Iconoculture: Yep. Skateboarding’s popular, but not everyone’s ready to stick the sick tricks. Garage Manufacturing’s Softrucks practice (non)wheels for skateboard decks that let newbies learn, practice, and perfect tricks without wheels (or the outdoors) getting in the way. Made from flexible urethane, these stationary trucks simulate actual skating conditions to let the rider master footwork while maintaining balance. Skateboarding is […]
Easy Skateboarding
Idiot-proof PCs For Our Grandmothers
The Register: A Dutch company has developed a PC to ease old people’s fear of computers. In May 2005 Secure Internet Machines (SIM) will introduce three versions of its simPC, which comes preloaded with software and services, such as online banking. The basic model costs €299. One model is just a flat screen with all electronics built-in. There is also […]
Ferrari Baths
Yenra: Jacuzzi has announced a new initiative called Morphosis and unveiled a new series of whirlpool baths — Alpha, Gamma, and Sigma — that were designed in conjunction with Pininfarina, legendary for their Ferrari car designs. Morphosis is a new and important Jacuzzi initiative focused on seeking out ventures in order to combine the best design aspects from outside the […]
Digital Audio Is Hot
Technology Review: Ten thousand songs in your pocket. Millions of tunes on the Internet at your fingertips. And books on tape — they’re going down the path of vinyl records. Welcome to the new world of digital audio. Though the first portable MP3 player debuted in 1999, most personal music libraries still consist of piles of CDs, and relatively few […]
Exercising While Gaming
AP: Consumer electronics companies commonly cater to couch potatoes by pitching bigger television sets, more mesmerizing video games and remote controls that can even place online orders for pizza. But a small cadre of entrepreneurs at the world’s largest technology exposition hope their gizmos make you work up a sweat. Company executives insist that “exergaming” or “exertainment” — the marriage […]
Mobile Aromatherapy
Springwise: Mood swings. Anxieties. Anger. Fatigue. No wonder aromatherapy has become such a massive success. However, until now, it was definitely something that was enjoyed (or should we say applied) in the confinements of consumers’ homes or in expensive spas. New Zealand’s AromaPod has come up with a mobile solution: twist and sniff inhalers in four functional ‘flavors’: Awake, Calm, […]
The Energy Drinks Battlefield
BusinessWeek: How do you convince teens to buy your highly caffeinated, $2-a-can soft drink, when hundreds of other brands are jockeying for shelf space? Skip normal TV ads, for starters. In a field continually littered with new entries, each trying to out-extreme the other, small energy-drink companies are pursuing increasingly audacious marketing tactics. Bridge jumping, a rocket launch, and even […]
E-Biz Trends
eMarketer: eMarketer’s team of analysts and researchers give their predictions of what to look out for in 2005 in the Internet, e-business and emerging tech arena. 1. Alternative Advertising 2. RSS 3. AOL Changes 4. On-Demand TV 5. Wireless Broadband 6. Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) 7. Voice-over Internet Protocol (VoIP) 8. Linux 9. Cross-Channel Retail 10. IT Security Top Ten […]
The Digital Lifestyle
AP: Despite suffering technical glitches that prompted jokes and guffaws, Bill Gates promised Wednesday that Microsoft Corp. would help millions of consumers stay seamlessly plugged into a world of digital music, movies, video games and television shows. In his seventh annual keynote speech at the annual International Consumer Electronics Show, Microsoft’s chairman explained that the proliferation of broadband Internet access […]
The TV Strikes Back
USA Today: TVs are hotter than they’ve been in decades. Screens are getting bigger and brighter as they undergo their first major technological overhaul since the birth of color television in 1953. The highest-tech sets are so thin, they can be hung on the wall like a painting — and are vibrant enough to resemble one, too. Although early models […]