Your Brain on Toast

Image source CreativeApplications.net

Tired of starting your day with lackluster toast? German designer/engineer Scott van Haastrecht understands the feeling. To pump up the brain stimulation in your early a.m. carbo-loading routine, the uber-intelligent inventor has cooked up a smarty-pants toaster that kicks off your morning with a Google image relevant to the day’s news.

That’s right, the Image Toaster helps you to greet the sun while crunching on a portrait of Pope Francis’ holy face or the media-hyped kiddos from American Idol.

The appliance works with your wi-fi to search images related to the day’s date and toast a newsworthy 6×6 pic on your daily dose of carbs. Technology inside the toaster then commands certain burners to cook and others to hold back until the image is fully crisped onto your informative slice of bread.

I dig. Now if only Scott could whip up a toaster to print my daily to-dos… That’s the kind of morning prep I could really bite into!

Posted by Mary

The Future of Vending Machines

A little while ago a new crop of vending machines started popping up everywhere. Suddenly, everything was available at your fingertips, without any human interaction. If you forgot to pack headphones in your carry on, don’t worry – the Best Buy vending machine at the airport has some for you! Need some Miansai jewelry at 3:00AM on vacation in Miami? This 24-hour hotel vending machine has you covered. Though these non-food vending machines are becoming more and more prominent, a post on Eater National got me thinking about where the future of vending machines could be going.

Image source Eater

Introducing a 24-hour juice machine in Los Angeles. Yes, all things trendy happen on the West Coast first, so I shouldn’t be surprised by this concept. Kreation Juicery, who has six regular stores, a juice truck, two juice cars and a juice bike, is the creator of this new “juice ATM” in Beverly Hills. The major benefit of this, as opposed to Kreation’s other locations, is that nobody has to work at this location and it can be open 24/7. I’m not sure who needs wheat grass shots around the clock, but hey, what do I know about wheat grass?

The news of a juice ATM caused me to consider what I would want to see in vending machine form someday. Seems like the possibilities are endless; there’s already a caviar ATM, how much more luxurious could we get?! That said, here’s a quick list of what I would like to see coming out of ATMs sometime in the future:

• A pedicure
  Yes I want to stick my foot in a machine for about a minute and have my toes get magically painted and my feet moisturized.

• An iron/steamer
  I would like to be able to walk into a steaming ATM and have all my clothes magically be wrinkle-free.

• Starbucks
  I know there are instant coffee and espresso machines, but what everyone really wants is a Starbucks non-fat iced-chai made to order from a machine

• J Crew clothing
  Because how many times do I spill on myself at work and desperately need a shirt to change into…

What do you want to see, ATM-style? For even more inspiration, just take a look at these!

Posted by Nina

An iPad for Women?

Image source Teknofil.no

I’ve never been great with electronics. About a year ago I purchased my first touch-screen phone (iPhone) and I will admit – it took some adjusting. All of the apps! All of the capabilities! It’s like I was lost in a world of icons.

Luckily for me and my gender, Middle-East based  company Eurostar Group has come up with a solution for our technological handicap: the ePad Femme. The “world’s first tablet made exclusively for women,” the ePad Femme comes preloaded with applications that we, as females, will most definitely be interested in. For example, since all women enjoy grocery shopping and cooking for their husbands, there are recipe and shopping list apps. And since we all enjoy yoga, there’s an app for that as well!

The background of the tablet is even preset in a pretty pink hue! And the touch-screen icons are the perfect size for our dainty, feeble fingers. Whoever designed this product really knows his audience. Costing only $190, this tablet is a steal compared to the iPad (we do stay home with the kids all day, so we don’t necessarily have the extra income for those luxuries).

And if our poor eyes get tired from too much recipe reading, we can just pull out our BIC for Her and do things the old-fashioned way!

Posted by Erin

Bang With Friends: Changing the Poking Game on Facebook Since 2013

Image source BangWithFriends.com

Need to reconnect with your friends on Facebook? Now the new “Bang With Friends” Facebook app can help you connect on a whole new level.

Yes, it’s exactly like it sounds. “Poking” your friends on Facebook has become an actual reality! All bad jokes aside, the homepage’s photo leaves no doubt as to what the app provides. Sex. With friends.

So what’s so revolutionary? If you’re on an online dating site, into the nightlife scene, or without interest in a long-term relationship, now you can skip all the talking and get right down to the deed – on Facebook. The app allows you to click on pictures of your friends who you want to hook-up with and – if the feeling is mutual – you’ll receive a notification from them!

This app puts Tinder (the other new social/dating app) to shame. While Tinder is good for late night laughs with your friends, Bang With Friends has 4 simple steps and provides instant gratification… if you know what I mean. Let me break down just how simple it is to hook-up with friends on this app:

1)     Sign in with Facebook
2)     Select the friends you want to hook-up with
3)     Message each other discreetly and anonymously
4)     Meet up and well… you know.

I’ll leave you to research the rest of the dirty deets, since the subject is already a little NSFW. Check it out for yourself and see if any of your friends are using this classy connection tool.

Posted by Carolyn

The Male Mind, Decoded

Image Source The Guardian

Ladies, we all know there have been times when you’re into a guy and you drive yourself insane trying to decipher his texts. Even the littlest details, like a “k” instead of an “ok” or whether it takes 5 minutes or 5 hours to receive a response can capture your mind and destroy any chance that you will be able to get on with your life without figuring out exactly what he meant. Enter HeTexted.com. It was listening to girlfriends overanalyze texts from men that sparked the idea for the site, founder Lisa Winning told the Herald.

Once women post their bewildering texts from men on the site, visitors can vote “He’s Into You,” “He’s Not Into You,” or “Verdict is Still Out.”  Comments are allowed for more in-depth (and ruthless) responses to the situation. As you can imagine, the people who post responses are not the friendliest bunch.

If you still want more insight, and you’re looking to hear from the dreaded species itself, you can privately “Ask a Bro.” Mason, Ben, Tim and Chris are Ray Ban-wearing fellas who claim to know what’s going on inside our lovelorn minds (claim…ahem).

I think the concept of this site is interesting, and it doesn’t surprise me that it went viral in a week or so. However, I fear it will turn into a bunch of fake posts to garner attention and be more of a joke site than an actual resource for women as it was intended. Like, this has to be fake, right?

Apparently SheTexted.com will be launched by the end of the year by the same founders. Can I nominate myself for “Ask a Chick?” I am the (self-proclaimed) queen of overanalyzing texts and I think all men want to know what a single girl with a pretty harsh track record with men has to say, amiright?!

Posted by Erin