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The Morning After: Tuesday November 1st 2016
It's the morning after we were reminded that war is hell, sneakers can fit themselves and jingles don't last forever. We also reported on the quiet rise of the high-end tablet and the return of CD piracy. Join us below for everything you might have missed.
Power Laces 2.0 ditch the external servo and retro colors, look production-ready (video)
The self-lacing Power Laces shoes have made quite a stir since we caught sight of them back in July. Creator Blake Bevin launched a Kickstarter program to actually produce the things and, working to raise the $25k in funding needed to build 'em, Blake has created a video of version 2.0 of the shoes. This time the blue and pink are gone, as are the Nike logos (perhaps to avoid trademark and patent ramifications), replaced with a cleaner though taller silver and white design. The servo that handles the laces is now hidden in the heel, and a pressure sensor starts the lacing process as soon as you put your foot in. We like that idea, but we're not sure how comfortable walking on a servo would be. Pony up $50 to join the fund and you can be among the first to find out.
Auto-lacing sneaker laces itself, is looking for a friend
In the future, even the most menial, second nature tasks will be automated, because why not? Taking a page from the book of Back to the Future II, a fashionable DIYer has gone ahead and brought a little piece of the future to us, with this autolacing sneaker. There's only one so far, but it's got a force sensor which reads the pressure of your foot when you put it in the shoe, and that activates the two servos which tighten the laces. There's also a switch to reverse the servo and loosen the laces. Check out the video of its operation below, and hit up the source if you want to make one (or two!) of your own.
