Kickstarter Tech Project of the Week: Melon

Want a way-cool tech product before it officially hits the market? This week's pick for our favorite Kickstarter project is a headband and mobile app that quantifies your concentration.

Project Name: Melon: A Headband and Mobile App to Measure Your Focus
Category: Product Design
Goal: $100,000
Currently Funded: $109,397
Deadline for pledging: June 13, 2013

Are you more productive at work when listening to music? If so, does it matter if it's country or classical, with headphones or through speakers? And how do those intermittent workday detours to Facebook disrupt (or improve) your concentration?

Imagine how much more efficient you could be throughout the day if you empirically understood the environmental factors that affect your focus, whether you'd do better to fight through a mental block or break for a coffee.

Melon, a sporty EEG (electroencephalography) headband and companion app, seeks to reveal the answers to these questions. Think of the combo as a Fitbit for your mind. Users put on the headband equipped with sensors and input tags that specify their current activity, environment, behavior, and more. Using EEG and scientific algorithms, the device measures brain activity and displays the user's focus level on the app via a wavering white line. With each activity charted, Melon learns more about what helps and hurts your focus, and the app exposes trends that can help to optimize productivity.

"Melon is about taking invisible information, in this case from your brain, and turning it into something visible and helping change your behavior based on that," says creator Arye Barnehama in the Kickstarter video. When focus wanes, the app can optionally suggest ways to improve concentration, such as taking a few deep breathes or taking a short walk, and then records how the suggestion consequently influenced the user's mental state. The creators encourage people to use Melon in all different settings—while working at the office, doing yoga, or even flying a plane—in an effort to gain insight into day-to-day activities and extend the Quantified Self movement beyond just the physical.

Melon quickly surpassed its $100,000 goal. (In the time it took to write this, the project received more than $20,000 in pledges.) Its $79 early bird pledge has already sold out, but for $99 backers can get a Melon headband (in choice of black or white) plus the app as soon as this November. 

Samsung Tips Breakthrough in '5G' Technology

Samsung said today that it has made a breakthrough in the development of "5G" technology, which will ultimately be several hundred times faster than current 4G networks.

But don't expect to see a "5G" icon atop your mobile gadget in the near future. This is just the beginning, and Samsung said it does not expect the commercialization of the technology until at least 2020.

To make the faster, more bandwidth-intense 5G a reality, networks will need a variety of frequencies, "much like an increased water flow requires a wider pipe," Samsung said. One solution is something known as millimeter-wave bands, but at this point, it is limited to short-distance transmissions.

Enter Samsung, which said it has "successfully developed the world's first adaptive array transceiver technology operating in the millimeter-wave Ka bands for cellular communications." What that means is that Samsung has developed technology that transmits data in the millimeter-wave band at a frequency of 28 GHz at a speed of up to 1.056 Gbps to a distance of up to 2 kilometers.

"The millimeter-wave band is the most effective solution to recent surges in wireless Internet usage," Chang Yeong Kim, executive vice president of Samsung Electronics, said in a statement. "Samsung's recent success in developing the adaptive array transceiver technology has brought us one step closer to the commercialization of 5G mobile communications in the millimeter-wave bands."

Samsung expects its efforts "to invigorate research into 5G cellular communications across the world, [and] trigger the creation of international alliances and the timely commercialization of related mobile broadband services."

The Korean firm is not the only company or group pursuing 5G technology, however. As it pointed out, China established a 5G research group in Feb. 2012, and the EU is investing 50 million Euros to bring 5G to market by 2020.

For now, U.S. wireless carriers are still rolling out their 4G LTE networks. Verizon expects to wrap that up in mid-2013, AT&T has rolled out its network to 209 markets, Sprint has done the same in dozens of markets, while T-Mobile recently kicked off its 4G LTE rollout in seven markets.

Bumping up to 5G, Samsung said, will allow for the transfer of massive files - including HD movies - "practically without limitation," paving the way for services such as streaming 3D movies and games, ultra high-definition (UHD) content, and remote medical services.

