As I sit here, and my arm slightly protests from carrying home a few bags of groceries yesterday, I am reminded again of this Gita helper robot thing I read about the other day, and how I kinda sorta want one. The team’s first product is Gita, a round rolling robot that can carry up …
Category Archives: gadgets
Stupid Smart Products Nobody Needs But Somebody Will Buy Anyway
Since this is a favourite infuriating topic of ours, some of you might enjoy this round-up of smart gadgets that really don’t need to be smart and probably have no legitimate reason for existing. Highlights (if you want to call them that) include a $209 frying pan that can keep track of what you’ve put …
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Smashmouth’s All-star As Performed By A Windows XP Sound Scheme
This is exactly what the title says it is. Extra points for not doing the whole song. The gag makes its point and then goes home before it stops being funny, as it should be.
Dish, Now With Accessible Set-Top Boxes
Dish has jumped into the adding accessibility features to our boxes market and is now offering text to speech and other features on its Hopper 3, Hopper 2 and Wally receivers. Judging from the demo video up top, they did a pretty decent job for a first release. If Dish is available in your area …
Will Alternative Facts Still Be Lies When It’s Impossible To Tell The Difference?
So it looks like not only are we going to have to worry about digitally fabricated realistic sounding audio when trying to separate fact from fiction, but soon enough we’ll have digitally fabricated facial expressions to contend with as well. Great. One research paper published last year by professors at Stanford University and the University …
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I’m Either Extremely Shortsighted Or I’ve Just Found One Of The Dumbest Blind Person Helping Apps In History
Based on some of the devices and apps that folks create for us, there must be a lot I don’t know about blind people. the latest example of this is my ignorance as to why exactly this would be necessary for one of us who is over the age of about five. DayNight is designed …
Who Took The Cookies From The Cookie Jar? Why Not Ask the Built-in Camera
Normally when I hear about one of these internet connected household gadgets, my first thought is who the hell is this for? But that’s not the case with SKE Labs’ smart jar. Once I get my hands on one, it’s going to be easier than I ever imagined possible to tell something to kiss my …
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The Case Of The Cursing Hatchimals
I wish the headline on this article hadn’t given away what I was supposed to be listening for, because I think it has me hearing something that may not be as clear as it would have sounded otherwise. Below you’ll find two videos from two different customers who claim that the Hatchimals they bought are …
Damn Autocomplete
I have a friend who went on an autocomplete nonsense texting rampage earlier this year simply because it seemed like a fun idea. I hope he sees this and decides to take it to the next level. Just remember who to thank when you get all famous and stuff, dude. A nonsensical academic paper on …
Verizon Fios, Now With Talking Set-Top Boxes For The Blind
I don’t know how new this development is or isn’t, but whenever more people get access to blind guy cable boxes it’s good news worth mentioning. Hello, Canadian companies. I’m still waiting over here. Verizon offers Text to Speech functionality for the Fios TV on-screen guide to enhance accessibility for visually impaired customers. The Text …
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