Hong Kong’s rumors and secrets exposed

Gadgets
TECH HEAD
Edited by Adam White
adam.white@hkmagmedia.com | Twitter/Instagram: @adamawhite
Pong Song
There are two philosophies when it comes to drinking
alcohol that can be broadly divided into the “American” and
“British” approaches. The American Approach is to gamify the
whole thing, introducing frivolity into the process via games
of flip cup, beer pong and the like. You can lump Hong Kong’s
own dice games into this category. The British Approach,
meanwhile, is Just. To. Drink.
I lean towards the latter, but sometimes something
comes along to pull me in the other direction, like BPConnect,
which is billed as “the world’s first interactive beer pong game
system.” Essentially, it all works via an interactive table, which
allows it to deliver automatic scorekeeping (which is difficult
to do manually the more you drink) as well as customizable
sound effects, lighting and animations. You can even download
an app to your own phone so you’re always hooked in to your
next game—and to a worldwide leaderboard. For a chance to
become the NUMBER ONE IN THE WORLD at beer pong?
I might start taking an interest.
BP Connect available at Pong, 1/F, 38 Yiu Wa St.,
Causeway Bay, 3956-5201; and at M1 Bar, 17-19 Prat Avenue,
Tsim Sha Tsui, 2311-7212.
When normal pouring just ain’t enough
Wine Whines
Most of us can agree on the fact that wine is
pretty great. But you don’t always want to crack
a good bottle of red at the end of a hard day,
because over a couple of days the wine will oxidize
and spoil. Enter Coravin, which makes it possible
to pour yourself a glass of wine—without having to
open the bottle at all. The Coravin is a complexlooking
contraption that essentially pushes a
needle down through the cork and allows you to
pour off wine as usual. The system pumps in nonreactive
argon gas in place of the wine, and when
the needle withdraws the cork seals up again—
which means that the wine won’t oxidize and will
stay fresh for years, they claim. Part of the draw is
that you can broaden your wine tasting experience
by dipping into different vintages without having
to blast through the whole bottle—and nor do
you have to stick to white in company when
you’d rather be on the red.
Staffer Evelyn Lok went to check it out and to
meet the inventor, Greg Lambrecht. Her verdict?
It does take a few tries to get the
hang of the contraption, but it’s
essentially as easy to use as
any regular wine opener, and
a lot more tolerant to brute
force than it looks. Bear in
mind that it doesn’t work
on sparkling wines yet
and only fits natural
corks—so you’re still
going to have to drink
that $89 screwcap
bottle of merlot in
one sitting.
$2,800 from major
wine retailers
city-wide,
coravin.com
Parking Tickets
If you drive in Hong Kong, you have my sympathies. But you also
have a good thing coming to you with Link Asset Management’s
Park & Dine mobile app. On top of directing you to the nearest
carpark, it also gets you electronic queuing at 15 restaurants
across the city and real-time updates on your progress: meaning
you can bid farewell to taking a number and hanging around like
a useless lump until you’re called.
Free on iTunes store and Google Play.
Blow Me
All new in Hong Kong from Dyson, who
invented those alien-looking-but-eerilyeffective
vacuum cleaners, those alienlooking-but-eerily-effective
fans and those
alien-looking-but-eerily-effective hand driers:
an alien-looking-but-eerily-effective hair
dryer! The Dyson Supersonic looks like an
old-timey microphone but it claims to have
a super-quiet motor that’s eight times faster
than other hair dryers—and a smart heat
“The doctor uses this to check inside my ears”
control that will get your hair dry without
burning it. It’s just possible that Dyson have
done for wet hair what they did for damp
hands and dirty floors. Normally I just run
a towel through my hair until it’s no longer
actively dripping, but I could be persuaded.
The only catch? It’ll cost you a hefty $3,380
when it launches in July. Maybe I won’t
throw away that towel just yet.
dyson.com
Drone Bros, Unite
Check out this video of a guy who used a drone to deliver
a can of Asahi to a thirsty compatriot on a Mid-Levels rooftop.
The comments section is divided between admiration and fear…
we’re just happy to see an example of the future, here today.
tiny.cc/hk-beerdrone
16 HK MAGAZINE FRIDAY, JUNE 3, 2016