PCMag is currently in the midst of testing for our annual Fastest Mobile Networks project. We have drivers on the road all around the country testing mobile networks from coast to coast. For more, check out our results from week one, and follow along with our drivers via @PCMPhones on Twitter.

D-Link Wireless N300 Range Extender DAP-1320

AppId is over the quota
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Pros Excellent signal coverage. Easy setup. Small size for easy placement.

Cons May require setup near router. Wi-Fi network changes may require a reset. Bottom Line D-Link has a new wireless range extender that not only is one of the smallest you'll find on the market, but is incredibly easy to set up and provides terrific coverage.

By Samara Lynn

D-Link has a new wireless range extender that's not only one of the smallest you'll find on the market, but is incredibly easy to set up and delivers terrific coverage. In fact, the D-Link Wireless N300 Range Extender (DAP-1320) was able to sustain the most throughput at long distance of any wireless range extender I've tested. Even better, I tested it not with a D-Link router, but with a competing vendor's router, and the device still worked without a hitch.

Design
The DAP-1320 looks like a power adapter—it's only 2.11 by 1.65 by 1.89 inches (HWD)  with two prongs, and it plugs directly into an electrical outlet. This simple yet powerful piece of wireless technology has just a single WPS button on its side and one LED to show you connection status.

The extender is single-band only, so it won't extend 5GHz Wi-Fi, which is perfectly okay, because it's the 2.4GHz band that can travel longer distance.

Included in the package are a quick install guide and a card that has the extender's default SSID and password as well as the URL to the web-based GUI printed on it.

Setup
The installation guide suggests that best placement for the extender is mid-way between the router and the Wi-Fi clients you are connecting to the router. In my testing environment, that placement proved to be too far from the router for set up. No problem: I performed setup with the extender about 5 feet from the router and then, once the extender was connected, moved it to a more central location.

You can set up the DAP-1320 using WPS or by connecting to the web GUI. I plugged it in and the LED blinked red, turned green, and then blinked amber. According to the device's instructions, when it blinks amber, you should use WPS to pair the extender with a router.

I used WPS and it worked fine connecting to my router. I did not pair D-Link's extender with a D-Link router. I used another vendor's router, the Western Digital My Net N900; I did this purposely, to see if there would be connection issues with another vendor's equipment. There weren't.

Once the LED turned from amber to solid green I had the extender connected. I reset it back to factory settings to see how the manual setup fared. With the manual method, I plugged in the extender, waited for it to turn amber, and then could connect to the extender's Wi-Fi. After connecting, launching a browser automatically opened the extender's web-based connection setup wizard.

The wizard asks if you want to connect the extender to a router via WPS or Manually.  With a manual connection you can select the network you want to extend and can opt to use the extender's default SSID or set the SSID name and credentials to the Wi-Fi network with which you've connected the extender.

That's the setup process—a few scant minutes, and very easy. I do caution that you may have to connect the extender close to your router and then position it where you want. Also, I made a change to my router's settings that disconnected the extender at one point. I had to reset the extender back to factory settings and set it up again. However I did not mind, since setting up the device is so quick.

Performance
Not only can I sing the praises of the device's incredibly easy setup, but it also delivered praiseworthy performance. It extended my router's signal to an area throughput never reaches, a real dead spot that my testing software, IxChariot, typically registers as 0 Mbps. From 150 feet away from the extender, in an environment saturated with access points, D-Link's little extender still managed .4 Mbps of throughput. Yes, that's not even 1 Mbps of speed, but it was enough to browse the Internet—slowly, but reasonably. While the BearExtender PC Long Range 802.11n USB WiFi Booster gave faster speed at a distance of 100 feet, it dropped the signal at 150 feet. Below is a chart comparing the DAP-1320's performance to other wireless range extenders:

Check out the performance comparisons with the DAP-1320

Extended Excellence
The DAP-1320 is one of the best wireless networking devices I've tested from D-Link, and among all of the extenders I've tested, it provided the best coverage. I was also impressed with how well it worked with another vendor's equipment. I'm confident that this little device, which did an impressive job of extending my test Wi-Fi network deployed in a high-rise office building with hundreds of access points all around, will work extremely well for the average home user. D-Link Wireless Range Extender gets a 4.5 out of 5 star rating, and is PCMag's Editors' Choice for wireless range extenders.

