Hasta La Gadget!

Many people associate BitTorrent with piracy, and with good reason. But the revolutionary protocol can also be used for legal purposes. For instance, it’s a cheap way to host and distribute large files. Now the company behind the protocol and the first ever torrent client is also pushing for BitTorrent to become a way for artists to hawk their products. It’s called BitTorrent Bundle, and it is weird.

The idea behind BitTorrent Bundle is for artists to release free content – say, songs, movie clips or chapters from a book – that we can download using a BitTorrent client. When you go to the download page, it will show you additional content that you have the option to “unlock” – either by paying or entering an email address. Sounds neat right? Here’s a promo video for BitTorrent Bundle:

You can check out the download page for Kaskade’s freebies right now. At first glance, it seems like a good idea – give people legitimate freebies and hope that they’ll like it enough to buy the rest of your work. However, I don’t think the protocol is uniquely equipped to fill this otherwise honest marketing tactic.

What I mean is, it doesn’t incentivize the act of either leeching or seeding – the two activities central to BitTorrent. Neither does it leverage the number of seeders and leechers as a way for torrent users to see which content is popular. If you go to a torrent site, you can infer what pirates like to download because they are the files with the most number of seeders or leechers, or both. But BitTorrent Bundle seems to have no such ranking or ladder for people to view.

I think that from an artist’s perspective, having a potential customer learn how to use a BitTorrent client is not worth it. It would be a different ball game if BitTorrent Bundle awarded points to devout seeders, which they can then use to unlock premium content from the store. What can BitTorrent Bundle do for musicians and consumers that existing services like Bandcamp can’t accomplish? If I’m a budding filmmaker and I’m giving away a video for free, why don’t I just post it on YouTube or Vimeo so people can watch it instantly – or whenever they want! – instead of making them fiddle with a torrent client?

I keep thinking I’m missing something here, but right now I just don’t see the killer application of BitTorrent Bundle. I guess at the very least it’s an attempt at erasing the stigma behind the protocol. You can also read a bit more about BitTorrent Bundle on TorrentFreak.

[via Electronista]

We already have devices that augment two our sight and hearing. But a group of Innovation Design Engineering students at the Royal College of Art built a couple of devices that provide a new level of augmentation. One is a headset that applies special effects to what you’re seeing in real time, while the other one is a mask that works like noise canceling headphones. No Typhoon explosives though.

Tim Bouckley, Millie Clive-Smith, Mi Eun Kim and Yuta Sugawara call their project Eidos. The idea is not just to help us focus on sights or sounds that we consider important, but also to provide totally new ways of seeing and hearing.

The headset for example can apply a long-exposure effect on moving objects – a bit like seeing in four dimensions. The mask on the other hand not only blocks out all sound except for the one you want to hear, it broadcasts the sound through your inner ear. The students claim that this makes it seem like the sound is being sent directly inside your head – a bit like being a schizophrenic.

Obviously the devices in their current state are silly and impractical – the cool use cases shown in the video are all hypothetical and conceptual. Still, wouldn’t be amazing if future sunglasses and hearing aids had these capabilities? I mean I didn’t ask for these, but when they arrive I can see old man Bert buying Eidoses. Eidii. Eidoes. Edeese. Eidosia.

[via Dezeen via Walyou]

You’ve probably run into the old problem of where to keep your spare slice of pizza, or that half-eaten sandwich when you are out and about. You can’t put them into your pocket because that’s just nasty. You don’t want a sandwich full of lint! Well, one girl has solved the problem with a Ziploc jacket.

This Ziploc Jacket keeps all of your food items in plain view and keeps it all fresh. You are basically a walking food cart when wearing this thing. And it’s stylish too.

Want a mohair look? Just fill up all the pockets and let things get moldy! In the mood for red? Fill it up with tomato sauce! Damn. This thing is versatile.

[via Obvious Winner]

Have you ever heard of poutine? No? Well, it’s a Canadian dish that’s made with french fries which have been topped with brown gravy and cheese curds. Other variations exist, but that’s basically what the dish is.

Doesn’t sound very appetizing, does it? It probably has a certain appeal, though, since has been around since the late 1950s. Now take that dish and imagine it as a drink… then take a sip of Seattle-based Jones Soda’s Poutine Soda and see if it matches your imagination or expectations.

Jones Soda describes the drink as having “a nice balance of rich, savory gravy over a starchy potato base, and accented with those fatty, cheesy notes you expect in a plate of poutine.”

I haven’t tried it myself, but others have, and I’ll leave you to gauge how good or bad it was based on their reactions:

[via Foodbeast]

While I really enjoy the occasional ATV or Jet-Ski ride, and regularly ride my bicycle, I have to say I’ve never been all that comfortable riding a motorcycle. Maybe it’s because the first time I rode on one, I was riding on the back of the seat with a crazy person behind the handlebars, holding on for dear life. Perhaps what I need is a motorcycle with training wheels.

That wasn’t quite what I had in mind. Have you ever seen a motorcycle that big? Yeah, me neither. This crazy bike was built in China by a sewage treatment plant worker in his spare time. He made it entirely from junkyard scrap, and drives along using tractor tires instead of regular motorcycle tires. It measures over 14-feet-long by nearly 8-feet-tall, and hits a top speed of about 25mph. It actually is big enough to carry 5 to 6 total passengers if you can believe it.

Here, check it out in action in this video clip:

Wacky, eh? I guess it needs those training wheels in the back so it doesn’t tip over. It looks ridiculously top-heavy, especially with a driver and three passengers on board. I can’t even imagine riding around with six people on this thing.

[via CNR(CN) via M.I.C. Gadget]