Crazy Tech Countdown - Crazy cookies and vending machines from Japan, plus the best time waster ever
Hey and once again welcome to Crazy Tech Countdown, the weekly column that showcases the edgiest, weirdest or just plain silly tech stories of the week. This week features the best software time waster ever, the return of Polaroid and a lot more, so get your protector goggles on and fasten your seatbelts because this is going to be a hell of a ride!
5- Is instant film gone? Think Again - With everyone using SD card-based digital cameras nowadays, sometimes I miss our long family trips where my dad would take out his (at the time) brand-new camera to take a picture of a 5-year-old me, then we all would get ice cream. Alright, maybe that isn’t true given I wasn’t alive 40 years ago, but polaroids, or instant film as many call it, is still alive and well in Japan. This battery-powered camera uses 16-buck film with 20 photos each and might sell in the US with the price tag of $220. Of course this won’t replace your fancy digital camera but maybe if you want to bring back some of your childhood memories, this can perfect for you.
4- A vending machine that guesses what you want – In the West you can consider yourself lucky if you walk up to a vending machine and all buttons and labels are in place and the drink actually comes out. But what if your vending machine actually was a 47-inch touch display and guessed what you wanted to drink based on your sex and age? That came true today as a Japanese (yeah, where else?) railway operator started rolling out these smart vending machines throughout Tokio and Japan, about 500 of these. What do we do here in the West? We wait until they put us out of our misery.
3- How about an interactive story? – If you’re like me, sometimes you just sit in front of your computer with nothing better to do. Of course you could just go to YouTube or your favorite entertainment site, but I’d like you to consider this third option: an interactive story. As the name implies, it’s a flash-based story you can control by making decisive actions that will define its course. This one is about daydreaming on a summer day, kittens and talking birds. It has to be seen to be believed, so just click on the image below to check it out:
2- Dry your soaked cellphones for $12 – It’s never good when you’re on that very important business trip and your cellphone gets soaked for whatever reason. You could just go and buy a $20-phone or call your carrier hoping they give you a replacement (which sometimes, sorry, not gonna happen). However, some machines that claim to bring your soaked phone back to life are popping up in some shops in Tokyo. No word on how they actually go about doing it, but you’re only charged if the rehabilitation is successful, so there’s some guarantee right there. Could this be the end of soaked cellphones as we know it?
1- Augmented reality now actually lets you taste things – I remember how crazy people would go in the 90s over those huge helmets that would make you see things. That was great, but how about huge helmets that let you taste things? That’s reality now my friends, just watch this video from the University of Tokyo:
That’s it for this week. Please let me know what you think by replying to this as well as stories you’d like to see in the future. See you next week with more crazy tech!