New Acting Chair Champions FCC's Spectrum Efforts

The Federal Communications Commission is "moving full speed ahead" to make more spectrum available, acting Chair Mignon Clyburn assured the wireless industry during a keynote speech Tuesday at CTIA in Las Vegas.

In her first speech since assuming the role of interim head of the FCC, Clyburn said the agency has initiated significant spectrum policy innovations over the past four years, and is on track with several creative efforts to bring additional airwaves to the market.

One such initiative is the upcoming incentive spectrum auction, which was approved by Congress more than a year ago, and will offer up broadcast spectrum for mobile broadband use. The effort will eventually allow broadcast TV stations with unused spectrum to sell it to wireless carriers hungry for extra bandwidth.

At this point, the FCC's incentive auctions team is continuing to work on and evaluate all the proposals received during its workshops, Clyburn said. The commission is on track to issue action rules this year, and conduct the auction in 2014.

Beyond the upcoming the incentive auction, the FCC is moving ahead with plans to auction 10 megahertz of spectrum in the H Block, and 55 megahertz in other bands, as required by the Spectrum Act, she said. The commission is also currently promoting ways to share spectrum, such as facilitating small cell technology in the 3.5 GHz band.

She mentioned that the FCC is also working with members of the Commerce Department to ensure efficient use of spectrum. On that front, the Commerce Department is planning to meet in June to complete its recommendations for sharing the 1755 – 1850 MHz band.

"The FCC's wireless agenda remains focused not only on licensed, but unlicensed spectrum," Clyburn said. "I will continue to encourage staff to find innovative ways, to promote unlicensed spectrum use."

She also touted the commission's efforts to expand in-flight broadband connectivity. The agency earlier this month proposed rules that would free up an additional 500 megahertz of spectrum for a new air-ground mobile broadband service, an effort that could "dramatically enhance the quality of in-flight Wi-Fi on planes," Clyburn said.

Joining Clyburn on the CTIA keynote stage this morning, meanwhile, was Mary Dillon, CTIA chair and president and CEO of U.S. Cellular, who moderated a panel on changes and trends in the wireless industry with representatives from Alcatel-Lucent, General Motors, Target, Qualcomm Technologies, and Adobe.

On that front, Dillion said wireless devices are the most important consumer products on the planet, and are "perhaps as vital as food" to many users. She referenced a survey that found that 63 percent of people would give up chocolate before wireless, while 55 percent would drop caffeine first.

"The potential for growth is only limited by our imaginations," Dillion said.

Going forward, the amount of data traveling mobile networks is poised to explode, said Peggy Johnson, executive vice president and president of global market development at Qualcomm. She predicted that in the coming years, mobile networks will need to carry about 1,000 times the data they do today.

Meanwhile, Michael Saylor, founder and CEO of business intelligence software provider MicroStrategy and author of The Mobile Wave, predicted that there will be 6 billion smartphones in use by 2015 and 10 billion tablets by 2020.

Clyburn, meanwhile, steps in at the FCC for Julius Genachowski, who officially stepped down as chairman of the FCC last week. President Obama has nominated telecom veteran Tom Wheeler to replace Genachowski, but Wheeler must first be confirmed by the Senate.

Kickstarter Tech Project of the Week: BRCK

Fancy an African safari? Pledge $10,000 toward this innovative portable hotspot on steroids and you'll be on your way.

