Posts tagged Food at Switched

Posts with tag food

Martha Stewart Teaches Google Founders to Make Mojitos

by Terrence O'Brien, posted Jun 18th 2008 at 6:12PM

The queen of domesticity, Martha Stewart, recently paid the folks at Google a visit during its National Sales Conference. After being interviewed by Eric Schmidt, the CEO of Google, Stewart brought out Google marketing chief Tim Armstrong and the search giant's founders, Sergey Brin and Larry Page, to help her make a batch of Cherry Mojitos.

Martha had Sergey help her pit the cherries, 'cause he looked like he'd be the better pitter. What exactly the point of the stunt was, we're not sure, but we wish Martha would show us how to make some cocktails. We can barely open our own beers. [Source: Martha Stewart Blog, via Geek Sugar]

Buy Real Cookies With Fake Money Earned From Mobile Gaming

by Tim Stevens, posted May 13th 2008 at 9:03AM

Buy Pretend Things with Fake Money From Your Phone

With government stimulus checks starting to hit the mail, Americans are being encouraged to go buy things. Many will do just that, taking any excuse to run to the mall to buy something extravagant, but these days many will need that money to pay a few bills down. If you're in that latter group, fear not, because a new program from Cellufun will let you go shopping at a virtual mall and buy all you like -- without spending a dime.

Cellufun offers over a dozen free games available for download to mobile phones. Most are simple, like checkers or sudoku, and most have some sort of social aspect to them, enabling gamers to play with friends. By playing certain games, particularly the casino-style ones, gamers already earn Cellupoints, a fake in-game currency, but so far they haven't been able to do much with them. There have been small pretend stores in the system for months, but the company is now formally launching the CelluMall, an in-game shopping center that will eventually be stacked with virtual wares from real companies.

Right now the mall is somewhat underwhelming, with the only "real" store being a bakery from franchise Geoff & Drew's, where you can buy cookies and the like. There are a few other non-branded stores from which you can buy virtual toys, but nothing all that exciting, so it probably won't be too hard to resist spending those hard-earned virtual bucks. But, if things go according to plan, before long there will be a raft of virtual wares to peruse and purchase, all without worrying about the budget. [Source: CelluFun]

Alarm System for Spoiled Milk

by Terrence O'Brien, posted Mar 14th 2008 at 9:02AM

Any of you who have ever gotten food poisoning know how amazingly unpleasant it can be (and that's putting it lightly). One of the worst culprits is sour milk. The sniff-and-taste method is dangerous, and most people don't actually bother to check before pouring themselves a cold glass of moo juice.

A group of Chinese and American scientists have developed a widget that will at least prevent already spoiled milk from making it to store shelves. A small metal ribbon is placed inside the carton and sets off an alarm if the milk has gone bad.

The cartons would be passed through a detector at the store that generates a magnetic field. The magnet would cause the ribbon to vibrate. If the milk has gone sour it gets thicker slowing the vibrations and triggering an alarm. If the dangerous Staphylococcus aureus is present, the milk will be thinner than normal and the ribbon will move faster, also triggering the alarm.

The system will cost less than a penny per carton to implement, but getting manufacturers and stores to buy into the system is still sure to be a challenge.

From Daily Mail

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Fast Food of the Future

by Terrence O'Brien, posted Feb 13th 2008 at 3:03PM

If we've learned one thing from the KFC Famous Bowls, it's that Americans love to find absurd ways to make food more convenient and efficient. OhGizmo! has a pair of food related innovations that stop shy of a "failure pile in a sadness bowl," but at least one still crosses the line in to fast food ridiculousness.

With only six locations nationwide, Korean-based BBQ Chicken USA is a somewhat obscure fast-food chain, but it is bound to make waves with its new Col-Pop Chicken menu item. The dual-leveled cup features a top section for chicken nuggets that fits above the bottom soda container. Yes, you can have warm soda and cold nuggets in one easy-to-carry vessel!

On the slightly more useful side, but still somewhat of a novelty, is Cereal on the Go. The ingenious, two-compartment container keeps milk or yogurt cold in a bottom-insulated cup with the help of a freezable gel pack, while keeping cereal dry and crisp in a attachable bowl until it's ready for consumption. Cereal on the Go even comes with a foldable plastic spoon. As clever as it is we're not sure how much we'd be eating cereal "on the go," and the idea of carrying around a container of milk in our bag or briefcase that could open and ruin everything inside scares the hell out of us, but we'll file these doodads under "nifty!"

From OhGizmo!

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Ice Cream Machine Vends Portions Based on Customer Mood

by Tom Conlon, posted Sep 12th 2007 at 5:31PM

As we've all learned from countless sitcoms and romantic comedies, nothing cures the blues better than big old bowl of cookie dough ice cream. And that's the very logic at work behind artist Demitrios Kargotis's new vending machine, which doles out portions of frozen custard based on a customer's mood. The sadder the customer, the more ice cream he or she is rewarded with.

The Mr. Whippy machine debuted at the Ars Electronica digital art festival currently underway in Linz, Austria. It works by having a customer answer a series of questions -- the responses to which are analyzed using software that measures voice stress. If Mr. Whippy determines that you're having a bad day, the machine attempts to cheer you up with a bigger portion of ice cream than you'd otherwise receive if you were happy.

Sadly, the contraption is only an art project at this time and can't even be classified as a prototype in the works. So, while it's very unlikely we'll see Mr. Whippy machines installed on street corners any time soon, it did get us thinking what else this voice- and mood-detecting reward technology could be used for in the future:

An automatic HR department machine that doles out raises based on how much butt you kiss?
A mechanized therapist that spits out Prozac when you're really down in the dumps?
DVDs that stop playing and dissolve into thin air when they determine that you're completely dissatisfied with your rental?
A Windows operating system that apologizes when it detects frustration?

The possibilities are endless! Share your own ideas in the comments below.

From Boing Boing

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Martha Stewart Teaches Google Founders to Make Mojitos

Buy Real Cookies With Fake Money Earned From Mobile Gaming

Alarm System for Spoiled Milk

Fast Food of the Future

Ice Cream Machine Vends Portions Based on Customer Mood

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