Vending machine of the future

There’s the potential for the next generation of touchscreen LCD vending machines to be an all out assault on our senses. So here’s hoping more companies will take this subtly animated approach instead of horrifying advertisements.

This concept machine, created by Sanden, Okaya Electronics, and Intel, uses a monstrous 65 inch transparent HD display that still lets shoppers see the actual products being sold. And instead of just playing full screen commercials with music blaring, a series of simple silhouetted animations and menus are used to entice shoppers to give up their pocket change…

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Electronic drum machine T-shirt

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Electronic drum machine shirt.

An actual, functioning drum machine on a shirt. A drum machine that contains a real working looper and 9 different kits with seven professional-grade drum sounds each. A drum machine that allows you to record loops that last up to three minutes.  A drum machine that comes with a working mini-amp that you can clip to your belt. (video)

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YouTube makes its site classroom ready

Let’s play a quick game of word association. I say, “YouTube,” you say the first thing that pops in your head. Did the phrase “educational resource” come to mind? I didn’t think so, and therein lies a perception problem that often gets the video streaming site banned from schools.

To tackle this setback, the Google-owned property has created a safe-for-classroom network setting called YouTube Schools that restricts student access to just the content available on YouTube EDU. The subdomain contains hundreds of thousands of educational videos from YouTube’s more than 600 child-approved partners, including Smithsonian, TED and esteemed universities…

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These video glasses will let you walk and watch TV at the same time

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Oh the things you will see with these glasses.

Video glasses are a pretty dorky vision of the future. I mean, put on a pair of blockers so you can watch video by yourself? A little bit anti-social, are we? Lumus wants to help a little bit by making glasses which let you watch video and see through the lens too…

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The Obscura Society

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Local geography CAN be interesting.

Atlas Obscura had a great success earlier this year with Obscura Day, a project to get people all over involved in their local geography and interesting places. It was so successful that they are now forming The Obscura Society, a club in which people not only explore places, but share their experiences with others.

Born of the success of Obscura Day, this real-world exploration arm of Atlas Obscura will be seeking out secret histories, unusual access, and opportunities to explore strange and overlooked places hidden all around us, all year round – and we could not be more excited about it…

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Official Color of 2012

pantone color of 2012        c600cda81f5ebcaIt’s official. It’s in.

Pantone, official arbiter of the visible spectrum, has declared its selection for next year’s color—a statement of both insane arbitrariness, and great weight in the world of things. So what’ll it be? You’re lookin’ at it!

The above hue is Tangerine Tango (also referred to as “red”), which, as The Color of 2012, must grace one object in your possession, lest you feel like a peasant. It’s… kind of boring? Maybe it’s seeing it on a piece of fabric instead of a shiny computer or vibrant iPhone case, but it’s not really doing much for me here. But Pantone disagrees, duh…

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Google Celebrates The Career Of Microchip Inventor Robert Noyce

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Inventor Robert Norton Noyce

Today’s Google Doodle celebrates the life and career of inventor Robert Noyce, co-founder of Fairchild Semiconductor and Intel. Noyce, who died in 1990, is credited with the invention of the integrated circuit. His patent for a “Semiconductor Device and Lead Structure” paved the way for the semiconductor revolution of the next decades.

He was called the Mayor of Silicon Valley and his relaxed corporate structures encouraged his employees to experiment in an era of buttoned-down austerity. Without Noyce and his various projects, you probably wouldn’t be reading this right now…

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Bring the booming system with you

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When ‘boom’ is an understatement.

I know the latest trend in audio is to put speakers into clothing wherever possible, but this backpack speaker unit, complete with 8-inch woofer, seems like overkill. For one thing, it can’t be good for the ears of whoever wears the thing. Then there’s the fact that no one will want to be anywhere near you when this thing kicks off…

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Apple Picks Instagram as the “iPhone App Of The Year”

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Instagram is the year end winner.

Apple released its iTunes Rewind 2011 and App Store Rewind 2011 today, the company’s annual lists detailing of the top selling apps, music, TV shows, movies and podcasts for the year. This year, the biggest winner on the apps front was Angry Birds, which ran away with the number one spot on the iPhone and iPad -in all categories except top free iPhone app, which was awarded to Facebook.

Apple also selects its own favorite applications, and one of our preferred apps, Instagram, won the honor of being Apple’s “iPhone App of the Year.”

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The difference between Spider-Man and Santa Claus Is very small

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Santa is/is not Spidey a shown here.

Stephen Wildish’s Venn diagram illustrates that if Santa wanted to become a major league superhero — or, more frighteningly, a supervillain — he would be immensely powerful. He already has something of a Fortress of Solitude set up.

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