Project Name: BRCK - your backup generator for the internet
Category: Hardware
Goal: $125,000
Currently Funded: $61,014
Deadline for pledging: June 4, 2013

Imagine a MiFi mobile hotspot that's as tough as a brick and has multiple options for connecting to the Internet. You've just pictured the BRCK, which hails from the Nairobi, Kenya-based company Ushahidi, originally formed to map reports of post-election violence in Kenya in 2008.

Ushahidi has since morphed into a non-profit, open-source tech company, but its platform carries on the original mission of building tools that improve the way information flows in the world. Ushahidi knows people from San Francisco to Nairobi—especially journalists and aid providers—need to connect remotely, and its motto is "if it works in Africa, it will work anywhere."

Accordingly it's created a smart, rugged device that can connect to the Internet no matter how difficult the situation or remote the location. The brick-shaped BRCK acts as a hotspot for up to 20 devices in range and connects via Ethernet, Wi-Fi, and 3G or 4G mobile phone networks. Thanks to its eight-hour battery, it keeps running even if the power goes out, providing steady connectivity no matter where you are, how you're getting around, or which network is available.

Ushahidi is asking for $125,000 from Kickstarter to proceed with manufacturing. Right now you need to pledge a minimum of $200 to get your BRCK, scheduled to arrive by November 2013.

Ushahidi managed to earn more than 20 percent of its goal in the first day, so funding the full amount looks promising. There's the usual litany of extras such as t-shirts and stickers at various pledge levels, and you can also get a subscription to Ushahidi's CrowdMap platform starting at $300. If you're a high roller with a spare $10,000 burning a hole in your pocket however, the team will take you on safari in Nairobi to "build cool stuff" at their iHub in the center of Africa's "Silicon Savannah."

Wireless Witch: DIY Wireless Extenders Put to the Test

Any time I review a wireless extender, some reader typically leaves a comment about just making a homemade extender to avoid paying for one. I finally decided to build my own wireless extender and compare its benchmark results to those of "store-bought" ones. The results? As you'll see, they were bit of a mixed bag, but it's definitely an interesting DIY project.

There are plenty of videos and articles on the Internet about making a DIY wireless extender. The two primary methods include creating a "cantenna"—an extender made from a can and a few additional components; and a parabolic reflector—available as a template cut-out from freeantennas.com. I opted to go with the reflector solution. This consists of printing out a template, which you can download from the site, on hardy media such as business card stock paper and then cutting out and assembling the template in the shape of a parabola lined with aluminum foil.

I downloaded the template, printed it on heavyweight paper, and assembled the extender according to the website's instructions. It's more time-consuming than setting up a typical purchased wireless extender, but the experience was kind of arts-and-crafty fun. I made a pair.

I wanted to test two scenarios: The first was to determine how much the parabolic extender (called Windsurfer) increased signal strength and range with a router that had external antennas. And second, I would test whether the homemade extender had any effect on routers that have internal antennas—as do most high-end routers these days.

I tested using Trendnet's 450 Mbps Concurrent Dual Band Wireless N Router (TEW-692GR), which has three external antennas, and then with Linksys's Smart Wi-Fi AC 1750HD Video Pro EA6500 which uses internal antennas only.

For the Trendnet device, I poked holes on the top and bottom of my homemade extenders and slid them onto the router's left and right antenna, leaving the middle antenna alone.I then ran a few benchmarks using Ixia's IxChariot to test throughput and inSSIDer to test signal strength. First I ran tests without the Windsurfer extenders and then with. Here are my results:

In the same room, I had slight signal strength gain with the extenders, but performance was pretty much the same with or without. At 50 feet, I see quite a noticeable gain using the extenders. Signal bars first were at 3, then I went down to 2. Unfortunately though, the wireless signal was not consistent, and eventually my connection dropped—that's why I couldn't run throughput tests.

So, yes, the extender did help at 50 feet, though the connection was flaky. That may be due to all the RF interference where I tested.

