MY FELLOW BRETHREN BEWARE!

     Today's blog is geared towards my fellow man. Especially, the ones who are still dating. Guys, there is a new device that you need to be aware of. Let's just say, when a date is going bad and suddenly your date gets a phone call and has to leave or one of her friends show up and invades your failing date. Well, there's now a reason why these things are happening. 

     There's a new wearable device called "Ruby," where all a woman needs to do is click her heels three times to get out of a situation with minimal awkwardness. The Ruby is part of an overall system called "Dorothy" (get it? click your heels three times?), a rectangular, Bluetooth-enabled device that sits on the side of the woman's shoe. The chip connects to their smartphone and activates after three rapid taps. 

     Ruby can do a few things, depending on how she's set. It can make a fake phone call to their phone or text up to three friends a message, and share a map of your location with those three friends. Dorothy's creators are from the digital creative agency, iStrategyLabs, based in Washington D.C. This the company who is responsible for other visionary products like a Twitter-controlled paintball gun and a mirror that takes and posts selfies to social media. I have to be honest, these sound like some pretty cool products.

     As of now, the Ruby device is clunky enough that it would be pretty hard to hide from a date. It wouldn't even stay in place if a woman was wearing flats. The creators are still trying to fix a couple of concerns regarding the device. One is to try to make it about a third smaller and they're trying to build it into the shoe's insole. They're also hoping to improve the devices's battery life.

     I have to say that if this product gets popular, dating could really suck. Thank God I no longer have to do it. I mean, for women, this is great because I'm sure not all dates run smoothly, but how about the men who are on really bad dates? Is there a device for us too? Why does this company just assume that it's only the women who are on bad dates? Just saying...

UH-OH, GUYS! THERE'S AN APP FOR THAT NOW!

Don't you wish when you started dating that you had a friend that can tell you more about the guy or girl that you just started dating? This way you can decide whether you want to continue dating them or not. I guess it would be something like a background check at when you’re vying for a job. Well, we can all relax now because there is now an app for that! Well, there's an app for the ladies anyway. 

It's called Lulu! It's an app where women post anonymous reviews rating past hookups and ex-boyfriends. That's right! Gossip ranges from flattering to he does dishes, loves his family and has a six-pack to other scathing criticisms. So, my shady brethren, consider yourselves warned. Alison Schwartz, Lulu co-founder, says, "Girls love to share. They love to have information, to be in the know. They love to have their experiences validated by other friends." 

Schwartz and her partner Alexandra Chong came up with the idea for Lulu after a girls' brunch resulting in over sharing about their jobs, dermatologist appointments, and eventually, guys. Schwartz says, "There's a lot of value in girl talk. The second you put a guy in the mix, the candor completely changes. We realized there's something so powerful here." The app, which is exclusive to women only, was launched in January and has consistently been among the top 20 in the iTunes app store. More than 1.5 million reviews and 15 million profile views have been logged.

Reviews of these men assess a man's humor, appearance, manners, ambition and commitment. All of which are rated on a scale from 1 to 10. The app works by syncing the users' Facebook accounts to scan friends and see which men have been rated. Women can browse reviews or write their own by identifying their relationship with the person, from crush to ex-boyfriend. It's supposedly way easier than using Yelp. While most of the men on this want their review removed and can opt out my contacting Lulu, most of the reaction to the app seems less focused on the guy-bashing and more focused on the absurdity of it all. One Twitter user slammed the app by saying, "It's definitely a reminder that girls can be real petty." You think? The whole entire time that I wrote this blog, I kept on thinking of ways to come up with a male version of this app and call it "Herlu", where we, too, can rate exes or crushes by their personalities, sense of humor, brain power, but I would also add a rating scale for boobs, butts, and easiness of the score. That app would be awesome for us guys! Why not? Why do girls get to have all the fun? It's not a sexist thing at all, right?