I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

  • chellberty

    “issue ‘em to the Secret Service instead of those goofy corkscrew earpieces.” Wouldn’t that make it harder for them to shout “GET DOWN!!!! “?

    • http://devojane.blogspot.com devophill
      • mark

        Dude- that was awesome, thank you. Haven’t seen any EBN in quite a while. Gotta go watch more… f’n Dan Rather is the shit…

  • noah django

    it was my understanding that “fronts” are removable and “grills” are permanent, but memory is not the best.  before Cash Money Click popularized diamond dental-work,  “grill” just meant “face;” and still does, depending on context.  one may have one’s original teeth and be correct in saying “this asshole was all up in my grill,” but I have digressed.

  • EH

    ERMAHGERD FLESH BEACH

  • That_Anonymous_Coward

    Its wrong to glue these into those morons who drive around with their thumpa thumpa music shaking the neighborhood, set to playback polkas right?

    • http://www.facebook.com/ted.hurley2 Ted Hurley

      no

  • http://doomvox.myopenid.com/ Joseph Brenner

    In John Shirley’s SF novel “Eclipse”, from 1985, he wrote about a genre called “bone music”.  Fans of bone music used skull implants to listen to it properly.

  • sburns54

    WHY? Only thing stupider would be if they made an anal suppository that transmitted music. Actually, that would be more apt for anyone that wanted this thing.

    • That_Anonymous_Coward

      So your unfamiliar with those items you hook up to your iThingy or smartphone meant for insertion…

      • sburns54

         Thankfully, as a true Luddite, I have no smart phones so I have managed to remain mercifully shielded from such information. My dumb phone is quite small, though; I suppose insertion isn’t out of the question for those interested. Something I never even would have thought of before this article.

        • http://twitter.com/fossilfuels Funk Daddy

          I’m pretty sure the description of True Luddite cannot refer to oneself on the internet, unless you are here to unleash a crippling malware on us all that will cause our devices to explode in our pants. I’m on a laptop, I almost never put it in my pants.

          • sburns54

             I’m not an orthodox Luddite; I’m a reform Luddite. We’re allowed to use computers and the internet in a simplistic way, as long as we don’t really understand it or know what we’re doing.

          • http://twitter.com/fossilfuels Funk Daddy

            holy crap I’m a reform Luddite too. This shit is magic ya know! :)

    • SomeGuyNamedMark

       The thought of putting anything electric right up against my teeth doesn’t seem like a good idea.

  • http://profile.yahoo.com/65EUQMQIV4NJ2DJZBTHHTZNNEA moontoad

     Bone conduction hearing aids have been around for many many years.  It would have made more sense to hook up an MP3 player to a bone conduction hearing aid.

    • oasisob1

      But far less blingy.

  • Robert Cruickshank

     This is great. I’d love to see a self-contained version without the mouth-wire.The tongue controlled switch also makes this a good piece of adaptive tech for those without the use of their hands.  Also, those of a certain age might remember the Bone Fone, a pre-walkman bone-conduction personal stereo that hung around your neck like a scarf, and conducted into your clavicles. It was a very odd sensation.

    • Adrienne Evans Fernandez

       Right? Forget the hip hop angle, this would be a perfect way to listen to music while I swim (and those waterproof MP3 players are hit or miss at best.)

  • RJ

    Because the people who wear grills don’t enunciate poorly enough as it is. They need to try to speak with an MP3 player stuck to the roof of their mouth.

  • http://ravenlunatick.wordpress.com/ ravenlunatick

    Looks awful but probably sounds neat. You can hear an unamplified electric guitar a similar way (i.e by biting it). 

  • allium

    I don’t trust electronics that can accidentally be swallowed.

  • BookGuy

    And anyone, anywhere who had to wear a retainer as a child (myself included) says, “Um…no.”  But enjoy the opportunity to drool on yourself AND your mp3 player.

    • Antinous / Moderator

      As a child? I wear a night guard at 55.

  • http://evilbobdayjob.blogspot.com/ Deidzoeb

    Classic joke needs revision: Jazz isn’t dead, it just smells like it. And tastes like it!

  • oswarez

    Would these work for deaf people. Would they be able to “hear” and recognize sound waves through their bones?

    • Nicholas Laux

      Depends on the person and their cause of deafness. If they didn’t have cochlear damage or other developmental issues* which was the source of their deafness, then most likely yes (though as mentioned above, bone-conducting hearing aids already exist and those who would choose to use them already can, including for music). For others, no, because the part of the ear that translates air vibrations (the cochlea or other neural pathways between that and the brain) is damaged or missing* and thus bone conductivity still would not stimulate those organs and be translated into auditory experiences.

      *(The use of medically descriptive terminology is not intended to indicate superiority of being Hearing/Deaf, and is merely used to be as descriptive as possible.)