Extending Routers with Internal Antennas
It might seem that you would only benefit from this type of homemade extender on routers with external antennas. Most premium consumer routers are now shipping with internal antennas. I duct-taped the pair of extenders to Linksys' Smart Wi-Fi AC 1750HD Video Pro EA650 router, which has internal antennas. Here's what I saw:

In the case with the router with internal antennas, the extender did not help the signal at 50 feet away and actually seemed to impede performance. But it significantly improved throughput at shorter ranges.

Making a parabolic reflector is certainly cheaper than buying a Wi-Fi extender from a vendor. I only had to buy business card stock paper ($9.99), aluminum foil ($2.00), and an X-Acto knife ($2.00). But you may have all of this stuff lying around anyway. Manufactured extenders can range from $40 for BearExtender's PC Long Range 802.11n USB WiFi Booster up to $120 for D-Link's Amplifi DAP-1525 Wi-Fi Booster (a device that we rated only as "Fair."). So there is definitely a cost advantage with homemade units.

Based on my testing, however, you don't get that big a boost with a homemade parabolic reflector at 50 feet and beyond, although I did read that if you make the template larger to make a larger parabola and reflector, you can perhaps boost the signal a bit more. How willing you are to put up giant foil-coated reflectors in your home to save a few bucks probably says a lot about you, however. As you can see from the table below, the purchased extenders were little more effective in boosting a router's signal at further distances, such as BareExtender's which still managed decent throughput at 75 feet.

Click here for manufactured wireless extender throughput results

The Verdict
Freeantenna.com's homemade extender is easy to make, and DIY types or those looking for a cool science project may find it just the thing. I personally found it tedious cutting out the figures from the template and a little tricky getting the thing assembled, though. If you have the time, have perhaps an older, or lower-end router with external antennas, and want to save a few bucks, it's worth testing it out—especially if you're looking to boost signal over a short range. If you need consistent signal boosting in a larger area, or for a small business, you'll likely want to stick with a purchased Wi-Fi extender, and preferably one made by the same company that made your router.

Note: In the above two charts, signal strength is incorrectly referenced as "decibels." The measurements displayed are actually in "dBm."

ESPN Considering Plan to Subsidize Wireless Data Plans

Rule No. 1 for anyone who streams content on a mobile device is: connect to a Wi-Fi network whenever possible. That might seem like common sense, but not everyone is aware that linking your smartphone or tablet to a home Wi-Fi network can help you avoid bumping up against your wireless provider's monthly data cap.

Bloomberg revealed this week that on an average weeknight, about one-third of all North American Internet traffic belongs to Netflix. But ESPN also offers a popular streaming service, allowing sports fans to tune in to live games, watch replays, and keep up with favorite players. And it appears that streaming ESPN over mobile is very popular, despite the bandwidth drawbacks.

Mobile streaming is quite lucrative for ESPN - so much so that the sports network is considering a deal with wireless carriers that would have ESPN subsidize your mobile streaming sports binges, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The paper said ESPN has talked with at least one U.S. wireless provider about scenarios whereby watching ESPN content would not count against customers' monthly data caps. Talks are still in the early stages, and, as the Journal noted, such an arrangement might run into some regulatory troubles.

Last year, it was revealed that customers who subscribe to Comcast's Xfinity TV service for the Xbox 360 wouldn't be charged for the service's data use against the ISP's 250GB monthly cap. But that prompted complaints about net neutrality violations - most notably, from Netflix. Comcast denied any wrongdoing.

If legal issues can be ironed out, however, it could help boost ESPN's end-of-the-month viewing. According to the Journal, at least one carrier told ESPN that "significant numbers" of users hit their bandwidth limits before the end of the month, prompting a drop-off in ESPN usage until the following month's plan kicks in.

An ESPN spokeswoman declined to comment.

Hands On With Sprint's Tri-Band Modems

Sprint is all over the spectrum map. The "truly unlimited" carrier has a truly confusing array of airwaves, including old Nextel spectrum at 800 MHz, Sprint spectrum at 1.9 GHz, and Clearwire at 2.5 GHz. Assembled properly, these waves could make for great indoor, outdoors, and city coverage, but the company has never been able to do so until now.

