Tag: Business For Sale

This science-backed athletic wear can help you sit up straight

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Working hunched over a desk or a kitchen table or reclined on a couch is probably ruining your posture. So is staring at your phone for prolonged periods of time or walking with your head down. But what if you could wear something that made you sit just a little taller during the day? A company called Formewear (previously called IFGfit Labs) has created shirts, leggings, and sports bras that physically help people shift their shoulders backward and better align their spines. The clothing not only helps relieve back problems—it also improves a person’s ability to breathe. “If you wear [the clothes for] one to two hours a day in various activities for several weeks, you will start to see a noticeable change,” says Seiji Liu, cofounder and chief operating officer of Formewear. “Over several weeks people will be able to stand taller.” The Formewear signature men’s shirt has tension bands on the inside that pull shoulders back and down, so they sit where they’re supposed to. The sports bra physically pushes shoulders back so they form a straight line, perpendicular to the spine. The goal of this clothing is to assist people in having better posture as well as train them through muscle memory to maintain that posture. The leggings, both for men and women, are designed to encourage good form during cardio workouts. Perhaps the greatest technological innovation in these clothes is good tailoring based on complicated biomechanics Read More …

Facebook reveals new watch-like controllers for its future AR glasses

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While other tech companies tend to keep their R&D under a blanket of secrecy, Facebook is opening its labs and showing the world how it’s developing its future augmented reality (AR) glasses. The company held the second in a series of its “Inside the Lab” media roundtables on Tuesday and introduced new technology that would enable users to control their AR glasses using their fingers. AR glasses project light onto the eyes and seem to overlay the real world with digital imagery. As you’re looking through the glasses at a statue, for instance, the glasses might display a label with helpful information right next to it. Many people in tech circles believe AR glasses, in some form, will eventually replace the smartphone as our go-to personal computing device. In this week’s roundtable, company executives, starting with chief technology officer Mike Schroepfer, showed off wrist wearables that detect the movement of the glasses wearer’s fingers. The wearable uses a technology called electromyography (EMG), which intercepts the electrical signals the brain uses to direct finger movements. It then translates the electrical pulses into digital commands that can control functions of the device functions. For example, if the user is looking directly at a big blue button within the AR display on their face, they might “push” the button by making a tapping motion with their index finger. [Photo: Facebook] It also might be possible to train the bracelet to interpret the electrical signals the brain sends to the fingers to hit specific keys on a (virtual) keyboard. [Photo: Facebook] The Facebook wrist wearable prototypes can also generate a tactile signal (like a buzz or knock or squeeze) to acknowledge that the wearable computer has received a command. Or it might give the user a tactile signal to prompt them to do some action. There are other ways to interact with AR glasses, including voice commands, or using some form of handheld device like a smartphone or a game controller. Facebook says voice commands might be subject to eavesdropping and could be a threat to privacy if they’re used in public. A handheld device, Facebook’s engineers believe, would only “put a layer of friction” between the user and the AR technology. “As we explored the possibilities, placing an input device at the wrist became the clear answer,” Facebook engineers wrote in a blog post Thursday. “The wrist is a traditional place to wear a watch, meaning it could reasonably fit into everyday life and social contexts,” they added. Read More …

Inside the new playbook for creating a kids’ TV hit in the streaming age

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When we think about the must-see TV that draws us to sign up for streaming platforms such as Netflix, Hulu, and Apple TV Plus, the list is endless. The Crown , The Handmaid’s Tale , Bridgerton , Ted Lasso . But what about kids’ shows? Sure, there are old episodes of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Pokémon , but there’s a gaping dearth of new, buzzy series with any real lasting power. (Does Netflix’s Miraculous: Tales of Lady Bug & Cat Noir really have a significant following?) Kids tune in to a new Netflix show here and there, but for the most part the platform’s real appeal for children is its sprawling, buffet atmosphere—and all those reruns. ( The Mandalorian over on Disney Plus is an exception, though that show skews heavily toward teens and adults too.) Cyma Zarghami , a veteran of children’s TV who spent 33 years at Nickelodeon, most recently as its president, sees this as white space in the industry, one that she is eager to fill. Last year Zarghami started MiMo Studios , a kids’ production company that aims to create the kind of franchises that have been lacking in the kids’ TV space in recent years in both the linear and digital worlds. “ SpongeBob [ SquarePants ], Peppa Pig , PJ Masks , those are all at least seven to eight years old,” Zarghami says, ticking off some of Nickelodeon’s biggest hits. “Nothing has emerged off the old platform or the new that’s really resonated with audiences.” Cyma Zarghami [Photo: MiMo Studios] As for why that is, Zarghami says, “There are too many choices, there’s not enough marketing, everything is a little derivative, and quantity, not quality, is the mandate”—especially in streaming. “So nothing has really floated to the top.” She also says that streaming companies’ priority is to grow subscribers and minimize churn, as opposed to “building the next Game of Thrones for kids.” At MiMo—which stands for “mini movie”—Zarghami hopes to do exactly that by investing in properties built on great, preexisting stories and characters that have the maximum potential to become a franchise. But the Hollywood formula ends there. Read More …

