Crave

Pucker up! Kissing machine rates your smooches

On a scale of 1 to 8, how are your kisses? You could check in with whomever you're smooching these days -- or you could consult the Kissing Evaluator.

The electronic contraption, built by a team of San Francisco makers, reacts to a couple's canoodles with LED lights and woob woob and bleb bleb noises (a method that's been officially certified by the International Association of Kissing Metrics).

The team built the whimsical device for Red Bull Creation, a national competition that challenges contestants to invent something creative around a piece of hardware -- and then display it in public. Red Bull sent this year's participants a "Turbull Encabulator" circuit board that it designed as a tool for making LED light art, along with RGB LED lights and instructions to "make something awesome." … Read more

Siri tells users: Get to the point

If you're the type of person who asks long-winded questions, Siri would like to change your ways.

Apple's server-powered software assistant is now telling users to trim down questions that are too long or otherwise complicated -- a move that iLounge suggests is to retrain how users interact with the service versus an actual human being.

If Siri deems your question verbose, the software will serve up quotes that suggest brevity, a comedic -- though also passive-aggressive -- move. Some of the quotes come from author William Strunk, former U.S. President Thomas Jefferson, and fictional characters like … Read more

First wind-current power system to be installed off Japan's coast

We may be closer to harnessing the power of the sea and air. The world's first hybrid wind-current power generation system will be installed off the coast of Japan later this year.

The Savonius Keel & Wind Turbine Darrieus (SKWID) power generation system being developed by Mitsui Ocean Development & Engineering Company (Modec) is a floating system that shares a vertical floating axis. On the company's Web site (PDF), Modec says the concept will generate double or more power from the same sea surface area as a conventional wind turbine. … Read more

The 404 1269: Where rad goes viral (podcast)

Leaked from today's 404 episode:

- Follow Spotify's Shanon Cook!

- More on the Deadpool videogame.

- The story goes deeper on The Bureau: XCOM Declassified.

- Nvidia's Project Shield comes closer to reality.

This week's Viral Top 10 list from Spotify:

1. "Royals" by Lorde 2. "#Beautiful" by Mariah Carey 3. "Alone" by Falling In Reverse 4. "The One" by Tamar Braxton 5. "Rattle (Sexy Lady)" by Bingo Players 6. "Blurred Lines" by Robin Thicke 7. "Young And Beautiful" by Lana Del Rey 8. "Spring Break Anthem" by The Lonely Island 9. "Get Lucky - Radio Edit" by Daft Punk 10. "Dear Mama" by 2Pac… Read more

App-controlled robot bartender debuts at Google I/O

It won't console you as you drown your sorrows in alcohol, but MIT's Makr Shakr robotic bartender can make exactly the drink you're looking for before you've even arrived at the bar.

MIT's Senseable City Lab teamed up with Coca-Cola and Bacardi Rum to bring Makr Shakr to Google I/O, which starts Wednesday in San Francisco. The system allows barflies and frazzled developers alike to personalize their cocktail recipe of choice via a smartphone app, or to choose a libation created by another user, creating a crowdsourced drink menu.… Read more

$325,000 stem cell hamburger to be eaten soon

The race for a lab-grown meat alternative has been on for years. Modern Meadow, for example, has gone after a type of 3D-printed meat using bioprinting techniques. Dutch tissue engineer Mark Post is using stem cells to make a lab-grown hamburger, one that may be actually going down someone's gullet very soon.

Post's Cultured Beef Project has been in development at Maastricht University in the Netherlands for some time thanks to $325,000 in funding from an anonymous donor. Cow muscle stem cells are grown into miniscule strips of tissue. Each strip can take several weeks to grow. It takes 20,000 of these to make a single hamburger. It's a time-consuming and expensive product at this stage of the project.… Read more

BlackBerry Messenger expands to Android, iOS

ORLANDO, Fla. -- More news rolled out of BlackBerry Live 2013 today, including the company's plans to offer BlackBerry Messenger to Android and iOS devices.

The BBM platform will hit these products by summer, but best of all, the service will be offered as a free download. The BlackBerry CEO sounded very excited about the move, a first for the service. He said, "It's a statement of confidence. We are confident time is right for BBM to be independent."

Those are bold words indeed and certainly a great tactic to lure users back to BBM. The … Read more

BB 10.1 and Skype come to BlackBerry Z10

ORLANDO, Fla.--At BlackBerry Live 2013, the phone maker announced that it would roll out BB10.1 software to its Z10 handset. The upgrade will also include access to the Skype video chat application.

BlackBerry also handed out the Z10 device to attendees here at the BlackBerry Live show so many folks no doubt will be able to enjoy the fresh infusion of software. Stay tuned as he get hands on with our upgraded Z10.

Having made the ISS cool again, Hadfield returns to Earth

The one-man media machine has landed.

Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield returned to Earth in a Soyuz descent capsule after his six-month stint on the International Space Station, during which he became an Internet sensation.

Along with ISS crewmates American astronaut Tom Marshburn and Russian cosmonaut Roman Romaneko, Hadfield was extracted from the capsule in the Kazakhstan morning (around 10:31 p.m. ET) following a smooth descent.

Hadfield, the last to emerge from the capsule, waved and gave a thumbs-up once he was propped in a chair in the sunshine.

The trio is to be whisked off by helicopter to … Read more