Three new modems introduced today at the CTIA Wireless trade show will help Sprint start to bring all of this together. The touch-screen Netgear Zing, the chubby Novatel MiFi 500 LTE, and the Netgear 341U USB modem can hit all three networks, making them the new go-to devices for people who want unthrottled, unlimited LTE access on Sprint's various networks. I spent a little while with them and Sprint's director of product development, Ryan Sullivan, at the CTIA trade show here.

The Zing is the flashiest of the bunch. It's Sprint's first touch-screen hotspot, with a very attractive data counter on the front. Its 2,500mAh battery gives it about 10 hours of continuous use. It works globally, with UMTS 3G on European bands. There are dual external antenna ports on the bottom and an available external dock, making it a potential home modem. And it's handsome, about the size and shape of a deck of playing cards. It'll probably be Sprint's premier product.

I hope the MiFi costs a bit less, because it looks like a wallflower next to the zippy Zing. It's rounder and thicker than the Zing, with a simpler LCD display surrounded by some dull gray hard buttons. While it's thicker than the Zing, it has a lower-capacity 1,800mAh battery. Novatel always makes quality products—the company has earned a lot of Editor's Choices from us—but this unit looks a bit low-end.

The best thing I can say about the U341 is that it's a USB modem, which is very good because there aren't enough USB modems still out there. USB modems only attach to one computer at a time, but they're absolute lifesavers in places where the Wi-Fi atmosphere is too crowded. You also don't have to worry about their batteries. The U341 isn't without frills; there's a little LCD screen on it that shows connection status, signal strength, and data usage, which I haven't seen on a USB modem before.

The three modems will come this summer. The first tri-band smartphones from Samsung and LG will come by the end of this year.

Three Networks, Three Launch Dates
The modems also won't be able to come into their own until the end of the year. Sure, they'll work on Sprint's existing 1.9-GHz LTE network in 88 cities, but they include smart firmware that will switch bands when necessary, including a soft handoff between networks that won't drop your connection. The 800-MHz band is a more constrained (and slower) network but has better in-building penetration, and Cleawrire's TD-LTE at 2.5 GHz will offer spectacular speed in dense urban areas.

The first piece of the puzzle falls into place on June 30, when Sprint turns off the last of the old Nextel iDen towers and immediately flips the first one over to 800-MHz LTE. The rest of the Nextel network will slide over onto LTE over the rest of the year, improving Sprint's in-building coverage.

Clearwire is still a mystery, though. That company is trapped in an acquisition battle between Sprint and Dish, and refuses to give anyone clear ideas of when it'll launch its TD-LTE network. Sullivan said we'd start to see Clearwire cities turning on "by the end of this year."

With AT&T and Verizon well ahead of Sprint on LTE coverage (and T-Mobile's HSPA+ 42 doing a good job of providing 4G speeds even without LTE), Sprint needs to keep its pedal to the metal on network rollouts.

Gladstone, Mo. Added to Google Fiber Lineup

Google Fiber's 1 gigabit Internet service picked up another "fiberhood" this week with the addition of Gladstone, Mo.

Google announced on Monday that the Gladstone City Council in Missouri voted to bring Google Fiber to the region. It's still a work in progress, however, so the search giant does not have any details on when its super-fast Internet will be available in the Midwestern city.

"As we've said before, it takes awhile to plan, engineer, and start building our network in new communities, so it will still be some time before we can hook up our Gladstone customers. We'll publish more info here as we have it," Google said in a blog post.

Gladstone is the latest community in the Kansas City area to commit to Google Fiber. In recent weeks, city councils in Grandview, Mo. and Shawnee, KS have also approved the rollout of Google Fiber. In March, Google said 1 gigabit Internet would also be coming to Olathe, KS.

Google Fiber first rolled out in Kansas City, and Google has since committed to bringing it to Provo, Utah later this year and Austin, Texas in 2014.

