Fully Charged: Animated e-paper sneakers hit Indiegogo, and the $19K Super Mario watch
Get this week going with a quick blast of top tech news
E-paper sneakers hit Indiegogo
Sneakerheads always have some cool new pair of kicks to chase, but these might be the coolest we’ve ever seen: ShiftWear are sneakers with colour, e-paper screens on the sides, letting you send an animated image from your phone to your shoes. They charge wirelessly, have a 30-day battery life, and are waterproof to boot.
It’s on Indiegogo right now, and the campaign shot past its US$25,000 (about £16,600) funding goal yesterday. They’re available in low-top (US$150, or about £100), mid-top (US$250, or about £165), and high-top (US$350, or about £230), with another 23 days left in the campaign, and they’re expected to ship next autumn. Get in now if you want to be an early adopter of animated kicks.
[Source: Indiegogo via Engadget]
The $19k Super Mario watch
Sure, US$17,000 (or £13,500 in the UK) might seem insane for an Apple Watch Edition, but traditional luxury timepieces can certainly set you back that much. And a luxury timepiece with Super Mario images stamped all over it? Even more, somehow.
Romain Jerome, which previously issued Pac-Man, Tetris, and Space Invaders watches, has just unveiled a Super Mario watch with a 46mm black titanium body. The price? A stunning US$18,950 (about £12,600). The run is limited to 85 pieces, so if you’ve got a Mario-shaped wad of money burning a hole in your pocket, you can turn your attention that way.
[Source: A Blog to Watch]
Read More › The 10 best smartwatches in the world right now
Alien: Covenant leads new trilogy
Earlier this month, we found out that the planned sequel to Prometheus will actually be called Alien: Covenant, with another film expected after Covenant‘s 6 October 2017 release. But now director Ridley Scott has revealed more: Covenant will actually lead a new Alien trilogy, which will collectively serve as a prequel to the original Alien film.
Scott long avoided doing sequels, but now he’s all in: he says he was frustrated that directors for the Alien sequels never explored the origins of the creatures. So that’s his job now, and he’ll start shooting next spring with Michael Fassbender returning as David from Prometheus. Hopefully it’ll be great – otherwise Scott says we have Star Wars to blame for his sudden interest in franchise-building.
[Source: The Hollywood Reporter]
Read More › Alien: Covenant is a Prometheus sequel
Top Gear returns to BBC in May
Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, and James May have all moved on to Amazon for their new car show, but the BBC is keeping Top Gear alive with new host Chris Evans – and his version of the show will debut on 8 May.
He tells BBC1’s Saturday Kitchen that they’ll be filming in America in January, and then all filming for the latest series will conclude on 5 May – and then the first episode will premiere three days later. No word yet on who will be co-presenting the show with Evans, but as the image above promises, at least The Stig is still around.
[Source: The Guardian]
Andrew Hayward
Freelance Writer 
