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24 Jun 05:03
People Skewered with Geometric Shapes by Aakash Nihalani
by Christopher Jobson
A number of new works today from artist Aakash Nihalani (previously) who has been skewering subjects in Brooklyn with his geometric figures made from neon tape as part of a new body of work called Landline. You can follow the artist’s newest work on his blog Eye Scream Sunday.
24 Jun 05:03
What the biggest companies are from each state in the US
by Casey Chan on Sploid, shared by Casey Chan to Gizmodo
The most popular brands in America are not always the largest companies making the most revenue. Brands that you know, stores that you go to and places that you associate with some states get replaced by faceless monoliths who basically repurpose oil, energy, technology, other people's money, etc. into more money.
24 Jun 04:55
Union Square Cafe Joins Other Victims of New York City’s Rising Rents
by By JULIA MOSKIN
Danny Meyer plans to close Union Square Cafe when its lease expires and move the restaurant to a location to be determined.
24 Jun 04:55
Customer Sat
by John Gruber
John Moltz:
To hear Tim Cook talk about it, Apple takes customer satisfaction very seriously, far more seriously than its competitors. But that may not quite be it: The difference between Apple and its competitors is that Apple’s customers and end-users are one and the same.
Probably the single thing that most differentiates the iPhone from all its top competitors.
24 Jun 04:55
One Year, Two Years, What’s the Difference?
by John Gruber
JR Raphael, writing for Computerworld:
When a company promises two years of free mobile data service with a device, you expect them to deliver. So what happens when a promise suddenly evaporates after you’ve purchased a product?
That’s the situation owners of Google’s LTE Chromebook Pixel are finding themselves facing right now. The LTE model of the Pixel went on sale from Google’s Play Store last April for $1450. At the time, the product was advertised as coming with a free two-year mobile broadband plan from Verizon — 100 MB per month, with the option to purchase more data on a pay-as-you-go basis as needed.
Fast-forward to one year later, and Pixel LTE owners are discovering their data plans have been disconnected. The option to pay for data remains, but the free 100 MB per month mysteriously vanished just one year into the promised two-year period.
Just a flat-out reneging.
That this story is only breaking in June, two months after it started affecting Chromebook Pixel owners, seems telling regarding the device’s popularity.
24 Jun 04:53
NASA space rover drives on the underside of the ice
by Casey Chan on Sploid, shared by Casey Chan to Gizmodo
NASA just completed a test of an early prototype—maybe just an early, early precursor—space rover that may be flown to explore the Jupiter moon Europa. What's cool is that the rover is designed to float on the underside of the ice and "rove as if the underside of the ice is the ground." Up is down, down is up.
23 Jun 22:38
Here's your breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
Nestlé Is Working on a Nespresso Machine for Soylent-Like Drinks
by Clint Rainey
Here's your breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
Still icked-out by the thought of your coffee machine churning out steaming cups of Campbell's tomato soup? Well, then you probably won't be thrilled to hear that over in Switzerland, Nestlé's cutting-edge "health lab" has some serious Nespresso-meets-Soylent single-serve-supplement tech in the works. Quaintly code-named "Iron Man," the product is still years away from the completion, but the basic idea is that the machine will use consumer-specific data to formulate and dispense Über-multivitamins, in yummy drink form.
The multivitamin itself may be experiencing some criticism from PhDs, but the scope of the Nespresso machine goes beyond it, with the institute's head asking people to imagine "food at the press of a button," and intimating that the nutrient-pod machines "can be the next microwave in your kitchen." The world's diets suck for all kinds of reasons, and Nestlé's fifteen-scientist team argues the contraption would address myriad issues, not to mention curb high diabetes and heart-disease rates. Still, Soylent costs about $3 per serving, and right now, these machines run $500,000; the going rate for a "complete profile" of supplements is "well over $1,000." In order for any for this to catch on, it seems, the price of the nutritious slurry will have to come down to less than the price of that proverbial cup of coffee.
