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I think they misunderstood a great deal about why smoking is "cool".

Today it's considered cool to try and be healthier. To some extend at least. People are well aware that smoking isn't healthy but it still has appeal because it's somewhat "rebellious" and "nonchalant". I'm very convinced you can "re-invent" smoking with a healthier alternative but I don't see this being it at all. Mainly because it reeks of desperation which is very much opposite of cool as well as rebellious and nonchalant. That product with it's smoking stick, the pods and the fuel is just way too mechanic. Going through the steps of that product "just" to smoke seems silly. It's not even like those who roll their own cigarettes. They at least have the image of being quality-concerned or someone who prefers handcrafted things.

that's indeed a very good obversation. but i believe one this could be regarded as being cool. it's not cool in a retro sense, but in a technocratic, modern way. much like apple. nobody ever thought that coffee tabs could be cool but nespresso has proven them to be wrong.
Coffee tabs are cool? I thought they sold on their convenience.
I think smoking also has its appeal because it can feel really good when you do it. I started smoking not because it was cool, or because it was rebellious (in fact i resisted for a long time because i thought it was lame), but because when i did it, it felt good.
Yeah, I didn't think of that but it's very true as well. I have very sensitive -something- so can't enjoy smoking myself. I can relate to it very well however when I think of alcohol usage. While not widely considered as much of an issue, alcohol is very unhealthy too but it's hard not to enjoy. That said I wouldn't ban it or make it illegal. It is poison but in the end you can say a lot of things are poisonous. I wouldn't want to live in a world that didn't have any poison.
"Cool" is being calm and collected. Both the nicotine and MAOIs in cigarette smoke help you be calm and collected. That is where the association comes from.
It is essentially just a vaporizer like all the different e-cigarettes already on the market. The difference is this one uses buthane instead of battery. This product seem to have been released a while ago to a lukewarm reception.

It's a nice thought, but e-cigarettes / vaporizers simply do not stand up to regular cigarettes in neither usability, pleasure nor cool-factor (if there even is any such).

Wow - 'harmless'?

From the ploom faq: " Is Ploom "safe"? Ploom does not comment on the relative risks of smoking vs. vaporizing. Ploom is not sold or marketed as a safe alternative to cigarettes."

I find it misleading that this article suggests that this is some kind of revolutionary new smoking product. By the article and the video, the Plume product does differentiate its self from any other electronic cigarette.
Smoking is (was) cool. But WHY? One of my favorite quotes explains it so well:

I like to think of fire held in a man's hand. Fire, a dangerous force, tamed at his fingertips. I often wonder about the hours when a man sits alone, watching the smoke of a cigarette, thinking. I wonder what great things have come from such hours. When a man thinks, there is a spot of fire alive in his mind--and it is proper that he should have the burning point of a cigarette as his one expression.

At the primal level, beneath any rationalizations we can come up with, smoking is cool because you are taming a giant force of nature, similar to the way that a motorcycle rider is cool. It's about the confidence that is signified by the act. I don't see that in this product.

This is an elaborate ad, I think, and has nothing to do with techcrunch, even though they make it look like that.
Looks to me like it's actually producing smoke... And while the tar and other bad things in normal cigarettes wouldn't be there, I doubt smoke inhalation is ever a good thing.