- Twitter more tempting than sex and sleep, study says(Credit: Screenshot by Eric Mack/CNET)
What do you desire most right now? A drink? A cigarette? A nap? That hottie at the next table? Come on, be honest. What you really want to do this instant, if you haven't already done it, is to tweet the headline of this story.
You really thought I'd buy "coconut water" as an answer? I write for Crave, people.
In fact, perhaps the only group more tuned in to people's desires than our stable of writers is the team from the University of Chicago's Booth School of Business that conducted an experiment with more than 200 people to try to gauge what tempts them most.
Lead researcher Wilhelm Hofmann explained to the Guardian that the participants, located in the German city of Wurtzburg, were pinged seven times a day via their BlackBerrys and asked to report any desires they had experienced in the past 30 minutes, as well as the intensity of each want.
Sorting through the thousands of "desire episodes" reported, the team found that it was easier for people to resist more traditional temptations like coffee, alcohol, sex, work, or spending money than it was to spurn the yearning to tweet.
The researchers said the two basic urges necessary to further our survival as a species--namely sleep and sex--are probably still stronger des... [Read more]
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One-atom-tall wires could extend Moore's Law - This week in Crave: The touchdown dance edition
Behind on Crave because you've been busy building a bunker to prepare for the oncoming swarm of flying robots? Well, don't worry, the self-guided bullets will get them, so get comfy on your couch and catch up on the week's top stories here.
• Watch SpaceX test-fire its new engine! Umm...on the ground in Texas.
Rodrigo Alonso's N+ew chairs are created using e-waste and epoxy resin.
(Credit: Rodrigo Alonso)• Valentine's Day is coming up, and this female Android needs some love.
• We wants it, we needs it! Must have the precious "Lord of the Rings" Lego collection.
• Don't throw away your old tech. Turn it into geeky furniture instead.... [Read more]
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The saddest man at CES - Romo the smartphone robot raises $1.5M, seeks world domination
Romo, a quirky smartphone robot with big ambitions
Here's a novel way to pitch potential investors: "Do you realize how young we are? Do you realize that we're going to f**k up big time?!"
And yet, that's exactly how Keller Rinaudo, the 24-year-old co-founder and CEO of robot maker Romotive, began his meetings with investors last fall. The upshot: Success way beyond what he had ever imagined.
Rinaudo recently closed a $1.5 million first round of funding, three times what the company set out to raise when it began looking for backers. Among the investors are Zappos founder Tony Hsieh, the Stanford University endowment, Lerer Ventures, David Cohen of TechStars, and a number of prominent angel investors. Some investors were turned away.
Romotive CEO Keller Rinaudo
That's a lot of excitement for a smartphone toy robot. But, hey, this is a toy with big ambitions, and Rinaudo and his crew--though admittedly unsure about where this all might lead--are convinced they're onto something.
"We think that as people let their imaginations loose with Romo, they will discover unbelievably cool applications for him," said Rinaudo, a 2009 Harvard graduate whose resume includes stints as a consulta... [Read more]
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The big game is this weekend and most American's will tell you it's a lot more than just a football game.
Many people make an event out of the game with parties, barbeques, and betting pools, even if their favorite team isn't in the running. Even the commercials shown during the game are an event in themselves with advertisers spending huge amounts of money for 30 second and one minute spots.
While you wait for the Sunday's festivities to kick off, I've put together a collection of mobile games to get you excited for the main event. Most of the time I only write about iPhone apps in this space, but this special event calls for a special post.
This week's apps are football themed games for both iPhone and Android and they all let you fill the shoes of different players on a football team. The first lets you run past defenders on your way to the end zone. The second lets you try your luck at being the kicker who needs to split the uprights. The third has you playing as the quarterback, trying to complete perfect passes to open receivers.
Editor's note: If you are right now saying to yourself, "I hate football!" then read Jaymar Cabebe's post on Game day apps for football haters.
Use the juke and sprint buttons to get to the end zone, but once you're there i... [Read more]
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Apple nabs Xbox marketing manager for App Store - Are composite pickup trucks in our future?
The Bison mid-size composite pickup concept designed by Motive Industries.
(Credit: Motive Industries)Transportation design firm Motive Industries released computer-generated images of what a pickup made of composite material could look like.
The Bison is a mid-size truck concept with the the cargo capacity of a full-size Ford F-series, according to Motive. Constructed of carbon fiber composite, the Bison offers a 50 percent weight savings over a steel truck without sacrificing strength.
Bison mid-size pickup truck concept (photos)
1-2 of 7 Scroll Left Scroll RightThe same chassis could be used with conventional gas or diesel engines, and it can also accommodate a hybrid, electric, or fuel cell powertrain, according to Motive. The flexible platform and body design would make it an attractive option for automotive manufactures looking for a truck ... [Read more]
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Apple-Foxconn tale goes well beyond Apple, and tech - iPhone 5 rumor roundup
Will the iPhone 5 resemble its predecessor, the iPhone 4?
