We’re only a few days away from the Fourth of July, and if you plan to celebrate Independence Day at a party with pals, then you might want to grab HBO’s Not Hotdog app. You don’t have to be a fan of Silicon Valley to appreciate this neural network-powered gag, which manages to be both weirdly brilliant and impressively pointless.
On the other hand, if you’re looking for something a bit more useful, then Adidas’ new All Day fitness and health app might help you stay on track amidst holiday shenanigans. And if you just want to have fun on your Android device, then Futurama: World of Tomorrow and Oxenfree are both worth a look, along with the feature-boosting new Twitch update.
Not Hotdog
IDGAre you having trouble determining if an item is a hot dog… or not a hot dog? This uncommon conundrum could derail a meal, let alone your entire day, but finally there’s a solution: Not Hotdog. This app lets you snap a photo or pull an image from your camera roll, and then it uses the power of a neural network to determine whether what’s pictured is a hot dog or not.
Yes, it’s obviously a joke app—and yet it’s a surprisingly complex one. Not Hotdog is based on a storyline from this season of HBO’s Silicon Valley (here’s the relevant, NSFW clip), which has been turned into a fully functional app that uses AI to determine what’s being shown. In fact, here’s an incredibly extensive article about how it was made. Not Hotdog’s limited functionality means it probably won’t become Shazam for food, but it might crack up some pals at your next BBQ.