More in the wearable technology category, a couple of projects out of the Hybrid Wearables Workshop:

Cuddle Bag works like a mobile cat - pet it and it will keep you warm. Add LED eyes and a purring sensation and dare we say, the cat is in the bag.

e-Pressed is a shirt that claims to sense your emotions and accordingly light up which acupuncture pressure points should be touched to help you relax.

[via Pasta&Vinegar]

image by svanes

Nokia yesterday started implementing a mobile experiment that turns your device into a community traffic sensor. By downloading software, GPS-enabled devices can receive real-time traffic info as well as output their own location-based data to contribute to the Nokia community of drivers.

"Nokia says the user-generated data is completely anonymous. Researchers are protecting personal data by stripping individual device identifiers from the transmitted traffic data, by using strong encryption and by drawing data only from targeted roadways where traffic information is needed."

Just an experiment for now, but Nokia is planning on expanding it with time.

Wired reviews the LG LX600 Lotus, the latest "female-friendly" phone offered by Sprint. While the compact-shapped cellphone isn't annoyingly pink, it does value femininity over functionality, making it still a fail for understanding what women want out of a wireless device.

"Try touch-typing on that keypad -- just try it -- your text messages will look like Borat composed them. Fun Frames is the Jessica Simpson of photo editing tools."

To lessen the blow of embarrassment and cost that comes to those fairly new to buying condoms, Marie Stopes International has created a campaign that taps into the texting habits of teens. By texting 19 SEXTXT, Australian students can receive 2 free condoms.

Developed as a "handheld device", a new electronic tongue can taste-test a variety of wines for acidity, sugar and alcohol by using six sensors. Invented by Cecilia Jiménez-Jorquera and others from the Barcelona Institute of Microelectronics, no images can be found yet on the ergonomics of this gadget.

Previously: Artificial mouth could be robotic taste-tester

Georgia Tech Photo: Gary Meek

A new UI allows a user to navigate through it via use of their tongue. Developed for those with disabilities, the system leverages the strength and movement of the tongue to operate various activities. The Tongue Drive System was developed at Georgia Tech by a group of students. The device uses small embedded magnets and is said to be a better alternative to standard puff input methods.

Called the Zero Energy Media Wall, this glass structure has embedded photovoltaic cells that operate off of solar energy.

"Rather than placing them uniformly, the cells are arranged in changing densities which allows for more natural light to reach the interior, as well as converting excessive solar radiation into energy thus increasing the building's performance."

The Pet's Eye View digital camera is a seemingly handy device for capturing photographs of your pet's activities during the day. The gadget can be set to capture a photograph every 1, 5 or 15 minutes, but alas only has storage for up to 35 photos. While the Pet's Eye View might be helpful in finding out if your pet is the one who keeps rummaging through the trash, we wouldn't be surprised if this was used to catch pet-abusing neighbors or cheating spouses in the act (cats can sometimes be *too* curious).

The movie picture prominence of Wall-E has generated quite a bit of electronic lust for robots in the past few days. As such, Time Magazine has listed off their top 15 cutest robots. From the infrared-wine-identifying Sommelier Robot to the micromanipulating medical Micro Machine, these hunks of metal make us go bot crazy.

Similar to the Skipped Over Sunday series of posts, "Links from last week" aims to give some love to the slightly less stale stories from the previous week.

• Sticky stuff: Velcro lamp shades and space dividers


• Robotic RFID recliner tags along for when you get tired


• Vibrating mascara sadly lacks bluedildonics technology [via]

An artificial mouth was recently developed that has the ability to chew food similar to a human, making it a good robotic taste-tester to better understand flavor. When food is chewed, it releases compounds which affect taste. Using speed motors, mechanical teeth, and a pipe pumping "enzyme-containing artificial saliva", the mouth-bot is an almost-living, breathing (via helium, anyway) mastication machine.

The latest in solar satchels is Noon Solar. Designed with one-sided solar paneling, these purses can help charge your various gadgets on the go. The designs are definitely lacking but will prominently show off your love for the environment due to their biodegradable materials. Check their site for more in-depth specifications about going solar with your accessories.

A satellite system devoted to tracking sex offenders recently released from prison suffered from too many bugs to be realistically implemented. The original idea was to use four satellites as a GPS to keep more accurate tabs on known sex offenders by way of an attached radio-transmitting ankle tag.

"...a pilot found that the signal emitted from the tracking devices could be blocked by clouds, buildings or leaves. It was also lost underground and on some trains. The Ministry of Justice has decided to focus instead on lie detectors as a means of controlling paedophiles released on parole. The U-turn will leave ministers facing accusations that they have failed to address the threat that communities face from 30,000 registered sex offenders."

Surfing for more pr0n than peripherals (who can blame them?), Gizmodo pointed to what is being held up as the best use of LEDs ever: the LED labia. Yes, stuck in a stripping woman's crotch is a panty-full of blinking, shiny lights in case you needed extra incentive to stare. Though this usage is difficult to top, Clitter most certainly out does the LED labia any day.

We are in shock over the fact that a tipster pointed out we didn't cover a shoe-in story from January yet. Called Nudar, this beta radar is a location-based service for strip clubs and nudity. With helpful maps and even a GPS plugin, Nudar aims to give you a handful of attractions. Nudar 1.0 was announced to be in the works earlier this month with the assurance that the service would still be free. No road trip should be without a plentiful amount of tits, so this is definitely a must-have gadget for your jalopy.

[A weekly link post of skipped over (and slightly stale) sights and stories]

• German Playboy billboard uses rain to promote wet t-shirts

• Space Invader + QR code scarf gives you that warm and geeky feeling

• Sensor-embedded bra records "vertical breast displacement"

• 20% of IMs are never sent

• Rabbit Travel Vibe is 12 volts of vroom vroom vibration

Broadcasting from Austin and ready to achieve geekgasm, this year is sure to be as overwhelming as the past. Shake Well Before Use has admittedly been slacking on blogging in the last few weeks due to all the excitement and anticipation. Regardless, come join in the nerdfesticle that is SXSW at these two events:

How to Rawk SXSW: Achieving Geekgasm

16bit Pownce Party

Created for compatibility with MSN Messenger, the i-Buddy appears to be a watered-down wannabe version of a Nabaztag. The device connects via USB and reflects emoticons received from your friends. If a happy emoticon is received, the gadget will flap its wings and light up, however if a angry emoticon is received, it will turn red. If only the device wasn't output only, we'd love to try it out as a tethered voodoo doll against our friends who are too stubborn to switch to Gtalk.

A "sex ring" operated by young Japanese school girls was recently uncovered by decoding their use of txtshorthand. The girls were apparently selling sex to older men via mobile transactions.

"Take this piece of seemingly benign code, for example:
IkebLURV1700Yukichi2JC1
Ikeb = Ikebukuro. The neighborhood that the girl is in.
LURV = "I will have sex with you."
1700 = Time: 5PM

Yukichi2 = Yukichi Fukuzawa, the guy whose face is on the 10,000 yen note x 2 = I cost 20,000 yen
JC = Joshi Chugakusei (Junior high school girl. JS would be elementary school girl, JK would be high school girl)
1 = Grade 1. In Japan, 1st year of junior high = 7th grade. "

Unfortunately(?), this may make for a valid reason for parents to enforce no texting at the dinner table.

Invading Japan for further analysis, a swarm of 200 robots are taking to the skies. In preparation for forecasting pollen levels, Weathernews, Inc. is sending out what looks like enlarged ping pong balls with embedded LEDs.

"[They] weigh 1 kilogram (2.2 lbs) and measure 30 centimeters (1 ft) across, consist of a monitoring unit housed in a spherical styrofoam shell. A pair of eyes glow 5 different colors — white, blue, green, red and purple — to indicate the level of Japanese cedar and cypress pollen in the air."

Called Pollen Robots, the spherical bots monitor and provide up-to-the-minute pollen reports and maps online.

A new mobile concept called P-Per offers a reach-around to the iPhone-famous touchscreen. By using minimal parts, the potential phone offers sustainability.

"The design consists of just 4 layers, a printed circuit board, extruded polycarbonate, recycled titanium, and a wrap around flexible haptic LED touchscreen."

Textually says the design would satiate tech nerds, but we have to politely disagree. The mobile industry should be tapping into those that feel left out from the need for breakable screens and texting typos. Though we may be trading style for bulk, tactile QWERTY keyboards are a must for the true "tech nerds" who text under the table.

Each week, Ariel Waldman serves a tasting of the latest in sex and tech.

Thermal Bras and Panties Could Boost Your Mobile Phone Battery
A new pair of underwear could use your body heat to charge your batteries. The prospect of using nanowires or microspopic strands of silicone has researchers convinced this may be the future of fashion. "This discovery could lead to special clothing that could produce electrical current for batteries in cells and handheld computers," reports Green Daily. While still a concept, the idea of electricity-producing lingerie is pretty hot.
Previously: Solar swimsuits power up bikini babes

Sensual Intelligence Possibly More Sci-Fi Than AI
Like using your left hand, sex toys are now trying to mimic a foreign feeling by the use of an artificial "mind". Dubbed "Sensual Intelligence", a new down-there-device called SaSi uses a positive or negative button for the user to select what does and doesn't feel good. The device learns your preferences, but also apparently pushes your boundaries on occasion as well. Regina Lynn of Wired's Sex Drive column claims, "...I thought everyone would be clamoring for one, because frankly it's the closest thing to cunnilingus you can get from a robot."

Sex::Tech Starts Today
The Sex::Tech Conference starts today in San Francisco, focusing on youth education. With speakers such as Deb Levine, Anastasia Goldstein, and Nikol Hasler, the event is sure to draw in those in the know. Some of the sessions today covered "OMG!STDs: The New Frontier of Text Messaging for Sexual Health", "Integrating Technology Into Sexual Health Programs", and "Wired for Sex: Connecting People in the 2.0 Sexuality".

Each week, Ariel Waldman serves a tasting of the latest in sex and tech.

Kiss-Me Meter Measures Make-Out-Worthiness
Catching up on the CES craziness from last week, we're surprised this one didn't make it into Engadget's Crapgadget edition. The Kiss-me Meter is designed to measure the make-out-worthiness of your breath and thus advise on whether you should make a move or start gargling some serious mouth wash. By blowing into the gizmo, an LED indicator shows where you stand. If we saw someone using this, we would make sure we stood far away.

OhMiBod Compatible With iPhone, No Word On Macbook Air
OhMiBod should've held off from announcements for another week, as only a few days ago it was boasting iPhone compatibility. No word yet on if the line of vibrators plans to sync up with the new Macbook Air. We're guessing that the serious lack in audio quality in the Macbook Air may make for some not-so-hot vibrations.

Unlimited HD Porn That Doesn't Hit Your Wallet
Another CES find that aimed to target those who had wandered over from AVN was FyreTV. FyreTV is a black box of porn that delivers a punch. With an ethernet connection, the black box delivers around 20,000 different porn titles. The service costs about $10 a month, which is fairly cheap, but doesn't compare to the fact that you can still get a lot for free. Unfortunately, we wouldn't give it a great rating simply for the fact that it's streaming, rather than stored. Seeing a buffering notice in the middle of a scene may make for an instant FAIL.

Perhaps the only thing more pervasive than flashing screens (or lack there of) at CES is advertising. Engadget points to what they found to be the best and the worst ads at CES this year. The team doesn't give a blow-by-blow review of each ad, but we can only imagine the snickering that took place behind the camera. What are your best/worst picks from the ad album?

