By Kelly Faircloth 4/18 9:30am

App for That

Yes, please. (Photo: Ness)

Ness 2.0 Debuts, a Revamped Restaurant App to Find You a Square Meal

It’s surprisingly difficult to stand on a street corner and use your smartphone to find a restaurant you’ll actually like. Yelp, for example, just serves up a long list of other people’s favorites. But a new-and-improved version of the recommendations app Ness, released late last night, hopes to remedy that.

Open Ness 2.0, CEO Corey Reese told Betabeat, and “it provides instant recommendations without a person having to take any interaction at all.” Read More

By Myles Tanzer 11/26/12 12:26pm

Release the Memes

Taylor would never (Photo: Thebosh.com)

Please God Don’t Let ‘Milking’ Become a Thing

Oh god. Fresh out of the U.K. and the dairy aisle comes “Milking,” a new internet craze. To be a “milker,” one must stand in a public place and dump an entire jug of milk over one’s head. It’s an extraordinary waste of food and time, but kind of amazing to watch in the worst kind of way.

But what is it with wasting dairy products for the sake of some public reactions? Is “coning,” the act of sticking an ice cream cone onto your head while going through a drive-through to blame? This is the worst Internet trend since planking. Read More

By Jessica Roy 9/07/12 11:41am

Go Go Gadget

Duuuuude. (Photo: TrendsUpdates.com, Paul Cooper)

French Guy Builds What Basically Amounts to a Bong for Food

Sometimes, particularly as pangs of hunger creep up on you just before bed, you want a little snack without worrying where on your hips said food will take its revenge. It’s normal, really. Human.

But sometimes, well–sometimes you want to inhale a steam of boiled food ingredients through a cauldron-like futuristic device. Luckily, a French scientist is here to sate your utmost desires. David Edwards, a professor at Harvard, has created what one Redditor called “a food bong.” Read More

By Kelly Faircloth 8/22/12 12:58pm

The Perks of Being a Developer

Talk about a reset button.

Good News, Desk Diners! Logitech Debuts Washable Keyboard

Startups and established tech companies alike love nothing so much as feeding their employees. How else does one keep developers tied to their desks for those all-night coding sprints? However, just a few days of eating at one’s desk and the filth starts to build up–pizza grease, Cheeto dust, and let’s not even discuss the trauma of soaking one’s setup in cold coffee.

Luckily, Logitech has heard the prayers of techies everywhere and just debuted a keyboard that is washable. We’re not talking a mere sponge bath, either–the demo video shows a keyboard fully immersed in a tank of water. Finally, freedom from the consequences of our lunch-related decisions.

Surely it’s only a matter of time before we see this added to the standard array of Silicon Alley/Valley perks. At the very least, it’ll do more for the quality of one’s worklife than a Segway.

(h/t @Farhad Manjoo)

By Kelly Faircloth 7/18/12 6:23pm

Techies Be Snackin

Note the "lunch" sign, in case someone was confused. (Photo: courtesy of Cater2Me)

Silicon Valley Favorites Cater2Me Expand to New York, Want to Feed You

Founded a year and a half ago in San Francisco, Cater2Me quickly found its niche feeding the ravenous techies of Silicon Valley, nabbing clients like Dropbox, Square and Klout. “You can call it the Google effect, if you want,” cofounder Alex Lorton told Betabeat, and “that idea is becoming the norm in New York, as well.”

Hence the company’s decision to expand to New York City. The service just launched yesterday, but it sounds like Mr. Lorton is already halfway to going out for the cheerleading team.

“I think it’s cool to be part of the expansion of Silicon Alley, to use the phrase, to be part of that startup community,” he said. “People in startups are, I think, more willing to embrace something that’s new, something that’s initially not as tested.”

Well, hopefully it’s not that untested. Read More

By Foster Kamer 1/18/12 5:53pm

KICKSTARTER SUCCESS STORIES

Beware all ye mollusks who enter here.

Kickstarter-Funded Restaurant Gets Seal of Approval from New York Times

When the proprietors behind Brooklyn seafood shack Littleneck couldn’t come up with the cash to get their restaurant started through traditional outlets, they took to the people: a Kickstarter campaign to fund Littleneck helped get them to where they needed to be. The restaurant opened, and only a few months in, they now have what every chef and restauranteur—especially in this city—dreams of: a seal of approval from the New York Times dining critics. Read More