All posts by PLUGHITZ Live

You’re going to love AIRO.LIFE’s free cell phone and data plan!



AIRO.LIFE Be Free PhoneIt pretty much goes without saying that one thing we are all attached to these days is our cell phone. Which in turn means that one thing that is attached to all of us is an expensive cell data plan and phone bill. Douglas Mochrie, founder of AIRO.LIFE stopped by the studio to discuss their vision to eliminate the latter from our lives, altogether. They recently announced that they are launching the Be Free Phone.

The Be Free Phone is a smartphone and data plan that is provided completely free to the end-user. Oh, and not just some cheap phone that nobody is going to want. This is an actual tier two, flagship quality phone with a 5,000 milliamp battery, 16-megapixel camera, and a strong chip. How can they possibly accomplish this, you may be asking? We did, too. They will be openly and honestly collecting your data while giving you the option to be shown more of your favorite content in the process. So, your first thoughts might be “Oh, heck no. I don’t want them collecting my data and selling it off to advertisers, etc.” But when you think it through a little, it’s already happening to us behind the scenes all the time, anyway. So let’s see what they have to offer and what is motivating them.

They have huge ambitions and want the world to change to a more healthy and stable environment for all of us on the planet. They realize that this is no small task and feel that overall, banking, education, media and our current political structure all have to evolve. And their approach to this is not one of some fly by night company. They are very serious and calculated in their approach. Believing in the 4 pillars of sustainable business, People, Planet, Passion, Profit, they have been working diligently with industry specialists, consultants and business owners for the deployment of Airo.Life. Their first step is to disrupt the smartphone, carrier and ad world. They feel this will drive down prices and help families save money and eventually impact both the economic and political atmosphere. Then the next phase will be in the energy sector.

Learn all of the details by watching the complete interview and don’t forget to check out their upcoming Indiegogo campaign by visiting their website.

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Frogo makes online dating more fun with a game-like environment



Frogo Dating AppThere are a ton of mobile dating platforms in the world, so new services have to do something special to separate themselves. Some go after a particular market, such as LGBT users. Others create special restrictions, such as requiring a woman to make the first move. One uses DNA matching to find compatible matches. Frogo takes a different approach, creating a personality and interest profile to help find possible matches.

While most dating apps begin to get tedious after a short time, Frogo is different. It is designed specifically to be a game, whose prize is potential dates. While some personality surveys come across exactly that way, this one feels more like a game. The questions are more fun than “Favorite sport?” looking more like “Do you prefer to play a sport rather than watch it?” This gives the platform more interesting information on which to base matches.

Once a match is made, you can increase (or potentially decrease) the quality of that match by “frogging” one another. This allows you to answer new questions together. If you answer similarly, your match percentage can go up. You can also purchase special question packs, similar to how you might purchase skins for a videogame. These new questions can expand on a commonality between you and your match or can explore a new aspect of your connection. There are even more risque type questions, intended specifically for adult subscribers. This could, for some, be a more laid back way of breaching the subject of physical intimacy.

Outside of the game aspect of the app, Frogo is a fairly standard dating platform. You can chat with your matches, make plans, and ultimately meet in person. The app does include a number of anti-harassment features, however, including not allowing users to share private photos with one another. This prevents unwanted photos from being sent without permission. All profile photos are verified for compliance with the rules.

Frogo is available now for both iOS and Android devices. Service starts at free.

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In with Hal, who can be a lifesaver and out with impersonal assistance



Hal Personal AssistantThis is the age of everything internet. When someone wants to look up something or find out information or directions, they Google it or look to Siri, Cortana or Alexa. Now there is Hal, which stands for Human Artificial Intelligence instead of AI, which is Artificial Intelligence. There was a time when people wanted advice on things or had to vent, they wrote to”Dear Abby”. Today they write to Hal but you text him.

In this time, many people are constantly talking to computers which has created a form of isolation. This can lead to all kinds of problems for them. They have minimal contact with people and can sometimes go to a dark place, which can then result in severe loss of normalcy in their behavior. In an episode of Boston Legal, Jerry Espenson famously called 411 just looking for a human voice but was instead greeted by a computer asking “city and state, please.” Because Hal is powered by a person, he has even been able to prevent suicide because the person can talk it out and get to a better place.

Being Hal is a paid position, just like an Uber driver. The position of Hal is paid by the interaction with the user. The longer you are interacting with the user, the more you get paid. The cost for the user is $3.99 per month unlimited usage. The availability of Hal is 24/7 and always there when the user needs him. There is a tool inside the app where the user can store information from previous chats that they may need to refer to for later use, such as a favorite restaurant or the best place to visit in certain cities. This can be very helpful for anyone traveling with any frequency, or who entertains a lot.

Hal is available now but for more information go to the website.

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ActiveChat makes chatbots easy for websites and natural for users



ActiveChat Natural ChatBotsOne of the biggest trends over the past few years on the web has been the addition of the chat bubbles in the bottom right corner of websites. These little bubbles can provide website visitors with the ability to communicate with people at the company, such as support or sales. However, they don’t give immediate information. Usually, there is no one sitting at their computer waiting for a question to come in. Instead, “someone typically replies within a few hours.” However, with ActiveChat, websites can provide instant answers to common questions without agents or support tickets.

