This is astronaut Chris Hadfield demonstrating what happens when you wring a washcloth out in space. It’s completely different (read: cooler) than what happens here on boring old earth. Also, who the hell uses washcloths anymore — this is 2011, folks. “2013.” Right. This is 2013, folks. Shower scrunchies. Washcloths are only good for flossing your roommate’s between your buttcheeks.
Hit the jump for the video, but skip to 1:45 for the washcloth squeezing fun to begin.
Last May, Incident Tech launched the gTar, a guitar with real strings that connected to a smartphone for some amazing sound processing. In the last few months, the founder, Idan Beck and his team have been busy preparing the 800 guitars he pre-sold on Kickstarter for shipment. Theirs is a story of creativity, cool, and the next generation in music technology. I spoke with Idan briefly about his Disrupt experience and how it felt to go from zero to shipping in less than a year.
TC: So how have things been going since Disrupt?
Idan: Things have been extremely busy and going well! Shortly after disrupt we shifted our primary focus on getting the gTar into mass production out in China. While we had already been going out there for nearly a year at that point, we spent the next 6 months hammering out every issue imaginable in production and learning about how much goes into making a thousand of something.
Now we’re starting to get units out of China in batches and fulfill them out to our amazingly supportive and patient Kickstarter backers. As a result of the last 6 months the product has really improved as well, with the end result and build quality far exceeding our expectations, since as a result of production we had to make certain changes to the design and architecture of the product, allowing us to make some significant improvements to the technology, along with the direct ability to upgrade the product in the future through iPhone delivered updates as well as hardware upgrades that our customers can install themselves.
TC: Tell us about the gTar before and after Disrupt. What did you think would happen before you got on stage?
Idan: Before Disrupt the gTar was still a relatively secret project being worked on in a closet-sized office in the flatland of Santa Clara. Before that I had originally started building the product in my garage in Cupertino and after that we were bouncing around for a while (even working for a month or so on an Icelandic ferry docked in the SF bay), but once we knew we were going to Disrupt everything sort of got official. Driven by the pressure to get things right, our team pulled together a really professional looking video and presentation in a matter of weeks while gearing up for what we felt was going to be a make it or break it point for the product.
TC: Were you scared? Excited? How does it feel to launch on stage? Idan: It’s definitely exciting and almost foreboding to get up on the stage, especially considering that you have such a short amount of time and it’s not really possible to leave much to chance. You’re somehow stuffing three years of work into such a short little moment, and hope that people understand implicitly what had to go on under the hood to make all of that happen.
It definitely has this sort of epic feel to it and we were definitely nervous as all hell. We spent every waking moment practicing and rehearsing every word and sentence we were going to say. Also, our dependence on our early stage prototype hardware was always something we were worried about. For example, the night before our presentation, Josh had to run out to get a Dremel tool that he somehow managed to find at the only open hardware store in Manhattan, so that I could make some internal tweaks for us to re-route some wires through the prototype to avoid any potential battery issues or audio problems that might pop up on stage.
That prototype is in a case now, and we’re planning to hang it up as a piece of art. It was very much a super early prototype (and the only fully functional gTar in existence at that point) and we easily had disassembled and reassembled it at least 10-20 times over those few days. In fact, we did it so much that we were ruining the screws holding on the pick guard and by the last day we only had 3 left!
TC: How many did you pre-sell that day? Idan: We launched the project around 2PM or something and we hit our $ 100K Kickstarter goal in just over 11 hours so by the end of the day we had pre-sold north of 200 gTars. The project ended up raising over $ 350k with about 850 people pledging to get a gTar.
TC: Why didn’t you play any really smoking hot-reggae jams on stage? Like “Stir It Up?” To be honest I think we could have chosen a better set of songs for our demos, but we were also playing it a little safe as well since we wanted to choose a song that I could play well enough knowing that I’d probably freeze up on stage. I think you can probably see my leg shaking if you look carefully enough in the video of the first presentation. We actually got a lot of feedback on that demo, so for the second presentation we did change up the songs around, which definitely was a good move.
TC: What’s next for gTar? Another version? Idan: We’re still working hard to get a gTar into the hands of everyone that backed us on Kickstarter, and are making solid progress and getting some great positive initial feedback. We’re eagerly awaiting another large shipment that’s on its way and on the ocean as we speak. We’ll be putting some serious effort into an Android dock and app, as well as Web browser based compatibility. We have done some light conceptualizations of how other instruments would work within our platform, but are mainly focused on the gTar for the moment.
