Have you been struggling to come to terms with your non-iPhone-controlled massage chair ever since seeing the Acutouch HT-9500 back in August? Well, your long, comfortable nightmare could soon be over. The massage chair is now available for the low, low price of $4,999 -- that's a full grand off the MSRP. In case you missed it, the real selling point here (for some folks, anyway) is the accompanying HT-Connect app for the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch, which will let you wirelessly control the chair and give you "instant access to a world of resources, massage programs and expertise designed to improve your wellness and life." Head on past the break for a glimpse of the app itself, and hit up the source link below to find a retailer near you (it's unfortunately listed as out of stock online).

Every time we turn around, auto manufacturers are developing loads of new displays and sensors. At what point does the driver hit sensory overload? That's the question that prompted John Morrell, an Associate Professor at Yale School of Engineering, to position twenty vibrating cellphone motors in a rectangular array inside the driver's seat. Several different warnings were devised, including positional warnings (someone approaching closely behind will set off the center of the array, while a car approaching from the left or right will set off the motors on your left or right, respectively). Preliminary tests were done on a simulator based on The Open Racing Car Simulator (TORCS) platform, and so far things look promising. "[T]he vibrotactile feedback improved drivers' performance over that attained by using the rearview mirror alone," according to Gizmag, "and also helped warn of vehicles hidden by the mirror blind spot." Now, if this could do double duty as a massage chair? Then we'd be onto something.