toilets
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Yes, Steve Ballmer actually said 'toilets, toilets, toilets'
Former Microsoft chief Steve Ballmer is obsessed with toilets in the Clippers' new stadium — he's almost as excited about them as he was for developers.
Toto hopes to woo you with its high-tech toilet showroom
Japanese toilets have long been a mainstay in Asian households, but the concept is still something of a curiosity in much of the Western world. Toto, Japan's biggest toilet maker, has attempted to market its high-tech commodes to American audiences for decades with little success. The company is trying to change all this with a brand new "experiential" showroom that launched this week in San Francisco. It's called Concept 190, and it's equipped with four sensor-laden bathrooms where visitors are invited to pee, poo and have a toilet experience unlike anything they've had before.
Japan's high-tech toilets are getting less intimidating
Japan is famed for its elaborate, high-tech toilets; and these elaborate, high-tech toilets are themselves famed for being nigh impossible for foreigners to decipher. Aware of the confusion many visitors face in getting to grips with the country's "beautiful toilet culture," nine manufacturers of luxurious thrones have put competition aside to agree on a new standardized and simple set of icons for common features.
A Westerner's guide to Japanese toilets
Dirt, stains, effluent, material, the load, waste, matter. These are the words my tour guides at Toto's toilet factory and research center in Kyushu used to verbally pirouette around what exactly its porcelain thrones deal with: shit. Japanese toilets are probably the best in the business at getting rid of your business, but for many Westerners, that first moment of contact can be terrifying. There are so many buttons, so many unknown symbols and open-to-interpretation stickmen figures; not to mention the (unfounded) fear that you could be sprayed with toilet water by merely approaching one. The Washlet, as Toto's combination bidet/toilet is called, doesn't come cheap. And yet, in Japan, they are everywhere. In fact, compared to plain, old, featureless toilets, washlets occupy the majority of restrooms.
Sega also skipping Gamescom
Sega has decided to opt out of this year's Gamescom trade show, joining the likes of Nintendo and THQ as a proud member of the "Eh, Maybe Next Year" Club. Essentially, having a presence at a show in August (even if it is the largest gaming show in the entire world) just doesn't jive well enough with Sega's 2012 release calendar: "Unfortunately the release timing of our 2012 AAA titles and new projects don't work with the mid- August scheduling of the show," reads a statement made by Sega to GamesIndustry. "The decision will not mean that Sega will never attend Gamescom in the future, this was simply a commercial decision made for 2012." Maybe the German market for interactive gaming toilets isn't as booming as originally thought?
Sega urinal game 'Toylets' goes on sale to general public, sink companion still missing (video)
In an effort to reduce male patron's messiness (and grab some cash from locales not necessarily associated with gaming) Sega's Toylets can now be found in restrooms across Japan -- and even in a handful of cities overseas. You won't need to make the laborious trek to your nearest bar or arcade to beat the high score any more, however, as Sega's now put the urinal games terminal up for sale to (Japanese) Joe Public. A sensor at the base will detect pressure and, er, volume which acts as the controls. A screen at eye level will show your progress, and you can expect several short-but-sweet games in the style of Rhythm Tengoku or Warioware. It all comes a price though -- you'll need to stump up 140,000 yen (around $1750) for the device itself and 10,000 yen ($125) a piece for games. The porcelain is (unfortunately) not included.
Kohler's Numi $6,400 high-tech toilet does most of the dirty work for you (video)
We've seen some pretty fancy cans in our time, but perhaps none as tricked out as Kohler's latest $6,400 john. The Numi does just about everything for you, aside from the stuff that, well, only you can do. Looking something akin to a fancy pop-top waste bin, Numi comes complete with a self-opening and closing lid so you never have to touch the toilet seat; a self-cleaning bidet with adjustable controls for temperature and water pressure; heating elements to keep your toes and tush toasty; an illuminated panel for nighttime rendezvous; a built-in speaker system that connects to a remote docking station to ensure only you know exactly what you're doing in there; and a deodorizing element that sucks air from the bowl through a charcoal filter. Of course, no connected appliance would be complete without a touchscreen, and the Numi's no exception; it has a touch panel remote that you can use to set to your specifications. Now, that's what we call a porcelain throne. Check out the ridiculously lavish promo video after the break.
