The Melon headband is a brain-sensing device that monitors brain activities while you are studying, dancing, or just doing yoga to help you track your progress and productivity.

At Melon we are really interested in the idea of Understood Self, which we are trying to add to the movement of Quantified Self. We want people to have a great feedback system for the data we’re capturing, so it can help with the activities users already do day-to-day, go beyond numbers and scores, and move towards insights and understanding.

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Hearst Corporation has launched the Elle Glassware app exclusively designed for Google Glass. The publication is the first magazine to launch a Google Glass app, though it joins other media companies including The New York Times and Mashable both of who already have Google Glass apps.

Hearst Corporation worked with Google on the app, which includes content from the magazine’s most widely read and shared sections online. The app features stories from ELLEDispatch, Street Chic and Lookbooks, as well as horoscopes. Users can share articles and photos and create reading lists and shopping wish lists using the app. The app is now available to as part of Google Glass’ Explorer launch.

“Hearst always strives to be on the leading edge of innovation—it is at the core of our company,” explained Phil Wiser, chief technology officer, Hearst Corporation, in a statement. “Across our media businesses, we are working to engage consumers everywhere content is consumed, now and in the future. Google Glass encourages us to think about our content in a new way. We are very pleased at the experience of partnering with Google on this project.”

Mobile app developer skobbler has updated the Android version of its maps app ForeverMap 2 adding turn-by-turn navigation which is available both online and offline. In doing so, the company has renamed the GPS Navigation & Maps and added a feature that lets users get directions to where they are going with voice guidance.

Here is more from the press release: “The update combines the one-of-a-kind map features users love from ForeverMap 2, with skobbler’s GPS Navigation 2, the internationally renowned mobile navigation solution with over 3.5 million users on iOS alone, while enhancing aspects of both to create a standalone, next-generation orientation solution.”

“By adding voice guided, turn-by-turn navigation to what was previously a maps only experience, we’ve not only evolved ForeverMap 2, we’ve also fundamentally transformed the orientation landscape on Android,” stated Philipp Kandal, co-Founder of skobbler.

Pompeii, Its Life and Art by August Mau is today’s Free eBook of the Day.

The historical text was created by German Archaeological Institute in Rome and originally published by The Macmillian Company in 1899.

Here is an excerpt:

In the construction of columns and many architraves large blocks were used. Previous to the time of the Roman colony these were of gray tufa, or, in rare instances, of limestone; a coating of white stucco was laid on the surface. From the advent of the colony to the time of the Early Empire, the whitish limestone was used; after that, Carrara marble.

Project Gutenberg has the free download.

For more free eBooks, check out our Free eBook of the Day archive.

The New Yorker has introduced a new online receptacle where sources can share documents and messages with the magazine anonymously. The tool is called Strongbox and it is accessible using the Tor network, a private and secure online network.

The publication will not record the I.P. address or any browsing information from people who share documents on Strongbox. It will also not try to access your computer or operating system, and they will not add cookies to your browser.

Here is more about Strongbox from The New Yorker‘s website:

It was put together by Aaron Swartz, who died in January, and Kevin Poulsen. Kevin explains some of the background in his own post, including Swartz’s role and his survivors’ feelings about the project. (They approve, something that was important for us here to know.) The underlying code, given the name DeadDrop, will be open-source, and we are very glad to be the first to bring it out into the world, fully implemented. Read more

When Hollywood producer Neal Edelstein set out to make Haunting Melissa, a horror film iPad app about a teenage girl that goes missing, he didn’t want it to be just another film. The first directorial production from the producer of Mulholland Drive and The Ring, the film was created the specifically for the iPad.

“The story was designed with the technology in mind,” Edelstein told AppNewser last week over coffee in New York. ”It’s a ghost story that was designed to be watched in the dark with headphones on.” Read more

In this digital age, basic programming is one of the best gift you can give a kid.

The free Hopscotch HD app will help kids explore a simple programming language and create their own games. The brand new iOS app has already found a bustling community of users. Check it out:

So, we launched Hopscotch last week, and it’s been quite a ride since.  It’s been downloaded more than 20,000 times, we cracked the Top 10 iPad Education apps, and were featured in New and Noteworthy on the App Store.  After the initial press we got all sorts of other great coverage on various ed tech blogs. We’ve had folks volunteering to translate it into nine different languages. We’ve had some totally awesome projects sent to us by parents and kids. And perhaps most importantly, we’ve begun our process of refining our feature set based on real data and feedback.

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You Tube personality and real world iPad Magician is helping to announce the latest update for Rovio’s Angry Birds on Android and iOS called Abra-Ca-Bacon.

The new update to Angry Birds Seasons includes Magic Portals, so the video and talent fit was a perfect match. The portals help to transport birds – just shoot them at a portal and they magically appear out of the same looking portal elsewhere on-screen. The portals are not limited to just bird-transport, bits of explosions also can travel through the space-warps.Click here to see the video announcements: Read more

Do you like reading movie scripts? Check out Script Lit, a new series of unproduced screenplays that have been adapted as eBook novellas.

Here is more from the site: “There are many wonderful scripts written that are never produced and therefore aren’t shown to the world. This process of adapting those ‘lost gems’ into eBook novellas gives the writer a chance to be heard and loved by a wide audience. We are SL eBooks and are proud to present Script Lit, the new literary genre.”

The debut title from the collection is Mom of the Year by Denise Pischinger and is available through various eBook stores for $2.99. The second title from the collection, a horror/thriller title called Ambrose Fountain by Brian Sieve will publish next month.

As the shutdown of Google Reader nears, one reader has created a simple and free tool to replace Google’s soon-to-be discontinued tool.

You can explore the demo online or visit the simple sign-up page. CommaFeed inclues an easy organizational structure and simple settings. The interface will be easy for most Google Reader users to pick up quickly.  Here’s more about the free app:

When Google announced Reader shutdown, I started to work on a clone. It is now available. It’s simple, bloat-free, and it’s open-source. Say hello to CommaFeed … CommaFeed is a bloat-free feed reader. It aims to replace Google Reader while keeping things simple.