🚽 Sentient Toilets
One mop short of a closet.
'Alexa, prep the throne. I'm coming in hot!'
Welcome to the future; voice-controlled smart toilets have arrived. Bonus feature: a hidden, auto-extending phallic bidet.
Hope you enjoy it, friend.
ONE MOP SHORT OF A CLOSET
It's 2018 and people are still stupid
Case in point: the guy who tried to break into a truck… with a mop.
It happened at a radio station in Seattle. They acted fast, getting their sports announcer to give an audio play-by-play. Genius.
• Vandal surveillance footage (Twitter, 01:56 watch)
CARDBOARD FUTURE
Nintendo's cardboard wizardry is a game-changer
The Nintendo Switch is, for most people, a surprise hit. To keep that momentum, they added an interesting feature: cardboard.
Nintendo Labo cardboard kits assemble to create tiny robots, a piano, fishing pole, and even a wearable robot backpack. Then, to bring them to life, all you have to add is your Nintendo Switch Joy-Cons (controllers).
If I was nine years old again, this would blow my mind.
• First Look at Nintendo Labo (YouTube, 02:52 watch)
• Nintendo Labo (Nintendo)
ROBOGREETER
Walmart would like you to stop kicking their robots, please
We live in a funny time. Robots are now part of our society, whether we like it or not. So that begs the question, how do we integrate them in a way that isn't terrifying?
The towering, eight-foot-tall robots Walmart uses to track inventory are a great idea. They save humans from scanning every item in the store by hand.
But how will customers react to a monolith rolling toward them in the cereal aisle? The answer is, generally, not very well. So the designers tried to create a friendly-looking, eight-foot-tall robot.
Problem solved?
• Please Do Not Assault the Towering Robot That Roams Walmart (WIRED, 05:00 read + 03:04 watch)
POV MVP
Voxels will change the way we experience video
Imagine you're watching a movie, when, in the middle of a scene, the camera zooms in to show the main actor's point of view. Cool. But, what if that point-of-view camera was never there?
That's what Intel has created with their Voxel technology. It's like those 360º camera rigs, merged with super-advanced software. Voxels—the name Intel gives to 3D video pixels—allow the viewer to go inside the 3D space of a scene, from any angle.
That means you could choose the perspective of your favourite character in a show. Or with sports, the announcer can show a replay from the perspective of an individual player. Crazy!
• Intel's CES 2018 event in 15 minutes (YouTube, 15:05 watch)
• Intel teams up with Paramount Pictures to explore VR films (VentureBeat, 01:00 read)
BURGER 101
Order a burger, learn about the Internet
It's amazing how angry people get when they have to wait for a burger. That's what Burger King did to some of its customers, and it's hilarious.
It's also one of the simplest explanations I've seen for Net Neutrality. Not an easy feat when your audience just wants their damn sandwich.
• Whopper Neutrality (YouTube, 02:50 watch)
HOLY SHEET
The best life hack you'll ever learn
Not a true 'life hack,' per se, but I'll bet good money that most of you don't know how to fold a fitted bed sheet.
I know I didn't. That was until I watched the sweetest video in the world, shot in Teresa's living room.
Thank you, Teresa.
• How to Fold a Fitted Sheet Perfectly Every Time! (YouTube, 02:41 watch)
THE FUTURE IS OWNERLESS
Subscribe to your next car like a streaming service
I may never own a car. Instead, I'll subscribe to it. That's the goal, at least, of the new services that fill the gap between car sharing and car leasing.
Ford has Canvas. Porsche has Passport. Cadillac has BOOK. Volvo has Care. They all have the same thing in common: they're reinventing traditional car ownership.
Unlike a lease, subscriptions work on a month-to-month contract. That means you can switch cars during the year, if you're the indecisive type. You also get insurance, tire and wheel wear, roadside help, and authorized service, all in one price. They'll even deliver the car right to your front door, fully-detailed and filled with gas.
The main difference from a lease? You never own the car and can't sell it at the end of your term. I see it like the big boy upgrade from car2go.
• You Will No Longer Lease a Car. You Will Subscribe to It. (Slate, 06:00 read)
DESKTOP DREAMING
Stop using that default Mac wallpaper
Unsplash Wallpapers is the best way I've found to keep my desktop from getting stale. It's awesome and it's free, like all their photos.
On the daily, it will download a new, kick-ass image from Unsplash and set it as your wallpaper. Nothing more, nothing less.
• Unsplash Wallpapers (Mac App Store)