Sega Toylets lets you game with your boy bits (video)
Sega, the once proud innovator of console design, is back in the gaming hardware business! Only not in the fashion you might think. The company has just rolled out a trial of its Toylets system, which embeds a pressure sensor into otherwise innocuous urinals and gives life to every bad piece of joystick-related innuendo you ever heard. Four games are available right now, to be enjoyed through a display mounted at eye level, including one where the intensity of your delivery helps blow a girl's skirt up and another that offers (asynchronous!) multiplayer competition. The latter game matches you against the previous dude to have used the porcelain repository, thereby finally providing Japanese men with a measurable way to settle pissing contests. It's official: we're moving to Japan.
Finland's roadside toilets: now accessible only by SMS
While those in London can use SMS to actually find a lavatory, folks passing through Western Finland will be required to bust out their handset in order to relieve themselves in select public restrooms. In an attempt to curb vandalism, the Finnish Road Administration has implemented a system along Highway 1 which requires restroom visitors to text "Open" (in Finnish, of course) in order to let themselves in. The idea is that folks will be less likely to lose their mind and graffiti up the place knowing that their mobile number is (at least temporarily) on file, but it remains to be seen if uprooters will simply take their defacing ways elsewhere or actually excrete in peace.[Via Switched]
SMS-based SatLav service guides Londoners to public toilets
If you've ever found yourself stuck in London with the insatiable urge to urinate in an alleyway, help is on the way. Believe it or not, a new SMS-based toilet finding service actually has the aforementioned predicament as a top priority to solve, and the Westminster City Council is hoping that people utilize the system to keep streets a bit cleaner. Cleverly dubbed SatLav, the technology enables individuals passing through London's West End to text the word "toilet" to 80097 in order to receive a (hopefully hasty) reply with details to get to the nearest public restroom. Unfortunately, the service will cost users £0.25 ($0.52) each time they use it, so we're a bit skeptical that alleyway urinators will happily cough up some coin rather than just sticking to old ways.[Image courtesy of BBC]
NASA drops $19m on Russian toilets for American asstronauts
So apparently NASA has agreed to purchase toilet technology from the Russian company RSC Energia for the tidy sum of $19 million, to be delivered to the ISS in 2008 in preparation for a crew upsizing from three to six members. The previous system required that urine tanks be transfered to cargo ships and burned up in the Earth's atmosphere, but the new toilets operate like a waste treatment center on Earth, collecting and reconstituting urine as drinking water -- an unpleasant concept for a number of our readers, but a welcome relief for thirsty astronauts. The toilets are similar to normal models, though they employ leg restraints and thigh bars to hold the "user" in place, and high-powered fans to suck, um... waste into the commode. The system will be installed on the American side of the station, while the Russian-side will remain as is, resulting in extremely long lines to use the "good" bathroom.
The Babykeeper: toilet training with visual aids
We've seen our fair share of strange and / or gimmicky products around here, but the Babykeeper by Mommysentials has to be one of the creepiest. This contraption allows you to hang your six to eighteen month old infant on the door of a public toilet stall while you, um, do your business. Now we're not questioning the safety of the device or the necessity of keeping an eye on your child at all times, but who in their right mind wants their little baby staring at them squatting over a dirty toilet, especially after they've dined at, say, Taco Bell. In the same way that its traumatizing for children to watch their parents engage in "adult activities" (or heaven forbid, be in the same bed), we can't imagine that it's psychologically healthy for Junior to get slung up on the back of a swinging door and be forced to watch Mommy heed nature's call every time they're out and about. The $60 Babykeeper may be the perfect solution for some, but we'll stick to the tried-and-true methods of either holding it in or paying an honest-looking stranger to act as temporary babysitter every once in awhile (this last parenting tip was brought to you by BloggingBaby).[Via Pocket-lint and Babygadget]
Maxim lists top game toilets
Sometimes it seems like anything video-game related that can be listed has been listed. Games, weapons, underused franchises, bad dialog... there are so many that we've even done a list of lists.But just when you think there are no more listable things out there, Maxim comes along and puts together a list of the top ten in-game toilets.That's right. Toilets.Each virtual commode is ranked on realism and cleanliness, and includes a short scatological summary of its crapper characteristics. We won't spoil the number one pick here, but let's just say it's a game that features someone known for his potty mouth.[Thanks, Scott]