RFID technology continues to merge into a variety of miraculous experiments around the globe. The latest concept uses RFID tags to communicate to washing and drying machines how individual articles of clothing should be treated. The objective is to avoid laundry dilemmas. Named ClothTAG, the concept could be cute, but may also create an entire new generation of overly-tech-dependent hipsters.

While many of us tech-fetishists can't take our eyes off of the saturated-with-shiny CES floors, others have alternatives that catch their glance. The infamous I4U News (the ones that bring you your monthly girl-on-gadget moments) are taking their reporting to the array of oh-so-predictable booth babes. These are the lovely ladies that somehow got lost on the way to the AVN expo next door. Thankfully, gaggles of geeks are around to ogle and escort them around gadgets accordingly.

Each week, Ariel Waldman serves a tasting of the latest in sex and tech.

Non-Booth-Babe Babes Battle for CES Floor Space
Apparently I won the best summary of the CES news for twittering “CES effectively splooged all over my Google Reader" this week. Thankfully, Gizmodo gives something for us to effectively splooge over: non-booth-babe babes at this year's CES. Captured in pixels, "Videographer Richard Blakeley and noted letch Nick McGlynn went out and snapped some pics of some of the real babes of CES". The Gawker site of course failed to mention their competition: the geek girl of CES, Veronica Belmont.

Bed Speakers Make Your Lonely Bed into a Boombox
A new "technology" aims to drown out the sound of your sobbing in a lonely bed with dropping a few beats. The Slip Sonic Impact's BM101 speaker panel slips between your mattress and box spring to help vibrate your emptiness away without the need for a dishwasher afterwards. Turning your box spring into a boombox, the system will run you about $200-$400. Gadget Lab reports that in addition to basement dwellers, they'll be marketing the product to pregnant women.

Luxury Intimate Toys Attempt to be Inoffensive
Adult toys take many shapes and forms. Trying to make sex with yourself a little more stylish, the B3 collection designed sleek and less-than-obvious shapes for sensual fun. From the Tuyo orb to the Onya pill, the toys are meant to pleasure the eyes as much as all the other enjoyable places.

Conceptual in form and function, a hard drive proposed by Degroenebanaan would visualize your data storage in an artsy way. Called the IVY, the gizmo focuses on manipulability and customization. Depending on the amount of data stored, the OLED screen can change from being completely blank to saturated with a Mondrian-like design

Using a toothbrush head, motor and battery, you too can make a Bristlebot. After watching the video, we're convinced that the Bristlebot is some possessed mini-me version of the Roomba (Tantek has coined the term Toothba for the prickly palate cleaner). Admittedly, we'd like to create a whole army of them and watch them battle it out in a dirty bathtub.

Concepting a cute hub for the holidays, designer Sang-Hoon Lee created the Chocolate Portable HDD. Unlike other gadgets named Chocolate, this design would allow users to actively "break off" USB pieces of memory similar to a candy bar. Complete with a touchscreen interface, this design is best suited for those who have a sweet tooth for storage.

Santa suits are sweeping the States. From Santacon to the slutty-Santas of Fredrick's of Hollywood, santarchy is everywhere. Heating up the holidays in a slightly different manner, the USB Santa boots help keep your toes warm during the hours of tedious online shopping. Between USB boots and a scorching laptop, mistletoe make-outs won't be necessary to maintain that warm and fuzzy feeling through the winter.

GUIs, ZUIs, and all the WIMPs in between, interfaces of the present don't meet the expectations of movies from the past. In 2006, a column by Nielsen outlined the top ten "bloopers" of using fictional interfaces in film. Highlights include "You've Got Mail is Always Good News" and "Access Denied / Access Granted". Visual designers such as Mark Coleran are responsible for what appears on the shiny computer screens for the big screen. 2007 certainly was no stranger to the foreign interfaces of the future. Ocean's 13 saw a text field with no buttons, where the user would be forced to type everything out without even the slightest usage of txtshorthand (e.g. "search for a good movie" or "zoom in to photo"). Hopefully, the interfaces of fiction don't have an IRL future.

Targeting your txt-fetish, a new study tries to conclude that text messaging is creating a lack of social confidence among the T9-hungry teenagers.

"The social impact of text messaging is the subject of renewed concerns as SMS use stretches to notifying someone of a death in the family, wedding RSVPs, breaking up with long-term partners and even quitting a job. News.com.au reports. "Experts say the text-messaging generation is fast becoming socially inept as it hides from "normal communication"."

Are door knocks and phone calls really still the norm? Is communicating in 160 characters avoiding social interaction or getting to the core of it? Most likely, it's best to be titillated rather than timid about technology, as it has always been known to drive social change.

[img via]

Getting ready for Halloween requires more than a pair of fishnets to freeze the rest of the night in. Many are making the evening memorable with a variety of morbid recipes.

Perhaps among the most interesting, the Robotic Snap-O-Lantern was at the recent Maker Faire featuring pumpkin robots (I'm coining the term "geekins"). With a couple of Duracells, the Snap-O-Lantern turns on to be quite the deadly squash.

Craftzine and Slashfood are spookifying your sweets with Spider Cakes and Punk Glow-in-the-Dark Cupcakes.

If Snap-O-Lanterns and sweets aren't enough to satiate, Suicide Girls tackles the unstoppable sexy costume scene. Seemingly, sexy-anything costumes are the ultimate undead.

Typically making news for the latest "toys", vibrations are powering much more than personal pleasure. Using kinetic energy from passing traffic, researchers are finding ways to power various sensors for bridges.

"This allows companies to monitor the bridge (ice conditions, traffic flows, health status, et al) without the need for battery maintenance, up to decades in theory."

The thought of energy going green by way of good vibrations is sure to pleasure the planet.

Made for traveling or long-distance lovers, the Hug Shirt helps you feel warm and fuzzy in more ways than one. The shirt consists of multiple sensors that react to SMS by way of Bluetooth.

"Embedded in the shirt there are sensors that feel the strength of the touch, the skin warmth and the heartbeat rate of the sender and actuators that recreate the sensation of touch, warmth and emotion of the hug to the shirt of the distant loved one."

Nominated as one of the best inventions of 2006, this mobile-focused fashion line has yet to hit the mainstream, but is currently debuting new models for 2007.

[via | img via]

Leave it to "dumb phone" consumers to be dirty minded. A few recent models of Motorola phones featured a 3D image of a clock face that some users selectively saw an image of a penis in. Embarrassed, Motorola quickly responded:

“The image that you see is actually the result of shading applied to the clock background graphic to give it more of a three-dimensional appearance, in line with the theme of the phone. The graphic is actually built as concentric circles stacked on top of each other, with a lighting filter applied to give it depth."

Going off of Leeroy Jenkins invading advertising, it was only a matter of time until advertising invaded LOLcats. Yes, advertising has now penetrated and confused LOLcat lovers, the cute cuddly trend that confuses serious cat lovers around the globe. Dubbing this LOLvertising, advertisers have successfulled 1-up-ed ICanHasCheezBurger commenters with their Cingular txt commercial reference. Prepare yourself, it's only a matter of time before KFC runs spots for "where's mah bukket?"

Arse Elektronika, a conference about pr0nnovation kicked off tonight at Kink.com's Porn Palace in San Francisco. The opening speech by Johannes Grenzfurthner of Monochrom was considerably delayed due to, not surprisingly, a porn shoot that had run two hours late earlier in the day. After cleaning up spots and stains, Johannes apologized and took the stage. Opening the speech with looking back at a patent for a condom containing a computer chip that played music, he asked, "is this progress?". To some perhaps, to others, the envelope needs to continually be pushed, or in this case played with.

From polaroids to VHS to virtual reality, technology has always been quick to appeal to porn consumers. Johannes pointed to films like the Lawnmower Man (a movie he says is more outdated looking than Tron) and his experiences with an iPhone (the first thing his friend showed him on it was porn and said "you can even zoom in!"). Talking about merging sex with technology, a wise crack from the crowd yelled "I gave up my penis for an iPhone!".

Up next was a short film about overhead projectors. The film began with "Overhead projection is a dying medium. The only way to save it is to explore porn possibilities." A man then proceeded to masturbate using an overhead projector to document his "results". Somehow, I felt my years of grade school lecture notes being violated.

Skipping the Electric Orifice Orchestra due to technical difficulties, the Moaning Lisa was proudly propped up on stage. A modified mannequin of sorts, the Moaning Lisa is a life-size (and in some areas, augmented life-size) "doll" that contains sensors in an assortment of places around her body. Matt Ganucheau explained that partially due to the Nintendo Wii, alternative controllers on a public scale made people ask what can we interact with to enhance experience? As such, the Moaning Lisa's controls are unique, and like the female orgasm, there are no instructions. Photo sensors in her eyes detect presence and others around her body make her moan. The moaning is generated by the sound of 200 pleasured women. Why 200? Matt says it just sounded cool.

More from Arse Elektronika to come, the Flickr album can be viewed here.

Everyone loves doing data. Now in life-size, you can truly carry out your lust for line graphs. EMF Displacement (pictured left) is a 10'x12' sculpture of the electromagnetic field generated by a FPL substation. Other projects that construct everything from flight paths to GPS drawings can be seen here. Sadly, there's no glory holes in these graphs.

[via]

[A weekly link post of skipped over (and slightly stale) sights and stories]


• World's smallest Pacman game

• Nintendo Duck Hunt sweater

• Transformer handheld gaming

• Star Wars geeks on parade

• USB calculator pillow

The latest geek lust line art on Xkcd explores the silly but true tales of the interweb. The webcomic covers "romance, sarcasm, math, and language", the perfect four topics for guilty geek pleasure. As the illustration depicts, IRC back channels are no place for vulnerable nerd babes. Best to always have a raygun ready at bedside just in case some fanboy tracks down more than your IP. Previously, Doctorow posted other gems from the comic collection.

Devastatingly disappointing, the Psycho-ray doesn't help clean up the trolls and crazies. While having a raygun aimed at negative anonymous/pseudo-name commenters or Haight Street paranoid potheads might be nice, this device delivers something entirely different. The sensory-focused gadget is able to tell when the climate in your car is not ideal and actively make changes towards comfort. In addition, the Psyhco-ray purifies the air with a carbon filtration system and electrostatic dust collector. The device remains in concept form, so hopefully they'll give it a more appropriate moniker so as not to get our hopes up so easily.

Disgusting what people will do to innocent robots these days. The recent Robo-One bipedal robot competition in Japan played host to a round of robot-fighting. The geeks over at Crave gush, "In it, a Hawaiian-shirt-clad chicken robot lays the smackdown on a more traditional robot. Enjoy. It's hard not to. Nothing of this ilk would happen during lunchtime of our ongoing battle of the nonviolent robots." Perhaps Vick should've taken the robot-fighting route. At least then, the robot could've fought back with laser beams or something.

Facebook caters to students looking for secret sources of fattening food apparently. After a recent ban on junk food at a school, kids are using Facebook as a black market operation for selling the "stuff". The students then make transfers between lockers. Perhaps the smell of sugar in class is a more welcome scent than pot, but there's sure to be just as many heads on desks once they start coming down. Before you know it, they'll be trading in popping their Class C Junior Mints for snorting Class A Pixy Stix!

[img via]

Mobile and multiplying, rabbits and robots have merged together. Created a couple years ago, Robbits is an interactive exploration between humans and robobunnies:

"The project aims to explore emotional qualities of interactive objects by inviting a human audience to interact play with »electronic creatures«. Robbits works as an installation consisting of a community self- and location-aware mobile robots.