We’re working hard to continuously make the gTar a better product, and as a result of some the design changes that went into effect during production, the units we are sending out today will also have the capability to benefit from those improvements as we roll them out. This includes continued improvement to our own app, such as a deeper exploration and development of the social aspects of the product.
A few weeks ago we launched an online store that is already generating pre-orders for the spring, and we’re developing retail distribution channels for the summer and holiday seasons. We’re also looking to expand our team over the next year as well!
TC: If Disrupt were an EBay account, what would you write in the review?
Idan: I would think that the comparison is much more likened to a summer fling. It’s a short, intense, and immensely rewarding experience that ends up surprisingly thrilling for everyone involved. At the end you might not end up being number one, but the experience will change you for the better.
We know tomorrow’s Windows Phone 8 event will finally answer all of those burning mysteries that we’ve been yearning to hear more about since Microsoft first announced the new OS in June. After all, the company has kept its upcoming platform under tight wraps, preventing its hardware partners from showing it off to the press. So what else will the folks from Redmond have up their sleeves? Stay tuned here as we bring you all of the revelations live in San Francisco, tomorrow at 1PM ET!
October 29, 2012 1:00 PM EDTFiled under: Announcements, Mobile, Microsoft
The Microsoft Windows Phone 8 event happens tomorrow, get your liveblog here! originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 28 Oct 2012 23:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Something strange happened this week with WakeMate, a Y Combinator-funded project that was a tech world high flyer for a while. The product, a wrist strap that sensed your movement during sleep and ostensibly woke you at exactly the right time, was on hold. In 2010 the product apparently burst into flames (literally) and little was heard from the company at all.
Suddenly, however, co-founder Greg Nemeth began approaching media to write about a new WakeMate project. He wrote in an email:
The next iteration of the WakeMate technology is going to be re-branded as a product called MiLife+. MiLife+ will take the WakeMate technology beyond just sleep and incorporate exercise/activity and diet as well. MiLife+ also has undergone a complete industrial design overhaul and is much smaller than the previous iteration. The product is now encased in a silicon wristband similar to a Livingstrong band and is about the 1.5X the size of a Livestrong band. We actually like to think of it as a “smart Livestrong band”. MiLife+ differentiates itself from the other products in the space (Zeo, Lark, Fitbit, Nike+, Jawbone UP) in a few key ways: 1) It is the only product to work wirelessly with both Apple and android smartphones/tablets 2) It tracks and syncs the data automatically so the user never even has to think about it or manually input data 3) It sends updates to your phone in real-time as your day/body changeNemeth also used the WakeMate Twitter account and email address to send word of a new project.
Over the next few days, Nemeth began talking about a Kickstarter project and then quickly moved the project to Indiegogo where it launched as a Three Thirds project (not to be confused with the name of the original company, Perfect Third).
Then all heck broke loose. Nemeth apparently wasn’t authorized to use the WakeMate list or the Twitter feed. People donated $ 37,000 to the cause in the expectation that WakeMate was behind another cool product. A little buzz built up but folks were confused: the email was riddled with typos and there was no mention of the product on the WakeMate site.
It transpired that none of this was WakeMate-sanctioned. Nemeth meant it to be a WakeMate product, but apparently his co-founder Arun Gupta didn’t get the memo.
“I intended on MiLife+ being affiliated with WakeMate but I did not communicate that to the people at WakeMate,” said Nemeth. “It was a mistake on my part. MiLife+ has been cancelled.”
Gupta, for his part, knew nothing of the product until everyone else did.
“I did not know anything about MiLife+ until yesterday afternoon,” he said. He wrote on the Wakemate blog:
“I poured my heart and soul into this company and though we stumbled along the way I believe that we provided something of value to our customers. However, as many of you have guessed, we have exhausted our capital and will no longer be making any more WakeMates. Currently our plan is to keep the service going while we work on open sourcing the technology. Hopefully this will ensure that you can continue to enjoy the product and its benefits even after the company no longer exists.”In short, Nemeth went ahead and used Wakemate resources, meager as they might be, to pitch a new product. Lack of communication, a potentially unamicable split, and lack of social media controls all led to a perfect storm of product disappointment.
“Using the list was a mistake and the list has been deleted. Arun did not know,” said Nemeth.
WakeMate is no longer selling product and Gupta now controls the Twitter feed. Both parties are saying very little.
“The company still exists as we are keeping the product running and service up while we work on open sourcing the technology. No new features will be added to the WakeMate product,” said Gupta.
