Hasta La Gadget!

In a bid to cement itself as the definitive real-time news commentary engine of the modern universe, Twitter has (smartly) decided to add a bit of context to embedded tweets. Increasingly, blogs and news sources are embedding tweets that relate to a story they’re composing, but to date, those tweets have largely sat on their own island. Starting today, embedded tweets will include a “Related headlines” section beneath the original tweet, where you’ll be able to view the tweet’s permalink page as well as lists and links to websites where the tweet was embedded. All in all, it seems like a wise move for the company, but curiously, it’s not clear how the shown links are chosen. Something tells us every news organization on the planet will be pleading to be first for inclusion, though.

Filed under: Internet

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Source: Twitter Blog

A year ago, pod-shaped recycling bins were installed all over the UK by Renew London. The so-called “smart bins” definitely look better than your average trash can. Now, you might be wondering, why would trash cans have Wi-Fi capabilities and an LCD installed on front?

The answer, my friends, is advertising. Targeted advertising.

The bin looks for smartphones nearby that have their Wi-Fi turned on. It then logs their MAC address and calculates the “proximity, speed, duration and manufacturer” of each device. It tracks the phone owner’s actions to then display targeted adverts on the screen, which will play as they walk past the bin.

Sounds smart, right? Yeah, definitely, but it’s rubbing a lot of people the wrong way because of privacy issues. To be honest, I’d be pretty irked, too, if this phone was tracking what I was doing just so it could show me an ad or two when I walk past the bin.

So it was only a matter of time before the bins had their Wi-Fi and tracking capabilities pulled. The City of London has called on Renew to stop recording people’s movements, so Londoners can breathe a sigh of relief now.

The City of London released the following statement:

We have already asked the firm concerned to stop this data collection immediately. We have also taken the issue to the Information Commissioner’s Office. Irrespective of what’s technically possible, anything that happens like this on the streets needs to be done carefully, with the backing of an informed public.

[via C|NET]

Have you ever had a 12-course meal? The most I’ve had was eight, and I had a hard enough time keeping everything down by the end of the night. However, being too full isn’t a problem with the 12-Course Meal in a Can, for obvious reasons.

Basically, what you get is what you see. All twelve courses have been mushed and pulverized before being packed into a tight layer into the can. Here’s a list of all twelve courses:

• Selection of local cheeses with sourdough bread
• Pickled kobe beef with charred strawberry
• Ricotta ravioli with a soft egg yolk
• Shitake mushroom topped with filled peppers
• Halibut poached in truffle butter in a coconut crepe
• Risotto with foraged ramps, prosciutto and fresh parmesan
• French onion soup with fresh thyme and gruyere cheese
• Roast pork belly and celeriac root puree
• Palate cleanser: pear ginger juice
• Rib eye steak with grilled mustard greens
• Crack pie with milk ice cream on a vanilla tuile
• French canele with a malt barley and hazelnut latte

To be honest, the whole thing looks like some weird, multi-colored meatloaf that went bad a few years ago. But hey, this is as fancy and compact as a 12-course meal can get.

The whole thing was a project by designer Christopher Godfrey, who wanted make a statement about gimmicks in contemporary culture. What do you think? Would you eat this stuff?

[via Geekologie and Foodbeast]

Why buy when you can rent, especially if you don’t have much to spare?

This is true for houses, DVDs, even luxury bags – and now it’s true for LEGO. Sets range in price from a couple of bucks to hundreds of dollars, so if you’re the type who builds a lot but then gets bored with the set after a while, then you might want to consider Pleygo.

Pleygo is a LEGO rental service so you can build to your heart’s content. Think of it as a Netflix-like service for LEGO sets, in case you’re having difficulty understanding the concept.

There are three rental subscription tiers: Fan, Super Fan, and Mega Fan. They go for $15, $25, and $39 a month, respectively. You can get small to medium sets under Fan (up to 250 pieces), large sets (up to 500 pieces) under Super Fan, and up to huge sets (up to 5400 pieces) in the Mega Fan tier. Once you’re all paid up, Pleygo will send your first set to play with.

When you’re done with it, just sent it back to them and they’ll send you another one to have some fun with. They offer free shipping and they don’t charge for lost pieces. And if you’re worried about dirty LEGO blocks, then you’ll be pleased to know that they clean and sanitize the sets in between uses.

You can sign up for Pleygo here, and check out all of their available sets here.

[via Geekologie via Oh Gizmo!]

Mainstream news outlets heavily rely on user-generated content already, but in a bid to boost it even more, NBC has bought Stringwire, a social video streaming company that allows for real-time sharing of videos recorded with smartphones. NBC thinks it’ll be the next generation of news coverage. When news breaks locally, news crews try to […]