1 | A smart bike designed to make your cycle commute easier
There have been a few electric bike models, powered by battery and designed to whizz you up hills like a Duracell bunny, bandied about in recent years. But this looks like something a hell of a lot more sophisticated. The Vanmoof Electrified 6 comes complete with a GPS tracker, a front wheel motor to boost pedal power by 80 per cent, plus a dashboard that keeps track of how much power you've got left. Looks pretty swish.
2 | 50 Cent has entered the rapper / headphone arena
In what appears to be flagrant copycatting of Dr Dre, the man otherwise known as Curtis Jackson is unleashing his take on the headphone, with SMS Audio. But these are a whole new ball game, coming, as they do, with an integrated sensor to track your heart rate, rather than enough bass to implode your ear drums. The accompanying app stores said data, so you can keep on top of your progress. But don't get too excited just yet – they won't be available to buy for a couple of months.
3 | One day, your sweat might power your phone
It's true. Researchers at the University of California, San Diego have devised an adhesive that sticks to your skin, and measures the chemical lactic acid in your sweat. It then pulls electrons from the acid, in order to create a fuel cell. By adding a battery to the sensor that measures all this, a biofuel cell can be made. It can't make a whole lot of power right now, but the researchers reckon that, given some more time and attention, this technology could run smart watches and phones.
4 | A coffee shop creates a wi-fi black hole
In news that might just restore your faith in this weird world of ours, a coffee shop in Vancouver, Canada, has made it impossible for customers to access the internet while in its premises. The Faraday Café has a static electrical cage built around it, which blocks any wireless signals from penetrating the building, and prompting people to realise how life is a damn sight nicer without people twitching all over their iPhones ten times an hour. Sadly, it's just a pop-up – but we're hoping the idea might catch on round these parts.
5 | Facebook thinks you're stupid
If you've ever been totally taken in by an article headlined '8 More Unarmed Teens Still At Large,' you'll be glad to hear that our pal Mark Zuckerberg has started to mark sarcastic sites like The Onion and Clickhole with 'satire' tags. Perhaps trying to make amends for the whole newsfeed-psychological-manipulation thing? Who knows.
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