A tech lover's guide to hacking Valentine's Day
Roses, card, and dinner out? That's so first-generation romance. In this digitized world, it's time to upgrade your holiday to Valentine鈥檚 Day 2.0. Whether it鈥檚 the meal concocted by the chef of the future, an app that can connect your schedule with a loved one, or a program that will match you up with your most compatible Facebook friend, the tech world has you covered. Here is Valentine鈥檚 Day, hacked.
Google Doodle your loved one a box of chocolates
On Friday, Google rolled out an interactive doodle with stories of true love. Ira Glass of "This American Life" introduces this collection of sweet, profound, and well told stories. But there's also a secret Google Doodle today. If you head to 聽(the Canadian Google site), you'll find an entirely different interactive doodle. This one聽lets Googlers create their own box of e-chocolates. Googlers can create customizable digital treats with ingredients such as strawberries, caramel, and sprinkles. When finished, people are presented with a link to send to a loved one. The link opens up the box and breaks down each of the three digital chocolates' ingredients. A cute idea, but if you go this route just be sure to also follow up with a real box of chocolates.
Make a romantic GIF
The card industry makes $7 billion per year. Why? The Greeting Card Association estimates that a typical card costs between $2 to $4, and 145 million Valentine鈥檚 Day cards are sold each year. That鈥檚 a lot of cards.
Don鈥檛 want to be a part of the crowd, nor shell out your coffee money for a piece of folded paper? Show your loved one that you鈥檙e up on the times by creating or sharing a romantic GIF. Animated GIFs are essentially constantly repeating loops, sometimes combined with text. Take a look at websites like聽听辞谤听聽for ideas, pick out a few GIFs that describe your feelings toward your loved one (examples:聽,听), create a blog post on a website to house your GIFs, then send a link to your loved one. Or, if you're up to the challenge,听聽to creating your own original GIF. If your date likes it, perhaps they鈥檒l even share it. Who knows? Your proclamation of love could go viral.
3-D print your meal for two
A homemade meal for a loved one is a thoughtful gesture on Valentine鈥檚 Day. But a home-printed meal? Your date will not only be touched 鈥� they鈥檒l be impressed. Engineers have begun experimenting with 3-D printed food, and the results are not half bad. offers a 3-D printer expansion pack with syringes and chocolate, and lets you take creative control over chocolate-printed designs. to design a prototype pizza maker that prints a layer of dough, cooks it, then tops it off with a powder, water, and oil tomato paste as well as a protein layer. Later this year , and will offer recipes for ravioli and chickpea nuggets.
Though your loved one will likely be impressed with this feat, your wallet will not be. 3-D printers cost anywhere from $1,000 to $10,000, and food-based sets tend to be in the $4,000 to $5,000 range. It doesn鈥檛 let you off the hook for cooking either 鈥� usually you put together the recipe, deposit it in the machine, and let the printer do the assembly.
Set the mood with streaming radio
This year, streaming radio stations have taken over music lovers鈥� ears: from聽听迟辞听听迟辞听,听there is no shortage of online music players to choose from. A hidden bonus of these streaming music sites? Customized playlists. iTunes Radio has a 鈥淟ove Songs Pop鈥� station,听聽has a 鈥淟ove Songs鈥� genre, and mood-based music player聽聽lets you personalize the romance with playlists titled 鈥渃andlelit dinner鈥� and 鈥渋n love.鈥�
Digitize the jewelry box
Jewelry is a pretty standard Valentine鈥檚 Day gift, but the tech world has put a new spin on an old trend. Instead of a diamond necklace, how about a QR code necklace? In addition to , you can customize the QR code with a romantic message or link that your loved one can scan and access with their smart phone. Looking for a digitally-inspired gift for your man? : one is a 2 GB flash drive and the other is a Wi-Fi hotspot.
Take the next step in your relationship, via the app store
A major step in many relationships is deciding to move in together. Not ready for that step just yet? Why not move in together digitally, instead? Apps like聽听补苍诲听聽sync up couple's schedules, texts, photos together, and important relationship milestones to let long-distance (or inseparable) couples stay connected. Avocado also lets couples send digital hugs and kisses by pressing the phone against their body and kissing the screen. The best part? Both apps are free to download (sure beats moving costs).
No Valentine? The Internet says, "no problem."
No date for Valentine鈥檚 Day? The digital world has got you covered once again.聽聽of Americans believe online dating is a good way to meet people, and one out of five people ages 25-34 have used online dating. Online dating isn鈥檛 confined to Match.com or other profile-centric dating methods anymore. New websites are popping up, such as聽, which lets users propose a potential date and matches people based on their activity interests, or聽, which sets up drinks between two groups of friends.
More interested in matching up with someone you already know? Facebook and MTV Asia recently teamed up to create , a program that analyzes your profile, plus the profiles of your Facebook friends, to see who is most compatible with you. Treat it as a fun experiment in social algorithms or an actual road map to your next date 鈥� either way, you have the digital world to thank.