The system is based on conversational chatbots, giving website owners the ability to choose their most common support items and automate the answers involved. Using a visual building platform, the owner would usually start with a template. In the case of an online retailer, perhaps the problem they are looking to automate is verifying the status of an order. In this case, you might start with a shipping tracking template. From there, you can integrate your order database, including tracking numbers. Then, once deployed, a customer could ask the chatbot, in plain English, “Where’s my order?” and the chatbot can get the required information, and automatically track the shipment.

The real magic of the platform comes from the conversational style of the chatbots. Rather than the user having to know the strange and stilted syntax of the bot (think Siri), they can speak in more natural sentences, and the bot can determine intention (think Cortana). Using Natural Language Processing means that these chatbots can easily be used by first-timers who do not have training on the platform.

ActiveChat started its life on AppSumo, a service that features top-quality new software for small businesses. It is ]available today to everyone, starting with a free tier.

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GenM connects small businesses and potential marketing professionals



GenM Marketing ApprenticeshipsStudents who have graduated or are about to graduate from college have a leg up on the job market with a platform called GenM. It is an education marketplace where students can come and work with small business owners for training for workplace specifically in the marketing field. Moe Abbas, CEO of GenM refers to it as a digital apprenticeship.

You don’t have to be a student to take advantage of this fantastic program. People who want to make a career change or who want to learn about digital marketing or expand their knowledge in that field are excited to learn about this. Applicants are precisely matched with an appropriate company and receive free courses from vetted business owners for expanding their education. While it is free for students, the cost of the program is $49.00 for the businesses per month.

In an internship program, many times the intern or student is required to travel and can be working up to 40 hours a week and requiring out-of-pocket expenses. This is a 10 hour a week commitment and is a remote relationship where the student can continue their classes or work their regular job without interruption and it is put on their schedule. This alone reduces the stress of being an intern by itself.

Coming into a specific job market is difficult at best because of the inability to show having had any job experience to speak of. This is a real Catch 22 for the student. There are 380 million small businesses and 200 million post-students who need each other. This is a wonderful way to have people who are entering the job market to get their much-needed experience.

The company is presently focused on digital marketing only but has plans to expand to other areas in the future. For more information go to their website.

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B-Line helps design better spaces using actionable mobility data



B-Line mobility analyticsConstructing and maintaining a green building is a difficult and expensive process. One of the more difficult parts is conducting the required mobility survey. This is because the results are often inaccurate and, overall, useless to the building owner. When people are asked about how they move and how they travel, their answers often do not represent reality. Fortunately, B-Line is here to help record useable data and made sense of what you have.

Rather than conducting interviews with people, hoping that they know what their travel pattern looks like, B-Line uses the occupants’ actual travel patterns. People from the building are given access to the mobile app on their phone, where the company can anonymously track the user’s behaviors and travel patterns. After the campaign is complete, the building owner is given access to a report detailing how their occupants actually move, making it truly actionable. All of this can be done for less money than traditional methods because no people have to be hired to conduct surveys and no manual data processing has to take place after.

One of the big actions that can be taken based on the data is an accurate assessment of how many parking spaces are needed. While this might not sound like a big deal, parking spaces are incredibly expensive to maintain. The average parking space costs about $100,000 and can be a lot more in places like New York City or Los Angeles. If a building owner can eliminate just one spot, it can be a huge cost saving.

To demonstrate the power of the platform, B-Line worked with a group of university students at the State University of New York in Syracuse. To start, CEO Aaron Short gave his presentation on how current methods are terrible. The students didn’t believe him, and so they conducted a traditional mobility survey with the students and then turned on the system. The students got to see first hand just how little they knew about their travel patterns, and how easy it can be to get false data using traditional methods.

The B-Line system can be used for more than just green building certifications. It can be applied to new community developments, universities, and even cities. The service is available now and you can get more information on their website.

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Furnishr makes the moving process easier with room design services



Furnishr home furnishingOne of the most stressful things in life is moving. Finding a new place that you like, packing up your old pace, getting everything into the new place, plus trying to make sure you have the right furniture for yourself and the new space can raise stress levels to the extreme. Fortunately, Furnishr is here to take some of that stress off of your plate.

This platform is designed specifically to help you with the process of picking and installing the furniture for your new home. Working with their team through their online system, they will help you design your dream space, whether it be a single room or an entire home.

The process starts with a personality survey of sorts, which is intended to help determine the types of furniture that might interest you. This will help them determine where you fall on the design scale, from minimalistic to modern, as well as what pieces you are going to need for the space. Combining that information with a floorplan of the space they are working with, Furnishr will present you with a full setup, including alternate options for some of the bigger pieces. From there, you can pick what pieces you want to incorporate, and exactly how they will go into the space. You can even incorporate pieces that you already have and really love to make the space truly your own.

