Sunday, June 24, 2012

A Tango with Pango

A tango with Pango

It’s old news that Israel is the “Startup Nation” with more research papers, patents, books published etc per capita than any other nation.
Recently, Facebook purchased face recognition technology from an Israeli company for $100,000,000. (No typo, really, it’s nine zeros.) That even made the news in the Winnipeg Free Press (I looked).
People who boycott Israeli products are also asked to boycott cell phones, innumerable medications, computer apps ad nauseum, and Google chat – all Israeli inventions.
But here’s the latest that probably not many have heard of. Israeli technology has apparently solved the New York parking problem.

Pango is an Israeli company that allows you to park your car (in Israel) anywhere there is legal parking and pay by credit card. No need for meters, nickels, tickets, or any of those old fashioned gizmos. You simply slip into the parking spot, call from your Israeli made cell phone, and announce where you are parking. When you leave the spot, you simply call the number back and say you are leaving. The bill (which otherwise would have been fed into a meter) shows up on your credit card the next month.

So now, Pango has gone international, and adapted its tech to other cultures. According to the article, Pango is available in 50 cities in 5 countries – Israel, Poland, Germany, France, and the United States.
Now we just have to figure out how to park...



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