LIFT

Twitter co-founders partner with new startup, Branch

Twitter's co-founders, who now head an incubator site called the Obvious Corporation, announced their involvement in a second project today--Branch. This new Web site will be focused on creating a discussion platform that will "turn the Internet's monologues into dialogues."

"The prototype, called Branch (formerly Roundtable), enables a smart new brand of high quality public discourse," Twitter and Obvious Corporation co-founder Biz Stone wrote in a blog post today. "Curated groups of people are invited to engage around issues in which they are knowledgeable."

The Branch project is a partnership between … Read more

Twitter founders reveal incubator's first project

Biz Stone, the Twitter co-founder who left his daily duties at the microblogging site to restart Obvious Corporation, the company that gave life to Twitter, revealed details of the incubator's first project today.

The company's first project is Lift, an "application for unlocking human potential through positive reinforcement," Stone wrote in a blog post today titled "Unlocking Potential."

"It's important never to delude ourselves into thinking that technology changes the world," Stone wrote. "People are responsible for change--technology just helps out."

Stone said little else about the app but … Read more

More rumblings point to free MobileMe in April

Once again there are reports that the long-rumored free version of MobileMe will arrive in April, some three years after the paid service became generally available and months ahead of initial estimates for when Apple planned to revamp its Web suite.

In a story this morning, blog iLounge cited a person it called a trusted source at a major educational institution as saying that the institution was unable to buy MobileMe subscriptions. Additionally, the source said Apple was planning to release a revamped version of the service as soon as next month. In the interim, Apple is said to be … Read more

Elevator Hacks

Elevators are creepy confining spaces. I want to spend as little time in them as possible. So Here are a few elevator hacks to speed up the ride.

First off, a warning. We cannot advocate that you actually do any of these hacks as they may break the elevators you're in or raise the ire of other passengers enough that they'll want to break you.

Let's start with a classic. The My Floor express. This one has been all over the Internet. Allegedly, you hold down the close door button when you press your desired floor and … Read more

LIFT09: The future in permanent beta

I've been conference-hopping through Europe for the past two weeks. In Berlin, I discussed new "quality of life" concepts for Germany, and in Geneva I listened to speakers who held Utopian visions from an earlier era accountable for what could have been but wasn't. My own personal well-being was more mundane. I schlepped two big suitcases with me and saw the sun shine only twice. When you travel so much, you start to feel like Tyler Brule: quality of life is defined by the quality of the airports you pass through, the quality of the Wi-Fi … Read more

Metromantics

Location matters. Black Swan-author Nassim Nicholas Taleb finds "living in big cities invaluable because you increase the odds of serendipitous encounters – you gain exposure to the envelope of serendipity." That's particularly true for romance. People move to big cities not to advance their careers, party, escape, disappear, be a star, and so on. The chick-flick fan that I am, I remember very well that candid line from Sex and the City (the movie): "I came to New York City to fall in love." Exactly. "Anyone who's predicting the decline of big cities has … Read more

Don't dump the moisturizer just yet

These days just about any piece of health advice seems to involve hydration. Dermatologists in particular have a field day with this, pretty much telling patients to stay permanently lathered in creams, oils, and ointments to lock moisture in the skin. But unless your epidermis is perennially greased, how do you know if your skin cells are flush or parched?

U.K.-based iLift--which is already peddling a somewhat-dubious anti-cellulite device--says its handheld Hydro Test gauges hydration levels with a sensor head that's meant to be held against the skin and then render a numeric estimate on its … Read more

'iLift' takes aim at cellulite

Call us cynical, but we put this item in the same category as the "HairMax LaserComb" and the "Zeno" zit zapper. The latest gadget that claims to improve personal appearance is the "iLift," an electronic device that promises to combat the ravages of time where it counts--on the face and cellulite, to name just two perennial problem spots.

The secret formula involves some combination of ions and infrared rays that can be adjusted with four programs, according to the product literature, attacking bacteria while improving circulation and speeding up skin metabolism. All for less … Read more

A radio built for construction sites

Makita is a name most associated with such things as power tools and table saws, not usually portable gadgets. But just to show that it's not all blue-collar, the Japanese company has developed a radio specifically designed for construction sites.

Think of it as kind of the Toughbook of radios. The MR100 has a lithium battery and weather-resistant casing to survive harsh conditions, from extreme cold to hot and humid climates, Akihabara News says.

If you want one of these just for personal use for some strange reason, be aware that this isn't meant to be carried around … Read more