Once the furniture is chosen, the process is no longer in your hands. Furnishr will deliver, setup, and clean up, all within a single day. The whole idea is that, when you’re ready to move your personal belongings, like clothes and dishes, into the space, it is completely ready for you. And, since the company doesn’t work with retailers, your overall cost is 20 percent lower than buying furniture pieces individually.

Furnishr is available now for people to design their dream homes.

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Manage your clients while giving them every advantage with AppBind



AppBind service paymentAll small- and medium-size businesses want to make sure that they have access to, and are utilizing the best resources possible. One way to ensure this is by working with contractors, like management, marketing, and software companies, who are experts in their chosen fields to help give them a leg up. The best marketing agencies and software development companies strive to provide their clients with the right resources to make them as successful as they can be. Unfortunately, this can be difficult because billing gets in the way. Often, the contractors have to ask for the client’s credit card information, or the client has to sign up for the service themselves, without knowing what they’re doing. Sunir Shah knows the reality of this all too well, and that’s why he has developed AppBind, a system that automatically tracks and securely expenses all future charges to agency clients from what they refer to as a single pane of glass.

AppBind gives you the ability to buy and manage subscriptions on behalf of your clients. This is because the platform allows the client to put their credit card information into AppBind without the contractor ever seeing it. Once the funding source is added, the contractor can obtain all of these subscriptions for their clients easily, whether it be Welby, Mail Chimp, Facebook Ads, AWS, GitHub, or whatever best fits each client’s needs. They accomplished this by generating a new credit card for each of these subscriptions so when the charges come in, you can quickly find and track them for each client. Another nice perk is that you can easily add a markup and pass the charges directly on to your client’s credit cards. It is also very safe because the contractor is not holding any financial risks, which makes it easy to set up subscription stacks for their customers. It makes the whole process neat and concise and shows a great level of added professionalism to customers. This is truly a win-win for all parties.

To find out more about AppBind, be sure to watch the full interview and also check out their website.

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Conscioux helps you be conscious about improving your health



Conscioux Plant-Based DietCompanies all across the world are looking for ways to reduce health care costs. One of the growing trends in this area is by encouraging employees to try out alternative diets. The food we eat is one of the biggest contributors to obesity, which leads to sleep apnea, heart disease, heart attack, and stroke. One diet that is gaining popularity is a plant-based diet which is offered to employees through Conscioux.

While most people recognize the term vegan, they are most likely unfamiliar with the term plant-based. Both terms refer to eating food made up of only plants and include no products made from or produced by any animals. This includes meat, dairy, honey, and many other things. The difference between the terms is in their intentions: plant-based is for health and nutrition and vegan includes ethical and social aspects.

Conscioux is a platform that combines software, coaching, sleep, and plant-based diet to help companies create a healthier and more productive workforce. Employees can see their progress, work with a health coach and find healthy recipes all through a personalized dashboard. The platform currently has over 8000 recipes available and can be sorted based on effects on chronic diseases. For those struggling with adhering to the program, dedicated health coaches are there to support their journey to better health.

Human Resources can see overview data on the employees’ health and track how the platform is helping the people in the company get healthier. They can see trend lines for stress, blood pressure, heart rate, weight, hours of sleep and overall happiness.

Because of the company’s strong focus on data, they are the first plant-based nutrition program to be approved by an insurance carrier for preventative health. This means that some insurers will reimburse part of the cost of the platform.

Conscioux is available now in Beta. For more information, go to their website.

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HowToFund: simplified fundraising for schools, PTOs, and non-profits



HowToFund Non-Profit FundraisingHowToFund is an innovative, robust solution for non-profits, schools, and PTA/PTO groups. Offering an enterprise solution allowing you to collect funding on your website and is easily administrated by a single user or group, it also allows for integration into social media, tracking of donor information and the automation of sending Thank You notes to your donors. Receipts are emailed automatically and setting goals and timelines is very easy, plus you can manage all your fundraisers in one location. This product transforms fundraising for your organization.

With seamless integration into your website and social media functionality, anyone with minimal experience can crowdfund successfully. The best part may be that its absolutely free to schools, non-profits, and PTA/PTO groups. Instead of charging the organization, the donors only paying a 5% + 30cent fee to process their transactions. Organizations are also offered a premium service for $40, giving access to a fundraising coach, that will help you train your staff. They will also provide a curriculum that will help you get off the ground and execute on your fundraising goals: all with no change to the donor fee.

HowToFund can fundamentally change the way that your group operates and allow you to achieve all of the goals you have set for it, be it getting a robotics team trying to get to a competition or funding a library. Whatever your goal is, HowToFund is there to guide and support you, every step of the way. Any school, non-profit, or PTA/PTO group should strongly consider using HowToFund for their fundraising; its a fantastic solution to a problem that many of these organizations face. Helping people achieve and productively move toward their goals seems to be at the core of what HowToFund does and that is worthy of our adulation, as well as all of our attention.

For more information or get to start fundraising today visit their website.

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