Let's face it: It doesn't matter how high quality the video is. Chatting over Skype or FaceTime doesn't do a lot of good if the call is between the hearing and the deaf and only the latter know sign language.
Now, following a successful release in California in April, the SmartVP videophone by Purple Communications is available free of charge to the deaf and hard-of-hearing nationwide, and it manages to solve the signing conundrum.… Read more
1. Bubble Butt - Major Lazer feat. Bruno Mars, 2 Chainz, Tyga & Mystic
2. Blurred Lines - Robin Thicke
5. We Own It (Fast & Furious) - 2 Chainz, Wiz Khalifa… Read more
These days, most marketing stunts are aimed at going viral online through social-media shares. Pepsi's new Like Machine marketing stunt makes social media a requirement, not an option. The vending machine doesn't want your cash, it just wants your Facebook cred.
The Pepsi Like Machine is putting a twist on the age-old art of sampling. Normally, a hired gun dressed up in brand apparel hands out samples to anyone walking by. The specialized vending machine hands out samples, too, but you have to give it a "like" on Facebook before it coughs up the goods.… Read more
Close your eyes and imagine money. Lots and lots of money. Stacks and stacks and bags and briefcases full of... oh, you get the picture.
Now, imagine you were to possess such vast sums of cash. What would you do with it? Update your antiquated wardrobe? Purchase a new home or 5? Bid on a space date with Leo DiCaprio? Write a check for a $15 million black-diamond iPhone? Yes, there is such a thing; you can find out more about it in the gallery below.
Over the weeks to come, we'll take a look at some of the most ultra-luxurious tech out there, starting with a few seriously blinged-out smartphones and tablets. Some of the grandiose gadgets you'll see in this week's collection might make you roll your eyes, while others might inspire you to pick up a few hundred extra hours at work. … Read more
Leaked from today's 404 episode:
- Film crew to dig up Atari landfill site, maybe score 3.5 million copies of E.T.
- The opposite of standing desks: the computer workstation for the person with everything.
- Unlocking The Truth is the most brutal sixth grade metal band ever.
- Hatebeak: a death metal band fronted by a parrot.
- Ex-military snipers called into shoot feral goats from helicopters to protect Galapagos Tortoise population.… Read more
Beautiful, active people with overflowing pocketbooks make La Jolla, Calif., a San Diego beach town, the perfect place for an upscale fitness craze to take hold.
At least that's the gamble Josh Weinstein and his three business partners are making with Fitwall, a branded fitness studio where members strap on heart rate monitors, find their assigned Fitwall, and monitor their workout exertion with an attached iPad.
The Fitwall studio in La Jolla, which opened to the public this week, is the first of 100 technology-driven fitness studios that founders Weinstein, Doug Brendle, Ethan Penner, and Anthony Westreich plan to … Read more
Leaked from today's 404 episode:
- Steve endorses the VPI Industries turntables built in Cliffwood, N.J., and the VTF-3 MK4 subwoofer from HSU Research.
- Sony MDR-R10: The world's best headphone?
- The top 10 reasons why music is compressed.
- Compare your favorite albums in the Dynamic Range Database.
- Catch Steve on a panel with Avery Lipman, COO of Republic Records, at the New Music Seminar 2013.
- Follow Steve "Sphere" Guttenberg on Twitter.… Read more
Your cell phone has shown your hands that they can be free.
You can talk into it, while scratching your face, driving your car, or conducting the New York Philharmonic.
Purveyors of fast food have been slow to offer you a similar sense of liberty. Conduct the Philharmonic while trying to eat a Big Mac, and it will be a messy experience for both you and the lead viola.
Burger King wants to redress your balance. It has created a holder in which you can slip your Whopper and leave your hands free to do what they must.… Read more
Leaked from today's 404 episode:
- Everyone panic: a Web site that leaks and archives your "deleted" Snapchat photos.
- You'll never guess which song is the most lucrative ever recorded.
- The world's richest songs.
- Someone's trying to sell a stolen CitiBike on Craigslist.
- Hospitals install video cameras to ensure that employees wash their hands. In related news, DOCTORS AREN'T WASHING THEIR HANDS.… Read more
We've all been there. We're out on the town, had a few drinks, and just wish Siri could tell us if we're over the legal blood alcohol limit for driving.
Of course, given her requisite levels of snark, it might be better to hear it from a voice other than Siri.
A company with offices in Italy and America is launching a product today called Floome that it hopes will bridge that dangerous gap between trying to guess if you're safe to drive and finding out later from the professional breathalyzer operated by a police officer that it turns out you weren't.… Read more
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Fitness tech is here to stay, and the competition is only getting stiffer. Watch the Fitbit Flex and the Jawbone Up fight for fitness tech supremacy!
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