Nestle Aiming to Develop a Nespresso of Nutrients [Bloomberg]
Nestle Is Developing a Soylent-Like 'Nutrient Nespresso' [Quartz]
Read more posts by Clint Rainey
Filed Under: pod people, nespresso, nestle, soylent, the future
23 Jun 22:37
Sony: We were “dancing in the aisles” when Microsoft announced $499 Xbox One
by Kyle Orland
Fans rejoiced when the PS4 came in $100 less than its Microsoft counterpart—apparently Sony employees did too.
By the time E3 2014 rolled around earlier this month, the original $499 price point for the Xbox One was already ancient history. Still, sitting down with Sony Head of Worldwide Studios America Scott Rohde at the show, I couldn't help asking how he felt when he first heard that the PlayStation 4 was going to launch $100 cheaper than its nearest competition.
"I'm not gonna lie. I remember exactly where I was," Rohde told Ars. "We were in press conference rehearsals last year. We had a feeling they were going to come in at $499, but we weren't sure. So yeah, we were dancing in the aisles and high-fiving. It was great. Anyone that came in on an interview, it didn't matter what the question was, I could always just answer it with $399. It was the answer to every question."
The process to get to that moment started way back in 2008, when Sony started work on the PS4 hardware design with a $399 price point firmly in its sights, Rohde said, echoing similar sentiments from Sony Worldwide Studios President Shuhei Yoshida. The focus on the lower price point was the result of hard-earned lessons from the previous hardware generation, he said.
Read 7 remaining paragraphs | Comments
23 Jun 22:33
Chromebook buyers were promised two years of free Verizon data, only got one
by Jon Brodkin
Andrew Cunningham
Google's LTE-equipped Chromebook Pixel cost $1,449 at launch in April 2013, but it was advertised as coming with various perks, such as two years of free data from Verizon Wireless.
It was just 100MB a month, a little taste to tempt people into buying pricy data packages. But Verizon apparently only delivered the promised data for about a year before pulling the plug. Computerworld's JR Raphael has the story today, confirming it himself because he bought an LTE-equipped Pixel in April 2013.
One year after purchase, "Pixel LTE owners are discovering their data plans have been disconnected," Raphael wrote today. "The option to pay for data remains, but the free 100MB per month mysteriously vanished just one year into the promised two-year period."
Read 5 remaining paragraphs | Comments
23 Jun 21:38
Art Meets Mathematics: Dizzying Geometric GIFs by David Whyte
by Christopher Jobson
In 2011, Dublin-based physics student David Whyte began a Tumblr called Bees & Bombs where he posted humorous images and quirky GIFs of his own creation, borrowing heavily from videos and pop culture icons. One day he decided to start playing with Processing, a popular open source programming language designed to help create images, animation, and various computer interactions. His background in mathematics and physics greatly enhanced his understanding of motion and geometry and it wasn’t long before he was churning out some of the most popular animations shared on Tumblr.
Whyte’s minimalistic use of shapes and color places an increased emphasis on motion, and leaves one somewhat dumbstruck at how he conceives of each image. In a somewhat rare move he happens to be quite open about his methods and frequently posts source code and tips to help other artists. See much more of his work on Bees & Bombs.
23 Jun 21:30
It's the place where $2.50 gets you life-changing dumplings but also where an $80 prix fixe meal offers you a spread of food from one of the best chefs in town. [ more › ]
The Ultimate List Of 'Bang For Your Buck' Los Angeles Restaurants
by Staff
It's the place where $2.50 gets you life-changing dumplings but also where an $80 prix fixe meal offers you a spread of food from one of the best chefs in town. [ more › ]
23 Jun 21:30
‘What Worked for 500 Apps in 2008 Doesn’t Work for 1.2 Million in 2014.’
by John Gruber
Andy Baio wants Apple to get social with App Store recommendations:
Apple is using discovery methods from the age of brick-and-mortar bookstores and videogame shops — shelves of staff picks and bestseller lists are useful, but they’ll never be able to expose more than the very surface of what’s in the App Store.
The failure of Ping may have left Apple scared of taking this on, but that would be a mistake. Ping failed because of bad execution, and a failure to iterate, not because it was a bad idea.
Something like Twitter’s @MagicRecs for iOS apps would be great.
