The newly-launched try-before-you-buy online subscription service, YBuy, lets you try a product for 30 days before deciding to buy.  For a monthly fee of $24.95, subscribers can try any of a wide variety of products – like iPads, Jawbone headsets, Keurig coffee machines, TaylorMade drivers, Dyson heaters, iRobot Roomba vacuums – for 30 days.  If you purchase the product, the monthly fee will be deducted from the purchase price.  YBuy says their prices are significantly lower than retail pricing, and they offer both new and refurbished products.  Read the full press release after the jump.

Why Buy When You Can Try? Test Drive the Latest Electronics, Home Gadgets at YBuy.com, Which Launches Wednesday with $750,000 in Funding

Manhattan Beach, Calif. — The new try-before-you-buy online subscription service YBuy.com launches Wednesday, January 18^th, with $750,000 in financing from Stephen Svajian and Kevin Wall and a list of angel investors, giving consumers a chance to test drive the latest electronics, home and kitchen gadgets for 30 days before they commit to purchase.

For just $24.95 a month, YBuy members can try out the latest products ranging from iPad 2s and high-end Jawbone headsets to Keurig coffee makers, Dyson heaters, TaylorMade drivers or the iRobot Roomba automatic vacuum for 30 days. After the trail period, YBuyers may opt to keep the item and have the rental fee applied toward the YBuy product purchase price—a significant discount under regular retail—or they can easily send it back and choose another product from the curated list of top-of-the-line products. Shipping is free both ways.

YBuy offers both new and factory refurbished products certified by the manufacturer. All returned products are completely refurbished before being sent to another customer, and every product is guaranteed to perform to the manufacturers’ quality standards.

Named the Best Tech Company of 2011 by edgy lifestyle guide Thrillist.com, YBuy effectively overcomes the last major obstacle to modern ecommerce: the inability to touch, feel and experience the product before you buy. By offering the trial experience, YBuy eliminates the hassle of refunds, returns and restocking fees common with traditional ecommerce—for both consumers and retailers.

Product returns cost the consumer electronics industry alone $16.7 billion in 2011, with the overwhelming majority of products (68 percent) returned simply because they failed to meet the customer’s requirements or expectations. Another 27 percent are returned due to buyer’s remorse. In order to resell these products, manufacturers must bear the high cost of refurbishment, but according to YBuy CEO Stephen Svajian, many end up in a landfill because refurbishing is simply not cost effective.

“YBuy completely eliminates all of these issues by giving consumers the chance to try the product and make sure it fits in their space or within their lifestyle with absolutely no risk,” he said. “For manufacturers, we provide an easy-to-use sales channel that allows them to offer refurbished products to consumers without the added cost of marketing and sales.”

Not only do YBuyers get a chance to try the latest gadgets and home products with no risk and no guilt, they also receive discount offers good toward the purchase of their product during their trial period. Subscribers can cancel anytime, or choose to skip a month and have that month’s fee applied toward the purchase of a future product. Membership in YBuy is limited and by invitation only to ensure sufficient inventory is always available, which also enables the company to provide exceptional, personalized customer service.

“Our goal is to offer consumers the best products at the best price with no risk,” Svajian said. “And, we’re also eager to expand our product line by working with manufacturers looking for a better solution for their refurbished product resale channel.”

For more information or to start your 30-day in-home trial of the latest electronics and home gadgets, go to www.ybuy.com.

About YBuy.com

YBuy.com is the premier try-before-you-buy destination that lets consumers test drive the latest electronics and home and kitchen gadgets for 30 days with no commitment to buy. Offering both new and certified factory refurbished products, YBuy eliminates the hassle of product refunds, returns and buyer’s remorse and offers manufacturers a captive audience and ready-made sales channel for their refurbished products. The private company is headquartered in Manhattan Beach, Calif. For more information, visit www.ybuy.com.

Filed in categories: Gear, News

Tagged: Websites

YBuy Lets You Try a Product Before You Buy It originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on January 19, 2012 at 10:15 am.

Man has been exploring space since the dawn of time.  First by seeing pictures in the stars and making up stories of gods, then by using optics and physics to understand that Earth is not the center of the universe, and finally by venturing into space with manned and unmanned crafts.  A wealth of information about our own solar system has been gathered into a beautiful, interactive website by NASA to help all of us with our own explorations.  Click on a planet in the interactive display at NASA’s Solar System Exploration to learn more about that planet.  Read about exploration missions, by the US and other countries, of the past, present, and future.  Multimedia content helps you learn about the science and technology of space exploration and the people who are involved.  There are games and materials for kids and for educators, and content for students of all ages.

Filed in categories: News

Tagged: astronomy, NASA, Spotlight Gadgets, Websites

Explore the Solar System with NASA originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on September 11, 2011 at 9:49 am.

If someone asked me which website that I spend the more than 50% of my overall surfing time on, I’d have to say Google. Using a search engine to find information is hard-wired into our brains these days. Overall, search engines aren’t overly exciting though. They do their job with little applause. Probably the last time you heard news about a search engine was when Bing! came on the scene. How many people actually use Bing as their go to source for info? Yeah, me neither. I’m sure it’s fine, but I’m so used to using Google, that I’ve not been motivated to make a change to another info vendor. But, that may change with the recent announcement by LeapFish. They are making plans to unveil a new multimedia and real-time search, communication and sharing platform. 

Searching in action - click to see full size screen capture

Exact details surrounding the features of this new search platform and how it works have not yet been released, but LeapFish is conducting private demos prior to the highly anticipated launch (if interested please email demo@leapfish.com) and a beta version of the site is already available that you can try. The main thing you will notice just as soon as you start typing search terms in the input field is that the results start showing up as you are typing the keywords. You can specify where you want Leapfish to search: google, yahoo or MSN. And on the right side bar, it will show associated news, videos, images, and shopping links. Leapfish also has an answers option, that is pretty cool. It lists questions people have asked that include your search terms.

LeapFish.com is pretty cool so far. I’m definitely going to check it out further when it comes out of beta. What do you guys think? Would you switch to it over google?

Filed in categories: News

Tagged: Websites

Real-time Searching with Leapfish originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on November 3, 2009 at 5:56 pm.

I’m great with faces, but I’m horrible remembering names. Now there’s a website that can help people like me. It’s called What’s your name? and it allows you to submit pictures of people whose names that you can’t remember. If someone recognizes the person, they can email you with his or her name. Crisis solved! Not sure just how many success stories the site has had yet, but they do say it’s a small world after all.

Filed in categories: Uncategorized

Tagged: Gear Diary, Websites

Who’s that guy in the polka dot t-shirt? originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on May 20, 2009 at 1:14 pm.