This isn’t a story about a new bionic eye technology that’s yet to undergo testing or a cool robotic eye that’s actually just a camera in disguise. This is a story about a bionic eye technology that might actually make it outside the laboratories and into the real world. In May, a prototype of Bionic Vision Australia’s technology was implanted behind one of the retinas of a woman named Dianne Ashworth. When it was switched on recently, 54-year-old Ashworth — who’s been blind for the past 30 years due to retinitis pigmentosa — was able to see lights and shapes again. “I didn’t know what to expect, but all of a sudden, I could see a little flash… It was amazing,” she said. “Every time there was stimulation there was a different shape that appeared in front of my eye.” The researchers still have a lot do before the bionic eye can fully restore a person’s eyesight. But they hope to make it happen after studying Ashworth’s experiences with the implant. They’re developing and testing more advanced prototypes at the moment and have plans to implant those into other patients as well. This article originally published at Tecca here Read more: http://mashable.com/2012/08/31/bionic-eye-blind/
The Nuna Pepp is sure to make you wonder why Americans need to have everything so big. The European stroller, which only recently debuted in the United States, is compact and incredibly light, weighing in at just 19 pounds. Despite its smaller size, the stroller still has a shade, storage basket and five-point harness. We had a chance to test drive the Pepp stroller, and found it to be snappy, compact and very chic. Assembly was a breeze, and it folds incredibly flat for easy storage. The compactness of the stroller is probably its best feature; place it side-by-side with a typical American stroller, and you’ll definitely see the difference. The Pepp is also made for one-hand navigation, so no more coffee-stained shirts while pushing your baby. The five-point harness, however, is something to get used to. Because it requires so many clicks into and out of place, prepare for a greater struggle with your writhing little one. What’s more, the basket underneath is reminiscent of typical European car trunks — very small without much room for storage. The Nuna Pepp retails for about $300, so it isn’t the cheapest stroller on the market, but urban dwellers will appreciate what it has to offer. Read more Crash Test Mom gadget reviews on Mashable Image: YouTube, Crash Test Mom Natali Morris Natali is a technology reporter and host/editor-in-chief of Crash Test Mom, a parenting product review show. She is a regular contributor to CNBC and The TODAY Show, as well as an MBA student at Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business. She is …More Read more: http://mashable.com/2013/09/29/nuna-pepp-stroller/
Cauldrons? Check. Pumpkins? Check. Candy, ghosts and goblins? Check, check, check. Oct. 31 isn’t only about tricks and treats — it’s about stimulating the economy. With 170 million Americans participating in Halloween festivities, there’s a lot of cash being spent on ghoulish items. Personal finance forum WiseBread looked into Halloween spending, and found that from 2007 to 2012, Americans shelled out an average of $28.65 on costumes. What’s more, they spent $370 million costumes for pets within those five years. (For some, though, it’s worth seeing their pooch dressed as a giraffe.) Interestingly, people are turning to social media more often to get ideas for the perfect Halloween getup. Pinterest is a popular source of ideas for All Hallows’ Eve, with 4.2% consulting the online pinboard, while 2.8% are logging on Twitter to get inspiration for costumes. Check out the infographic below to see more stats on the spookiest night of the year. Halloween by the Numbers: With the economy already looking pretty darn scary, will Halloween be tame by comparison? Or is Halloween still an excuse for us to throw on a mask, go wild with fake blood, and forget all about our financial misery? Image: Wise Bread How much did you spend on Halloween this year? Tell us in the comments below. BONUS: 15 Unbelievable Halloween Makeup Tutorials on YouTube 15 Unbelievable Halloween Makeup Tutorials on YouTube 1. Emily from The Corpse Bride Make sure you walk around with your eyes closed, or this costume will become even more creepy. 2. Nina from Black Swan Even if you can’t dance, at least you can perfect this eye makeup. 3. Pinhead from Hellraiser This is a lot less painless than actually putting nails into your head. 4. Zombie We never thought flaps of “skin” could be so intriguing… 5. Scar from The Lion King With the exception of the scar, this look was completed entirely with paint, and we love it! 6. Queen of Hearts from Alice in Wonderland One of the simpler looks, but a red wig is required. 7. Pop Art Comic books come to life. 8. Jigsaw from Saw This video is infinitely creepier than the costume itself. 8. Edward Scissorhands Scissors for hands not required. 10. Zombie Skeleton Although the video doesn’t provide step-by-step directions, just watching the process is helpful. 11. Classic Skeleton One of the simple, classic looks that’s easy to copy. 12. Unzipped Face This is the only video in which the demonstrator talks about what she’d change to make it better, but we say it’s realistic enough. 13. Neytiri from Avatar Novice Na’vi? No problem. 14. Sonic the Hedgehog You can probably skip the eyebrow glue and pencils and freehand this look. 15. The Joker from The Dark Knight Why so serious? BONUS: Mouth/Neck A new take on “necking” this Halloween. Read more: http://mashable.com/2012/10/28/halloween-spending/
Trade your wallet for some creativity this holiday season. The Cooperative of Photography compiled six DIY gift ideas for photography lovers. Even if you’re strapped for time (and cash), you can still make a beautiful and personalized gift. Wood transfers and photo lanterns are basically popsicle stick frames for adults. The Bellas and Green Bay Packers aca-battle in ‘Pitch Perfect 2’ trailer Walter White sells ‘pharmaceuticals’ in Esurance Super Bowl ad Richard Sherman directs his latest tirade at Bill de Blasio in ‘SNL’ sketch ‘SNL’ follows Jay Z on his journey from drug dealer to successful rapper Read more: http://mashable.com/2014/12/16/diy-photography-gifts/
