Most manufacturers build point-and-shoot digicams with 3x zoom lenses. That’s great for shooting faraway subjects, but the zoom function narrows the camera’s field of vision, making it impossible to shoot broad landscapes or to squeeze all of your friends into one close-up frame.

Owners of pricey SLRs solve the problem by popping a wide-angle lens onto the camera body; Kodak (EK) engineers gave the EasyShare V570 pocket camera the same capability by equipping it with two independent lenses–one zoom and one wide-angle–that switch automatically. To draw attention to Kodak’s breakthrough configuration, industrial design consultant BlueMap highlighted the dual-lens system and shrouded the camera in a retro-cool design.

Read the review.

Stan Oleynick wants to immortalize your company in song.

Don’t come to Enthem if you’re looking for your average ten-second jingle. The San Francisco company writes and records full-length corporate theme songs, some running longer than three minutes.

Founder Stan Oleynick, 23, a Russian immigrant with a head for business and a penchant for aphorisms, creates the songs with a motley crew: a composer from his church, a teenage virtuoso, and a country singer who lives in New Jersey. He initially intended to go it alone, but the admonitions of friends convinced him otherwise.

“I love music, and music loves me back,” he says. “Except for the singing part.”

Enthem.com has attracted the attention - “and the hearts,” Oleynick intones with a thick accent - of more than 100 small companies.

He hopes to use the business to raise $1 million for a future startup; as of January, he was 5% of the way there.

CNN Money

You probably get alot of mail trying to get you to convert your small business phone service to VoIP. This is an action you don’t want to take lightly. Make sure you consider the options and the risks before you move your lifeline to your livelihood to VoIP service.

1. RESILIENCY & RELIABILITY. VoIP is dependent on your electrical power service. If you lose electricity, you also lose VoIP services. Landline services, on the other hand, can run for days without external power because they are independently and redundantly powered.
2. COMPATIBILITY. Many security alarm monitoring services don´t work with VoIP. VoIP lines may also present problems working with some fax machines that need to use a phone line.
3. QUALITY. VoIP services still lack the same level of consistently high quality as landline service. The Internet is not as stable as landline service. VoIP users sometimes experience echoes and “over-talk” (the inability of one party to hear what the other is saying if both talk simultaneously), and dropped calls, among other problems.
4. SAFETY. Some small business owners are hesitant to go “VoIP only” because of uncertainty about 911 response. Enhanced, E911 service mitigates many of these concerns, but E911 service is not yet available everywhere. Prospective VoIP customers should ask their providers about E911.
5. SECURITY. Because it runs on the Internet, VoIP traffic is subject to the same security risks as Internet traffic.

allbusiness.com

With help from a curious cat, Blue Line Innovations found a way to make people more aware of how much electricity they use.

When Danny Tuff was growing up in Newfoundland, his father often prodded him and his siblings to switch off the lights and turn down the heat. If only there were a way to plainly show how electricity translated into real money, his father used to say, people would waste less. Years later Danny and his brother Maurice launched Blue Line Innovations and chose a home meter reader as one of their first projects.

“We wanted a device that any customer could install without the help of an electrician,” Danny says. But technical hurdles seemed too high. Then one afternoon, after Maurice’s cat had been chasing the dot from his laser pointer, Maurice shot a beam through the bottom of a power meter. Could that be the answer? After modifying the idea to use low-power infrared instead of a laser to track a mark on the meter’s spinning disk, they dropped other projects and raised $4 million in financing.

The brothers presented their Power Cost Monitor to Ontario utility Hydro One, which found during a test that newly alert customers used an average of 6.5 percent less electricity. Hydro One bought 30,000 units, netting Blue Line a cool $4 million. Now at least 50 more utilities, including NSTAR (Charts) in Massachusetts, are eyeing the device, which is cheaper and easier to install than technologies that let people track power use online. In the end, it seems Dad was right - electricity can indeed translate into real money.

FSB Magazine

BlogTalkRadio is a podcasting service, like PodoMatic and GCast, but with a difference: it lets you stream your podcast in real time and lets you take telephone callers to your show and put them on the air with you.

It’s a just the thing for podcasters who want to add interactivity to their work. And BlogTalkRadio is clever in its implementation: all audio input is via the telephone. Podcasters get a private dial-in number to the BlogTalkRadio service, from where they are streamed out to the Net (and also archived for later replay). Callers get their own number, too, and BlogTalkRadio provides a Web-based console that the podcaster uses to control the show.

Like standard broadcast radio, BlogTalkRadio podcasts can be supported by advertising. Audio advertisements are inserted, live, in the audio stream; the host gets a warning on his or her console before the ads play, so he or she is able to gracefully cut to the commercial. BlogTalkRadio will split ad revenues 50/50 with the podcast hosts.

Anything that makes podcasts interactive is a great idea, and other tools out there do this too; see RadioHandi, Skype’s Skypecast feature, and Waxxi.

BlogTalkRadio does not allow hosts to broadcast from a computer.

BlogTalkRadio allows you to create an interactive live podcast that can be broadcast from any location where you can get a cellular signal. That’s a pretty cool thing.

Cnet.com

You might have heard, but soon there will no longer be a need to risk your laptop in precarious situations in the kitchen. Modeled after a spatula, coo.boo is a digital cookbook that fits into the kitchen environment better than any laptop or printed cookbook. Recipes stored on the user’s computer are automatically synchronized through a wireless docking station and displayed on the face of the device. Digital function allows the cook to choose the degree of support wanted, from simply displaying recipes to full audiovisual cooking lessons. Not fragile like other high-tech digital devices, coo.boo is washable and can be placed on the counter top or hung up next to other kitchen utensils.

http://www.coolbusinessideas.com

For consumers who want gadget personalization that’s more permanent than vinyl decals, Adafruit offers custom laser etching of laptops, iPods, phones, cameras and more. It isn’t the first company to offer laser etching (see Etchamac, Powerbook Laser Engraving and others), but it is the first to freely share its business model with other entrepreneurs interested in setting up a customization shop.

Adafruit Laser Services was launched by Phillip Torrone (senior editor of Make magazine) and Limor Fried (aka Lady Ada). The duo will freely share information on how to use a high powered laser system, etching techniques, business practices and templates. Adafruit currently operates in New York and is planning to set up a location in San Francisco early this year. Customers can have a small gadget etched for USD 30, and a laptop for USD 100. Bulk rates and services are available to businesses.

The laser etching machine used by Adafruit is an Epilog, priced at around USD 20,000 and capable of doing highly detailed etching (1200 dpi). If a group of interested etchers use their crowd clout by organizing a group buy, they should be able to make a head start by getting the machine’s price down. If you’re interested in setting up your own laser etching business / gadget tattoo parlor and would like to receive more info, contact Adafruit at laser@adafruit.com.