It’s been well over a decade since Yashica made their last camera and they’re back with the Y35, a camera that is trying to win over modern analogue camera-lovers. At the heart of the Y35 is a system that Yashica is calling digiFilm. It’s a small cartridge that resembles a film cannister that allows you to shoot in widely differing modes similar to using different types of film.

By swapping out the different digiFilm cartridges you can achieve different looks, such as high ISO, low ISO, black and white, and even square photos that are great for Instagram. And the camera is still digital, so sharing your photos is much easier than using an actual film camera. Plus, there’s something nice about the predetermined settings of the cartridges, just pick one that may best fit your shot and start shooting, no messing around with settings.

It’s a neat little idea, letting you feel the history of photography without too much burden. It even makes you pull a lever to advance the film despite being totally unnecessary, something which makes you appreciate each great shot you manage to get.

The camera has a 35mm f2.8 aperture lens as well as a built in viewfinder. And while the specs are nothing special, boasting a 14 Megapixel 1/3.2-inch CMOS sensor, it comes in at about $150 including 4 different digiFilms cartridges and that’s really not too much for a fun throwback digital camera.

[ KickStarter ] VIA [ TheVerge ]

2017’s hottest craze and fastest crash has been the fidget spinner. Those things were so popular at one point that districts started banning them schools, that’s an honor usually reserved for Pokémon or Tamagotchi, yea remember those? Well like any good trend, now that it’s quickly becoming uncool to walk around playing with a fidget spinner, we’re seeing more ways to spend money on the fading fad.

Let me introduce, the Fidget Spinner Cell Phone made by Chili. It’s a real functioning cell phone with a bearing in the middle that let’s you use it like any other spinner. It’s also impressively small, with a tiny screen that’s no bigger than a postage stamp. It’s a very basic phone with barely any features including no camera, but it does have room for dual sim cards, Bluetooth and a web browser for some reason.

It’s available for $20, but before you run out and buy it, because obviously who wouldn’t? It’s only available for sale in India. There are other fidget spinner phones on Amazon though, so if you’re really dying to get your hands on one, it can be found.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to look up airline tickets to New Delhi.

[ Amazon ]

What started as an effort to compete against giants iOS and Android in the smartphone marketplace has concluded with Microsoft announcing that they’re done working on new Windows Phone hardware. It’s sad, well a little sad. Windows Phone could’ve been great but never quite made much of a splash. Let’s take a look back at the forgotten phone OS and what could’ve been.

The Nokia Lumia 920 was the closest I ever came to owning one of the ill-fated phones. It had good specs that finally let it compete with the latest android phones as well as a great design, but it just never felt as solid as an Android or iOS phone. There just wasn’t much of an app ecosystem and that really hurt sales. With an iPhone you can download any app to do just about anything, while Windows Phone users were lucky to have the most basic apps available.

No matter what, plenty of Windows Phones were built well and had really nice features, but sometimes, really nice just doesn’t cut it. Goodnight Windows Phone, we hardly knew you.

Also, that godawful Metro UI.

[ TechCrunch ]

We all know Tinder is great, I mean who doesn’t want to swipe though hundreds of people trying to find the one reasonable needle in a haystack of crazy? But all that swiping can be a drain, especially if you plan to swipe at least a thousand people a day.

Well now, you can kiss your troubles goodbye with Tinda Finger. It’s a stupid little peripheral that plugs into your phone and spins a capacitive head clockwise that can generate 6,000 right swipes per hour. Did I say stupid? I meant brilliant.

It comes in Micro-USB as well as Lightning so everyone can join in the fun. But It’s really great for people for without standards, as you’ll be right-swiping everyone. Hate neck tattoos? Right-swiped. Obviously fake profiles? Right-swiped. Did your cousin just pop-up? Eww, right-swiped. Even the occasional opposite gender profile that pops up once in a while? Guess what, right-swiped.

It’s being funded on Kickstarter and while it’s pretty cheap at $8, it also costs your dignity. And that something that can’t be refunded.

And they say finding love isn’t easy.

[ KickStarter ]

Atari may be jumping on the retro games bandwagon that has given Nintendo tremendous success through the past year with their NES Classic and their, just released, SNES Classic. The company is announcing details about their upcoming product, the Ataribox. It seems like a terrific idea, throw some old school Atari games on a retro console, update the graphics, and don’t forget the wood accents.

The Ataribox hopes to play more than just old school Pitfall and Space Invaders though, as the console will be powered by an AMD processor and will be able to play more modern independent games. Think games like Minecraft, instead of Overwatch and Call of Duty.

Atari has also announced that the console will go on sale for around $250-300. That seems steep, like, super steep, especially considering that it could cost as much as an off-the-shelf Nintendo Switch. This, along with hardware that might very well limit its supposed modern game library to cheap games that are little more than iOS App Store clones, means that the Ataribox could very well end up being little more than the 2018’s version of the overhyped, underpowered, OUYA.

I’d certainly buy an all-in-one Atari console, but only if its price were more reasonable, like the NES Classic at $60. Maybe I’m wrong and the Ataribox will be worth every penny of its price, but it seems like Atari doesn’t know if they want to make a retro console or a modern console, and what we might be stuck with is some muddled mess, stuck somewhere in the middle, that’ll be collecting dust on clearance shelves by the end of its first week. Wow, I’m harsh.

Ataribox

LG has announced a new smartphone called the LG K7i with a bit of an odd feature, it claims to repel mosquitos using ultrasonic waves. The feature seeks to boost the phone’s reputation in the target market of India where Dengue Fever and Malraia are common concerns for citizens where LG already makes several other ultrasonic emitting products claiming to repel mosquitos, including air conditioners.

Now, I say it claims to repel mosquitos because there are many scientists who will tell you that ultrasonic waves do nothing to repel mosquitoes and are simply marketing buzz words. Texas A&M University entomology professor Dr. Roger Gold has spent years running studies showing the ineffectiveness of ultrasonic waves, but says that despite being ineffective, the tech has served as an incredible tool for marketing.

Aside from the ultrasonic waves, the phone has pretty low-end specs, sporting an 8MP rear camera and a 1.1Ghz quad-core processor, but is priced at only 7990 Rupees (~$122). If you’re interested in what are the most effective ways to repel mosquitos, New Mexico University did a study showing the effectiveness of mosquito repellents. TLDR: bracelets, ultrasonics, and herbals do nothing, sprays with DEET were by far most effective.

[ Arstechnica ]