Once you see how the sausage is made, they say, you probably won’t want to eat it. A photographer named Peter Augustus created a photo series that shows popular food dishes next to their raw animal counterparts. It’s … eye-opening, to say the least. Elliott gives his take on it in the newest episode of Mashable Minute. Last week, we strongly persuaded you to not have sex with a shark. Check it out: Read more: http://mashable.com/2014/09/08/mashable-minute-food-porn/
A self-professed food geek has developed a sleek kitchen gadget that makes high-end sous vide cooking accessible in your own home. Sous vide is a cooking technique where food is kept in a water bath that is held at a consistent, low temperature. As explained in the video below, the sous vide method can’t overcook food in the water, allowing consistent results each time you make something. It is partially similar to cooking with a crock pot, in that you can plan a meal ahead and leave food cooking for hours at a time. Seattle-based Scott Heimendinger and Lukas Svec created the Sansaire immersion circulator, which heats and holds water at a very precise temperature, circulating the water to even out hot and cold spots. The consistent results give you evenly-cooked food, as show in the image below (sous vide on left, versus traditionally-cooked on right). Sous vide is a technique we’ve seen in restaurants, but Heimendinger told Mashable it makes sense in the home environment “because it removes you from the role of human thermostat.” In an oven, the temperature is higher so you can overcook food. With sous vide, the water bath is set at or slightly above the intended temperature you want the food to reach. Heimendinger said he cooks a medium-rare steak via sous vide at about 52 degrees Celsius. Afterwards, he uses a blow torch to quickly sear the steak. Heimendinger, also founder of the blog SeattleFoodGeek.com, said he first discovered this technique when he went out to dinner and had a side salad with a sous-vide-cooked egg on top. “The texture was so incredible,” he told Mashable. “It was so perfectly cooked. The yolk: it was thick but still runny, and the white was like pudding … There was something totally special and different about it, and I had to know how it came to be so.” Along with cofounder Svec, Heimendinger wants to take their Sansaire gadget into full-scale production by raising funds on Kickstater. Their project hit its $100,000 goal in about 13 hours, when it first launched in early August. With 13 days still left to go in the Kickstarter campaign, backers had already pledged more than $516,000, as of Friday afternoon. The Sansaire costs $199, much lower than the pro $1,200 circulators Heimendinger says he traditionally saw on the market. This summer, competitor Nomiku also raised more than a half-million dollars on Kickstarter for its immersion circulator. The Nomiku device currently costs $359. A Food Geek Heimendinger (pictured above, left) said he has always had some interest in food, noting that both his parents were good cooks and used to have a lot of dinner parties. “When I got to college, I got more interested in cooking on my own, mostly because the food on campus was pretty terrible,” he said. Heimendinger studied information systems at Carnegie Mellon University and has worked for IBM and Microsoft. He’s now involved with Modernist Cuisine, a Seattle-area research lab that merges the art […]
There’s probably no better time to run with Zombies, Run! than during Halloween, right? If you agree, then you’re in for a Halloween treat when you install the latest update to the popular zombie-fied fitness app. A product of a successful Kickstarter campaign, Zombies, Run! adds an undead twist to running. Instead of just listening to regular music on your iPhone while running, with Zombies, Run! you can listen to music that’s interspersed with stories set in the zombie apocalypse. So, basically, instead of just running, you’re now running for your life, away from hordes of zombies. Now if that doesn’t make you run better, then you’re probably going to be screwed once the real zombie apocalypse happens. If you can’t see the video embedded above, please click here. But until then, or at least until the next Zombies, Run! update, you can take advantage of the following in the new version of the app: Three new race missions! 5k, 10k and 20k missions that unfold kilometer-by-kilometer. These missions take place toward the end of Season 1 Three MORE purchasable race missions — get more story, and support future Zombies, Run! development Race on a treadmill — estimate the distance you’ve covered from your pace count or running time Looks great on iPhone 5, and now optimized for iOS 6 New built-in music playback — better synchronisation, better mixing, better headset controls GPS issues fixed The new version of Zombies, Run! is out now in the App Store. Note that it is available for $3.99 (half its regular price) until Halloween. Image courtesy of Zombies, Run!. Homepage image courtesy Flickr, rodolpho.reis Kairosoft’s new iOS game challenges you to become a Magazine Mogul Evolve: Hunters Quest is your key to unlocking perks in 2K’s upcoming Evolve shooter The Apple Watch may just turn Apple retail stores into jewelry shops Today’s apps gone free: Kingdom Rush Frontiers, Smart PDF Scanner, Gridplay and more This article originally published at AppAdvice here Read more: http://mashable.com/2012/10/30/new-missions-zombies-run/
