All I can do is look on from a distance as Egyptians tackle the latest bout of revolts. It is the age of discontent, and all over the world we are disagreeing, disputing and disrupting, but can we really know where this is taking us? What I know for sure is that as a woman, I feel less and less safe.
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More on Egypt Protests
A film festival’s first day — particularly when it’s your first day at a festival you’ve never attended before — is always a discovery process (though, of course, discovery is what going to film festivals is all about).
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More on Palestine
If a workplace is becoming more emotion-friendly, women certainly have at least something to do with it. It’s with the greatest caution that I commit to print the idea that women are more emotional than men. Back away from that Tweet. Science is on my side.
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There is a saying that goes something along the lines of “you can never smell an accident coming”, which is pretty apt a description. After all, how many of us are able to foretell an accident (I am referring to normal folk, unlike those with some extra-sensory perception or possess the gift of clairvoyance)? Since it is better to be safe than sorry, all drivers should always take the extra precaution of ensuring that their vehicles are equipped with the basic tools like some jumper cables just in case the battery dies, or a tire replacement kit for those flat tire moments. The thing is, whenever you decide to pull over and see what is wrong with your car, you would do well to ensure other motorists are able to see you. This is where the $14.99 F.R.E.D. Flashing Roadside Emergency Disk will be able to help.
The F.R.E.D. Flashing Roadside Emergency Disk boasts of lateral illumination that delivers great visibility, and the light itself can be seen at up to 1 mile away, now how about that? There is also a magnetic back that attaches itself to metal surfaces, and with a single push of the button (which is all too tempting), it will rotate through the entire gamut of the light’s functions. Not only that, the F.R.E.D. Flashing Roadside Emergency Disk is here to stay as it can float on water, and is capable of withstanding up to 10,000 lb of weight. It is powered by a trio of AAA batteries that should keep it going for up to 38 hours, so make sure you have spares in tow always.
[ F.R.E.D. Flashing Roadside Emergency Disk copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]
What we do know is that when the dust settles Egypt will still be divided, will still be facing enormous economic challenges, and will still be in need of a national dialogue that can chart a new course for the country.
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More on Hosni Mubarak
Like Dance Moms or protein-only diets, wearable tech is one of those things that simultaneously incites excitement, bandwagonning, distrust and disgust. Gut instinct tells us we’re turning into cyborgs, which is either terrifying or great, depending on how you see it. Maybe we will become more efficient, fit versions of ourselves, or maybe we are simply setting ourselves up for the government to steal a new wealth of personal information. As Sarah wrote, the future of wearable tech is nearly impossible to predict, even for those most involved in its development.
These are big concerns. But I have another one: that your wearable tech is making you look like a tool.
An unofficial poll of five TechCrunch writers and editors revealed little faith in finding decent-looking wearables. The most popular suggestion was this followed by this.
But the thing is, sometimes you love what you love, and it’s awesome, so you’re just going to wear it anyway, goddammit! Even those TC eds admitted that they have an affection for dumb-looking wearables. Like USB belts. Wristbands. Cyber pants.
And so we embark on the search for wearable tech pieces that are both functionally great and aesthetically not the worst. Note that a lot of these guys are only available for pre-order at the moment, so you have some time to consider your fate.
Fitbit Flex: Fitness bands are the easiest entry point into wearables, because everyone knows that if you want to be cool, go where the jocks go. All of my athlete friends in college wore plastic stopwatches around to clock their pace on runs, and they worked out smarter and harder than the rest of us who tooled around on the elliptical for half an hour. Fitness bands are a useful extension of that, tracking diet and sleep in addition to exercise. There are a number of fitness trackers out there now, but the Fitbit Flex seems like a winner. Jawbone UP has been prone to malfunctioning, while Nike Fuelband dropped its Android companion app. Minimalist and sporty, the Fitbit Flex also nails the aesthetics of fitness tracking. It’s respectable while still telling the world, “Yeah, I work out.”
Nike Hyperdunk+: Kicking things up a notch, Nike’s Hyperdunk basketball shoes are embedded with sensors synced to the Nike+Basketball app that measure your air, speed and intensity. I would like to know (1) what Lebron, who has a line named after him, actually thinks of these, and (2) how well they work. Depending on their functionality, these shoes could be an awesome piece of undercover sports tech, especially in an industry that values and capitalizes on over-the-top, attention-grabbing design.
Filip: These bands look like cute oversize watches, but they appeal to every parent’s darkest fear of losing a child. Let’s suspend debate of the various pitfalls of our helicopter parenting culture, and focus on the good here: Filip has GPS, Wi-Fi, and cellular capability, so you can locate your child, see if they’ve moved out of designated safe zones, and call and send them short messages, among other things. It’s targeted at 5- to 12-year-olds, an age group that maker Filip Technologies recognizes probably shouldn’t have cell phones because of cyber-bullying and that horrible sexting business. (This is, of course, hoping kids don’t get bullied for wearing an umbilical cord/watch.) As a device it’s quite good looking, so it’s not a bad option if you don’t mind being implicated as a helicopter parent for those who know what it is. But you know what? We all have priorities. According to a PR rep, Filip goes on pre-order this summer and will ship in the fall, with pricing as of yet undetermined.
