This Week in Tech: Star Wars Waffles and Lightsaber Stilettos
The big news in tech this week was the replacement of a cartoon star with a cartoon heart. Weirdly enough, thousands of adults, many of them with actual jobs, spent hours—days, in some cases—arguing over whether Twitter should have kept the star icon to express that you enjoyed a tweet, or whether it was correct to replace the star with the heart. It was the angriest anyone has ever gotten about hearts and stars since my uncle screamed about the sugar content in Lucky Charms.
With that controversy setting the tone, there was plenty else to shake your head at in tech this week. With a special emphasis on the bizarre products that the tech boom has gifted us, here is a rundown of our strange week in personal technology.
There Is Now a Waffle Maker That Produces Waffles Shaped Like the Death Star: 3D printing may still be in its nascent stages; waffle printing, meanwhile, has gotten more precise as ever. For just $30, your morning waffles can resemble the Death Star from the Star Wars movies. It is also a good excuse to constantly scream “Your lack of syrup disturbs me!” at your loved ones.
With the Star Wars waffle maker, you too can destroy a Death Star each morning (Photo: ThinkGeek).
Speaking of Star Wars: You might want to ask yourself: Have you sufficiently cashed in on the forthcoming reboot? Lots of businesses are! For example, you can also buy this pair of high heels, where the stilettos resemble lightsabers, for just $323. They’re just the footwear you need to make Death Star waffles!
This Week in Robots Taking Our Jobs: A new kind of “digital nail kiosk” can paint your fingernails and toenails in just seconds, Gizmag tells us. Even more exciting, you will apparently be able to bring a USB drive and have the nail stylist bot paint your nails with a photo of your choosing. Personally I cannot wait to have my toenails adorned with Al Roker’s truly disturbing Charlie Brown Halloween costume.
This Week in FINALLY: For years, conspiracy-mongers have accused smartphones of causing cancer, despite scientific evidence to the contrary. Now, one entrepreneur is asking: Isn’t it time to make a smartphone that actually causes cancer? Enter the Zeus by Jupiter, a $499 smartphone that also acts as a vaporizer. Smokers who were sick and tired of lugging around both a smartphone AND a steampunk e-cigarette can finally have it all!
Yes, dear readers: 20 years after “the world’s largest bookstore” debuted on the Web, it is now finally an actual bookstore (Photo: Amazon).
Amazon Now Has a Bookstore: In a headline that may as well be out of The Onion, Amazon, which is credited with killing all those indie bookstores, is now opening a brick-and-mortar store of its own. The shop is now open in Seattle and called Amazon Books. Could a Netflix video store be far behind?
Gmail Is Going to Start Writing Your Responses for You: Google’s so-called “smart reply,” which can predict your response in full to certain emails, will be rolling out soon as an option for Gmail users. (The New Yorker offers a tongue-in-cheek preview.) Will one of the top smart replies inevitably become “Sorry, that last reply was a ‘smart reply,’ didn’t mean to offend”? Only time, and the collective anger of email users across America, will tell.
Check out these other awesome stories from Yahoo Tech:
Space: Water, Water Everywhere — but Does That Mean There’s Life?
The 5 Biggest Myths About Smartphone Batteries (and Why They’re Mostly False)
Jason O. Gilbert is a Senior Editor at Fusion. He was a previously an editor for Yahoo Tech and a technology reporter at the Huffington Post. You can follow him on Twitter here.
