e-cigarettes

Smoking these days can be lonely business, what with smoking now banned in many bars and other traditional smokers' hangouts. But a new handheld device is designed to help smokers find each other--and it might even help them kick the habit.

Meet the "blu Smart Pack," the world's first social-networking cigarette package.

The rechargeable package--scheduled to go on sale in June for $80--connects wirelessly to social-networking sites and even flashes a blue light and vibrates if it detects other packages within 50 feet.

"You'll meet more people than ever, just because of the wow factor," Jason Healy, the company's founder, told The New York Times.

Not everyone's as convinced it's such a great idea. … Read more

It was a close call, but California voters yesterday defeated Proposition 19, also known as the "Regulate, Control, and Tax Cannabis Act of 2010," so we're canceling our S.F. holiday plans and staying in New York. Oh well, at least we still have front-row seats to the World Series riots thanks to the newly appointed Riot Badges on FourSquare.

Speaking of things that are harmful to your health, a new report co-authored by former government chief drugs adviser David Nutt suggests that alcohol is more harmful than heroin.

Professor Nutt judged 20 drugs on 16 degrees of harm that include lasting effects on physical and mental health, social harms including crime, and environmental damage, and alcohol is the most prevalent on this chart, topping other substances like ecstasy, LSD, mushrooms, crack, and methylamphetamines.

The results likely have more to do with alcohol being the only legal drug on the list, and cannabis surprisingly ranks fairly high on the list as well, just two under nicotine.

We all know cigarettes are lethal carcinogens, but a new company called Blu Cigs is manufacturing electronic cigarettes aimed at users who want to "smoke" tobacco without the addictive nicotine element.

We're obviously not condoning use of this product, but the tech angle on the device itself is interesting because they use battery-operated atomizers to warm up capsules of flavored liquid that then produce vapor you can inhale, making them technically "legal" to use in non-smoking areas, like on an airplane. Be sure to watch this segment's video to see an actual e-cigarette in action!

After we hit the break (and a small audio hiccup afterward), we have two jaw-dropping video voicemails queued up: the first is from our own Jeff Bakalar, who recorded a video of him and his new wife Stacie at some dreadful resort in who knows where, and the second is a relatively straightforward voicemail from "BMGreatness" that also features a disturbing prop. Check it out, and keep sending your video voicemails to the404(at)cnet.com!

Even in paradise, Jeff is still Jeff. BMGreatness: Please call back and verify the owner of that thingie.

Once again, Japanese retailer Thanko proves that virtually everything can be given a USB port, from butt coolers to lunch boxes, and now the e-cigarette. Thanko's USB Tabako, which comes with 11 filter butts and an atomizer for $33, even lights up at the end like a real ciggie. Though the fact that there's no ash to flick is a dead giveaway.

While the USB Tabako may not have the nicotine kick that tarred smokers' desire, electric cigarettes could become an increasingly desperate viable option to beat the non-smoking bans making it harder to puff in Asia. Singapore'… Read more

Personally, I am very much against smoking, possibly more than I should be for my own good.

However, having known many smokers in my life, I also understand that smoking is probably the hardest, among human being's bad habits, to get rid off. And in the meantime, when you smoke, you're harming your health and that of those around you, while smelling really bad. There I go again!

The point is you hate to see your dad smoke his life away but you wouldn't want to see him suffer when he needs a fix, either. So how about getting him a pack of electronic cigarette?… Read more

In my weekly attempt to learn long technical words, I was browsing New Scientist when I came across a concept that made me cough to a splutter.

E-cigarettes.

Powered by batteries, they look vaguely like a cigarette, the end furthest from your lips glows red, they emit smoke, and they give you something of a nicotine hit with every drag.

However, because they don't burn, they are not classified as, well, cigarettes. And because they don't make a health claim, they're not classified as, you know, medicine. Which means that you can sit at a bar and … Read more