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Shoparoo promises a fun iPhone-alternative to box top school fundraising
If you're a parent like I am, you may be collecting box tops for your school. Box tops are great -- they help schools raise funds in a really effective way. For those who don't know, select merchandise in grocery stores contain a redemption value for school fundraising, usually a few pennies per item bought. Due to the labor of dealing with these box tops, they can also be a big pain. Someone has to collect them, bundle them, count them and track them. Now there's a new entry in the school fundraising arena. The free Shoparoo iOS app isn't intended to replace box tops. It offers another distinct avenue for parents to raise money for schools. Today, I had the pleasure of talking to Jared Schrieber, the Co-Founder and CEO of InfoScout, the company behind Shoparoo. "Box top fundraising is wonderful," he told me, "but it could be so much better." Shoparoo has partnered with Proctor & Gamble and Unilever, who produce brands like Dove, Suave, Ragu and Skippy, to raise money for schools. Consumers essentially donate their purchasing habits. You use the app to submit receipts from super-centers, groceries, clubs, pet stores, dollar stores, convenience stores and drug stores. The data is as anonymous as you want to make it. You can scratch off credit card numbers, names and even embarrassing purchases. None of the information is tracked directly to you. You snap a pic (within seven days of purchase) and your school benefits. What companies like P&G and Unilever get out of this is a way to evaluate purchasing habits by household. Seeing entire real-world receipts puts purchases into context. They get to see how families buy, both across retailers and across time. In return, your school earns about 2 cents per $10 purchase, up to 8 cents for purchases over $100. That doesn't sound like a lot, but (1) you don't have to actively buy anything specific, and (2) with enough parents participating, the money can grow over time. Plus, Shoparoo intends to offer "bonus purchase" items, so parents can earn more by picking preferred brands. InfoScout plans to cut its first set of checks each year on July 31st, delivering them to schools during the first few weeks of August. Leaderboards allow schools to track their most proficient donors, and social networking encourages parents to spread the word. See Shoparoo's Facebook page for more details. How can you get your school involved? Chances are good that Shoparoo already lists your school in its data base. Just submit an email address (it can be as throwaway as you like) and start shopping. Schrieber suggests that you contact your current box tops coordinator, your PTO/PTA and email your principal to get started. Many schools highlight the program on their websites and Facebook pages to support the effort. Even small amounts of money can make real differences in schools. Whether you're supporting a music program, providing field trip grants or donating to a winter coats program, schools know how to make parent fundraisers pennies count. Shoparoo promises to help earn those pennies.
The Engadget Interview: Duracell President Stassi Anastassov on future battery tech (video)
It's 2012, and we're connected to the web every second of every day. And then, near the end of each daily cycle, it all stops. "My battery is dead." Is it really your battery that's become depleted? Of course it's not, though it certainly feels as though it might as well be. Stassi Anastassov experiences that daily setback just like you and I and the rest of the world. But the Duracell President and long-time Procter and Gamble executive is in a position to find a way around it, and that's exactly what he plans to do. We sat down with Anastassov in our New York City office to chat about the past, present and future of battery tech, and we even had a chance to meet the Duracell Bunny (yes, that furry hare was property of the "Trusted Everywhere" company long before it made its move to Energizer). So how does P&G plan to transform the portable power industry, and what's that Duracell Powermat joint venture all about? You'll find the answers to those questions and more in our interview just past the break.
Procter & Gamble partners with Mobeam to deliver coupons to your phone
Ah, remember those good 'ol days when we actually used those things called scissors and clipped our coupons when we wanted to save 50 cents from a bottle of Tide? Those activities have already been teetering on the brink of obsolescence since early last year, when Target introduced a program featuring mobile scannable coupons. Google Wallet and Walgreen's have furthered along the concept by offering them as well, and now Procter & Gamble are jumping on board. The company's teamed up with mobeam, a startup which has found a way to make mobile coupons readable using normal laser scanners, still the weapon of choice for many retailers. Next up, the two partners are hoping to work with OEMs to integrate the tech into new phones, push out an app to take advantage of it and begin field testing the process with shoppers and retailers sometime in 2012. Once it kicks off, any company should be able to issue digital coupons; those who choose to partner with mobeam, however, will have access to opted-in consumer information that tracks which couponing websites the consumer visits, the location and time each coupon is redeemed and other items purchased using the app. Physical coupons will still be around for a while -- P&G asserts that there will still be plenty of coupon-clippers that hunt through newspaper inserts or print them out -- so the old-fashioned method isn't completely dead yet. We'd sure love to see mobile couponing grow to a point where more and more trees are getting saved, though.
Adult content changes for Second Life part of a larger phased deployment
Linden Lab held a "PG definition reach-out" session on Monday morning, as a part of its ongoing refit of content ratings in Second Life, the addition of an adult rating and an adult continent and so forth. One of the more curious things about the session is that no discussion of the definition of PG actually took place. Maybe the title of the session was just misleading, or we were just a bit optimistic. A large chunk of the discussion involved basics that have been rehashed over and over. Skins don't count as photorealistic nudity, for example, but there are a few interesting takeaways, nonetheless.