Robbits is a comment to the phenomenon of »humanization« of electronic products. It refers to people’s tendency to project their idea of »life« or »personality« onto complex and thus mysterious electronic or digital devices, when they seem to carry out, what is perceived as »intelligent behavior«."

[via]

Clothesline Display, a project that recently popped up in Austria, uses both a delightful and yet delicate technique to create large lines of text. With 250 boxer shorts used to "type" out the text, it's not surprising that it felt a bit breezy between some legs. The wind reportedly over-pixelated the underpants more at times, but was an overall success. The brains behind the boxers showcased the sight between two buildings at Ars Electronica. Shake Well Before Use was not in attendance to Ars Electronica, however, did just buy tickets for the follow-up conference, called Arse Elektronika (if the spelling didn't tip you off, it's about sex and technology) in San Francisco.

Taking and giving information from surrounding ecosystems, an installation creates awareness among users of their immediate environment. Called HouseSwarming, the "environment-sensing device" was created for an Art Center presentation. Designed by Jenna Didier, Oliver Hess and Marcos Lutyens, their site for the display explains how it works:

"During the day, the “swarm” of green ambiguous forms, both biomorphic and geometric, accentuates the South Campus’s main entry. At twilight, the swarm comes to life, telling visitors and passersby about the current air quality around the building. Electronic sensors perceive air contaminants – such as tobacco, benzene, carbon monoxide, even perfume – and separately inform the outside and inside swarms, which sets off signals. These signals are interpreted as changes to the natural rhythm that the network has established based on the number and distribution of nodes connected to the cable net. Flashing cells on the exterior faÁade indicate air quality inside the building. Conversely, pulsating effects in the interior entry inform visitors about the outside air quality."

[via]

Dedicated to designing droids, Astromech is a club for creating personal life-sized R2-D2 replicas. From bolts to LEDs, the nerds are there to help you in your time of need. With 5,000 members, the group encourages socializing through BBQs and Star Wars conventions. In desperate nerd-need of your own life-sized R2-D2? The founder of Astromech states that it can run you anywhere between $500 to $40k depending on your droid desires. As an alternative, we're sure that a Rubik's Cube-solving robot made out of Legos may cost you a little less, and still preserve your l33t-ness.

[A weekly link post of skipped over (and slightly stale) sights and stories]


• Phones modified with floating ultrasonic transmitters for fish-finding services.

• Apple blocks MySpace from store computers, even the emo kids don't care.

• Ringtones go analog.

• Solar-powered interweb access for the entire neighborhood.

• Concept phone doubles as a yo-yo.

Save energy when you're between the sheets with the Hourglass Nightlight. Like most partners in bed, the illuminated electricity saver stays turned on until you fall asleep. The nightlight becomes active when you turn it over and syncs up with a stream of sand. The battery and plug -less lamp powers purely from the internal energy generated by the sand, so when the sand ends, the light turns off. Created by Sun-Young Lee, the Hourglass Nightlight will hopefully have you resting easier knowing you're going green.

Trying to compensate for their petite privates, a group of chumps created an ad for reliable servers. While advertising, sex and technology typically shake mix well, Qsol took the unfortunate oh-so-middle-school approach to market their manhood. With lines like "Don't feel bad - Our servers won't go down on you either", it's hard to tell if the horridly over-used, most-likely-stolen stock photography is worse than the copywriting. A commenter on Copyranter adds that Qsol's logo is quite precarious as well.

Email is quickly becoming one of the most hated methods of communication amongst any tech-savvy community. Perhaps by accident, a new visualization tool reflects email's repulsive nature quite accurately. Creepy and certainly crawly, bacteria-like bugs representing different types and statuses of emails infest themselves into your inbox and onto your screen. One "animal" represents one received email and one category represents one "species", while the status and age of an email affect the appearance and motion of an "animal". Called Anymails, the prototype effectively makes opening your inbox on Monday mornings feel even more vile.

See the visualization in motion.

[A weekly link post of skipped over (and slightly stale) sights and stories]


• Mobile gadget geeks prefer gaming over music.

• Japanese celebrate 110th anniversary of their immigration to Mexico with a 110-meter-long sushi roll. Mmm, delicious anti-assimilation.

• Jane Fonda is planning to make an erotic film to prove couples can have fulfilling sex lives in their 70s.

• Computer Ports Are Forever.

• Treat your tush to a cushion of cuddly pandas. [via]

Interaction between man and machine has sometimes been a contrived courtship. A new experiment aims to build the bionic bridge by exploring the boundaries between skin and screen. Delicate Boundaries (video), is an environment created by Chris Sugrue in which "lifelike digital animations swarm out of their virtual confinement onto the skin of a hand or arm when it makes contact with a computer screen...". Using infrared illuminators to openFrameworks, Sugrue claims the screen-to-skin system is not terribly complex.

No longer about who can out-drink who, texting is the new tolerance tournament, especially among teens. A recent survey found that 44 percent of teens use text messages as their primary mode of communication. While that figure is far from shocking to the majority of us gadget geeks, 28 percent admitted to texting under the dinner table. More close to 'home' (aka the blogosphere), the rising number of insatiable SMS-users has created an ongoing discussion and debate about the social integration or rejection of "interconnected multitasking culture".

[image via]

Your new iPhone so cute you want to just squeeze it to death? Save your strength with a hand-knitted version of your beloved buy. With #6 needles and a little nourishment, an iPhone fanboy's mother created an actual size yarn replica of the insatiably shiny device. The hand-knitted iPhone may not keep your thighs as warm as a Macbook, but you'll at least be able to cuddle up to it on those lonely "no messages" nights.

[via]

Experimentally interactive, Blubber Bots are sci-fi-esque helium-filled robots that seek out interaction from light, humans, other Blubber Bots, and cell phone signals. Humming through open air, the bots operate in a networked habitat. The balloon-like creatures also feature an interactive voice recognition system as a way of increasing human/bot connectivity. The video is a little on the long side, but definitely has intriguing interactions.

[via]

Oh, who can't forget the interweb's beloved Nintendo Sixty-FOOOOOOOOOOUR!!1!!1! kid? That kind of geek love can only be recaptured by balding old men splooging over the iPhone launch (yes, we're looking at you, Mossberg). So, that's exactly what this guy in a pair of onesie pajamas did. Oh-Em-Gee! Yes! Yes! Yes!

Attached to more than just a belt clip, a new survey shows that 22% of 16-24 year olds wouldn't give up their mobile phone for £1 million. The study of 18-24 year olds showed that 20% wouldn't give up sex, compared to a 31% who wouldn't give up tea/coffee.

"What does this teach me? I am drinking at the wrong coffee houses," says Shiny Shiny.

Half of the young adults admitted to sending/receiving "sexually explicit" text, and only 14% said they would turn their phone off completely during sex. An interesting quote found embedded in the reports reveals that we geek girls are not alone:

"Women often use their mobile phones in public to deter people from approaching them."

From T9-ing your tasty fantasies in 160 characters to letting there be two kinds of vibrators in the bedroom, "young adults" have certainly assimilated cell phones into all aspects of their daily life.

Trend Hunter recently rounded up their Top 20 Graffiti Innovations. Paired down to the top five "techie" tag trends here, it's apparent that geek goodness has penetrated the paint.

1. Geek Graffiti - vintage video games in pixelated paint
2. LED Throwies - ferromagnetic surfaces + rare-earth magnets
3. Dot Matrix Graffiti Bike - interweb connected and sidewalk suitable
4. Pixel Roller - paint-by-pixels
5. Automated Graffiti Robot - "a tele-operated field programable robot which employs a custom built array of spray cans to write linear text messages on the ground at a rate of 15 kilometers per hour."

With white Matrix-esque cloaks and pastel lighting, Dell put on a fashion show to put out a new line of laptops. Alex Goldberg attended on behalf of Consumerist (video):

"We hypothesize the fete was conceptually tied to Dell's new line of Insprions which come in different colors, meaning that Dell has finally caught up to Apple, circa 1998."

The runway MC seems as if she can't hold back from laughing at the entire event much longer. Oh, where is Tim Gunn when we need him? Dell is so not making it work.

Watch out Wii, in two decades this "knockoff of Breakout" could be the new video game fitness fame. Developed by researchers at the University of Udine, the game uses a pulse oximeter sensor as a body-based controller. The pulse oximeter measures the heart rate and physical qualities of the player and adjusts the game correspondingly. What this creates is an extremely slow wayback machine to early 90s computer games. Perhaps it could transform from Breakout to Lumines as a motivator to get your game in shape.

Finding another way to get you to play in your pocket, Playboy is rumored to be creating a branded mobile phone. Perhaps partnering up with Motorola, LG, or Siemens, Textually expects preloaded aural pleasures such as moantones to be offered on the bunny-branded phone. It goes without saying that Motorola/LG/Siemens best be vested in some serious vibration technology, as well as bluedildonic basics. Here's hoping it's moisture resistant.

As if straight out of some Bug's Life movie, the Rideable Vacuum Cleaner looks like a CG snail. The snail sucker is intended to encourage children to help out with carpet-cleaning chores, by inviting them to ride the vacuum. While a cute idea, adults would have far more fun with this. The concept doesn't specify any weight limits, but given some sturdy standards, the prospect of riding out your vacuum vibrations may 1up sitting on your washing machine.

Unkept keyboards seem to be the dirty secret of the week. NPR claims that where you touch to type has more bacteria than a toilet seat. This discovery in computer cooties has created a search for solutions, and what better one than the way we make our other "objects" semen-free: the dishwasher. Buyer beware, however, as not all keyboards are as durable and dishwasher-safe as dildos. Lifehacker thankfully offers up a few alternatives to scrubbing down your filthy function keys.

Goooaaaalllllll or gizmo? Tech Digest hosts the Robot World Cup. Putting real robots head to head, the gynoids and gadgets battle it out to win over hacker hooligans' hearts. Having just completed Round 2, the remaining robots from the first round included Anty the Huggy Robot (pictured), Sega Dream Cat, WiiGoBot, Kansei Facial Robot, Cockroach-run Robot, Echo Roboteddy, and Elvisbot, among many others. Consolation prizes for the most creepy should be considered as facial robots and decapitated androids should certainly qualify.

[A weekly link post of skipped over (and slightly stale) sights and stories]

• Women turned off by webcams, supply still satiates male demand.

• Hot handhelds: Atari controller candle

• Gamecake: Palatable Pacman

• Musical instrument of lemons explores photosynthesis.

• Fibre optic threads light up your rainy day.

Protecting your privates appears to be a growing concern among ladies. A new pair of panties made in Japan helps thwart off intimately-intrusive infrared photography. Called "Shot Guard", the unsightly underwear protects women and children from perverted paparazzi by blocking heat. The heat blocking seems to work both directions, however, as any unfortunate onlookers may turn off their temptation temperature.

[via]

A recent campaign went mobile for mammaries by utilizing text messaging as a call to action. The lingerie company, Bravissimo, is known for intimates for "big boobed women". Reciting the alphabet from D to double-J, TV spots with unique text messaging IDs had the most response. Apparently, 45% of total responses to the big boobed campaign came from text. The article fails to mention how much of the 45% were confused males expecting late night tits-n-texting action.

The Wall Street Journal did an article about the group I work in at VML, highlighting our clients Sprint and Adidas. View the PDF of the article.

