Here you’ll find a carefully curated collection of new things in the world that are awesome. You’re welcome.
The Pebble watch connects to iPhone and Andorid via Bluetooth and does a lot more than just tell time. It can act as a remote control, provide distance and rate information during workouts and display incoming texts, e-mails and call on a user’s wrist. The Pebble is also open to developers, so expect to see new uses and apps as it ships out to customers.
Glancing at a photo of the e-paper watch, you wouldn’t notice anything too different or special about it — it looks like an understated digital watch. But this particular smartwatch has captured the public’s attention to the tune of $10 million in Kickstarter funding, making it the most-financed project in Kickstarter history. It’s an amazing feat when you consider just how many big-name smartphone and tablet brand s are fighting for the same attention.
True, physical keyboards may eventually be outmoded by projected versions, but until such technology becomes ubiquitous, the K310 is a nice alternative. K310 should be out sometime in October and will run about $39.99.
Ready for your life to be more like a dystopian sci-fi novel in all the worst ways? Tough, because science doesn’t care if you’re ready. Brainwave scanning consumer electronics designed for gaming can be hacked to read other brainwaves, potentially revealing your secrets by pulling them directly from your brain. Researchers have already modified the brain-computer interface (BCI) devices to poke around in brainwaves that signify recognition, letting them know when you recognize a face, number, or address, even if you’re telling them you don’t.
Brainwave-reading devices, which control computers hand s-free, have become increasingly popular for entertainment, control of prosthetics for paralyzed individuals, and military application. The latest commercial versions of brain-reading devices, often used by researchers and software developers, can cost as little as $300 (the product pictured above is the “ Emotiv“).
Just think of the endless applications: Brand s could use it to identify the mass-market awareness of a particular product. Facebook could identify whether users actually know the people they recommend under the “people you may know” section. So as brain-wave reading technologies become more pervasive, it appears we will inadvertently leave ourselves vulnerable to a new security threat: mind hacking.
Just because the Olympics are over doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy some good ol’ olympic-inspired art. Ugo Gattoni‘s Bicycle is no exception. Bicycle is this awesomely huge 15 foot long drawing that consists of a ridiculously insane bike race through London. The illustrations are so intricate that Gattoni used a magnifying glass to capture every fine detail.
