You know President Obama and his teams are masters of using social networking and new technologies to engage voters, so it should be no surprise that they are now using music community Spotify.  Check out the playlist his staff picked which surprisingly doesn’t include any Jay-Z or Beyonce tunes after the jump.

Different People – No Doubt
Got to Get You Into My Life – Earth, Wind & Fire
Green Onions – Booker T & The MG’s
I Got You – Wilco
Keep on Pushing – The Impressions
Keep Reachin’ Up – Nicole Willis & the Soul Investigators
Love You I Do? – Jennifer Hudson
No Nostalgia – AgesAndAges
Raise Up – Ledisi
Stand Up – Sugarland
This – Darius Rucker
We Used To Wait – Arcade Fire
You’ve Got the Love – Florence and the Machine
Your Smiling Face – James Taylor
Roll with the Changes – REO Speedwagon
Everyday America – Sugarland
Learn to Live – Darius Rucker
Let’s Stay Together – Al Green
Mr. Blue Sky – Electric Light Orchestra
My Town – Montgomery Gentry
The Best Thing about Me Is You – Ricky Martin, featuring Joss Stone
You are the Best Thing – Ray Lamontagne
Keep Marchin’ – Raphael Saadiq
Tonight’s The Kind of Night – Noah and the Whale
We Take Care of Our Own – Bruce Springsteen
Keep Me In Mind – Zac Brown Band
The Weight – Aretha Franklin
Even Better Than The Real Thing – U2
Home – Dierks Bentley

Consequence Of Sound

This is one of the best ideas we’ve heard in some time, a new technology called the Wahooo Swim Monitor System makes it easier than ever for lifeguards to see if someone in their pool may be drowning. Here’s how it works from the company website:

The Wahooo Sensor is a highly sophisticated microcomputer that measures time of submersion down to 1/1000th of a second. The Sensor determines the critical moment in time when a submerged swimmer is at risk of drowning—before the event is allowed to escalate.

The system generates two types of alerts: First, when a swimmer is submerged for a preset period of time (considered by experts to be “precarious”) a discreet Yellow Alert serves as initial notification of a potential event. If the swimmer remains submerged for an additional preset period of time (considered to be “at risk” by experts), a more urgent Red Alert is indicated. Each and every time, staff is aware of the situation. A situation that otherwise could have been missed with tragic results.

The system costs about $30,000 to install at your local pool and all you have to do is wear the headband above. This will save many lives….

[YouTube Link]

This video is pretty long but it’s well worth it to see what happens when a 15-year old girl writes an angry posts about her parents on her wall they weren’t supposed to be able to see. Dad just happens to be an IT specialist and the owner of a pistol……….you my dear are grounded forever.

TDW

While you get comfortable with your iPad 2 and show off on those that have the first ever iPad, look out because according to Internet rumors the iPad 3 could be here next month in March.  The LA Times reports:

The tech news site AllThingsD reported Wednesday that unnamed sources have said that Apple has selected the first week of next month for the next iPad launch event, which will likely take place in San Francisco at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, where Apple has held many events in the past.

Who will be buying the new iPad the third time around?

If you want to share images or news about Lady Gaga, her fans can now to go her new social networking site Littlemonsters.com, which bares a close resemblance to new pinboard site Pinterest.  The site is in beta version now and might start a new celebrity trend.  Let’s see how this goes.

Mashable

A company called Schreer Delights is manufacturing a line of iPhone cases that reference Apple’s past products as screen prints on the cases.  Each case is retails for around $50.  Would you put one of these cases on your iPhone?

Core 77

Then you might want to get them this new iPad app created by Australia’s Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) committee that features three games for cats including KittyRaid, RollerKitty and KittyChef. Oh yeah, it’s FREE!

Time to start working on some new hustles! Futurist Thomas Frey who is one of the world’s most recognized trend spotters says that thanks to technology people will lose 2 billion jobs in the next 18 years. Thomas goes into detail on his blog, but in short the power industry will take a big hit, cars will be self driven ridding us of all drivers, education will move more online making teachers extinct, 3-d printers will be able to print products like shoes that have to be purchased today and bots will replace soldiers and other manual labor jobs.

Image

A Japanese smartphone app called Yumemiru monitors your sleeping noises to determine when you are in REM sleep (the dream phase) and depending on which of eight different scenarios to choose from, including a walk in the forest, getting rich, flying and a scenario that stimulates love plays a soundtrack to stimulate the dream. The app also allows you to share your dreams with others using social networking….

Who wants their phone to try to control their brain while they’re sleeping?

Mashable reports:

Facebook says it’s working to fix flaws allowing deleted photos to hibernate on various data servers.

“We have been working with our content delivery network (CDN) partner to significantly reduce the amount of time that backup copies persist,” the company told Ars Technica, who first reported that users were having trouble deleting photos permanently in 2009.

Facebook acknowledges in its Statement of Rights and Responsibilities: “when you delete IP content, it is deleted in a manner similar to emptying the recycle bin on a computer. However, you understand that removed content may persist in backup copies for a reasonable period of time (but will not be available to others).”

These jeans called “Beauty and the Geek” which come with built-in speakers, a mouse and fully function keyboard actually have a nice design, but there’s something weird about this.  Can’t quite put our fingers on it….

Toxel

According to a study led by Wilhelm Hofmann of Chicago University’s Booth Business School who looked at 205 people aged 18 – 85 checking emails or social networking on Twitter may be a stronger desire than alcohol, tobacco and even having sex. From the study:

Resisting the desire to work was likewise prone to fail. In contrast, people were relatively successful at resisting sports inclinations, sexual urges, and spending impulses, which seems surprising given the salience in modern culture of disastrous failures to control sexual impulses and urges to spend money.

Desires for media may be comparatively harder to resist because of their high availability and also because it feels like it does not ‘cost much’ to engage in these activities, even though one wants to resist. With cigarettes and alcohol there are more costs – long-term as well as monetary – and the opportunity may not always be the right one.

There is no app for this.

Introducing Yves Saint Laurent’s Belle Du Jour iPad sleeve which is embossed with their iconic logo, so everyone will know why you paid the $480.

If you’re really obsessed with shooting games or want to look like a flashlight cop from the future this Xappr which includes a headphone port is pretty cool.  Only $30.

Uncrate