Remember Vessyl, the “smart” drinking cup we told you about last month that auto-magically knows which liquids you’re pouring into it and shares that data with a smartphone?
Comedy Central’s Stephen Colbert decided to have a bit of fun with the cup concept on his show earlier this week, first calling out its supposed value proposition (“That level of information was previously available only on the can you just poured it out of!”), ripping on Silicon Valley buzzwords (cue montage of Vessyl engineers boasting the cup’s “real-time” capabilities) and ultimately, coming up with a tech product of his own that measures not what goes in but what comes … out.
The skit’s much funnier to watch than read about, so check out the video below:
This article originally appeared on Recode.net.
Will you support Vox’s explanatory journalism?
Most news outlets make their money through advertising or subscriptions. But when it comes to what we’re trying to do at Vox, there are a couple of big issues with relying on ads and subscriptions to keep the lights on:
First, advertising dollars go up and down with the economy. We often only know a few months out what our advertising revenue will be, which makes it hard to plan ahead.
Second, we’re not in the subscriptions business. Vox is here to help everyone understand the complex issues shaping the world — not just the people who can afford to pay for a subscription. We believe that’s an important part of building a more equal society. And we can’t do that if we have a paywall.
So even though advertising is still our biggest source of revenue, we also seek grants and reader support. (And no matter how our work is funded, we have strict guidelines on editorial independence.)
If you also believe that everyone deserves access to trusted high-quality information, will you make a gift to Vox today? Any amount helps.
Yes, I'll give $5/month
Yes, I'll give $5/month
We accept credit card, Apple Pay, and
Google Pay. You can also contribute via
:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/63703104/colbert-vessyl.0.1544872048.0.jpg)