Image: Mashable, Will Fenstermaker Our next selection for the MashableReads social book club is Molly Antopol‘s The UnAmericans. Molly Antopol, recently named one of The National Book Foundation’s top “5 Under 35” authors, makes her short story debut with her collection The UnAmericans. The collection follows a multiplicity of voices ranging from a teenager coming of age during the Red Scare to a former dissident writer from Prague reflecting on his negligence as a father. As Antopol navigates from story to story, she explores a global and multi-generational Jewish identity with so much heart, wisdom and tenacity that this story collection is bound to resonate with readers of all ages. Be sure to follow @mashlifestyle to discuss The UnAmericans, using the hashtag #MashReads throughout the month. You can also join our Goodreads group to stay updated on MashableReads, and let us know what you think of the book. Want to hang out with the author in person? Join our MashableReads San Francisco Meet Up for our event on March 26, at 6:00pm. If you’re in New York and want to get together with people to discuss the book, join our MashableReads New York Meet Up. Also, we’ve created some discussion questions and a suggested reading guide to keep you on track throughout the month. We encourage you to grab some friends and get together to discuss The UnAmericans some time in the month of March. And as always, tweet at us or post in our Goodreads group to let us know what you think of the book! Below, we spoke with Antopol about being a “5 Under 35” recipient, her advice for young writers and the influence of social media on storytelling. Q&A with Molly Antopol Mashable: You were named one of The National Book Foundation’s “5 Under 35 Authors,” but the stories in The UnAmericans span generations. How did being such a young writer influence your story collection? Antopol: It’s an extraordinary honor to get this kind of recognition — I was thrilled to get the news, and to be in such incredible company. Writing is often such a solitary pursuit; it was very nice to be acknowledged by people who aren’t related to me! When I began writing these stories, I was blissfully ignorant of all things publishing-related. Reading was, at that point in my life, an entirely personal and haphazard experience. I’d stumble upon a book, fall in love with it and obsessively read everything by that writer, then read interviews with them to discover which writers they admired and go search for those books, and so on. The book took me ten years to write. It was really important for me to keep my blinders on the whole time. Because I teach in a writing program, a lot of my friends were publishing books. For some reason, the excitement of seeing close friends publish never pushed me to write faster — instead, it just made me want to tune out any noise so I could focus […]
iPhone apps are cool and all … but when are we going to see some really powerful tricks? Turns out there’s one way, at least, to give your phone heat vision. So that’s a start. Elliott gives his take on it in the newest episode of Mashable Minute. Earlier this week, we told you how you can use baking soda as a shampoo substitute. Check it out: Read more: http://mashable.com/2014/08/15/super-phone-mashable-minute/
Our next non-fiction selection for the MashableReads social book club is Douglas Rushkoff‘s Present Shock. We’ll be hosting a Twitter chat with Rushkoff on Dec. 16 from 5:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. ET. You can discuss the book with the author personally, along with other participants from all over the world. In Present Shock, Douglas Rushkoff details our culture’s recent shift from our concentration on thinking toward the future to our obsession with the present through pop culture, social media and work habits. Rushkoff notes how we use smartphone alerts and multi-tasking in an attempt to emulate the productivity rates of machines, but highlights the risk we run of ignoring natural biological cycles in doing so. Far from rejecting new technology, Rushkoff suggests a balanced approach to navigating a connected life that allows us to experience the moment without missing it altogether. Be sure to follow @mashlifestyle to discuss Present Shock, using the hashtag #MashReads during the chat. You can also join our Facebook group to stay updated on MashableReads, and let us know what you think of the book throughout the month. Want to hang out with the author in person? Share your thoughts on the book using the hashtag #MashReads via Vine video, Instagram or Twitter prior to the chat, and we will select 10 people to visit Mashable‘s New York headquarters to meet Douglas Rushkoff and participate in our book club. If you want to get started on Present Shock, you can listen to the first chapter from Audible below. Below, we spoke with Rushkoff about chronobiology, the importance of personal connection and resistance to mobile technology. Q&A with Douglas Rushkoff Mashable: Given your discussion of the active nature of modern entertainment with DVR and channel surfing, I’m curious to hear your thoughts on fantasy sports. Do you think they enhance sports fandom by making participants more likely to watch games because they feel like they’re participating in them, or do you think they cause us to miss out on the moment because we’re checking a box score instead of watching the game? Rushkoff: It always depends who you are and how you’re engaging. Fantasy sports went a long way toward developing the sabermetrics formulas used not only by oddsmakers but general managers in hiring players. So the amateur fantasists ended up creating some of the algorithms that Oakland GM Billy Bean’s statisticians used to win games with less salary money available for star players. As far as downsides, I’m not very concerned with people being distracted from the TV (I mean, who really cares if they’re looking at a different screen, or texting with fellow fans instead of paying attention to the corporate-sponsored game?). What I am more concerned about is the way that “money ball” changes the game itself, as well as the bigger culture of fandom. Everything is done with stats now. Players’ bonuses are based in numbers of wins or strike outs. So in order to save money, managers now pull pitchers from […]
