Crazy Tech News Countdown: turn your iPad into a netbook, speakers for the unborn and more
Hey and welcome once again to Crazy Tech News Countdown, the weekly column that goes over the weirdest, craziest, geekiest and sometimes just plain silly stories of the week. This week we have a way to play music to your unborn child, intelligent recycling bins and much more, so without further ado, let’s count ‘em down, shall we?
5- Buy your friends a drink, even if they’re miles away – Now with social networks and games, it’s really not that hard to give your friends stuff, even if it’s virtual stuff you can’t take advantage of in real life. But interestingly enough, a company named Webtab changed all that by launching Bartab, a mobile and web app that lets you buy your remote friends an actual drink. You pay $1 to give your friend a virtual coupon they can then use to buy a drink themselves. Sadly not many bars accept these coupons right now, this service is only available in San Francisco, New York and Los Angeles and your friend needs to pay $1 as well due to state regulations, but it’s a great concept I hope gets developed further.
4- If you’re in Cleveland, recycle please (or pay a $100-fine) – The city of Cleveland, OH is coming up with a system, already pioneered in Europe, to make people recycle. All recycling bins will be equipped with an RFID sensor to detect how often people actually recycle. If you don’t feel like doing it often enough and over 10% of your waste is recyclable, you’ll be fined $100. This might sound a little drastic, but after all it should be everyone’s civil duty to care for this planet, and if you simply can’t be bothered you should pay the price.
3- Turn your iPad into a netbook – You might love the iPod software but just not get along with its form factor or its virtual keyboard. A Chinese company wants to change all that with a case that resembles a netbook, keyboard and all. In no time you’ll have your dream touch screen netbook running iOS:
2- Talk to your baby, while he’s still in the womb? – When a baby is born, that’s usually the time when he or she makes the first contact with their parents and loved ones. But a company is claiming that strapping their provided speaker around the womb and hooking up an MP3 player to it will actually make the baby listen to and recognize sounds, before they’re even born. Of course this raises many safety questions, but the company claims the sound waves are totally safe, even for a fetus. Would I do this if I was a mother? Probably not, sounds a little creepy and weird.
1- Developing a game in 48 hours (timelapse) – Developer of the game Metagun has released a timelapse video of the whole 48-hour development process. I find this impressive:
So that’s it for Crazy Tech News Countdown. Stay tuned for next week’s edition and be sure to let me know what you think my commenting on this post. Also feel free to suggest future stories. See you next week and until then, peace out!