Supercharge Gmail with these 5 simple but useful extensions

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Gmail has been part of our lives for what seems like forever, and while it works well enough on its own, there are plenty of ways to make it more useful. These five extensions require very little setup or tweaking, most are free, and all of them do a great job of helping you wring every little bit of utility out of your email sessions. Add notes to messages and threads For those times you need a little more context than a giant email thread can give you, there’s the free Simple Gmail Notes extension. Available for Chrome , Firefox , Edge , and Safari , this handy little tool lets you leave yourself little sticky notes inside individual messages and threads. Notes are stored in your Google Drive, can be color-coded, and will show up next to their respective subject lines in your inbox as well. Declutter and beautify If Gmail feels a bit busy to you, do yourself a favor and check out Simplify Gmail . Built to make Gmail more visually appealing, easier to use, and less distracting, this $2-per-month Chrome extension offers up an almost Zen-like experience as you hack and slash your way through mountains of messages every day. The guy behind it, Michael Leggett, knows his stuff, too: He’s the former design lead behind Gmail and Google Inbox. If anyone’s got the chops to gussy up the world’s most popular webmail service, it’s him. Turn labels and searches into tabs Don’t let hunting for a specific Gmail label slow you down. Add the label as a quick-access tab above your inbox instead with the free Gmail Tabs extension for Chrome. With the extension installed, you simply click the little three-dot menu button next to an oft-used label and select “Add to tabs” to give it a more permanent home. You can do the same for searches, too, making it easier to quickly drill into messages from specific senders, messages with attachments, or anything else you’d otherwise normally have to search for manually. Quickly share links The handy, free Send from Gmail has been built by Google itself to solve a couple of challenges. The extension pulls double duty by setting Gmail as your default email app when you click on an email address, and lets you share interesting web pages via Gmail with a single click. While the extension hasn’t been updated since 2013, neither feature is really rocket science. You won’t give the Gmail-as-default feature too much thought, it just works. And the send-a-link feature is refreshingly simple; find a cool webpage, click the extension icon, and a message composition box pops up with the page’s title as the subject and the URL as the first part of the message itself. One cool little extra: If you highlight some text on the page first, that text will get copied into the message above the URL. See who’s sending you email We’re visual creatures. Read More …

26 great free streaming services for cord cutters

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The best thing about cutting the cable cord is that you get a lot more control over your monthly TV bill. Instead of spending $100 per month or so on a bloated bundle of TV channels, you can throw together a few streaming services such as Netflix or Hulu and save a lot of money. Alternatively, you can take things to the extreme and trim your TV bill to zero dollars per month. These days, there are so many free streaming services that you can watch hours of TV every night and spend nothing. Whether you’re chasing that mythical $0 TV bill, or just trying to pad out your paid subscriptions with a few more things to watch, here are 26 free streaming TV services you ought to know about. Tubi Tubi may not have the name recognition of Netflix or Hulu, but that hasn’t stopped it from hitting 33 million monthly active users last year and being acquired by Fox . In addition to a vast library of movies and shows, the service also offers free news channels and local newscasts from Fox affiliates around the country. And if you create an account, you can synchronize your watchlist across devices. [ Tubi ] Notable programming: The Infiltrator , Hell’s Kitchen , Alias , Stop Making Sense . Read More …