casper
Latest
Casper has a smart sleep lamp to go with your mail-order mattress
Casper is perhaps most well known as the company that popularized the direct-to-consumer mattress-in-a-box movement. Now, however, Casper is ready to move beyond mattresses with its latest innovation: the Casper Glow. Though it might look like a normal lamp, it's actually a smart light designed to dim and brighten in concert with your circadian rhythms, in the hopes of giving you a better night's rest.
The best foam mattresses you can buy online
By Kevin Purdy This post was done in partnership with Wirecutter. When readers choose to buy Wirecutter's independently chosen editorial picks, Wirecutter and Engadget may earn affiliate commission. Read the full mattresses guide here. We've researched more than 40 of the top online mattress companies, surveyed hundreds of Wirecutter readers about their mattresses, interviewed experts on sleeping and mattress design, and spent more than 18 months sleeping on and assessing foam mattresses. All of that leads us to recommend the Leesa as a mattress that will work well for most people who sleep on their side or stomach. The Leesa offers support at the body's pressure points as well as a contouring "hug" that feels comfortable rather than hot or muddy. It breathes to promote cool sleeping, it fared well in eight-year durability tests, and it's just a bit firmer at the edges than the competition. It isn't the best choice for everyone, but it is a good fit for many people. It's also easier to try than a store mattress, because you have 100 days to return and refund your purchase. If you switch between back-sleeping and side-sleeping, or if one of two people sharing a bed tends toward back-sleeping or prefers a firmer mattress, Casper's signature mattress is a better pick than the Leesa. Side-sleepers may find the Leesa relieves more pressure where they sink in (shoulders, elbows, and hips) than the Casper, but by only a small margin. The Casper is a very close runner-up to the Leesa, especially for singles or couples who vary the side they sleep on. For dedicated back-sleepers who prefer a firm mattress but don't want to spend a lot on a spring model, we think the Tuft & Needle mattress works well. It feels better to those who like a particularly firm surface (more supportive than pressure-relieving). The Tuft & Needle has a convenient trial period and comes with a solid warranty. If you want to spend less, the Zinus Green Tea Memory Foam 12-Inch Mattress is a reasonably good, low-cost option. We didn't think it was quite as comfortable as our other picks—its top layer has a squishier memory-foam feel, its core layers seem stiffer, and some people may find it warmer to sleep on—but a lot of people find this to be a perfectly comfortable, supportive mattress. We believe it would make an excellent choice for a child's room or a guest room, or if you simply can't spend $600 to $1,000 on a mattress right now. If you tend to sleep hot or if you know you don't like the sink-and-hug feel of memory foam, we recommend the Pure Green Natural Latex Mattress. This is similarly priced to the Leesa and Casper mattresses, and we would recommend going for this instead if you want to feel more like you're floating on top of the mattress. The Pure Green is the only all-latex option we've tested, but it receives higher overall ratings than other latex mattresses and comes at a better price. The latex doesn't hug the body like memory foam, but still provides great support (especially to the hips and shoulders). We tested the 9-inch mattress (in medium firmness) and recommend it for back- and stomach-sleepers. Sleep on Latex says the soft model works better for side-sleepers. For our initial tests, we slept on six mattresses for a week. Since we first published this guide in April 2016, we've started testing one new foam mattress each month. So far, we've tried Casper's updated model, released in mid-2017, Purple, Helix, GhostBed, Loom & Leaf, Costco's Novaform Serafina Pearl Memory Foam Mattress, Casper's more affordable Essential mattress, and the UK-based Eve Mattress. We'll continue to test one new mattress every month (give or take a few days) and compare it with those from Leesa, Casper, Tuft & Needle, Zinus, and Sleep on Latex's Pure Green.
Mattress maker Casper faces lawsuit for tracking web visitors
Unless you're using strict privacy controls in your browser, you generally expect that online stores will track at least a bit of your activity, if just to send you targeted ads when you browse the web. However, a proposed class action lawsuit is claiming that Casper was far nosier. The suit alleges that the mattress-in-a-box startup violated the Electronic Communications Privacy Act by using code from NaviStone to grab personal data from web visitors without permission. Reportedly, it would collect keystrokes, clicks, IP addresses and other identifying info whether or not you actually submitted it. In theory, Casper could see what you'd typed into a form even if you backed out.
ICYMI: All aboard the hydrogen fuel cell train!
try{document.getElementById("aol-cms-player-1").style.display="none";}catch(e){}Today on In Case You Missed It: A French company just introduced a hydrogen fuel cell train that it plans to install on a line in Germany in 2017. The train can carry 300 passengers reaching speeds of 87 miles an hour, all while emitting water rather than the usual diesel fumes that go along with such routes. We think the Casper insomnia chatbot is probably just a PR stunt by the company, but it may also be functional so you're guess is as good as ours as to why a mattress company would want to talk about people (likely their own customers) who struggle with going to sleep at night. If you're interested, the truck clock video is here. As always, please share any interesting tech or science videos you find by using the #ICYMI hashtag on Twitter for @mskerryd.
Show floor video: JAMF Recon makes asset inventory a snap
For big cross-platform enterprises or educational institutions, keeping track of all those hardware assets can be a pain in the Sarbanes. Fortunately there are plenty of products looking out for your needs, including some particularly Mac-friendly sorts: Keyserver, NetOctopus, LANrev, Apple Remote Desktop, and more. Among the most comprehensive Mac management suites is JAMF's Casper, with modules for deployment, imaging, package building and asset management. The asset management module -- Recon Suite -- was recently spun out as a separate offering and has added Windows PC audit tools. JAMF's Chip Pearson gives us a two-minute drill on Recon's information gathering power; video after the jump. (I have no idea why the wrong title cards are ending up on these videos -- perhaps it has something to do with post-Macworld jet lag!)