Now more than the person on the other end of the phone line can be turned on by your late night heavy breathing sessions. A new experiment/invention allows your phone to be charged via USB. Constructed from an old CD-ROM drive, a basic electronic circuit, and a few rubber bands, the device straps around your chest to provide power. Engadget wasn't geek-chic enough to wear it around all day, but it couldn't possibly look much worse than the belt-clipped Treos and Bluetooth-powered headsets we see people walking around with in public.

Black is back and just in time for spring/summer. It might not be the latest fashion trend, but it's the most recent response to an energy saving tip from earlier this year. It was reported that an all white web page uses about 74 watts to display, while an all black page uses only 59 watts. Over the course of a year on Google, this could spare 750 megawatt-hours and $75,000. It's said that good design isn't just about how it looks, but how it works. Unfortunately, Blackle, Google's darkie cousin, may still have a mountain to climb by those standards, as white text on a black background is horrible for reading and at the time of this post, the website is giving a 503 white-backgrounded service error.

To the disappointment of many and the low expectations of many more, there was no announcement on the hope of an up and coming Google phone. Probably a smart move on Google's behalf to not announce major advancements only to get a few weeks of publicity before the iPhone release pwns all. Though having an iPhone in your pocket may free up the need for stuffing your lower garments with socks, the Google phone may pleasure us with more girth. From a bird's eye view, Apple appears to take the 'size matters' approach, by packing the iPhone with a multitude of features (of course, with the exception for not accepting reservations for "parties of three"). Admittedly unconfirmed, Google may have an edge on Apple's core phone philosophy by having less size, but more girth by simply allowing users to explore outside of a tightly wound brand.

Putting out bad vibrations, a sex toy is being blacklisted from the island country of Cyprus. The Love Bug 2, a remote controlled vibrator with a 6 meter range, has been labeled as a threat and disruption to military systems.

"...the Love Bug 2 has been banned because the Cypriot military is concerned its electronic waves would disrupt the army's radio frequencies."

The Love Bug 2 continues to be available in Cyprus, but the warning has been made. Airlines may want to issue similar warnings, as there's little else for us to occupy ourselves with on those international flights.

[Thanks, Hugh!]

Glammed up with glitter, outfits that utilize nanotechnology could help keep the doctor away. Gracing the runway and coated with nanoparticles, the fashion fabric can supposedly warn off the flu, smog, pollution, stains and bacteria. Leaving the "Glitterati" collection to the geeks, Gizmodo explains the process:

"The dress' top part fabric was made by dipping positively charged cotton into negatively charged silver nanoparticles, which is the stuff that repels stains and has antibacterial qualities. The jacket includes a hood, sleeves and pockets with fabric treated with negatively charged palladium crystals, which apparently can oxidize smog and help against allergies and contamination."

Perhaps considered fashion forward by some, the outfits mimic hybrids: good for the environment, not so much the aesthetic.

Confessions of Geek Squad crew member prove to be more revealing than the last photo you kept of your ex-girlfriend. Apparently a 10 page paper on the inner-workings of Best Buy's Geek Squad shares the takeover from tech support to sales and the magic tricks of the trade. Perhaps the most pertinent of highlights included an entertaining easter egg hunt for customer's porn. Using USB drives, the Geek Squad grabs whatever remaining un-Flickr-ed photos and porn they can find on hard drives for their grubby one-handed typing. This ten-pager may come off as more-than-terrifying for ex-girlfriends and lonely guys alike.

"Dandelight is a battery-powered LED delicately adorned with a phosphorus-bronze stem and dandelion seeds. It looks exactly like an illuminated fuzzy dandelion that stays alive thanks to "batteryfood.""

[via]

Powering up the one-piece, solar swimsuits are sure to hit the market. The company Triumph wants to place the swimsuits on shelves soon, having already showcased them in Valencia. While the solar panels may be used to attract attention to glittery girls, they're meant to charge up iPods and phones at the beach. For the ladies, this is a sure way to get noticed, as you'll be more popular than an airport plug on a delayed flight. Unless, of course, you're in Boston, in which case the shiny lights and electric cord coming out of your butt may pose a threat.

While texting and driving can often be a fatal mix, texting and airlines may be teaming up soon. JetBlue founder, David Neeleman, announced that "text communications could prove attractive but agrees with the misgivings of many U.S. airline executives about the onboard use of cell phones for voice calls." In other words, silence is golden in confined spaces, but that doesn't have to kill off conversation altogether. JetBlue will explore options in no-voice messaging soon. While it may be reminiscent of using a "5 inch voice" in grade school, any added freedom in a cramped coach seat is welcome.

Update: Looks like Qantas is doing the same.

As if embarking on a journey in adolescence, pixels may be sprouting hair in unusual places. Philips recently filed a patent for a screen panel of "furry pixels". Not referring to the unusual animal avatars you come across in virtual communities, these "furries" involve an intricate design of fabric that responds to electrostatic charges. The interaction allows for perceived changes in color across the fabricated pixels.

Proposing to join the real world with the "www" to create a psycho-geographic experience, Ideas On Air wants to rename streets with Net-Art web addresses. Equipped with paper and glue, the high-tech experiment would paste street plates with web addresses.

"It’d be better to cover the streets (maybe, comfortably by the taxi) with a pc equipped of wireless device to watch the websites. Anyway, you’d also walk on the streets watching at the Net-Art web address and subsequently to see the relative websites."

Solar-powered and ready for snow, researchers in Antarctica took their robots out for a spin. A group of researchers from the Thayer School of Engineering, Dartmouth College are responsible for creating a death squad of scalable, solar-powered, scientific platforms. From measuring Earth's magnetosphere to solar surfing in style, these guys sure know how to shake up spatial density. Born out of boredom, the team tried out the tundra-ridden tide to the pace of one of their robots. Unfortunately, with a laptop in one hand and a robot in the other, the 5mph joyride didn't last long.

"So, we hooked the sled to the robot and went for a ride. The robot, it turns out, can haul its own weight (nearly 200 lbs.) on a sled and hardly notice it...Snow surfing behind the robot is not very exciting however; it only travels at a slow walking pace."

Kids love their mashups [ Nike: The Second Coming - via]

Experimenting with analog [ Roy Block - via ]

Tell kids to stick their heads in it [ Plastic Bag Chandelier - via ]

Sure you can take it, but can you dish it out? [ Dishmaker - via ]

[Sidenote: A guest blogger may be on the way for the remainder of this week, so stay tuned]

Joost, the interactive software that allows for peer-to-peer TV content sharing via web makes its debut with a bit of awkward advertising. While most commercials strive for clarity, Joost apparently wants to woo their audience with charming confusion. Attempting to enamor their viewers with special effects and aspirational gospel, the commercial involves an old man double-dipping his fingers in jar filled with Joost's hopes and dreams. Here's hoping he washed his hands before contaminating them.

Private parts have been a hot topic lately, and not pertaining to the kind below the belly button. Lifehacker points to a post by Web Worker Daily about why developing a public online persona is positive when it comes to employment.

"Employers are realizing that what people do online can actually prove their value as potential hires, not just rule them out based on drunken photos or revelations of other past missteps."

The contemplation between personal and professional, public and private wares on, as social sites are search engine optimized for your bi-curious bar moments and grammatical gonorrhea. Twitter, MySpace, Flickr, Upcoming, and LinkedIn are just to name a few. The post goes on to capture that 25 to 50 million searches for proper-names are performed each day and that having no results under your name may turn from neutral to negative.

In light of the recent "Sierra shitstorm" that's going on, many are questioning going back into private practice. However, the public persona post may have a point. While perhaps intimidating and even a little scary, there may indeed be a certain satisfaction that comes with doing it in public.

As if the annoying chump who prominently displays his Treo and claims he has $100k worth of work on it wasn't aggravating enough at social outings, this one is sure to tip off your douchebag detector. The modded Nokia 3200 goes from chic to geek in just under a couple decades. Although the boys over at Joystiq love to push buttons, the NES controller cell phone may just push yours. There's already enough geek-shirts for boys with toys to be giddy geek groupies, no one needs a Nokia nerd to pull out his NES controller just to wait for people to give the not-so-candid 'what's that!?' question attention. Hello, 1984 called, literally.

eMarketer reports on the video vigilante known as YouTube, analyzing the disconnect over demographics. While there will be an estimated 97 million lovely ladies online this year compared to the only 90 million men, the video viewing stats don't reflect the revolution. In 2007, it's predicted that only 66% of world-wide-web women will become video viewing machines while men take the lead at 78%. Surprised, the study added that typically women watch more television than men, asking then what affinities females had towards online video. Perhaps, unlike men, the lack of inherent interest in flashy (fleshy?) moving pictures has turned women off from an always on medium.

"A study by Piper Jaffray also found that news appealed to both genders (52.3% of adult men and 48.9% of women). After that, though, differences appeared. Men were more likely to watch amateur videos, music videos and movie previews. Women favored movie previews and then music videos. "Getting the female audience engaged is crucial for the success of online video, and over the next few years, marketers and online video content providers will need to figure out exactly how to get that job done," says Ms. Williamson, an eMarketer senior analyst.

Oh, but Ms. Williamson, if only it were always easier said than done to "get the job done" with females. YouTube may have rubbed some of us the wrong way, but there's hope that they eventually find the right position to embed their code.

Coolz0r commences another contest, calling for campaigns and links to generate the most comments and trackbacks. While it seemingly could be rigged (hmm, wonder why 15 commenters all use gmail...), the contest a couple weeks ago seemed to be a success. The prize last time was Dragon's Naturally Speaking software. This week, the marketing thoughts blog ups the ante with an ergonomically designed keyboard straight from CeBIT. The Wolf King Warrior Gaming Keypad defines itself as the ultimate gaming weapon, though, by the looks of it, it seems more likely to be the ultimate one-handed typing accessory. The Keypad states, "Perfect for PC Gamers looking for a portable game pad or just looking for more flexibility". Perhaps "just" looking for more flexibility, indeed. Coolz0r's link submission contest ends April 7, so CTRL+V those permalinks over.

Despite all the Ecstasy you may have done as a raver back in the 90s, perhaps all the waving glowsticks and twittering lights did some good. A fairly new therapy uses light to help guide your way to that magical place in the sky where... Wait, not that kind of light. This one is less likely to let you ask God how he felt to have a one-night-stand with Sarah Silverman, and in fact is actually meant to help with insomnia and jetlag. The Feel Bright Light is a portable device that allows you to clip it to the edge of your visor (just like a real ravekid!) to receive phototherapy. Here's hoping you don't give it a trial run in Boston and find yourself only being able to answer hair-related questions the next day.

Tutoring for twittering teens and prude prom queens now comes in an accessible format. The USB-driven finger DDR teaches those flirtatious fingers some moves outside of the T9 temptation. As if you didn't feel dirty enough by sliding two fingers into a cardboard cut-out, the finger DDR then prompts you to move them around. Admittedly though, the flashing lights may be more direction than you could ever weasel out of your ex-girlfriend, so take notes.

[via]

Texting and titillated, teledildonics takes on an entirely new definition. Bluetooth and slider controls aside, it's easy to be sexually seduced by small screens. Remember, it's not the size of the screen, it's the motion in the notification-activated, set-to-silent vibration mechanism. Jordan aka Katie Price, best known for her fake floppies British breasts, was "caught" feeling up her flip phone recently. The Voluptuous Vixen Playboy apparently thinks her T9 finger skills are satisfactory, but a little silent vibration can always provide additional help with emotional hang ups.

