Laughing Squid

Melon is a brain wave-sensing headband that pairs with a mobile app to track how well you focus when doing various activities. The headband uses EEG (electroencephalography) to track brain activity, and users can tag their activity and other factors like weather, time of day, environment, mood, what type of music they’re listening to, and more to discover what factors help and harm their focus. The Melon app, which is currently being developed for iOS and Android, can also provide personalized recommendations to help users improve their focus levels. The headband comes in white and black, and the project is currently seeking funding on Kickstarter.

image via Melon

“Recurring Developments” is an interactive website that helps to visualize and map out the immense collection of awesome running jokes from seasons 1, 2 and 3 of Arrested Development. It was created by Beutler Ink creative strategist Chris Doty and the Red Edge web development company. This is a wonderful online tool to help celebrate the upcoming fourth season of Arrested Development that will be coming to Netflix on May 26, 2013.

images via Recurring Developments, Beutler Ink

submitted via Laughing Squid Tips

In “What Your Body Does In 30 Seconds,” BuzzFeed answers how many times you breathe, how many times your heart beats, and how many times you blink in the span of 30 seconds.

Last year we posted about a tutorial by Amanda Ghassaei of Instructables on how to turn MP3s into playable 3D printed records. Ghassaei recently posted a follow up tutorial on how to make playable records using a laser cutter. So far she has used the technique to make records out of wood, paper, and acrylic. The tutorial includes some videos of her laser cut records playing on a turntable: try Radiohead’s “Idioteque” on wood, and Joy Division’s “Love Will Tear Us Apart” on acrylic.

photos and video by Amanda Ghassaei

via Wired

Google unveiled a completely redesigned version of Google Maps at today’s Google I/O developer’s conference keynote. The new Google Maps is both a visual and functional redesign of the original, and aims to give users a more personalized mapping experience with search recommendations and other features that allow Google Maps to get smarter the more you use it. The new Google Maps uses your home and work locations, starred restaurants and other places, reviews, and information you’ve shared with friends, and also pulls in information from Zagat ratings and your friends’ likes and dislikes to tailor your maps experience with recommendations and landmarks. Images from Google Earth, Google Street View, and useful info cards with business hours, ratings, and reviews are integrated into the map to help you decide where to go. Google has also improved directions, allowing users to compare overlays of multiple modes of transportation to decide whether it’s best to walk, drive, or take public transit. Prospective users can preview the new Google Maps and request an invite here, and it will be rolling out to desktop users “this summer.”

“Uh, I think I’d shoplift it.”

For a feature on engadget, actor and comedian Fred Armisen adjusted his thick-rimmed glasses to try on Google Glass for the first time in real life after recently parodying them on Saturday Night Live. In this video, engadget editor Tim Stevens walks him through the experience.

There’s a good chance that you, like us, enjoyed a certain Saturday Night Live sketch recently in which Weekend Update’s newly branded tech correspondant Randall Meeks gave his raw impressions of Google Glass — using a prop made of plastic and attached to a pair of sunglasses. There was a lot of shouting, twitching and, for us at least, laughing. Meeks is played by the incredibly talented Fred Armisen, also well-known for IFC’s surreally hilarious Portlandia. In reality, we learned, Armisen had never used Google Glass. That was a situation we were happy to fix.

Here’s Armisen on Saturday Night Live playing a tech expert named Randall Meeks who is testing out Glass:

photo via engadget

“I’m a lion! I’m a vinyl! I’m a Skittle! I’m a beatle! Yay!”

Jeff Wysaski of Pleated-Jeans has released a funny new 90s edition of his “Misheard Song Lyrics” collection.

Let’s mishear song lyrics the 90s way!