You’re such a smart … jacket?

Levi’s Commuter Trucker smart jacket is now on sale for $350. It was announced more than a year ago, but the jacket is finally ready for the general public.

What is a smart about the jacket? You can control your smart phone by swiping or tapping the fabric on the left cuff. It works by attaching a small tag to the left cuff of the jacket. It pairs with an app on your phone, which you can use to set up different gestures.

The jacket looks like a jean jacket. And amazingly, it’s washable and dry-able.

The jacket came out of a partnership between Levi’s and a small division of Google that is dedicated to experimentation. It will be available on levi.com on Oct. 2.

Enough bandwidth to stream 71 million HD videos at once? It’s across the Atlantic. =

The cable is able to transmit data 16 million times faster than an average home internet connection, according to Microsoft.

“Called Marea, which is Spanish for ‘tide,’ the 4,000 mile long subsea cable lies 17,000 feet below the ocean surface and extends between Virginia Beach, Virginia and the city of Bilbao in Spain. Marea also stretches a route south of most existing transatlantic cables. Because of this, Microsoft says the cable will provide resiliency for those living in the US and Europe by safeguarding against natural disasters or other major events that might cause disruptions to connections like those seen during Hurricane Sandy.”

If you’re wondering, like we were, about WHERE it is, its depth varies depending on the area of the ocean. In some cases, it’s actual buried under the ocean floor.

Facebook partnership setting sights on LinkedIn?

Facebook announced yesterday that it will soon integrate with ZipRecruiter (an online version of a traditional job board). Facebook launched its first job ads earlier this year.

“By partnering with ZipRecruiter and others like it, organizations will now be able to tick a box to broadcast the job add to Facebook among a wider mix of job boards that can be accessed through a one-stop shop — ZipRecruiter, as one example, covers hundreds of these boards.”

Moving into the recruiting business, Facebook will be encroaching on LinkIn, the current industry leader. Apparently, many companies that work with ZipRecruiter have requested a Facebook integration.

Need a handyman? Call Ikea!

Ikea has purchased TaskRabbit, a startup that links freelance workers with jobs, from handymen to movers to people that will stand in line for you. The company has about 60 employees, but 60,000 independent workers use it.

The two have worked together before. Remember the frustration involved in putting together Ikea furniture? In the past, TaskRabbit struck a partnership with Ikea involving furniture assembly.

How is this related to the tech world? Here’s the scoop:

“The purchase of TaskRabbit was fueled by Ikea’s need to further bolster its digital customer service capabilities to better compete with rivals likes Amazon, which has stepped up its home goods and installation offerings. The purchase is Ikea’s first step into the on-demand platform space.”

Scientists are curing diseases before people really have them

A team of researchers from Sun Yat-sen University have used gene editing to cure people of a potential blood disorder – one that requires sufferers to undergo lifelong blood transfusions and specialist care. The only “cure” until now involved a life-threatening stem cell or bone marrow transplant. The disorder is called beta-thalassemia.

In this first-in-the-world attempt, a team of researchers corrected the error in DNA that caused this condition in human embryos.

This news has enormous potential, but there are many regulatory hurdles to overcome before this becomes common practice.