In an attempt to consume mass quantities of information within short periods of time, toggling tools and shortcuts always aim to please. Trying to take thinking out of the process, a new tool anticipates attraction. Bringing the heat to community-generated Hot Or Not, the application rates an input of a woman's face from 1 (She has a REALLY nice personality) to 10 (She's also a psych-major!). The software generates the number based on a database of over 200 women's faces. Two Aussie scientists headed up the "research", no doubt consisting of sticky substances and glossy glam shots. Unsurprisingly, the application is set up to only level the ladies.

As flight delays scroll across screens and text messages taper off, SXSW negates to close its doors, yet gives a swift slap to attendees as it dismounts from Interactive. As stated up front, most of the interaction happens outside of the panels and what happens in SXSW, stays on Flickr. With leftover hand-stamps from nights before, attendees gingerly, yet somehow still enthusiastically dragged their feet into morning panels over the few days. While the main word on the carpeted streets was 'overwhelming', the plethora of things to do and people to see kept the crowd's stamina.

Friday night kicked off with the traditional Break Bread With Brad ceremonial drinkfest and introductions. One would think that after a few drinks, the crowd would begin to tangent off of social technology topics, however with the circulating video bloggers stumbling within the crowd and the lively debates over Technorati and Twitter (which becomes a more flexibly applied verb with a few drinks) the physicality of all the usually online activity takes tangible form.

With Treo and Blackberry ornaments hanging from every messenger bag pocket, and laptops all in a row, it was no longer business or pleasure, personal or professional. Threadless shirts and logo-ed tattoos pwned all. While parties like Dorkbot, Fox Interactive, 8-bit, LAist, Mashup, Blogger, Lifehacker, and SXNW played venue to a meeting of interactive minds, it was the actual interaction that made and continues to make SXSW a unique, sometimes awkward, but always appreciated, online to offline experience.

Will Wright, the famed game designer behind SimCity, The Sims, and the yet to be released and highly anticipated Spore, flipped through pages of storytelling to an audience of all ears. Linking stories with the shift from passive to interactive media, Wright outlined the social and biological differences between games and film. While games utilize our basic instincts within the brain, film typically provides a rich emotional palette. Rather than push for the complete adoption of one or the other, Wright integrated the two into a cohesive experience.

Relating to a computer mainly consisting of two parts, calculation and communication, Wright's games involve the possibilities of storytelling as well as the experience of sharing it. Wright explained that people enjoy playing with boundaries and then reporting back on their experiments, a theme that had been mentioned at an earlier panel discussing hacktivism and DIY culture. Most notably, this was seen in The Sims, which was regarded as a musical instrument of a game, where people truly became the storytelling tools.

While expression plays a big role in gaming, it's just as significant that the computer also participates. In this sense, story-listening becomes just as active of a component as any other, teaching the computer how to listen to the player's story. While many love to share stories and content, there's always the issue of quality over quantity. Wright believes that by creating better tools, you can increase the quality of content in the community. Example given was Spore, where users could create their own creatures in, what used to take Pixar artists several days, nanoseconds. Wright concluded that by making the player George Lucas and no longer the protagonist Sky Walker, the experience lends towards greater creative amplification and deeper interaction.

Television today is no longer the elephant in the room. Similar to global warming, it has increasingly been gaining momentum and awareness as well as technological contribution. However, while content is king, the overall experience is moving in to claim checkmate. How we interact and interpret television currently is on a static plane of directional geography: surfing channels up, down, left, and right. Helping break the tangible and virtual norms, David Merkoski (Frog Design) narrated the audience through an up and coming product yet to hit the markets.

Appropriately titled Mondrian, the product set to go public next year, is a TV navigation and recommendation Zoomable User Interface (ZUI) that attempts to rethink TV user interaction. A few major differences with Mondrian is that a user no longer needs to be stuck within nested menus while navigating and it has an active anticipation engine that takes in the content, time, and environment you watch in to build a profile and recommendations. It goes without saying that Mondrian becomes an easy target for Big Brother contextual advertisers. While there have already been proposals for all-advertising channels within the ZUI grids, Merkoski remained unclear on any efforts to save the product from advertising overload.

Going more in depth with intuitive interaction, Merkoski gave an insightful overview of remote controls and interfaces. The up, down, left, right navigation is in touch with a geographical grid, while a ZUI typically tries to orient the user in a way similar to how a camera would. The up, down, left, right is not only for the living room screens, but also small screens like mobile phones as well. The original idea for this came from what some might think of as a hyper-interaction culture: gaming. Moving away from the standard, Merkoski used this to account for why people are so amazed with the Nintendo Wii and iPhone. Merkoski ended with a call to inter-action, "There won't be a choice if we don't design it."

This week, SXSW Interactive featured a keynote conversation with Limor Fried (Adafruit Industries) and Phil Torrone (MAKE Magazine). Hacking the DIY culture, Torrone and Fried discussed the techniques of tinkering with technology. With examples such as the Bacon Alarm Clock, skin-embedded RFID chips, and the recent Gummy Bear Chandelier, the panelists whetted the audience's palate with a selection of delicious DIY snacks.

Hacktivism culture has been spreading at a rapid rate as of late. Simply said, "People make weird and bizarre things," Torrone stated in response to the movement. Sharing "recipes" has now become commonplace among tinkering communities and unlike dating, you're not slapped if you show all your intimate parts too soon. Fried shared her thoughts on the subject, calling for an open hardware movement instead of simply source code. Using available tools and techniques like Google SketchUp and Creative Commons, proper documentation to hardware hacking can be applied.

Fried believes that by even leaving one component open in a piece of technology, it opens the flood gates for positive user interaction with the product. An example given was the Roomba, the vacuum to robotics platform with an open API. Passionate product interaction grew out of potential opportunities and created unexpected (to the brand, at least) outcomes: Roombas now took pictures, ported wifi, and integrated product-related modification. Another example was the Qtopia Greenphone, an open phone unlike any other that allows users to write their own applications for it. The importance for open devices is growing, as the panelists cited a survey of MIT students about their most hated technology that they used everyday. The majority answer? Cell phones.

Tinkering culture has created an ongoing debate, however, that perhaps was one thing they didn't intend to DIY. In the friction that takes place between brands/products and users, what is a more enriching experience? Should users always have to revert to hacking or should products openly allow tinkering? Fried and Torrone agreed that the more a product gives away information, the more people buy, and the more the product becomes accessible to a wider audience. "When there's enough of a movement, companies become more receptive," stated Torrone.

Sidenote: More SXSW photos here.

Ushering her audience out, Kathy Sierra questioned why interactive attendees would bother to show in person in the age of live blogging and streaming content. With an opening line of "you don't need to be here", admittedly a few poured out of the conference room doors. However, Sierra stated, that there are still elements that exist as the missing link between computer interaction and human expression. Responsiveness to software was compared to the likes of Asperger's syndrome, unintentionally rude and often narrowly focused.

Comparing portraits of human expressions, Sierra explained that basic human-computer interaction is not taking place. One such example is that software doesn't have "WTF" buttons for user experience. Attempting to tone her language down for the innocent of ears, she stated that FAQs and Help don't cater to the common user experience, an often lack interactive dialog.

While Sierra made an argument for creating software for the human expression in order to help close the gap between reactive human interaction and computers, a significant point seemed to be missing from her bullet points. Given that there will always be some sense of a gap between interacting with a person and interacting with a machine, why place the pressure on computers for being able to react to confused human faces as opposed to making people interact with people more effectively? Why not make the user experience with people a more enriching one? While it's a given that software should always be moving forward in user experience, customer service often is a pain point across all companies. Sierra stated that conversational language keeps a user's attention, as such, user experience should maintain an integration between people and machines in order to create a truly interactive and expressive environment.

Offering no apologies for social disruption, the Emerging Social and Technology Trends panelists invite themselves into your conversation. The panel on Saturday hosted yet again a large group of speakers from diverse backgrounds. Although intimate panels tend to be more revealing, this one at least showed a little leg. Headed up by Laura Moorhead (Wired), the panelists included Andrew Blum (Wired), Robert Fabricant (Frog Design), Eliot Van Buskirk (Wired), Peter Rojas (Engadget), and Daniel Raffel (Yahoo!).

While perhaps drunk at the wheel sometimes, technology drives social change. In turn, everyday people are now enabled to be the drivers as well. Similar to the blur of how you got home the night before, there is no longer a clear sobriety line to walk between social interaction and technology. Likewise, a constant negotiation between public and private, business and pleasure, leaves many at polar realms. Understanding the integration versus isolation debate is said to help us understand ourselves, or at least what Kool-aid we drank to get there.

Tagged as disruptive technology, the panel discussed various tools, techniques, and software that continue to evolve standards and transparency. Seemingly, the term transparency is no longer valid, as the opacity is continuing to be set at zero percent. Widgets, like the beginnings of the internet, take away a sense of geographical personas, while social "tools" like Twitter take away any remaining sense of privacy. "Twitter might be the breaking point," said Peter Rojas, concerned about an inevitable backlash of technology. Explaining it similar to the subcultures that turned on CDs in favor of vinyl, Rojas believes that there will always be backlashes, but not necessarily mass rejections. "But we wouldn't know about a backlash because they wouldn't be blogging it, right?" Rojas joked to the crowd's chuckle.

Though there's an amplification of influence in self, it also penetrates brands and microbrands alike. Many brands are trying to drink the Kool-aid, letting the voice of the customer lead the way. While in no way is it a bad idea, Robert Fabricant explained that it gives a company power as well as a burden. The key, Fabricant explained, is how to interpret the learnings from the ongoing conversations, which is a responsibility strategists and planners face.

Asked the question about companies' fear of their products being hacked, the panelists concurred that the vast majority of hacks help generate interest in a product rather than serve as a huge threat to success. An offered solution to help ease the pain was for companies to commit to "upgradability" as well as learn how to monetize consumer hacks. Pushing for augmentation over customization, it was apparent that there remains a friction point between consumers and brands. The iPhone came up as a perfect example, in that the potential of the device alone generated interest, however the excitement soon turned flacid once it revealed its closed platform nature. Soon after, the lack of faith in mobile carriers and the fight for consumer enablement took over the discussion. Despite many yielding through the intersection of social and technology, it may take a new generation to legalize an American autobahn.

Sidenote: More photos here.

South by Southwest (SXSW) Interactive kicked off on Friday with a panel dedicated to "pop the cherries of the SXSW virgins". The How to Rawk SXSW panel was headed up by a variety of familiar names and faces, including Min Jung Kim (Photobucket), Glenda Bautista (Agendacide), Tantek Çelik (Technorati), Nick Douglas (Look Shiny, formerly Valleywag), Andrew Huff (Gapers Block), Lynne d Johnson (fastcompany), and our friend Tony Pierce (LAist). Sharing swigs out of a bottle of Jack Daniel's the panelists calmed the crowd's expectations.

Overwhelming seems to be the sense on the street about SXSW. With hundreds of panels, speakers, and parties to attend, it's easy to lack time management. Thankfully, the panelists help tell you where to cut out the excess fat from your daily intake. Conferences are known to load up on the junk advertising, and this one is no exception. With his Jack Daniel's swigs well underway, Nick Douglas flipped through the multitude of junk. "Wired is the Cosmo of tech magazines," Douglas stated as he threw another conference magazine handout into the trash pile.

Equipped with hipster glasses and widgets, Tantek Celik educated the audience on how to effectively stalk fellow SXSW attendees. Obviously, with an array of bloggers, educators, and industry experts it can be difficult to manage the inevitable "blogasm". Dodgeball, Consumating, Twitter, and Flickr were all recommendations to keep track of the fire hose of content coming through. "What happens at SXSW, stays on Flickr", Celik grinned. Despite Celik revealing his tool to the audience, there's always secret happenings going on at SXSW that no tools can help you with. Unless of course, they're the tool managing the guest list.

