economic, Entrepreneurs, Financing, One Cool ThingAlexander OomsFebruary 22, 2013

One Cool Thing: Wantful

Yes, the holidays beckon. And there is now substantial research for econ nerds on what makes a good gift. And yes, gift-giving services are old news, but we found one we like: wantful. Through its simple site filled with carefully curated stylish things, wantful gift givers select…

One Cool ThingAlexander OomsDecember 13, 2012

One Cool Thing: Easyshift & Gigwalk

Smart phones are expensive — often too much so for younger users, or even those suffering through the economic downturn. But there are now apps to help a smart phone pay for itself. As this article outlines, apps such as easyshift and gigwalk (both VC backed) allow users to do simple local tasks…

One Cool ThingAlexander OomsOctober 1, 2012

One Cool Thing: Songkick

We’re fortunate enough to see a lot of interesting products and services, and thought we would start listing — on occasion — those that are our favorites (and where we have absolutely no affiliation). The first of these is songkick (and particularly the mobile app). Songkick will scan your music library…

One Cool ThingAlexander OomsJuly 2, 2012

Blog: The Ripple