Google is not the only company exploring gigabit Internet. A small telco in rural Vermont, Vtel, plans to halve Google's $70 per month Google Fiber offer, providing gigabit services for just $35.

Guantanamo Wi-Fi Access Shut Down Amidst Cyber Threats

Officials at Guantanamo Bay prison shut down access to wireless Internet service as well as social networks over the weekend amidst concerns about a coordinated cyber attack.

Service has since been restored, an Army spokesman confirmed.

As first reported by the AP, service was shut down after hacking group Anonymous threatened to attack the controversial prison's networks. At this point, it does not appear that the group was successful.

"Wi-Fi access and social networks were shut down over the weekend through last night, but are now back online," a spokesman said in an email. "Wireline networks were still used throughout the weekend."

In a video (below) posted to YouTube earlier this month, Anonymous pledged to launch Operation Guantanamo, or OpGTMO, between May 17-19.

"On May 17 to May 19, to coincide with the 100th day of the hunger strike, we urge everyone to join global actions on the ground and hacktivist protests as well as twitterstorms, email bombs, and fax bombs, in 3 days of nonstop action," the group said.

As of last week, 102 of the 166 prisoners at Guantanamo prison were on a hunger strike, and 30 are being force fed, according to The Huffington Post. Detainees say that the U.S. military mishandled the Quran during cell searches, HuffPo said.

"We are outraged. We, the people and Anonymous, will not allow the most expensive prison on earth to be run without any respect for international laws," the hacking group said in its video. "We stand in solidarity with the Guantanamo hunger strikers. We will shut down Guantanamo."

Lemonade tents

Let’s face it: sometimes a pole system might not be best for you. Too much wind, and your top banner will act like a sail and take down your entire tent. Limited overhead space would make it impossible to set up a banner on poles. You might not be able or willing to mess with building a frame or setting one up at each festival. The solution? Tent Banners!

Commerical lemonade machine

Are you thinking of purchasing one of those professional, commercial lemonade stands? Take into consideration, the financial investment and the commitment to pay back the loan with all the profits of your new business. You should be spending that money on you and your family, not the bank.

One mistake when you are getting started is to purchase expensive equipment.
If this is not your first site to visit about lemonade stands, you might have found other companies selling equipment for thousands of dollars. Please keep in mind that a few pieces of equipment, alone, is not enough. You need a complete list of equipment, and a system to succeed in this business.
With our Smasher, and list of equipment that you can purchase locally, you’ll have everything you need to get started the following weekend. Watch our videos, to get an idea of what we are talking about.
Get a portable concession sink that will make the health department happy.


Contact us if you have any questions, and before you buy any professional, commercial lemonade

Texas laws on lemonade

You’ve probably read about 7-year-old Julie Murphy, and the Multnomah County (Oregon) health inspectors that shut down her lemonade stand. She was selling it for 50 cents per cup at a monthly fair near Portland, OR. When approached by a health department inspector for her permit, she had none, and they shut her down.

First, don’t let this scare you from getting into the Lemonade Business. We’re talking about making $4 to $5 per glass of our addicting refreshments, not 50 cents. If you are serious about making good money over the weekend at a festival, then you have to treat this like a real business. One of the first things to do is just talk to the health department. They will have more regard for you and your efforts if you make the step to contact them as opposed to them finding out about your illegal operation.

Business License for a Lemonade Cart

Face it, if you are doing something that makes money, the government will want to be involved. Over time, if you keep showing up at the same event (farmers market, city festival, flea market), a city or county official will want to see your business license. Again, nothing to worry about. Just go to city hall or the county court house and tell them what you want to do. We’re talking about spending less than $100 per year to make over $500 per weekend. Don’t let that stop you from making real money with your cart.

