Category: Fun
The Great British Bake Off: technology and gadgets to make you a better baker
You might not have noticed, but there's a little cake competition on TV at the moment. Alongside the emotional peaks and troughs, the perfect piping and the collapsing pastry and the 'bincidents', The Great British Bake Off is also doing more to get the nation baking than decades of Home Economics lessons ever did. Supermarkets…
Blame procrastination on our perception of time, say researchers
Researchers in the US have found that how likely we are to complete a task is to do with our perception of time. If we see it as part of our present, we’ll snap to it, but if it seems like something that needs to happen at some point in the future, we’ll be all…
10 social network ideas that might just make us rich
When Miranda July’s truly social new app Somebody launched last week, it inspired a vast spectrum of responses – ranging from ‘MY HEART IS WARMED AND HUMANITY IS SAVED’ to ‘strangers keep hugging me and now I hate the world more,’ with a lot of ‘but… why?’ in the middle. Meanwhile, we were thinking: what…
Marmosets can learn from movies, who knew?
Well, this is bananas. First tortoises were using iPads, now scientists say that marmosets can learn from movies, and they're not, er, monkeying around. (Sorry.) As New Scientist reports, researchers from the University of Vienna filmed a marmoset opening a plastic device to retrieve a treat in a lab setting. Then they took the video…
Saying intelligence isn’t genetic makes us work harder, study says
You’re doing so well at work. Must be because you put in so much effort. Are you feeling more motivated or intelligent now? Most of us would be – however much we slack off in reality. That’s according to a new study from Michigan State University, at least. Researchers found that telling people that hard…
Fresh Air Plus: This smart toilet seat will eliminate odours from your stinky bathroom
This is a sponsored post in collaboration with Fresh Air Plus. Here at shinyshiny we come across products, apps and services everyday that aim to make our lives easier and answer some of those niggling, age-old questions, like how can I get fitter with the help of my phone? And how do I make my home…
Chinese cinemas are showing viewers’ comments on screen
It’s one thing making full use of a hashtag when you’re watching your favourite TV show (even people who don’t watch the Great British Bake Off were entertained by the initial reaction to #bingate). But it’s another going to see a movie and having other people’s opinions pop up on the screen while you’re trying…
ManServants could be the best idea ever, but shinyshiny actually predicted it!
So, the most perfect start-up was launched in San Francisco this week. Named ManServants, the service offers you a sexy stripper-free man who does whatever you want (get your minds out the gutter, girls!) The idea for ManServants sprung, partly, from a colleague who insisted that her bachelorette party be male stripper-free, and the two…
Sorry, architects: Apple’s patented its glass cube store design
Put down your protractor and step away from the drafting table. Yep, it’s bad news for future architects yearning to copy pay homage to the distinctive glass cube design of Apple’s flagship store in New York: the company has patented it. According to Apple Insider, the patent was filed in October 2012 and granted last…
This piano turns clouds into music
A French museum of modern art has commissioned an installation that makes music from the weather. (Probably a better way to handle the end of summer than moaning to everyone you know about it being September.) With the help of digital and musical experts at the University of Minnesota, American artist David Bowen, who specialises…
