The beauty of Crowdfunding.

In the world of business, one of the hardest challenges an entrepreneur and their companies have to face is raising capital. If you've ever tried to start your own business, then you know just how hard it can be. There are loads of expenses that come into play when a person is trying to bring an idea of theirs to life. A basic example would be someone who is trying to invent a new, lets say, smart watch (why not). The expenses for a product like this can add up pretty quickly. For example, a project of this sort would likely require the entrepreneur to file a patent of some sort. Patents themselves can cost a few hundred dollars, not to mention, for a more sophisticated project, many people resort to hiring a patent lawyer to take care of all of the legal stuff for them. They will also usually want to hire a patent artist, unless they are very artistic themselves, as most patents require an in depth illustration. When it comes to building a smartwatch, unless someone is experienced in all of these fields themselves, and wants to go at the project solo, which is very unlikely, they are probably going to need to hire some help, whether it is a full time team, or a couple of freelancers. In a project like this, a few more cost that one can expect to experience would be that of design cost, the cost of building a prototype, software engineering cost, advertising cost, and manufacturing cost. All of these can easily add up to tens of thousands of dollars. That being said, not everyone has tens of thousands of dollars laying around. So what do you do if you have a great idea for a product, but you don't have the money it requires to launch it off the ground? Luckily for people like us, there is a revolutionary method that was introduced a few years ago: "crowdfunding". What is crowdfunding might you ask? Lets say you have an idea for an awesome new product, and you expect that it is going to take $50,000 to bring this project to life. This is where crowdfunding comes into play. Crowdfunding is where a bunch of people each pitch in a small portion of money, usually in return for some form of benefit, until the amount of money required to bring a project to life has been raised. This would allow someone who doesn't have $50,000 to invent a smartwatch, invent one, assuming their idea is widely liked by enough investors that it is capable of being fully funded. That's pretty sweet. However, I haven't even told you the best part. Before crowdfunding was around, if a person wanted capital for a similar project years and years ago, they would typically have to take out a business loan or find traditional investors, which is fine, except for one problem: whatever money you borrow, you are responsible for paying back. When it comes to crowdfunding, you are typically not required to pay back the money. It is yours to keep, assuming that you put the money towards the cost of the project. If you use it for other reasons, you could risk legal action.

I have gone ahead and put together a list of some of the best crowdfunding platforms on the internet today.

They are:

#1 Kickstarter

Kickstarter is easily the most popular crowdfunding platform on the internet. It has a huge user base and has featured some of the best crowdfunded projects to date.

#2 Indiegogo

Indiegogo has actually been around longer than Kickstarter, however it has a smaller community, which means a smaller likelihood of reaching your goals.

#3 Tilt

Tilt is a crowdfunding platform of its own. It is used not so much for bring inventions to life, but it uses crowdfunding more for things like social gatherings. If I wanted to crowdfund money to rent out a venue for a concert, Tilt would be the place to go.

Now it's time to get bring your ideas to life!

Drones are beginning to take over the world!

I'm sure you've noticed already. As someone who keeps up-to-date on all the latest and greatest technology, there is hardly a day that goes by that I don't hear the mention of drones in one fashion or the other. They're everywhere. For example The United States Military is easily holds the title for the widest use of drones throughout the world today. There is a plethora of tasks of which they use them for. They can be used for everything from Surveillance, to engaging targets, to disassembling explosive devices. When it comes to any of these uses of drones by the military, they all have one thing in common: they save lives. There is no question about it. When the military spots a compound that they know is infested with bad guys, they have a few options. They can send in a team of highly trained soldiers, or they can let the robots take over. If you go with option one, you risk putting human lives at stake, and although drones are undoubtedly expensive, no amount of money is worth the price of a human life. A drone can be replaced. Someone's life can not. Without question, you will see many more drones dominating the battlefields over the years to come. With the numerous benefits they provide to the military, don't expect them to be leaving any time soon, if ever.

In what is probably a better use for drones in the eyes of the public, they kick butt when it comes to capturing great footage. Professional camera crews looking to get great shots for their next movie used to have to resort to extremes like renting a helicopter and paying a pilot to fly the cameramen over the movie set. In this new era of technology, it has become much more efficient to capture the same shots. Film producers can now save thousands of dollars by simply buying a drone with a 4K camera attached for a fraction of the price of previous methods, and still capture the same great shots.

It seems like everyone is finding a use for drones in this day and age. In a more commercialized approach, companies like Amazon are taking to the sky in an attempt to create a more efficient delivery system for their customers packages. Amazon is attempting to create a drone delivery service which promises to deliver your packages in 30-minutes or less. How it works is, you buy a package and select your shipping address. A worker find your package and places it into a container fit for the drone. Using a GPS, and likely loads of sensors to detect things like, buildings, trees, and other drones, it navigates its way to your house, lands, releases the packages, and finds its way back to the warehouse. Pretty awesome right? It is likely that you will see Amazon's competitors following suit soon.

Some people are not too happy with the idea of drones taking over a part of our daily life's. While I don't blame them (drone's have been to blame for numerous injuries), the technology is still brand new, and will be receiving many important improvements over the following years. Like it or not, drones are here to stay.

iPhone 7 Design Changes

This is an even year (2016). That means that Apple will be releasing a iPhone with a fresh design. Not simply an "S" version with higher quality internals. Being that there is a brand new design waiting for us right around the corner, a lot of people can't help but to speculate what that design will entail. We gathered up all of our favorite rumors, and put them into one neat pile for you. First: The new iPhone will be removing the headphone jack. Apple has apparently decided that no one needs the headphone jack anymore. We don't necessarily agree, as there are plenty of 3rd party products out there that utilize the headphone jack as a means to connect their device to the iPhone, it is possible that this might not be as big of a deal as previously assumed. Even if Apple does decide to remove the iPhone jack, the lightning charging port will likely remain, meaning that those 3rd party devices would still have a means to connect, they would just need to undergo a design upgrade. In which case, why not just upgrade to Bluetooth. I mean, its 2016. C'mon now. The most popular belief as to why Apple would do something like this is one, because they might be planning to incorporate Bluetooth earbuds from here on out, and two, because they might be planning to make the next iPhone waterproof, which brings us to our next rumor.

Second: The next iPhone might be waterproof! That's right. The next iPhone's design might be made capable of withstanding water right out of the box. While this would obviously be a huge win for iPhone fans everywhere, don't forget that Samsung had already incorporated this into their Galaxy Active years ago, as did multiple other phones.

Third: Apple is speculated to release more than just one sized iPhone this year, just like they did in 2014 with the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, however, instead of releasing two size options, rumor has it that Apple will be releasing three! The chances of this happening are actually pretty high. Introducing three sizes of iPhones would allow Apple to reach a wider audience, as everyone has their own taste when it comes to size.

Four: As the years go by, the quality of phone displays are continuously getting better and better. There are rumors floating around that the iPhone 7 will be featuring a bezel-less screen. Similar to the one below.

While bezel-less screens do exist, and there is no doubt that they are awesome, this technology has quite a ways to go, and it is unlikely that we will be seeing it in any phones for a few more years to come.

There is surely an endless supply of rumors out there. We have simply decided to pick our favorites. However, if there a great rumor that you think should have been included, feel free to mention it in the comment section below!