(Credit: Josh Miller/CNET)Editors' note: This roundup was originally published June 24, 2011, and is updated regularly.
After unveiling a marginally improved iPhone 4S in 2011 instead of a radically different iPhone 5, Apple has returned to its development labs to cook up (no pun intended) the next iteration of its popular phone. In 2012, we're fairly certain that the real iPhone 5 will roll out of Apple's gates and that the device should be a bigger leap forward than the 4S was.
That's why after taking some time off at the end of last year, we've resurrected CNET's iPhone 5 rumor roundup to cover the new tidbits from 2012. So join us again in watching the rumor mill churn. We'll add to it until we get the real thing, and please let us know if we've left any gossip out.
February 3, 2012 It's still going to be expensive Citigroup analysts who met with Apple CEO Tim Cook and Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer reported that Apple did not feel the need to make cheaper phones. During the meeting, Oppenheimer sugg... [Read more]
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With the 2012 Ford Edge, the Ecoboost engine is like having your cake and icecream, too.
The Edge is a tank of a car, big and chunky, weighing close to 4,000 pounds. The Ecoboost engine only has four cylinders, with displacement at 2-liters. That's the size of a soda bottle.
Yet with a turbocharger and direct injection, that engine makes 240 horsepower, enough to move the Edge easily. At the same time, our fuel economy averaged in the mid-20s, which is about 5 mpg better than we would expect to get in the V-6 Edge.
The combination works well.
Ford fits the Edge out with good cabin tech features, as well. Sync remains one of the best ways to integrate phones and MP3 players with a car. Its voice command is excellent. MyFord Touch, included in this car, has its pros and cons. The trouble spot is the touchscreen interface, but Ford has shown a fix for that part of the car, which can be applied retroactively.
Read our full review of the 2012 Ford Edge Ecoboost.
[Read more]
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Mirror, mirror on the wall, what's the quietest ride of all? - Verizon Galaxy Nexus loses Google support?
Kicked out at such an early age?
(Credit: Josh Miller/CNET)Did the Galaxy Nexus get caught in the middle of a lovers' quarrel between Google and Verizon today?
That's the way it appeared at first with the news that Google had dumped the CDMA version of Android's flagship phone. A reader first tipped off Droid Life that the CDMA/LTE version of the phone (read: Verizon) had been removed from Google's developer site, the Android Open Source Project, and replaced with a note reading, "No CDMA devices are supported."
The Ice Cream Sandwich-flavored handset had appeared on the site as recently as last week, but on the Google Code site, the factory image for the Verizon Galaxy Nexus--code-named Toro--now appears under "archived, for reference only."
It's sad for such a nice device to be kicked to the curb so harshly, but it doesn't appear to be the only device to get the boot. The CDMA Motorola Xoom and ... [Read more]
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Intel smartphone chip No. 1 in some benchmarks, says report - Cryoscope lets you feel your forecast
Weather forecast icons can be cryptic. There's only so much that can be communicated by a picture of a gray but-not-too-gray cloud with some raindrops and a sun poking out behind it.
All you really want to know is, "Am I going to freeze my nuts off out there?"
Enter the Cryoscope, an invention that allows you to feel the temperature of tomorrow's forecasted air.
The inner workings of the Cryoscope.
(Credit: Robb Godshaw)Created by Robb Godshaw, an industrial design student at Rochester Institute of Technology, the Cryoscope uses an aluminum cube to house a heat sink, a thermoelectric-cooling Peltier element, and a cooling fan, all operated by an Arduino controller that receives forecast data from a Web-based app.
I can't help imagining this next to The Molly sweet-dispensing tweet bot and the Little Printer, which curates your online subscriptions and spits them out as a bite-size newspaper. Maybe the future will be full of these little single-purpose boxes reporting the outside world's info into our homes.
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Turn around, bright eyes.
(Credit: Video screenshot by Amanda Kooser/CNET)If you want to do like the song says and wear your sunglasses at night, then you should pledge for a set of GloSpex on Kickstarter.
This is what GloSpex look like in the dark. (Click to enlarge.)
(Credit: Video screenshot by Amanda Kooser/CNET)GloSpex have one-way illuminated lenses. That means that the light glows out, but doesn't shine into the wearer's eyes.
A $20 pledge gets you one set with black frames and either red, green, yellow, or blue illumination.
The inventor of GloSpex says the principle behind the technology is "total internal reflection." You'll have to check out the Kickstarter promo video to get the science lecture explanation.
The GloSpex Kickstarter page has one of the shortest pledge pitches I've ever seen on the site. You're either going to trip over yourself hitting the pledge button or flee to another project.
GloSpex backers seem excited about the prospect of using their glowing glasses for raves, sci-fi conventions, and homemade cyberpunk movies.
I can see using them to freak people out at night with floatin... [Read more]
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