Sidenote: Flickr album of my SXSW photos can be found here.

PC World published The 50 Most Important People on the Web yesterday. While the first 25 are your run-of-the-mill Steve Jobs, Bill Gates (oh wait, he didn't make the list), scroll-bar-savvy predictable content. The remaining 25 are mixed in with various bloggers. A few notables: Scoble (25), Arrington (30), Dave Winer (39), Perez Hilton (41), and Nick Denton (45). But where are the lady bloggers? Oh, that's right, we have Miss Tila Tequila to represent us, dragging her talentless feet in at number 50.

Along with many spin-offs of the surely soon-to-be-if-not-already-hated Vista slogan. While Technorati is already trying to call dibs on dubaya-tee-eff moments, they're a little late on the acronym trending. Perhaps they should try quotes around it next time. Regardless, this lovely jewel came across the screen promoting Vista with none other than an Apple iBook (in 2G-iPod-eggshell-white for all the junkies). Engadget points out Apple's ability to run Vista and advertiser's inability to avoid shit-stock photography. Apparently the 'WOW' starts after you realize that iBook doesn't run Vista, somewhere between asking why your mouse only has one button and why there's no Mindsweeper.

Making way forward for artificial stupidity intelligence, NEC has created a series of blog buddies of the robotic kind to help keep bored and boring bloggers company. The PaPeRo prototype creates multimedia blogs without the need for a whiny, ranting blogger in the equation. By initiating conversation with the blogbot, PaPeRo searches and analyzes relevant images, illustrations and music, before automatically editing and uploading the content to the specified blog. Using text retrieval technology along with other spoken language dictionaries, it won't be long until the PaPeRo asks us to prepare to be assimilated.

Always insatiable for rumors, the Create your own Apple Rumor tool may not be able to deliver on which coworkers hooked up over the weekend but it will provide the same level of disappointment knowing that you weren't one of them. The tool spits out Apple rumors just as easily as the blogosphere and waits for anyone to swallow. Hooking the bait with such classics as "An operative deep inside Apple has confirmed earlier resports that we will see a Redesigned Mac Pro or Wifi Enabled iPod Shuffle at Third Quarter 2007" and "A confirmed source has confirmed earlier resports that we will see a Black Mac Mini or Flash based iPod at Third Quarter 2007" the tool let's you try and beat Engadget and Gizmodo to the proverbial punch. Now only if they could make an iPhone specific one... Oh, that's Technorati.

Students create Super Mario snowman [BoingBoing]

Frag fabric: crochet Pitfall! and Atari [Craftzine]

Leftover game over [BoingBoing]

iPhone: gaming on the go. On second thought, we'd prefer you stay in your basement [Gadget Lab]

You can run, but you can't hide behind your avatar [Engadget]

Overridden with RPGers, Second Life is coming under more threats than just the criticism of bloggers. Last week, a "basement- home-grown" virtual terrorism group bombed an American Apparel and Reebok store. Apparently run by a herd of high school goth kids, the v-terro-squad wants more choices in the cafeteria menu for their hard-not-earned lunch money. The 'Second Life Liberation Army' (aka the emo goth kids) were interviewed as saying "the population of the world should have a say in the running of the world." Sorry kids, but no matter how many lives you create, it won't make anyone think you're any less of a chump. Better luck with reincarnation.

It could be lights out for Google across the world. While Google is not actually going under anytime soon, Treehugger reports on an interesting find that tags Google as an energy opportunity.

"Did you know that a cathode ray tube (CRT) monitor uses about 74 watts to display an all white web page, but only uses 59 watts to display an all black page? Worldwide, about 25 percent of the monitors currently in use are cathode ray tubes, which means that they waste energy displaying white backgrounds. This can add up for sites with a global audience."

Treehugger claims that by turning Google black, they would save 750-megawatt-hours ($75,000) a year. Called low-wattage web design, it may have to have its own set of design rules, as white text on a black background is never recommended for extensive reading. Perhaps there's a happy medium for designing for a monitor as well as a person's vision. However, the big question is, once Google goes black, will it ever go back?

While Engadget reports that these audio audacities are not related to the up and coming Transformer movie, they're just as geek-chic. With blurry photos, Asian characters, and gradient backgrounds these beauts are bringing it old school, just the way wii we like. At $37 a pop, the makers should at least be in talks with the likes of BK/McD's since the only thing they've been starving kids of lately are some decent like-the-80's-used-to-make kid's meal toys. While some may claim that the Frenzy & Rumble Earphones demise the would-be geek-glamor buzzing around the Transformers movie, there's plenty transforming pitched-tents that disagree.

Though Playboy might be known for coming on the scene with new positions, they seem to be far behind on some of the most obvious. Like asking if we've heard of the reverse-cowgirl, Playboy launched a mobile marketing strategy. The "strategy" offers softcore previews of their Double Entry reality show. Strategy may be a fickle word choice as, really, how much strategy does phone porn take? Playboy attempts to be flexible by allowing users to download videos or photos, depending on their device's capabilities. Perhaps enticing to some, phone sex seemingly has yet to truly reach its full climax potential.

Needing a cigarette after it yet again won't leave the bedroom without one more go around, Motorola insists on hearing our delight. After the short-lived hard-on went flacid with the RAZR a few years ago, Moto has been on a quest to regain it's Mojo. Not to be mistaken with a pack of birth control, the Motorola T815 is a smartphone-based gps/navigation system. Dubbed MotoNav, the device talks dirty to you with turn-by-turn directions to help get you going. Hoping to be your everything, MotoNav also features bluetooth, local search, a car and phone charger, and is of course USB-compatible. Set to launch in Q2 of 2007, Motorola hopes to build your anticipation.

Doc Searls points to a useful tool for the curious and inquisitive types on-the-go. FlightAware claims to be the first company to offer free flight tracking services for both private and commercial air traffic in the United States. Delayed by only six minutes, which is a luxury these days, the data pulls in the current paths of airborn aircrafts. Offering a variety of data points and maps, FlightAware also offers mobile weather and route analysis services for pilots and passengers alike. While charmingly convenient, beware of lying to crafty spouses about delays and cancellations.

Oh sure, it's geeky and cute, and will probably have the same fate as those 'pretty' candles your mother refuses to actually light. But the Art Lebedev eraser intends to leave Mac users in it's rubber dust. A capital D on the delete? Please, we Powerbook professionals are far too busy to have uppercase letters on our keys. A far more humorous choice would be the Apple-only mute symbol.

Plastic proves to be pleasurable beyond double-D's. Shouting to Hear the Echoes puts out, providing a poll to vote on the sexiest gynoid. A gynoid is a robot designed after a human female. While Femmebots were the first out on the catwalk, a new season has brought a new line. Asking "Which modern-day Gynoid would you most love to spend a dirty week-end with?", the poll provides choices from eight ready-for-you robots. Hopefully bug-free, there shouldn't be any accidental 1's typed in the middle of her exclaimed orgasm. That would just be embarassing.

[via]

Violet Blue should have someone other than the SF Chronicles to battle over biased anti-porn slanting this week. Pulling a Ted Haggard, Joel Johnson of Gizmodo takes out the whip and chain on gadget whoring.

"These guys want me to write a weekly column, but I hate consumer electronics, I hate marketing, and I hate you people, because you're all so dumb. If you're lucky and I need the money, I will. I gave up two years of my life writing about gadgets for this site. Waking up every morning at 5 AM, chewing up press releases to find the rare morsel of legitimate information, chasing down "hot tips" that ended up being photochops of iPods with reflections of genitals in the touchscreens."

Taking it from behind the computer screen, Joel puts his finger in our face to smell. Despite the fact that he is/"was" a gadget whore, is being paid by gadget whores, and frankly wouldn't be around unless there were gadgets to feed him and Gizmodo in the first place, he now denounces the techsluts. Oh Joel, honey, we may be easy, but trying your new position in the bedroom in hopes of bringing back the flame may just be too little, too, and well, little, if you know what we're saying. My personal response? Shut up and blog.

Sidenote: In the spirit of whoring, buy a tshirt I made for the cause.

Needing a change of scenery, or perhaps a fresh start to the post-VDay-letdown, a new type of clothing lets all eyes be on you. Breaking through the monochrome winter weather, Fabcell created the Fabcell system, consisting of color-changing modules to brighten up your outer-shell of baggage. The fabric uses flexible, color-changing textiles coupled with a controller for precision emo-matching visuals. Perhaps positioning itself as the mood ring for emo hipsters, the clothing is also able to respond to your body temperature, giving you a new, shrinkage-proof solution to changing in public.

Making headway into the digital age, drugs continue to infiltrate youth culture. Creating the Designer Drug 2.0 for the strung out and social, laptops are soon to be more addictive than a bluetooth headset to a chump. Synced up and snorted, WinFun has created a laptop that is meant to attract your sense of smell. Wanting to hook 'em while they're young, the Smell-O-Vision was designed for kids. Figuring they're already inhaling and eating enough glue and various art supplies as is, really, where's the harm in just another hit or two? The Sweet Berry Bilingual Laptop smells like strawberries and cooties. While it claims to be bilingual, something tells us that the Sweet Belly Biringuar Raptop wasn't intended for Japan.

While Cool Hunting warns of disasterous downfalls that can come with precariously placing your laptop in the kitchen, we don't look nearly as geek-chic without it. Thankfully, a student at the University of Applied Sciences identified the dilemma. Offering up a new shiny gadget to replace the old dulling titanium, the 'coo.boo' is a digital cookbook that's too kool for k's. Still in prototype stages, the spatula design syncs up with your computer to deliver recipes with optional audio/visual assistance. Like your other 'precarious devices', the coo.boo aims to be dishwasher safe.

While the majority of fashion-technology hybrids look best with a pair of glowsticks and various blips and bleeps playing in the background, a new collection throws science into the mix to produce some interesting results. Nano-Tex, a Califonia start-up, aims to marry style with sports. Using high-concept chemistry and fabric-enhancing technologies, various fashion-defying clothing has been created. These creations include soup-resistant ties, no-sweat shirts, "like botox for clothes" anti-wrinkle, liquid endurance, "wear 'em again pants", and anti-static fleece.

"Clothing designers are tiptoeing toward a new trend: high-tech apparel with a low geek-factor."

Something about videotaping a man drinking liquid out of his shirt pocket with a straw and just the use of "wear 'em again pants" makes you wonder if that "low geek-factor" is similar to "low fat cheesecake".

[via]

As if road-head wasn't distracting enough, the Sun Visor Theatre offers even more of an entertainment value. With 7 inches of pure pleasure, the DVD, CD, and MP3 -playing device is fitted into the passenger-side visor with precision. For those who like to photo-document roadtrip debauchery, the visor also comes equipped with USB and SD ports. Also, purely for safety reasons, the system includes a wireless remote, in case you're focusing on, ehem, driving.

Besides station wagons and 6am surprises, wood is determined as ever to improve your quality of life. From side paneling to backyards, Gadget Lab points to the Gizmodo gallery of wood. With USB sticks (literally) and iPod docking speakers, there's a port for everyone's wood to be inside. Other notables include the wooden digital clock that boasts deception with its well hidden controls and illuminated time display, as well as the wooden iPod, though it may be difficult to upgrade it from its current non-geek-chic 3rd generation stature.