23 Jun 17:12
A Mesmerizing Site That Tracks and Displays Real-Time Lightning Strikes
by Andrew Liszewski
Did you know that a lightning strike emits a broadband pulse of radio waves that can be detected thousands of miles away? It's that phenomenon which allows a website called Blitzortung to show lightning strikes as they happen all around the world, in real-time. If you thought it was hard to tear your eyes away from the World Cup, this is somehow even more entertaining to watch.
23 Jun 15:25
Freddy is Still the King of Falafel (And His Kofta isn’t Bad Either)
by Yvo
Even though I live in Queens and multiple people have raved about Freddy’s to me, I never went. Why? Because it takes two subways for me to get there. Now that I work in Midtown, I can just walk over and boom. The menu can be dizzying if you are just walking up for the [...]
22 Jun 14:58
Journamalism
by John Gruber
Students from the Berghs School of Communication post this video demonstrating a purported new service from Google, Google Gesture, which through tendon- and ligament-sensing armbands, wireless networking, and an Android app, translates sign language into verbal speech accurately and in real-time.
Berghs is a Swedish school that bills itself as “the best advertising school — in the world!”
Note that the video was posted to Vimeo, not YouTube, by Berghs, not Google.
Emailed by a Reddit user, one of the students who made the video describes it as “completely fictional”. So it’s not just merely a concept, it’s a concept Google itself had nothing to do with. A (well-done) student exercise in advertising, not computer science, biomechanics, or language translation.
Mashable runs a story treating it as a real thing. (My favorite: “A release date for the app has not yet been announced.”)
Android Central plays along. They’ve since updated the article to acknowledge that “it now seems more likely that this is a mock-up project from the marketing students at Berghs”, but the original headline (as evidenced by the URL slug) read “googles-developed-arm-bands-can-translate-sign-language-real-time”.
Scirocco6 likes this
21 Jun 02:34
Three New Chrome Games Quench Your Soccer Lust Between World Cup Games
by Andrew Liszewski
Even after waiting four years for it to roll around again, the World Cup isn't wall-t0-wall matches. There are breaks in-between the games that need to be filled while you wait for the action to start up again. Drinking the hours away is one solution, but Google has a more sober suggestion: A collection of mini-games you can play with your browser and smartphone.
21 Jun 02:00
While Away Your Friday By Designing Your Own Fantasy Transit System
by Alissa Walker
For would-be Transportation Czars who have grander ideas for the buses and trains in your town, Transitmix helps you draw a fantasy transit system for your city that's specific down to the block. And it's got a bunch of real-world features that can help you calculate everything from ridership to operating costs.
20 Jun 22:05
This London bus stop is made entirely from 100,000 Lego bricks
by Alissa Walker on LEGO, shared by Eric Limer to Gizmodo
An entire Lego bus stop built to Transport for London specifications has been constructed in London's Regent Street—right in front of a toy store, of course. The route signs, the windows, even the seats are made of Lego bricks!
20 Jun 21:59
Friday Fives: Jessica Seinfeld tells The Infatuation about...
by Greg Morabito
Jessica Seinfeld tells The Infatuation about her husband Jerry's favorite places to eat: "Babbo is Jerry's favorite restaurant in the world, (other than Pizzeria Bianco in Phoenix, Arizona). He loves anything Mario Batali...Those two have bro'd up hard over the past few years and they talk about anything other than food." [II]
20 Jun 21:39
Watch the miraculous survival of a failed world record car jump
by Tom Warren
On March 18th, French rally car driver Guerlain Chicherit set out to break the world record for the longest car jump. After calculating 15 different parameters, including altitude, angle, speed, and weight of the car, Chicherit sped down a snowy mountain at 160kmh (99mph) in an attempt to jump a 360-foot gap between a steel ramp and concrete landing. It all went horribly wrong. Chicherit’s car nosedived sharply before landing, sending him flipping over and cartwheeling inside a specially adapted BMW Mini he previously used to perform a 360-degree backflip last year.
While videos of the crash emerged earlier this year, GoPro just released new footage that highlights every angle and the frantic aftermath of a stunt gone wrong. It captures...