“This was an unfortunate situation but it has been resolved to everyone’s satisfaction. Hopefully we can just put this behind us,” he said.
[Image: Juan Nel/Shutterstock]
Question by : What happens if you put an ipod touch or iphone app on an ipad? I’m considering getting an ipad, but the one app i use most doesn’t have an ipad version. What would happen if i put it on an ipad?
Best answer:
Answer by WarreniPhone and iPod touch apps are compatible with the iPad, however they will not fill up the entire screen. Although there is an option to scale the app to fill the entire screen, it might not look as nice as it does on the iPhone/iPod touch.
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Ever wonder what would happen if you threw a 30kg (~66-lb) box of trash (predominately food remnants) into a volcano from 80-meters (~262-feet)? Me too! Man, I get bored and think of all kinds of shit. Like, what would happen if you got struck by lightning while holding fireworks. Would they go off? Is there any chance of turning into a firework-related superhero? And, if so, is a Native American rain dance still the best way to summon a storm? Why are there so many landfills when we have perfectly good volcanoes to throw trash into? If you toss enough garbage in them will they eventually all simultaneously erupt and destroy the world? How soon can we start dumping?
Hit the jump for the video. Allegedly it’s so violent because of the steam produced by the organic matter.
What to do when Microsoft schedules two major announcements in one week? Plan a liveblog and cue the speculation, of course. With a sneak peek of Windows Phone Apollo coming in just two days, we’re pretty confident tomorrow’s press conference won’t have anything to do with mobile phone software. But Win8 tablets? Perhaps a Kindle Fire competitor running Windows RT? Now we’re talking. Or maybe there’s a piddly chance we’ll actually hear more about Xbox Music? With no hints coming out of Redmond, your guess is as good as ours until the event kicks off. Be sure to bookmark this link and join us tomorrow at 6:30pm EST as we give you up-to-the-minute coverage, live from Microsoft’s press room in Los Angeles.
June 18, 2012 6:30 PM EDTMicrosoft’s mystery announcement happens Monday at 6:30pm EST, get your liveblog here! originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 17 Jun 2012 15:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Related Posts:Question by : What exactly happens to an iPad when you put it in the microwave oven? I saw a YouTube video of someone microwaving their iPad while it was running. Within 2 seconds of starting up the microwave oven, the screen went blank. But it took almost 30 seconds before the screen started to warp and shrivel up, and a minute before the iSmoke started to fill the oven.
From a technical perspective, what exactly happened to the iPad in the first 2 seconds that caused the screen to go blank and stop working?
Best answer:
Answer by Irv SThe microwave radiation was converted to a current in the circuits of the IPod which was enough to fry the transistors.
Know better? Leave your own answer in the comments!
Related Posts:Question by Jelkist: When the xbox kinect takes pictures when your playing what happens? i was playign xbox kinect, kinect adventures wen i finished the game it took pictures of me and i like the pictures, but i was wondering were do the pictures go after that, because it said saving photos to share pictures or something, i really need help on this, any help? thanks!
Best answer:
Answer by AfterfieldThe photos taken by the Kinect get uploaded to a global Microsoft server that is carefully watched by a creepy pervert hoping that they will get players while they are nude or doing other ‘nasty’ stuff. If you have any other questions please direct the to the Xbox 360 Fancast, The official Xbox 360 Podcast of Joystiq.com. you can find this podcast on iTunes by searching “Joystiq Xbox” or “Xbox 360 fancast”.
You can also check out the websites here > http://www.joystiq.com/xbox/
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Oh, hi! How are you? It’s been so long! We know, we’ve been busy, but we’re going to be in town soon. Very soon! In less than a month we’ll be having a get-together for lots and lots (and lots) of our closest friends — and yes, you’re totally invited. We’ll be hosting the event on the evening of August 25th and it takes place at Guastavino’s, a top-shelf venue on 59th Street in New York City. It’ll be an all-ages gig where you and your friends can try out some of the hottest tech you’ve read about here, debate with the editors about Windows Phone vs. Android vs. iOS vs. RIM vs. whatever, and maybe go home with one of the many, many great prizes we’ll be giving away.
We’ll have more posts with more details in the coming weeks as we get closer to the day in question, but if you’re a member of the media who would like to attend, an exhibitor who wants to show something off to the fans, or a sponsor who wants to be a part of the insanity, please e-mail us at meetup at engadget dot com. Until then!
Engadget’s next reader meetup happens in NYC on August 25th! originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 29 Jul 2011 18:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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