Purifier
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LG made an air purifier for your face
Fancy wearing an air purifier on your face?
Smart purifier tells you what's in the air
With certain exceptions, air purifiers aren't especially smart or powerful. They'll remove some of the nastiness, but it's anyone's guess as to how much there actually is. Sprimo thinks it can change that: it's crowdfunding a purifier that's not only more effective than conventional rivals (reportedly up to 50 times more efficient), but designed from the ground up with intelligence in mind. It'll tell you the basic contents of the air and give you a quality rating to give you a sense how clean that air really is. The device will also give you a sense of what filters to use (say, one geared towards pollen) and tell you when you're likely to need a replacement.
Honeywell's Bluetooth air purifier gets pollen alerts from your smartphone
Your air conditioner may already be connected to the web, but what about that lowly air purifier gallantly battling dust in the corner? If a completely connected home is on the docket, prep your 270 bucks and get ready for an upgrade. Honeywell's latest air purifier includes integrated Bluetooth, letting you use your Android or iOS smartphone to turn the device on when you enter the room, control cleaning levels, set a schedule and track when it's time to swap out the HEPA filter. But it takes automation even further, pulling pollen and mold alerts from the web via your smartphone and adjusting fan levels automatically. The HPA250B, which can accommodate rooms of up to 310 square feet, is available from Best Buy for $269.99.
Virgin Pure water purifiers launch offensive against tap and bottled water in the UK
English entrepreneur and chairman of The Virgin Group Sir Richard Branson thinks that your tap water is dirty. So much so, in fact, that he's partnered up with Strauss Water to get one of his new purifiers into your home and onto your countertop. The colorful Virgin Pure T6 (£299, $466) can dispense 1.3 liters of chilled H2O per minute, or 1.4 liters of hot water that's stored internally. The T7 (£379, or $591) delivers a bit more swagger to your crib with its minimalist, tapered design that offers 50 percent faster cold water flow. It even gets a small power bump to heat your hot water more quickly than its less-expensive sibling. It all sounds well and good, but we'll really be impressed when Virgin crams one of these into its seatbacks in first class.
Gates Foundation collaborates with Manchester University to develop potable toilet water
It's an unsettling thought, having to drink water from that bowl in your bathroom, but if the need ever arose, wouldn't you be glad to know it was clean and safe? Dr. Sarah Haigh, a researcher into the properties of nanomaterials at Manchester University, is currently pursuing this goal with a $100,000 grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. With the help of nanomaterials and bacteria, Haigh believes that hydrogen can be easily extracted from not only the water, but human waste itself, which could then be processed into clean water. Should the system work effectively, Haigh stands to receive an additional $1,000,000 grant to further her research and develop inexpensive purification systems for use in nations without modern infrastructure. And you thought nothing worthwhile would come from purchasing Microsoft Office.
Enter at Your Own Rift: Zero-sum game
Ever since I started following RIFT, I've been entranced by the wide-open -- but not limitless -- class system. After all, the virtual world and everything populating it is only half the game; the other half resides in the avatar that sticks with you while you explore it all. Many MMOs have interesting ways of letting you build and grow your character, but sooner or later they come to a point where there's little more to be done other than incrementally increasing your stats by gaining better gear. Not so with RIFT, as even a level 50 can drop a few coins to shape a completely new build from scratch. No longer are we bound to a rigidly defined creation; we are free to experiment, tinker, and try out these roles to our hearts' content. With RIFT's soul system, there are a few ground rules that everyone learns early in the game. You can have up to three souls in your archetype active at any one time; you can only spend as many points in a build as you have in levels (such as 10 points at level 10); and you'll end up with 66 points at level 50, which means that you'll at least dabble in a second soul tree with every build. And while you can certainly spread soul points across all three trees, today I wanted to look at the benefits of a zero-point soul, the "third wheel," if you will, of builds.
Thanko's USB Mask circulates air, freaks out co-workers
Nah, USB-powered fans aren't anything special these days, but infusing a couple of 'em into a bizarre facial mask and marketing it to folks with allergies earns top marks in the outlandish department. Thanko, the folks who continually put the fun back into USB, is busting out yet another oddity that relies entirely on USB power and your willingness to suffer through public humiliation. The whirlwind mask purportedly circulates airs and filters the incoming flow in order to provide a constant stream of clean, "purified" air, which could actually be useful for secretaries or other cube-dwellers who are forced to inhale the same stale office air day after day. So if you've been having trouble breathing, and don't mind being tethered to your computer nor the constant whirring that'll surround your mouth, you can snag the USB Mask now for ¥2,480 ($21).[Via Engadget Japanese]
