tattoo

Rumor Has It, Ep. 26: Last call for iPhone 5 rumors (podcast)

Friends, geeks, countrymen, lend me your ears, for we have some important news: iPhone 5 may get a bigger Retina Display!

OK, OK, you got me; that isn't actually the big, bomb-dropping news. I'm stalling, but I'll just be brave and come out with it like a responsible adult: the Rumor Has It podcast as you have come to know and love it is ending. Next week we will have our final episode, consisting of the ULTIMATE HUMILIATION!

We hate to go, but it's been so much fun, and we're going to go out with … Read more

Want a vibrating tattoo that alerts you to a call? Nokia does

Here's one you wouldn't necessarily expect to come out of a big mobile company.

Nokia has filed for a patent with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office that would allow a tattoo and a user's phone to communicate. Using haptic feedback, or as Nokia calls it, "a perceivable impulse," users would be alerted to a new call, text message, or e-mail right from the tattoo. The application was filed last September and became public last week.

Nokia is using magnetic waves to create the effect and noted in the patent application that its technology could be extended to an invisible tattoo for those who don't want to show their phone-friendly ink walking around town. In a more likely scenario, the technology might also be applied to a visible image, sign, or badge.… Read more

QR code tattoo generates random links

Deciding on a tattoo pretty much means you're stuck with an image for life. To combat staleness, Fred Bosch chose a tattoo that will never look the same twice.

Bosch had a QR code inked onto the inside of his forearm. Scanning it is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're going to get.

The code may pop up with a GIF of a couple of headbangers swinging their hair around, or a recent tweet, a phrase, a video, or a weather report. Bosch calls it the first-ever random tattoo.… Read more

The 404 928: Where Jill feeds us an ice cream sandwich (podcast)

CBS MoneyWatch's Jill Schlesinger helps us understand why Wall Street is disappointed with Apple's fourth-quarter results despite year-over-year growth across its iPhone, iPad, and Mac properties.

We return the favor by telling Jill why she should care about Google's Android Ice Cream Sandwich updates, the Samsung Galaxy Nexus, and why babies under 2 years old shouldn't live in front of digital screens.

Also, stay tuned after the break for news about Sony PlayStation Vita launch delays, and Jeff chimes in with a surprising pitch for the future of portable gaming. Heads up, Sony and Nintendo!… Read more

Crave 53: Enough already (podcast)

Eric and Donald reveal their TV watching habits and the lies behind tablet marketing. Also, the bionic arm just got cooler, the human computer interface is a temporary tattoo, and plans to put the Crave show in a van... a small one.

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Man has QR code tattooed onto chest (really?)

Tattoos tend to walk a very fine line between the artistic and the gruesome. See what you think about this, perhaps the most technologically advanced tattoo in the world. Allegedly.

One has to use the word "allegedly" because there's an ad involved here--for Ballantine's whiskey.

Still, I fancy that this video will, at the very least, set off rampant urges in the Silicon Valley area to have its intentions duplicated on the bodies of multiple engineers.

What seems to be happening here is that a famed tattoo artist in Paris is inscribing a QR code onto (… Read more

Woman gets tattoo of 152 Facebook friends

Updated 5.50pm PST Wednesday: Forbes is reporting that this is, sadly, not a permanent tattoo. It quotes a Dutch newspaper, which, in turn got these words from tattooist Dex Moelker: "It is a try out tattoo, a transfer, that washes off in a couple of days." There are fears that this may all be part of, no, an advertising campaign.

The occasional tattoo can be quite fetching--especially if it adorns an unexpectedly location. However, so many seem to adorn the human body in the same way that fungus adorns your average paving stone.

One woman, who seems … Read more

The 404 812: Where can you, like, turn down your keyboard? (podcast)

Wilson joins us on the show, Max Headroom style from the CNET office in San Francisco. Tune in to the first half where we grill him about his loyalty to the East Coast and why he refuses to take showers in the office. We also have a couple stories in the rundown about teens asking Yahoo about Osama Bin Laden, a Nintendo 3DS augmented reality icon, a Japanese kissing machine, and yet another privacy breach from the already befallen Sony PlayStation Network.

The 404 Digest for Episode 812

Japanese engineer creates Facebook kissing machine. Dude tattoos Nintendo 3DS augmented-reality icon on his arm. Yahoo search trends prove teens don't know Osama bin Laden. Sony hacked again.

Episode 812 Subscribe in iTunes (audio) | Subscribe in iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video… Read more

Artist draws up tattooing bot in name of religion

Someday in the not-too-distant future, the best tattoo artist could be a robot.

Artist Chris Eckert and programmer Martin Fox have created Auto Ink, a large, three-axis device capable of doodling on human skin. The steampunk-style machine is shown drawing on an arm in a video below, and it looks like something straight out of the "Saw" horror movies.

Strangely enough, Auto Ink was originally inspired by religion. Eckert believes faith "spans borders," but dislikes the arrogance and sense of exclusion he believes often accompanies those who carry religious messages. Since he thinks religion is often assigned depending solely on geography, Auto Ink emulates the creation of a religious identity by randomly drawing a Muslim, Christian, or Jewish symbol on the willing subject.

"Once the main switch is triggered, the operator is assigned a religion and its corresponding symbol is tattooed onto the person's arm," Eckert notes. "The operator does not have control over the assigned symbol. It is assigned either randomly or through divine intervention, depending on your personal beliefs."

Auto Ink, in its current form, uses a felt tip pen to draw and is incapable of truly giving a permanent tattoo. YouTube user Hellbierd notes that a real tattoo artist uses specific techniques during the process, requiring that the "skin must be stretched and the depth of the needle controlled."

So far, Auto Ink has only scribbled on its creators. Would you let a robot draw on you? … Read more