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How Electroloom's clothes-printing revolution died
What happens to all of those startups that get their five minutes in the spotlight before disappearing into the ether? In the hardnosed world of technology, a thousand such enterprises will fall before a single one becomes even a modest success. This is a story about one of those that didn't make it.
Raybaby is a baby monitor that tracks your child's breathing
When Ranjana Nair, Sanchi Poovaya and Aardra Kannan saw a friend's prematurely born child two years ago, they were shocked at the amount of electronic equipment hooked up to her tiny body. But even after their friend was able to bring her baby home, the anxiety persisted. Constantly concerned, she kept going to the crib to put her hand on the child's chest to make sure she was breathing. There are respiratory trackers for infants, but most of them require putting some kind of battery-powered sensor on the baby's body, which is a concern for many parents. Nair, Poovaya and Kannan -- all engineering graduates -- thought there had to be a better way. And so the Raybaby was born.
Why is Johnson & Johnson getting into startups?
Everyone knows Johnson & Johnson, the conglomerate behind Band-Aid, Tylenol and Johnson's Baby Shampoo. By comparison, very few folks outside the tech industry will have heard of Hax, a Shenzen-based startup incubator. Now, however, the pair are hooking up to find, develop and invest in startups that want to develop a consumer healthcare device. If you're dreaming up a gadget that'll help keep babies safe, ease period pain or seal wounds faster, then applications are due before the end of the year.
A tech accelerator grows in Brooklyn
At its peak, the Brooklyn Navy Yard employed as many as 70,000 people, building maritime vessels like the USS Maine, Missouri and Monitor. Military shipbuilding isn't coming back to Brooklyn anytime soon, and neither are those particular jobs. But industry is returning to the borough -- just not shipping in the military sense. Think more along the lines of product shipping, thanks to facilities like New Lab. This is about more than giving startups a place to set up shop. New Lab is about building a community -- not just to employ more New Yorkers, but to spur further innovation in one of the largest cities in the world.
Make your own batarangs with the Wazer desktop water jet cutter
You're probably familiar with laser cutters, if only because of indelible images like Sean Connery strapped to a table as a red beam slowly makes its way toward his crotch. But in practical use, the fire hazard and intense power draw can keep reliable laser cutting out of the hands of most non-supervillains. The same can also be said for water jet cutting, which uses a focused stream of water to slice things up. It's extremely effective and relatively safer -- for starters, there's no chance of setting the thing you're cutting aflame. Unfortunately, it's also pretty big and expensive. That is, until today, with the launch of the Wazer desktop water jet cutter. It's small but still powerful enough to cut through a Rolex, and it hits Kickstarter today for a (relatively) affordable $3,599. Now, both makers and wannabe supervillains alike can enjoy the benefits of waterjet cutting from the convenience of their garages.
Who needs a smart tampon when you have common sense?
Does the idea of a "smart tampon" have any value?
I used an app to make custom molded earbuds in only a minute
Earlier this week, we heard about the Revols, a pair of wireless earbuds that can be custom-fit to your ears in 60 seconds. In just a few short hours after it hit Kickstarter, Revols met and surpassed its $100,000 funding goal -- it's now earned a little over $326,000 in pledges. To learn what all the hype was about, I talked to the two co-founders and tried out a prototype version of the custom-fit earphones for myself. In sum? It works. In just under a minute, I had custom molded earbuds.
Grow your own edible mealworms in a desktop hive
The idea of eating insects isn't new -- there are several cultures around the world that actually rely on them as a major food source. But those in the Western world haven't quite caught on, and that's a bit of a shame. See, insects cost a lot less to produce and are far less harmful to the environment than raising livestock. Katharina Unger thinks so too. Not only that, but she also thinks that people need be more informed about where their food comes from. That's why she and friend Julia Kaisinger created the LIVIN Farms Hive, which is what they're calling the first ever edible insect desktop hive. With it, the two hopes to spread the gospel and value of growing, breeding, harvesting and, yes, eating your very own mealworms.
Experience dysentery on an Arduino-powered 'Gameboy'
The handheld gaming world has been on the retreat since smartphones replaced the Gameboys in our pockets. But, when you mix nostalgia, an Arduino and a low price point, you get the credit-card sized Arduboy. The 8-bit gaming rig fits in your pocket, sports a black-and-white 1.3-inch OLED screen, two piezo speakers, and an eight-hour battery life. Created by Kevin Bates, his first version that he posted on YouTube garnered enough interest that Bates quit his job and started working on Arduboy full time and now you can preorder one of these full little devices.
