Aeropostale is going hard after the Millennial market by using digital technology to attract young consumers.

After redesigning its stores last fall, Aeropostale is now adding in-store iPad kiosks as well as a new mobile app in the hopes that the Touchscreen Generation will fill up both their online carts and in-store baskets with their goods. "This is the future," said Jacob Hawkins, Aeropostale's vice president of e-commerce, according to Business Insider. "This is the way [teens are] going to interact with our brand."Continue reading...

Of all the big brands making a marketing push at SXSW, Google may be the most popular. The internet giant is happily showing off the many capabilities of Google Glass, and has revealed the first set of app integrations available for the futuristic glasses (which are even adding prescription lenses).

At the Project Glass SXSW developer panel, Google has revealed some of the technology behind the unified "Timeline cards" interface, which displays bursts of information in a user's peripheral vision in combination with Google's Mirror API, which allows users to pull down the data. 

News headlines, photos and text can be delivered hourly to the Glass headset accessed via the "look up" head gesture. At the panel, Google developer advocate Timothy Jordan demonstrated an application that pulls in headlines and short news clips from various New York Times articles. Glass allows postings to Skitch, Evernote and Path, as well as Gmail, letting users respond to emails right from the headset. "You can still have access to the technology that you love, but it doesn't take you out of the moment," said Jordan, adding, "We want to choose services that improve your life."Continue reading...

Google CEO and co-founder Larry Page said in 2004, "Imagine your brain being augmented by Google." It’s no longer imagination.

Google has released its second teaser video for its augmented reality specs rumored for release later this year. Shot from the POV of the Google Glass wearer, the video shows skydivers, ice skaters, ballerinas, skiers and pilots enjoying the augmented-reality and photo-capturing capabilities of the glasses. 

While the first video, released last year, followed everyday errands on a New York City day, the latest one showcases the functionality and feeling of Google Glass, which accompanied by a small suspended screen shows images, messages, translations, mapping information and video chats as users snap photos, record video or broadcast a live video feed of what's in front of their eyes—with the capability to add spoken messages as well.

Now Google is opening up its explorer testing program for its wearable high-tech specs to anyone (within the U.S.) who impresses the company with their application and has $1,500 to spare. Looking for "bold, creative individuals who want to join us and be a part of shaping the future of Glass,” Google will extend invitations to the top 8,000 applicants with the highest scores.Continue reading...

With smartphones making wristwatches obsolete for many, brands such as Allerta are finding new ways to make watches an extension of smartphones, reports the New York Times' Nick Bilton. That's an Allerta inPulse that's been hacked, above — a move the watchmaker (tagline: "Hack your watch") encourages.

Microsoft describes its new spot: "We followed choreographer Bobby Bonsey and producer Egan Orion, as they designed and launched a flash mob in Seattle, WA. The video shows how Bobby and Egan are able to connect and coordinate all the moving pieces with the help from Windows 7, Windows Live, Windows Phone 7 and Kinect for Xbox 360."

This week's installment of Project Runway on Lifetime TV marked the return of the HP Design Challenge. For this eighth season of Project Runway, the designers created custom fabric patterns on HP TouchSmart PCs, drawing inspiration from family photos and personal stories and deftly demonstrating the touchscreen capabilities as they created their looks and custom prints. HP's technology is also featured on Lifetime's Project Runway microsite, where visitors can download the designers' print as a wallpaper for their own PCs. Click through for another peek at the episode.Continue reading...

We all know that incandescent light bulbs haven’t worked out. Costly and inefficient, GE gave up that ghost several years back, and moved their resources and consumer pitches to the land of the LED (light-emitting diode).

The latest announcement is an LED bulb for $50 that guarantees seventeen light years. The problem up until now, in addition to the expense, has been perceptual – the light they shed lacks warmth and cool lighting is not pleasing to the average at home user – accustomed to a warm, incandescent glow.

GE is now betting on the latest LED iteration as a winner. For between $40-$50, GE Energy Smart LED 40-watt bulbs will be on the market by 2011. This bulb offers a 77 percent energy save, will last twenty-five times longer and uses only 9 watts.Continue reading...

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve heard that the iPad is here in a big way. ABC’s Modern Family even became one giant advertisement for the Apple wonder product in last night’s episode. Full disclosure, Steve Jobs is on the Board of Directors at The Walt Disney Company, which operates the ABC Television Network.

Unbiased WSJ Personal Technology Columnist Walt Mossberg tested out the iPad to see if it lives up to the hype. Here’s his consensus: “After spending hours and hours with it, I believe this beautiful new touch-screen device from Apple has the potential to change portable computing profoundly, and to challenge the primacy of the laptop. It could even help, eventually, to propel the finger-driven, multitouch user interface ahead of the mouse-driven interface that has prevailed for decades."Continue reading...