Sales Tax for a Lemonade Business

Most people that are not in business don’t understand sales tax. The law does not require the buyer to pay sales tax. The law requires the seller to pay the sales tax. The seller is just passing their burden on to you.
What this means is that you do not have to charge sales tax when you are selling lemonade at a festival, but you have to pay sales tax to the city, county and state after your sales are totaled at the end of the event. I don’t like it, but don’t let paying a percentage of your sales prevent you from keeping 90% of what you just made.

In summary, don’t consider the above topics to be barriers or obstacles to starting your lemonade business. Think of them as tests to see who is really serious about making money this summer.
The ones that gripe about it will be the ones handing you the five dollar bills!

lemonade day startup kit

The Lemonade Business Plan we offer with the purchase of our Lemon Juicer is by far the best tool you can utilize to get started and actually succeed in the lemonade business.
This guide is full of all the information you need to start, run, and profit in your business!

Here’s what you get:

• Understanding health department regulations (Every health department in every state is different)
• A full list of equipment and materials you need AND where you can purchase those items. Direct links to suppliers of everything from air compressors to beverage dispensers
• The most effective ways to purchase supplies (fruit, sugar, ice, etc)
• Our tried-and-true recipes for regular, strawberry and sugar-free
• How to set-up and prepare for events
• How to generate sales momentum early in the day
• How to maintain a consistent, quality product for the duration of the event
• How to get into the best events AND which ones to avoid
• Day-to-day tips learned from our experiences

Starting a Lemonade Stand or Cart Business

Citrus fruits are a favorite in the refreshment drink industry. They satisfy people’s thirst with a sweet or sugar free taste. You can operate your lemonade cart on a street corner. Make big profits at festivals with many customers.
These are some guidelines to think about before starting with a lemonade stand or cart business:
Watch our videos for more tips. Figure out how much it will cost to make your lemonade for a lot of people. Our lemonade calculator will help calculate the costs.

Make a lemonade stand. You can use a cart or use a portable tent and some tables. Using Large Banners will attract more customers to your booth.
Get a portable concession sink that will make the health department happy.
Location, location, location. Don’t be near a competing drink vendor (unless you want to make them feel bad because you’re getting the most business). The best places are where the people are, like the entrance or exit to the festival.
Keep your customers happy. Smile and be nice to people that are your customers. Serve them with a delicious drink with a satisfying flavor. Use a lemon shake up recipe they will brag about.

Don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any questions about Starting a Lemonade Cart Business.

iPhone-o-Gram! Cabin Searching!

I am almost afraid to post these photos –

We have found what we think will be our perfect mountain getaway – but it is a big big decision to make

This little cabin is not all "that" little! But it will fit our family for family gatherings in the years to come.

There is even ample room for Quilty friends to gather for long sewing weekends, or even whole quilting retreat weeks.

String Spider Webs on a Galway Afternoon!

Isn't Ann cute?!  I sure had a good time meeting her!  She sat in her corner and sewed herself away in her happy place!  I love that we Quilters have this in common.  The love of fabric, of color, of creativity, of the whole process of cutting, piecing, pressing, trimming, assembling, quilting and binding….it’s our life blood!

iPhone-o-Gram! Farewell to Ireland!

We are all at the airport catching our various flights to take us to our own corners of the world.

We posed for this pic last night on the stairs to the piano bar on our last gathering.

What a great trip! What magnificent experiences, what cherished memories!

My best to all of you who traveled with us--I hope our paths will cross again!

Mystery Monday Link-Up, Part 4!

We are ROLLING down Easy Street!  Are you having a good time with it?

As we get farther in ((We are about 1/2 way done now)) things will get really exciting as designs start to emerge and pieces start to fall together.

And I promise the next step will NOT have flying geese!

Let's see how you did this week  please link up your blog below!

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Lunch Time in Lisburn!

We were headed to the Linen Museum in Lisburn, arriving a bit early for our 1:15pm group appointment  we scattered like leaves in a gusty wind to explore the small town and discover what this small town in Northern Ireland had to offer.

I don’t do politics – and politics is not what I’m wanting to discuss here, or ANYWHERE for that matter, but one can’t help but feel the difference when

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