MYO:
Last TechCrunch reported, Thalmic Labs had passed the $4 million mark on pre-orders for its $149 MYO armband, so if popularity is your benchmark for acceptability, it’s not a bad bet. Worn around the forearm, MYO translates electrical impulses and muscle motion into gesture control for Bluetooth-connected devices. The potential applications of this are pretty exciting, the most mundane being that PowerPoint
presentations just got a whole lot sexier. It’s okay aesthetically, if a little awkward because of how the band’s links space out as they’re slid onto the arm (Counter point: you could look like this guy.)
Misfit Shine: Hazy silver and the size of a quarter, Misfit’s wearable activity tracker makes the best show of the lot in striving for elegance. Their website suggests that it’s meant to “complement any fashion statement,” a welcome change from tech that strives to be your fashion statement, or at least sit awkwardly next to it. Plus, it can be easily hidden on a sock or bra strap. Shine can be worn in the pool, but it really wins in business or formal occasions. Although Livestrong made it okay to wear a rubber wristband with a suit, it’s nice to not have to be that guy.
So what, are we trying to tell you to not wear something at the risk of not fitting in? To not be disruptive? What is this, high school? Of course not. We need brave souls like the Google Glass lady models to pioneer wearable technology in the mainstream — if, that is, we even want it in the mainstream. And that’s a question worth asking.
It’s more a matter of asking tech companies to really consider product from a style standpoint. If they want us to serve as their ambassador 24/7, they have to return the favor in good taste. At the moment, the most wearable pieces are those that emulate common clothing and jewelry items, because they have the most established benchmarks for design success and because we identify them most readily as something that is, in fact, meant to be worn on the body. The products I listed are good, but they can do more.
If wearable tech companies are going to proliferate and incorporate themselves into our daily lives, they should start hiring fashion directors. Heckled as it is, Google Glass has reportedly made the smart move of talking with Warby Parker about infusing its kickass design aesthetic (and name) into future glasses. What I want to see is wearable tech that accommodates my taste, rather than making me redefine what I would be willing to wear. Unless I’m going for a swim, I don’t want plastic around my wrist.
Mainstream wearable tech is in its early stages. If it’s going to catch on, it needs to step up its design game now.
[Images from Fashion-Allure.com, Fitbit, Nike, Evado Filip, Thalmic Labs, Misfit.]
There have been many attempts to recreate the design of the Hoverboards from Back to the Future II, but none of them have been functional. Now, there’s a project which just kicked off with hopes of creating an actual, working Hoverboard by the Summer of 2015 – the same time period that Marty visits in the movie.
With the goal of creating the world’s first production Hoverboard, Robert Haleluk of Haltek Industries has embarked on an Open Source, crowdfunding project.
Assuming it can actually be produced, the real world Hoverboard won’t look quite like the ones in the movies, in order to accomodate a propulsion system. According to project leader Robert Haleluk, the Hoverboard will be powered by omni-directional tubeaxial blowers – similar to the ones we saw in the Aerofex Hover Bike.
The boards would be constructed from a honeycomb carbon fiber to keep weight to a minimum. In terms of power source, Haleluk is looking at two promising new lightweight battery technologies – a Lithium-Air battery in development by IBM with the goal of powering a car for up to 500 miles on a single charge or a unique energy device being researched by Stanford which can store power in a sheet of paper with special ink infused with carbon nanotubes and silver nanowires. Of course, neither of these technologies is in production yet, so that certainly creates a risk factor for the Hoverboard project. Current off-the-shelf battery technologies would likely be insufficient to lift a passenger for any meaningful period of time.
Should the Hoverboard project come to fruition, the boards would interface with a companion smartphone app, which would provide the ability to lock and unlock the board, turn it on, and run diagnostics among other things.
In order to fund the development of the Hoverboard, Haleluk has set up an Indiegogo campaign with a funding goal of $1 million (USD). These funds will be used for research, development and production of the first Hoverboards. While a bid of $10,000 or more is required if you want to end up with an actual Hoverboard, lower pledges will be used to further research and development efforts.
Naturally, a project like this is fraught with risks for investors, and there’s a good chance that the end result will be less than stellar. But for those of us who have dreamed of seeing the futuristic vision of floating skateboards come to fruition during our lifetimes, it could be pretty exciting if it actually works out – and we’ll never know if they don’t try.
Joshi rented a car from Budget in Oahu last summer. While he was driving, a vehicle rear-ended his rental. What does all of this mean to you? Well, if you’re ever in an accident with a rental car, here’s what you have to do.
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While everyone tries to figure out what the future of TV looks like, Variety reports Cox Cable has crossed over to offering internet TV service to customers in Orange County. flareWatch beta testers can buy a Fanhattan Fan TV set-top box for $99 (up to three per household) and sign up for a TV package that features 90 live TV channels (60 in HD) and includes the usual favorites like ESPN / ESPN2, AMC, CNN, Nickelodeon and TNT, with video on-demand coming soon. DVR recordings take place in the cloud, with 30 hours of storage available for each subscriber.
There is one notable limitation however, as with cable company provided TiVo DVRs, streaming services like Hulu and Netflix are not available. Cox already cloud based storage under the MyFlare brand name, and Variety also mentions the company plans to expand it with music and game services. Other providers have hinted at offering IPTV options and Comcast launched an IPTV test at MIT, but this is the first one publicly available from a major company. If you live in the area, demonstrations are available at several locations, check out the site at the link below and a preview video after the break.
Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD
Source: Variety, watchFlare
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