Perpetuum reels from robot insurance fraud
In an MMO so dependent on its economy, it's crucial to keep a tight rein on the flow of money so that the whole mechanism doesn't spin out of control. Unfortunately, it appears this started to happen in the relatively new Perpetuum when a number of profiteers began to unbalance the economy by manipulating the market on insured robots. According to a Perpetuum dev blog, the fraud came about when players figured out how to game the insurance system. The game's robots are insured not according to a fixed amount, but in relation to the global market average. Developer "Zoom" explains what happened next: "Due to some additional flaws in the mechanism, with good skills and good facilities it became very profitable to manufacture robots with the sole purpose of insuring them and blowing them up as soon as they roll out of the factory." While the dev team initially sanctioned the action as part of a free market economy, this post represents a changed stance toward such practices. Players have written to Massively telling of how their wallets were sucked completely dry by the company after months of what they assumed to be legitimate market techniques. The team retrieved over a billion NIC (Perpetuum's currency) from players and called out a number of corporations involved in these actions. Ultimately, the team elected not to ban any of the associated parties for the time being. Instead, all players should be seeing a modified version of this insurance feature within the week. [Thanks for all the tips sent in on this one!]
WoW Moviewatch: HAX
You might (should?) remember Ian Beckman from Azerothian Supervillains. He's now released a new rap video as part of a Senior Thesis Project at Chapman University's Dodge College of Film and Media Arts. Ultimately, this video -- titled HAX -- is in competition with a few other musically similar videos. So, if you like it, take a moment to visit the site and vote for it.This is simply one of my favorite music videos I've seen for this genre. Not only is the music awesome, the video itself is a fun and nostalgic romp through games of old. Pac-Man and Mario Brothers are just two great examples. Ian's done a great job making his video's main character Zeldo fit within the games' context. It's obvious Zeldo's a visitor, but affected by his location.The dancing girl is a great nod to the genre of rap music videos. You always have a pretty dancing girl. (I'm sure someone can show me rap videos without a pretty dancing girl, but I'd be hard pressed to find it myself.) However, she's suitably pretty, suitably dancing, and still screams "video gamer" to me. She's also not dressed in a skimpy outfit, which fits my out-of-date, prudish sensibilities. I enjoy the way Ian's blended real world footage to video game graphics. It works great.If you could, take the time to visit the contest site and vote for HAX. If Ian wins, maybe we'll get lucky and another video in this style.If you have any suggestions for WoW Moviewatch, you can mail them to us at machinima AT wowinsider DOT com.Previously on Moviewatch ..
DS Daily: Cheating
It's a depressing fact that cheating will always be a part of online gaming, regardless of your platform of choice. For some time, those of weak moral fiber have been able to grant themselves infinite energy, infinite ammo, and the ability to levitate in Metroid Prime: Hunters (encouragingly, Nintendo claims it is now taking measures to prevent this), while the whole Mario Kart DS/snaking debate has rumbled on for some time (though we know of at least one Nintendo representative who would argue that the method isn't actually cheating, and we're sure many of you would concur).Today, we'd like to hear about some of your own experiences of cheating opponents. Which games do you find attract the most online cheats, and have any of you indulged in this dark art yourselves?
Hackers finding Internet Channel exploits (again)
In releasing the final version of the Opera web browser for the Wii, it was believed that all security threats evident in the trial version of the channel were fixed. Turns out, that might not be the case, as hackers are finding a new exploit in the included browser's Flash Player. Through this loophole, it's believed that hackers could get emulators running on the system. This, for obvious reasons, would be a disaster for Nintendo.
Hunters Hax
While the DS homebrew and hacking community doesn't quite hold a candle to the PSP's, there are still many a soul who live to exploit Nintendo's wonderful hardware. While many have managed to perform "good" by enabling things such as emulators and voice chat, there are those who would do malicious evil. This is one of those cases. A hacker named Legacy has released an application that grants players in Metroid Prime: Hunters access to several cheats, including infinite energy, infinite ammo, and levitation. Worst of all, these capabilities are also accessible in official Wi-Fi matches; before long, you may see a few of these cheats yourself. Tsk tsk, Legacy. Got rocked a few times too many?
