Double-Sided Design Solves Painfully Universal USB Problem

Sometimes something begs for a simple solution. The nearly-ubiquitous USB port is perhaps the technological poster child for an obvious failure to work both ways (right-side-up or upside-down) despite looking perfectly symmetrical on both sides. Thankfully, and finally, this has been tackled from two directions (appropriately enough): one more idealistic, one more realistic, but both ingenious. Ma Yi Xuan is a student designer who has solved the problem in theory, and in reality by UltraTek‘s new Flipper. In the student version, there is a piece on either side of the interior that slides out of the way to reveal a data connection – which half moves depends on what way the plug is placed into the accepting slot. If you have not encountered the error of normal-style USB plugs, well, it is becoming a bigger issue the more we compute on a daily basis.

How to Quit Facebook Without Losing the Best Facebook Features Almost everyone uses Facebook, but almost everyone agrees that the social network has quite a few problems. Chances are, most Facebook users have encountered some feature or flaw--from overarching privacy concerns to assorted interface annoyances--that made them reconsider their membership in the social network. Nevertheless, Facebook users tend to stick around because they believe that the benefits outweigh the costs--and because they don't know how to leave the service without losing a few valuable features, such as games or public photo albums. Luckily, you can export or replicate many of Facebook's most useful features with ease, so you can quit Facebook without losing what you love about it. Export Info From Facebook If you quit Facebook, all your personal data should be deleted from the Facebook servers. Even so, Facebook offers far more information on you and your friends than you'll ever really need, and it's better to be selective about what data you take when you leave.

DeepLeap: The Fast-Paced Time-Wasting Word Game! T-shirt charges your phone by absorbing ambient sound First there were tie-dyes, then there were hypercolors. Could piezoelectric fabrics that charge your mobile phone while you wear them be the next big T-shirt fad? That's what the French telecom company, Orange, is counting on, reports the Telegraph. The shirts utilize ambient sound as a catalyst to produce electric voltage, and are being rolled out just in time for the Glastonbury Music Festival in Britain. The material used in the shirts is made from a product called piezoelectric film, which is capable of transforming sound waves into an electric charge via the compression of interlaced quartz crystals. Prototypes for the technology are being called "Sound Charge." After a weekend of mosh pits and camping out, the shirts will undoubtedly need to be washed. The shirts' charging ability may eventually be boosted by being combined with other wearable piezoelectric items. Check out this short video about the Sound Charge shirt to get a better idea for how it works: