CROCS, SNAP GLASSES, & MIND CONTROL TRANSLATIONS

Crocs’ newest partnership just makes good, practical sense. What goes with the comfiest, most practical slipper out there? Ranch dressing, obviously. The company teamed up with Hidden Valley Ranch to bring the public the shoe we never knew we needed. Honestly, it has been nothing short of beautiful to watch Crocs go from being the butt of every joke to somehow being cool. The shoes are without a doubt pretty ugly (in my opinion! Please don’t come after me, crocs lovers), but years of seeing people wear them ironically—plus collaborations with pop culture icons like Bad Bunny, Post Malone, Justin Bieber, Chinatown Market—has worn me down. If you’re in a similar boat and want to cop Crocs’ latest collab, the shoes are dropping later this year on its website. 

If you ever dreamt of controlling objects with just your mind, having words appear on a page after merely thinking them, your dreams might be inching closer to reality. Nature just published a report detailing a new system that allows a computer to translate words that a paralyzed man simply thinks. According to the researchers, “our study participant, whose hand was paralysed from spinal cord injury, achieved typing speeds of 90 characters per minute with 94.1% raw accuracy online, and greater than 99% accuracy offline with a general-purpose autocorrect.” This study shows a big upgrade from the last one with a similar goal, which only managed about 25 characters per minute. Huge advances, even if the tech has only been tested with one person so far. 

And in AR news that feels a little bit closer to reality, Snap came out with a new version of their Spectacles. This is its fourth generation of the product, which you might remember launching back in September 2016 to a lukewarm reception. But what’s different about this new version is that the first three were pretty much glasses with a camera attached to them, while this version actually generates virtual images over the world that the user is seeing. Another difference? They’re not being sold. The new glasses are now only available for developers. Snap is making the product available for people who already make AR effects in Snapchat, in order for them to test those lenses. 

I’m gifting you all with three TikToks this week, because I think we all deserve it. This one depicts both peace and chaos in a small village. This one features a beautiful sausage dog and his extremely relatable walking pace. And this one brings to light a curious theory that should immediately be developed into an animated series. Okay, see you next week.

—Darlene Kenney, Digital Strategist