What is it with the current obsession to pay tribute to gadgets with cakes? Perhaps cake and technology is just as delicious as sex and technology. Though, combining all three could provide quite the treat (precarious body placements for "icing iPod buttons" could get some overly excited). As our gadgets progress to make our lives simpler, they certainly are becoming more difficult to bake and decorate. Not sure why someone would choose to bake an iPhone, though after looking through Engadget's 2006 birthday cake contest, full of Alienwares, robots, and smartphones, it shouldn't come as any surprise. In Japan, however, they apparently reverse this geek-cake-obsession, by decorating their phones like wedding cakes. For those geeks with culinary tendencies and icing fetishes, Engadget plans to hold another geek-cake contest this year.

Already making its rounds on the interweb, the parasitic network object, dubbed Wifi-Liberator, is gaining momentum. Currently in a 1.0 stage, the Wifi-Liberator takes advantage of pay-per-use wifi zones, by opening up one paying node to multiple other nodes for free internet usage.

"The project is presented as a challenge to existing corporate or "locked" private wireless nodes to encourage the proliferation of free networks and connectivity across the planet. ...the Wifi-Liberator critically examines the tensions between providers trying to profit from the increasingly minimal costs associated with setting up a public network and casual users who simply want to see the Internet transform into another "public utility" and become as ubiquitous and free as the air we breathe."

Currently, the Wifi-Liberator is only set up to work if the user shares their connection, as opposed to keeping it for themselves.

A recent study in the UK found that 30% of men and 42.5% of women would consider answering the phone during sex. Even more shocking, 24% of women answered that they would give up sex before their mobile phone. Is British sex truly that anti-climatic? Perhaps this may come as no shocker to the UK, but these findings could potentially have irreversable effects on underage American girls everywhere, otherwise swooning for the Hugh-Grant-type-accents. It seems as though the Brits love for raunchy entertainment and advertising is just an outcry for their malnurished appetites.

While television and kids seem to hit it off as a match made in heaven, the process of learning how to flip past shows like Laguna Beach and American Idol, aren't. Thankfully, Hayeon Yoo developed the Origami TV Remote Control Interface, to help educate children on the wonders of changing the channel.

"The Origami TV Remote Control enables children to learn only the essential functions such as “Channel Selection” and “Volume Control” through a paper playing method. The prototype was developed from 1-week Electronics and 1-week Software workshop and a wireless sensor board and Max/MSP are used as main tools."

Structured similar to a "cootie catcher", you can now find out which cute boys at school like you in addition to channel surfing for Saturday morning cartoons.

Bruised and battered, alarm clocks now equip themselves for morning intolerance. Clocky, the mobilized noisy friend, isn't able to dial 9-1-1 when you go on your 6am tirades, but he is at least able to run away like a handicrapped Honda Asimo. Specifically programmed to run and hide when you don't awake from your beauty sleep or Monday-night-hangover, Clocky will increasingly "misbehave" before you decide to down another bottle of NyQuil. Currently available for the cost of $49 and your cheeriness.

[via]

Unsure if the boys over at Engadget will get blue balls over this evening's scheduled Daily Show event, but you can expect to hear about it if they do (doubtful considering how easily excitable they are). Bill Gates is notched in to make an appearance on Comedy Central's The Daily Show with Jon Stewart tonight. The agenda so far is simply to chat about Windows Vista, but Peter Rojas is daydreaming anyway:

"[There is] the tantalizing prospect of him finally coming face to face with John Hodgman (AKA "PC" from those "Mac vs. PC" ads) ... we'll be filling the next 35 hours or so with plenty of geek fantasies about what could potentially be some hot PC vs. PC action."

Oh Peter, we all know you'll be filling more than just time Monday night. Just be sure to clean off the latest keyboard they sent you before taking the Engadget-product-shot.

Echo Robotics unveiled its latest prototype in social interaction the other day. The prototype consists of a Bluetooth-enabled teddy bear that interacts with other techie teddies to alert you when you're around someone with similar interests as yours. For some, the robot-dancing, cuddly bear may be a godsend for those lacking a wingman. However, unless you want to look like a blanket-dragging Linus, the techie teddy may be a bit more difficult to explain to a new date than the expected drunken text messages.

Perhaps the moneyshot shouldn't actually jump out of the TV and into your living room. The latest in HDTV clarity makes some porn stars uneasy, and it's not a case of the 'butterflies'.

"The XXX industry has gotten too graphic, even for its own tastes ... “The biggest problem is razor burn,” said Stormy Daniels, an actress, writer and director. Ms. Daniels is also a skeptic. “I’m not 100 percent sure why anyone would want to see their porn in HD,” she said."

To cure the blemishes, wrinkles, and cellulite that can't exist in fantasy land, many directors are taking them in to post-production for a touch-up quickie. Others have gone to more extreme measures, claiming to get more plastic surgery just to cater to HD.

"Men are all about outdoing each other, being up with the times, being cool, having the latest technology,” [Ms. Daniels] said. “They’re willing to sacrifice our vanity and imperfections to beat each other” to high-definition, she said."

Just when you thought the holidays were over, Valentine's Day soon approaches in many reluctant minds. With less than a month in counting, a new game aims to bring back the excitement over mysterious Valentines.

"Played on mobile phones, city walls and the web, Love City invites three cities to fall in love via text message. Players act as a matchmaker for their city. The aim of the game is to fall in love. By linking with someone from a different city your score increases."

Users are able to accept or reject messages of love from others in the game. While it may come as a disappointment that it's not for an actual Ménage à Trois hook-up, just be glad you don't turn your VDay into a VD.

[via]

Replacing fashion chic with fashion geek, Angel Chang showcases her line up for Spring 2007. The Fashion Tech show was hosted earlier in New York to display the latest in integrating technology with fashion. Aiming to not be just another cliche', Chang opts to create stylish and realistic applications of wearable technology.

"Fashion designer Angel Chang collaborated with technologists and artists to create the next step in fashion, what we've all been waiting for -- the exploration with technology. From special inks that change color or appear/dissappear with heat or sunlight to stylized iPod jackets, Angel's collection wasn't about gimmicky technology, it was beautiful fashion with function and new twists."

Pictured: The charmeuse borders of this 5-layer skirt contain a series of hidden 3-D images. A series of single image random dot stereograms (SIRDs) showing shapes of American weapons we see everyday on the news.

At what point does context replace content? Google and MINI gear up their latest in interweb domination, this time taking it to the streets.

Google plans to roll out a series of internet-based billboards that act similar to AdSense, advertising available products in local stores. The system will have the capability of switching out advertising based on the products being in stock in real-time. While advertisers will be able to manage their accounts online like AdSense, one can only hope that the CPM rate won't be as similar.

MINI, however, is taking a different route. Relying less on context and more on you, the latest campaign titled Motorby asks users to supply not-too-personal information in exchange for a key fob that alerts billboards to your presence. The interactive billboards are then able to detect your presence and give you a personal message as you drive by. The pilot boards are currently up in NY, Chicago, SF, and Miami. As MINI states, "the billboards are talking" - and this time, not AT you.

Winding down from the pervs and geeks of last week, Wired and BoingBoing cover the NSFW overlaps of CES and AVN 2007. Winding up the "sex-tech", was the teledildonics toys that allow for partners to control the speed, intensity, and rhythm during cybersex.
Xeni then points us to a site dedicated to women having sex with robots. The site seems unnecessary, as anyone could just covertly videotape the hotel rooms of AVN/CES crossover hook-ups to get the same effect. Feeling threatened by the iPhone, the makers of OhMiBod (the vibrator that syncs with an iPod), created BodiTalk, the vibrator that syncs with your mobile phone. Essentially, it feels good to be popular.

(Photo courtesy of Fleshbot's 2007 AVN coverage)

...mobile phone? Middle school humor aside, more awkward devices are surfacing from last week's CES tech fest. Obviously lacking any kind of luck outside the poker tables, the geeks in Las Vegas needed to do something with all the expired condoms. Enter the mobile phone prophylactic. Probably invented by some guy caught practicing with condoms who then tried to pass it off as an actual business model, the mobile condom is said to protect your small device from all weather conditions. Similar models claim to protect against paint, blood, and sweat. So, whether you're a butcher or a serial killer on the go, you're covered!

Nintendo takes its chances on the streets of London with interactive "Wii-osks". The Wii-osks are said to be just a pixel in Nintendo's marketing canvas. Equipped with HDTV and a street team of white marshmellows, the sight draws a crowd eager to see air-bowling in action. While no Wii-mote gang violence was reported, Joystiq warns of Americans and their crafty ways:

"Any self-respecting American in a metropolitan city would have asked to demo the unit, taken the Wii-mote, cracked the marketing flack over the head and run off with the system. But alas, these are not Americans."

When advertising is at a premium, desperate and unique solutions arise. "Hacking" into art snobbery seems to be the latest trend for a couple partners in contemporary crime.

"I wanted to share a snapshot of a NY urban joke me and my wife just hacked last night. We're neighbors of MoMA and while they're setting up these new video projectons for the Doug Aitken show, we decided to promote the latest art institution advertising media buy...This projection was done just once in traditional guerrilla fashion and will not be running during the show."

A humble suggestion to optimize the "joke" to improve reach among true snobs? "You're video here".

While a seemingly obvious viral video for the physical benefits of the Wii, someone had to do it. Taking the cake, The Wii Sex Movie (they seriously couldn't come up with a Wii pun for a title!?). The premise is hot enough, but most could probably do without the chumpy boyfriend. For those already tingling about the idea, Fleshbot is offering bonus points to any adventurous couples willing to 1up the video by trying it out on Wii bowling. My mind is already in the gutter.

Amazon is truly able to find all your wants and needs. Apparently able to locate the path to a woman's pleasure, the product search engine doubles as a homewrecker. An unrelated study supports that the better you know your spouse, the more likely you are to buy them crappy gifts.

"Pamela Meyers was delighted to receive yet another thoughtful CD recommendation from Amazon.com Friday, confirming that the online retail giant has a more thorough, individualized, and nuanced understanding of Meyers' taste than the man who occasionally claims to love her, husband Dean Meyers.

While the powerful algorithms that power Amazon's recommendations generator do not have the advantage of being able to observe Meyers' body language, verbal intonation, or current personal possessions, they have nonetheless proven more effective than Dean, who bases his gift-giving choices primarily on what is needed around the house, what he would like to own, and, most notably, what objects are nearby."

[via]

Jealous fits running high in technology this week. Cisco bitchslaps Apple with a lawsuit for using the term "iPhone". Earlier, Engadget had reported that the widely used folksonomy of iPhone to name the then-up-and-coming Apple phone had been called dibs on by Cisco circa the 1990s.

Cisco claims, "There is no doubt that Apple’s new phone is very exciting, but they should not be using our trademark without our permission....today’s iPhone is not tomorrow’s iPhone. The potential for convergence of the home phone, cell phone, work phone and PC is limitless, which is why it is so important for us to protect our brand."

File this one under desperate attempts to gain traffic via user error like the bible study site for typo-ed blogspot addresses and the late great Whitehouse.com porn.

The Wiibrator eliminates the need to ride joysticks. This seemingly innocent, dirty little device helps you relax to good vibrations. By using the Wiimote, you can control the signals sent to your "x box". With so many reports, one has to wonder if there should be any safety warnings about damage to your goods.