20 Jun 21:34
Formula 1 wants to make sparks cool again
by Cassandra Khaw
Sparks might soon fly at the Formula 1 circuits. Autosports writes that F1 teams considered using glowing brake discs and vapor trails to make the world-famous races more dramatic, but eventually settled on '80s-esque sparking cars. According to Autosport, provisional approval has since been given by the F1 Commission to implement these plans in 2015, which will involve installing titanium skid blocks on all cars. Steps are currently being taken to determine where best to position these attachments — normally used for safety purposes — in order to produce the most grandiose effects.
Both Ferrari and Mercedes are outfitting their race cars with skid blocks for the upcoming Austrian Grand Prix practice on Friday, marking the beginning of...
20 Jun 21:19
Blockbuster: Noma Founder to Open Grand Central Food Hall
by Greg Morabito
[Vanderbilt Hall when it hosted a Nespresso pop-up Facebook]
It's not officially a done deal yet, but Claus Meyer, one of the founders of Copenhagen's genre-defining restaurant Noma, wants to open a Scandinavian food hall in Grand Central Terminal that would have a balcony cafe, a grab-and-go coffee parlor, and a fancy "100-seat Nordic brasserie."
This multifaceted Scandinavian dining complex would take over the landmarked Vanderbilt Hall space inside the station, which is where the annual holiday markets take place. Meyer and his team were the highest bidders of the 15 groups that sent in proposals for the space, and right now they're the frontrunners. Jeff Rosen, the head of real estate for the MTA, tells Flo Fab: "It just so happened that the highest rent proposal was also of the highest quality."
Meyer tells the Times: "Nordic cuisine is very much about capturing the local flavor...so I will have to find a way to bring my philosophy to the New York restaurant landscape." A chef has not been named yet, but if everything goes according to plan, the new complex will open in about two years from now with a 10-year lease. An MTA committee has already endorsed the plan, now it just needs the approval of the Metro North Railroad team and a finance committee. The final decision will be made next week.
· Grand Central Food Hall Proposal Nears Approval [NYT]
20 Jun 19:44
Despite jet-powered motorcycles and mushroom-fueled dragsters, Mario Kart 8 features a distinct lack of real-world bling - a flaw which will be rectified this summer when a special Mercedes Benz kart makes its Mushroom Kingdom debut.
Though Japanese...
Mario Kart 8's Mercedes DLC drifts toward North America, Europe
by Earnest Cavalli
Despite jet-powered motorcycles and mushroom-fueled dragsters, Mario Kart 8 features a distinct lack of real-world bling - a flaw which will be rectified this summer when a special Mercedes Benz kart makes its Mushroom Kingdom debut.
Though Japanese...
20 Jun 19:06
It's no longer the best part of waking up.
Starbucks Plans to Raise Drink Prices Next Week
by Clint Rainey
It's no longer the best part of waking up.
Starbucks chief executive Howard Schultz assured everyone in March that because they'd locked bean prices in through mid-2015, the company would be fine by the commodity's drastic spike in cost, unlike, ahem, certain competitors. Well, starting next Tuesday, drink prices are going up anyway. This "in no way" relates to the tuition program, but regardless, expect to pay 10 to 15 cents more per grande or venti drink (tall brewed coffees and Frappuccinos get a pass). There's a $1 hike coming to bagged coffee, too, but not until July 21 and only to the supermarket beans. [AP]
Read more posts by Clint Rainey
Filed Under: the chain gang, menu prices, starbucks
20 Jun 16:37
Cosplay Panorama Turns Humans Into Superstars
by Luke Plunkett on Cosplay, shared by Luke Plunkett to Kotaku
Attendees at Sydney's Supanova convention last weekend got to try out something pretty neat: a 360-degree camera rig just like the ones E! uses on the Oscars red carpet.
20 Jun 16:33
Let This Man Entertain You With His Giant Ring
by András Neltz
Isaac Hou is a Taiwanese-American street performer hailing from Taipei City in Taiwan, where he lives for one thing: dazzling people with his amazing skills.