* Hearing aids that run off body heat. They have watches that do it, why not hearing aids? Or at least helps recharge the batteries... I dunno. I spend a lot of money on hearing aid batteries...
* A better credit rating system. The current one kinda sucks, no offense to Transunion, Experian, and whatever that other one is. Just because Joe Schmoe was unemployed 18 months ago and struggled to pay the rent, much less pay the bills, does not mean that Joe Schmoe is currently unable to do so. A creditor can claim a debt from Sally Schmoe, and Sally has little recourse in fighting it -- it's ridiculously complicated to combat something you know nothing about. Usually she winds up just paying the bogus bill to get it off her credit report. The whole thing is a racket.
* A better job candidate review systems. Companies spend a lot of money hiring recruiters, but recruiters just spam the crap out of people and then send all the resumes in anyway. What if there were an app that could pre-qualify candidates? Cut out the middle man -- death to recruiters! (figuratively, of course)
* A good, interactive environment for remote calls with kids (or anyone, I guess). I'm thinking Skype meets building blocks. Maybe we have to wait for Oculus Rift, or maybe Kinect is enough to get started. For example, I live in San Francisco, and my niece lives in Atlanta. I don't want her to not know who I am. I want to be able to Facetime/Skype with her -- and as she grows, I want to be able to interact with her, play games with her on a shared screen, teach her new words and phrases, and so on. My girlfriend's nephews live 8 hours away, and her parents live even farther away. The nephews are growing up quick, and we Facetime as much as possible, but even so, it's limited to just talking and pointing at a screen. You can make this better. As grandparents, aunts, and uncles increasingly get used to technology, they will want more ways to interact with their young family members without breaking the bank on plane tickets to visit -- and they'll spend money to do it! A small subscription and microtransactions (new games/books!) would be infinitely cheaper than flying across the country. Someone make this happen.
* An app that maps out disc golf courses (please start with the one in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park... please). Using GPS on a map, show me where the hole is from the starting point, and let me record my score. Once I put my score in, show me the next hole.
A better credit rating system. The current one kinda sucks, no offense to Transunion, Experian, and whatever that other one is. Just because Joe Schmoe was unemployed 18 months ago and struggled to pay the rent, much less pay the bills, does not mean that Joe Schmoe is currently unable to do so. A creditor can claim a debt from Sally Schmoe, and Sally has little recourse in fighting it -- it's ridiculously complicated to combat something you know nothing about. Usually she winds up just paying the bogus bill to get it off her credit report. The whole thing is a racket.
I have been working in consumer credit modeling for last three years and currently consult in this area. Despite the deficiencies, the credit scoring model (introduced in 1950s) is still the most effective model. Banks and lending institutions do overlay behavioral scoring models to achieve somewhat better results. But including social knowledge is still in infancy and mostly at research stage. If you have any specific thoughts, I will love to hear them.
A better credit rating system - I think that's coming and we won't like it.
Credit scoring is basically data collection/mining and statistical prediction. With all the new data sources available today, it's hard to think that won't result in a major disruption. But…
(1) Credit agencies' customers are creditors, not borrowers. A good service is not necessarily a fair one, just a statistically correct one. I think we may find an increasing, not decreasing disparity between fair an useful (to creditors) service. Paying an unfair bill on time may even be a better predictor of your likelihood of paying bills than paying a fair one.
(2) The creepier (what data is collected & used) and more unfair (your parents defaulted on..) things get, the more shadowy the biz is likely to get. At least credit score is relatively accessible.
> * A better job candidate review systems. Companies spend a lot of money hiring recruiters, but recruiters just spam the crap out of people and then send all the resumes in anyway. What if there were an app that could pre-qualify candidates? Cut out the middle man -- death to recruiters! (figuratively, of course)
I'm not really sure if that's legit or not, but I've read several articles about teams creating watches that can run and/or charge off body heat.
One of the biggest parts of the hearing aid is the part that holds the battery. If you could somehow eliminate that, then hearing aids could be super, super, super tiny, in addition to saving me the hassle of having to buy batteries -- or worse, being in a situation (like the middle of a date) where it dies on me and I don't have a replacement!
I'm sure this is a pipe dream, but it would be awesome if someone could make it happen.
* A better credit rating system. The current one kinda sucks, no offense to Transunion, Experian, and whatever that other one is. Just because Joe Schmoe was unemployed 18 months ago and struggled to pay the rent, much less pay the bills, does not mean that Joe Schmoe is currently unable to do so. A creditor can claim a debt from Sally Schmoe, and Sally has little recourse in fighting it -- it's ridiculously complicated to combat something you know nothing about. Usually she winds up just paying the bogus bill to get it off her credit report. The whole thing is a racket.
* A better job candidate review systems. Companies spend a lot of money hiring recruiters, but recruiters just spam the crap out of people and then send all the resumes in anyway. What if there were an app that could pre-qualify candidates? Cut out the middle man -- death to recruiters! (figuratively, of course)
* A good, interactive environment for remote calls with kids (or anyone, I guess). I'm thinking Skype meets building blocks. Maybe we have to wait for Oculus Rift, or maybe Kinect is enough to get started. For example, I live in San Francisco, and my niece lives in Atlanta. I don't want her to not know who I am. I want to be able to Facetime/Skype with her -- and as she grows, I want to be able to interact with her, play games with her on a shared screen, teach her new words and phrases, and so on. My girlfriend's nephews live 8 hours away, and her parents live even farther away. The nephews are growing up quick, and we Facetime as much as possible, but even so, it's limited to just talking and pointing at a screen. You can make this better. As grandparents, aunts, and uncles increasingly get used to technology, they will want more ways to interact with their young family members without breaking the bank on plane tickets to visit -- and they'll spend money to do it! A small subscription and microtransactions (new games/books!) would be infinitely cheaper than flying across the country. Someone make this happen.
* An app that maps out disc golf courses (please start with the one in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park... please). Using GPS on a map, show me where the hole is from the starting point, and let me record my score. Once I put my score in, show me the next hole.