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Taking no time in identifying the creepiness at this year's CES, Engadget reports on the latest in robotic creations. Among the creeps, a robotic Elvis. Chopped up like a Japanese snuff film, the chest-up slice is more than willing to entertain with a song-and-dance routine. As if watching The King's Michael-J-Fox-like spasms weren't enough, you can also sing along and pay tribute with your best karaoke attempts.

Previously ICYMI: Elvis the robocat

The latest gaming accessory goes emo. The Game Dutch pillow could be a cross between unsociable gamers needing a hug and a poor cover-up for morning wood.

"Playing video games should be pure, childlike fun--not the cause for chronic neck and shoulder pain. Those are problems real adults should deal with, not thirty-something year old gamers who refuse to grow up."

While the pillow might help with physical aches and pains, we all know that gamers have emotional needs, too. Perhaps this will eliminate the need for the Boyfriend Arm and Girlfriend Lap pillows.

While many readers may already be showing signs of fatigue by the amount of CES posts pouring into their RSS readers, others are simply jealous. Shake Well Before Use may not be on the scene providing you step by step details of the cool ballpoint pens being handed out, photos of PowerPoint presentations, or the people we conversed with for name-dropping rights, but these bloggers are:

Engadget
Gizmodo
Joystiq
Kotaku
Scoble

As some have speculated, this year in CES seems to be amping up gaming more than before. Perhaps SWBU will be l33t enough next year.

A recent project among digital media students at the Berlin University of the Arts asked to develop an analog extention of a laptop that considers its physical properties as well as computational power.

"... devices, together with their software, are nevertheless often designed without much consideration of the physicality of the laptop and its usage situation. The computer is an abstract source of energy, computation and screenspace to many such devices. The challege of this short project was to rethink the laptop as a physical object with extended functionality, and cherish these qualities in a novel and refreshing way."

A few notably refreshing ways:

i-sleep: An inflatable pillow rests above the laptop, connected to the computer fan for warming. Music begins playing automatically when you close the laptop and an adjustable "waking tone" can be set for when you'd like to wake up.

Finger Trap: Literally a finger trap created for unwanted trackpad trespassers.

The Digital Marionette: "The idea was to extend the laptop with a pair of strings to use it as a digital marionette. The application i wrote reads out the Powerbook´s motion sensor´s position data and then uses it, to move the marionette. If you tilt the notebook to the left, the marionette on the screen reacts to gravity and also swings in this direction."

via: wmmna

Contagious magazine lists their most contagious items for 2006. With the year in review, categories included gadgets, design, gaming, mobile, and viral to name a few. Highlights include Second Life, Wii, Lonelygirl15, ZeFrank, Skype, Smirnoff Raw Tea Partay, adidas adicolor (seen the Jenna Jameson one?), and Banksy. With all the 2006 contagious celebs, what unworthy soul wasn't on the list? Zune.

Download the Most Contagious 2006 pdf here.

And no, not talking about the recent buzzword buzzkill when we all discovered that Cisco had the rights to use the word iPhone. However, this may sooth Apple's pains, as that buzzword is now so last year (or a few years ago for those of us l33t geeks - is l33t banned yet?).

Lake Superior State University recently listed their banished words for 2007, highlights from the list include:

Combined Celebrity Names - yes, you may just have to take a few extra syllables to talk about how creepy Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes are or just give up trying to make a name for Justin Timberlake and Scarlett Johansson - although, I've become fond of "Scarin".
Awesome - The list claims it's so 1984, but VH1 still loves the 80s.
PWN or PWNED - Oh c'mon, when have gamers ever realized what year it is from outside their basement windows? They're worried about clocking speeds, not actual clocks.
i-Anything - But YouTube would be a lonely place without spoofs! Besides, with Time Magazine's recent lame Person of the Year issue, the focus is on "You", not i.

Or at least that's the hope for one blogger, trying to shed off the holiday flab. Blogging may be predicted as reaching its peak in 2007, but is not considered a sport as of yet. Video gaming, however, is currently picking up the slack in the "sport" arena. While video games are proven to raise your heart rate as you're mentally sending signals to your muscles, it's still a sedentary activity for the most part. Trying to close the gap, however, the Nintendo Wii eliminates hunching over a monitor and replaces it with embarassing, yet fun, physical movement.

To see how much a difference a day (or 45) makes, a blogger created the Wii Sports Experiment to track the benefits, if any, of using the Wii for 30 minutes a day. The results should be in sometime in mid-January. This might be a laugh to some, but hey, we all need our baby steps to meet those New Years resolutions. As he aptly put it, "time to start sweatin’ to the fuckin’ oldies".

Also, ICYMI, Wii and PS3 do the Apple spoof gig, too.

Tech gadgets are seen as the best way to tell lies, according to a survey published last week. At least 4 out of 5 people surveyed admitted to lying once a day and admitted that the use of mobile phones, text messages, and emails were helpful vehicles for it.

"The research by UK pollsters 72 Point found that "techno-treachery" was widespread with nearly 75 percent of people saying gadgets like Blackberrys made it easier to fib. Just over half of respondents said using gadgets made them feel less guilty when telling a lie than doing it face to face, the study on behalf of financial services group Friends Provident found."

It comes as no surprise, then, that the preferred place to fib is at work, where other surveys have shown that it's also the preferred place for secret affairs. While the survey may be hiding the larger lies, it did find that "while people were dishonest, most told lies with the best intentions and to spare others' feelings." No, honey, you didn't pack on any pounds over the holidays.

While age may bring wisdom, there are also things that only come with youth. Sony Pictures' up and coming movie The Messengers leverages ultrasonic sound to prove their point.

"The Messengers, a horror film about a teen protoganist who insists she hears voices that her parents cannot hear. The ultrasonic technology was originally developed in Europe to chase teens away from malls, and has been promoted before as an adult-proof ringtone inaudible to people over 25." -Three Minds @ Organic

The Messengers ultrasonic ringtones target teenagers who want to be able to receive phone calls and text messages undetected by their parents, or whoever is currently fucking their mom. High pitched, priced and highly annoying, the ringtones are currently available for $2.49, but you can preview them hear. While this may seem as an enticing marketing ploy, charging money for content that is simply used for movie ticket sales seems overly greedy to any age.

According to an earlier article put out by Senior Analyst Debra Williamson of eMarketer last week, "Gen Y women have digital cameras, phones and video games on their lists." Oh, that's not all many of us hopeful harlets have on our lists, Ms. Williamson.

While the survey lists computers, cameras, and tvs at the top of the list, a whopping 1 out of 4 women were listed as "none of the above". Any senior analyst should be able to see the clear skewing of figures here. eMarketer is in fact confirming that the majority of women interviewed are too embarassed to put vibrators as their number one tech gadget this year. Thankfully, leave it to gadgets to put a bit of tingle back in our tech. Last year's bluetooth vibrator found its way into our hearts and hips. So, as the holidays approach us, remember to donate to the Toys for Twats foundation, despite the surveys.

Gawker tickles your craving for a tasty rant by looking back at the Motorola RAZR craze with more hindsight and less dignity.

"Think back, if you will, to October 2004. It was an innocent time, a time when to have a cell phone typically meant one of those Nokia bullets or a Motorola V60 (hey, remember those?), or if you were all fancy, a big-ass Blackberry. We bring this up for one important reason: to trace just how you, and we, got suckered--yes, suckered--into buying possibly the worst phone on the market today, the Motorola RAZR."

Makes me question bloggers like Joel On Software, who seems like he'd go down on a man in a dive bar stall for just another hit of Moto to fill up a RSS feed.

Read the entire rant here.

As the buzz fog dissipates from the launch of the Wii and the PS3, we're left with storytelling from our collective Thanksgivings.

Just getting back from lunch with one of the application developers on my team, we shared our perspectives of the buzz fog. The Wii and PS3 launches seem to invoke a familiar story of The Tortoise and the Hare. While the PS3 garnered a huge spike in buzz with people being trampled and shot just to get their hands on it, their buzz could almost be seens as what killed off a potentially larger demand in the larger audience. PS3 spent so much time and effort to become the foaming on the mouths of gamers, that they also created an elitism that isolated themselves. From the general perspective, Sony spent their efforts promoting the cool games you could play, rather than showing user interaction with the product itself.

Alternatively, the Wii Launched two days after the PS3. Originally, many questioned why, as the buzz cloud was so large around the PS3 that the Wii would surely be swallowed up in the midst of the chaos. Now, post-Thanksgiving, it's clear that the Wii has garnered more offline Word-Of-Mouth than jokes about trytophan. Why? Nintendo made the smart choice in promoting "why they're different", as opposed to PS3's "why they're better". From the commercials, to the stories, the simple, somewhat dorky DDR-style of interaction made the Wii friendly to gamers and first-time-gamers alike. There was no buzz about getting trampled, only buzz about people breaking their TVs by playing with the Wii so much. The developer on my team was sharing stories of his grandparents playing boxing games over the weekend, and how his girlfriend broke two glasses and part of a table from getting so into it.

While the Wii almost appears as something straight out of the 80's in silliness, it has successfully made itself accessible by all audiences. While people are no longer asking about if they saw people getting trampled on the news for the PS3, they are, however, sharing their own personal stories about the Wii. To back up the Word-Of-Mouth and advertising techniques, the Wii out-sold the PS3 on the first day and continues to by a significant amount.

Beta-tank enjoys popping pixels with their latest interactive interior. Bubble Screen is an organic display system using air bubbles for pixels. The pixel bubbles are then able to produce imagery and typographic visuals. While not as robust as the wet typography water-curtain, the thinking behind it is still impressive.

"Beta-tank used a highly viscous liquid similar to shampoo in order to obtain a workable refresh rate. To solve other Fluid Dynamics issues Imperial College London was drafted in to create computer analysis for each bubble it travels in space."

via: wmmna

Despite the Sony's dramatic delays in launching PS3, they went ahead and launched a viral video campaign. The video, This Is Living, is a glance at the human element in gaming. Promoting real time and a system that actively learns from you, rather than programming, the PS3 is a "living, thinking, breathing opponent".

While being an international woman of mystery or blogging a conference, it's smart to always have an array of gadgets at your fingertips. Engadget introduces the slim and sexy Alphacam, a multifunction USB device. This vixen comes equipped as a webcam, laser pointer, scanner, voice recorder, and portable visual presenter.

While most women have travel cases for make-up, I personally always carry around a little black case of various gadgets when I travel. I plan to attend the upcoming ad:tech conference in New York, and I wouldn't mind adding the Alphacam to my collection of spy gadgets to document the potential debauchery. Unfortunately, it seems that I would have to be a bit more of an international woman of mystery to pick one up, as they're currently only available in Korea.

The 'evolution' of advertising takes one step back in order to move forward.

To the chagrin of media departments everywhere, DVR is consistently gaining momentum across their beloved Nielsen households. So far, the attempts to persuade users to view advertising commercials have been short-sighted, at best. Despite the buzz around KFC putting coupon codes in their commercials as incentive to maintain impression goals, they were still banking on the fact that one, anyone gives a damn about KFC, and two, anyone gives a damn about advertising. While there may be some who do, they weren't thinking outside the proverbial box. Mostly, they were trying to swim upstream the already established stream of user behavioral progression, rather than take it on as a new challenge.

Fortunately?, Colin Davies' "System for providing visible messages during pvr trick mode playback" leans a kind ear to advertising's cries. Advertising Per Frames (or APF, because I'm coining it and we all love our random buzz-word abbreviations to sound cool) involves embedding images in full frames that are shown when a user fast-forwards. While the advertising may lose some quality, it will gain impressions from the growing 'active' users of television.