The back page of the Money section of USA Today (link not on the Web as I write this) has two articles on new gadgets and software. Polaroid, which invented instant printing, has developed inkless color printing that uses special water resistant paper. If it is cheaper than buying inkjet cartridges and has good quality, these little printers designed just for photographs could catch on.
A company called Vringo has announced it is going to sell "video ringtones" so you can "better express who you are." Uh huh. We already know who some people are when their phones play loud and annoying custom ringtones. It is hard to see the value of this, other than as a short-lived novelty gimmick. After the third or fourth time of getting a call from a friend who is using a video ringtone of them dancing to "Monster Mash," you will know all you need to know about them (and they may not be a friend anymore).
Social software continues to drive the so-called Web 2.0 market, with more ways to waste your time seeing what other people wasting time are not doing. One application allows you to network with fellow "international" movie lovers, and you can add comments in sync to clips from a movie. Oh boy. Can't wait for that one.
Another product works on cellphones and provides a real time map of where your friends are and what they are looking at on their phone. Can you feel the excitement? Neither can I.
Where all these companies get their money and why they get money is a mystery to me. Here in Virginia, venture capital is extremely scarce, but apparently, in some other part of the country, investors will apparently dump money on almost any idea, no matter how dumb it is.