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The surprisingly lackluster rise of VR porn
"It's like being inside of a womb or a particularly immaculate throat, all gently pulsating, mucus-y pink flesh." NSFW Warning: This story may contain links to and descriptions or images of explicit sexual acts.
The semi-nude lives of webcam stars
Harli Lotts (not her real name) knows her audience better than just about anyone I've ever met in online media. In just two years, the bubbly blonde from El Paso, Texas, has gone from manager of a rent-to-own store to rising internet starlet by making personal connections with a loyal online audience. She arrived at our interview on a sweltering Friday morning in a hotel suite on the Las Vegas strip with a small entourage of two other budding social media influencers, Amber Vixx and Stefanie Joy (also not their names). NSFW Warning: This story may contain links to and descriptions or images of explicit sexual acts.
Blow-up dolls, vibrators and the sex robot’s uninspired origins
Just a few days before Christmas 2015, I found myself staring down the silicone mouth hole of the "world's first blowjob robot." I'd set out to find the future of sex but quickly realized that: 1) The Autoblow 2+ wasn't a robot at all, and 2) I'd be better off sticking to a grapefruit for simulated fellatio. My encounter with the Autoblow 2+ was both disturbing and fascinating and sparked a 15-month exploration of male sex toys that came to a head in a small sex-robotics R&D lab in Southern California. NSFW Warning: This story may contain links to and descriptions or images of explicit sexual acts.
RealDoll's first sex robot took me to the uncanny valley
During my four-hour visit to the birthplace of the RealDoll, the frighteningly life-like full-body sex toy, I've seen mounds of silicone vaginas, sheets of detached nipples, headless women hanging from meat hooks, a 2-foot penis and skulls with removable faces that attach like refrigerator magnets. NSFW Warning: This story may contain links to and descriptions or images of explicit sexual acts
Semen, centrifuges and a personal journey in male fertility
In August 2012, I came into a neon-pink shot glass. Nine months later, a baby was born. I'd never planned on having a child of my own -- and to be clear, I still don't -- but when two of my best friends started looking for a donor, I jumped on the opportunity. For those of us who can't have children with our partners through good old-fashioned sex, the path to pregnancy is complicated and expensive. After careful consideration, my friends decided on what's commonly referred to as the Turkey Baster Method. I would masturbate into a sterile collection cup and pass the resulting semen to my friend who would draw it into a syringe and deliver it to his wife. She would then plunge it into her vagina.
Porn doesn't need a XXX hologram
In December, the internet exploded with news of a XXX hologram. CamSoda, a small adult-cam site was bringing a holographic cam girl to the 2017 AVN Adult Entertainment Expo. I had to see it for myself. Decades of work have gone into the pursuit of true, full-color video holograms as sophisticated as Princess Leia's cry for help in Star Wars. I didn't expect a porn conference to be the place where more than a half-century of scientific research would bear fruit. But two weeks after CES, I was on my way back to Las Vegas for porn's premier event. I was fully expecting an industry stuck in the past, but hoping for something more.
Porn is back at CES, but good luck finding it
In the far reaches of the Las Vegas Convention Center's South Hall, beyond booths full of off-brand robots, massage chairs, power strips and hoverboards (presumably not the exploding kind), is a row of conference rooms, marked only by white placards with red numerals signifying you're in the right place. Just beyond the sign reading "S115" is the first porn company to have an official presence at CES since the departure of the Adult Entertainment Expo in 1998.
The Novint Falcon: Haptic joystick turned futuristic sex toy
I'm standing in the studio at Engadget's San Francisco headquarters, holding the remains of a pulverized, cream-filled doughnut. The pastry's sticky, off-white filling clings to the shaft of a bright pink vibrator, taped to the end of a silver, cone-shaped device with three arms that come together at a point and a horseshoe-shaped base. This disembodied robot boob is the Novint Falcon, a one-time game-changing game controller turned teledildonics legend. NSFW Warning: This story may contain links to and descriptions or images of explicit sexual acts.
How to outsource your love life
It's 5PM on a Friday. I pour myself a glass of three-day-old white wine and wait for my wing woman to call. Her name is Ally. She has a soothing voice and a gentle demeanor. She lives in Temecula, California, somewhere between Los Angeles and the hyper-conservative, bleach-blonde beaches of San Diego. Over the course of our near-two-hour phone call she will grill me on everything from my favorite dishes to dating deal-breakers, from the time I was held at gunpoint in Mexico to my affinity for gin martinis.
The massively multiplayer online role-playing orgy I never had
It was supposed to be my first orgy. NSFW Warning: This story may contain links to and descriptions or images of explicit sexual acts.
The curious sext lives of chatbots
ELIZA is old enough to be my mother, but that didn't stop me from trying to have sex with her. NSFW Warning: This story may contain links to and descriptions or images of explicit sexual acts.
Ghosting redefined
They are our brothers and sisters, our mothers and fathers, our teachers, our students, our bankers, our janitors, the bathroom attendant, the perfume-counter girl, the porn star, the preacher. They are the right-wing nut job, the Left Shark and the guy in the middle seat. There's no discernible difference between us and them. In fact, there's a good chance you're one of them. They are ghosts -- or so we've been told.
The incredibly sad world of niche dating apps
When I exited the market in 2006, online dating was akin to wearing sweatpants in the club. It was a sign that you'd given up on the "real" world; a symbol of existential surrender.
A first-hand quest for the future of sex, Part 2: Mission diverted
I'd just returned from CES, where it was obvious that sex and tech were finally coming together. Despite my rather unfortunate experiences weeks prior, I was feeling inspired. That's when Kiiroo came into my life. Like a serendipitous orgasm harbinger, it promised to take my "sex life to new heights" through teledildonics. Teledildonics is the sex industry's contribution to the Internet of Things, allowing users to remote control vibrators and sex sleeves, sync those toys to VR videos, interact with an adult cam star in real-time, "feel" a long-distance lover and, as I'd come to discover, bring new meaning to one of my favorite internet initialisms: GFY. NSFW Warning: This story may contain links to and descriptions or images of explicit sexual acts. This is the conclusion of a two-part series exploring the future of sex. To read the first installment, click here at your own risk.
A first-hand quest for the future of sex
Over the past two months, I've been intimately involved with a series of machines. On a mission to find the future of sex, I've masturbated into a crowdfunded sex sleeve, been transported into a porn star's anus and quite literally fucked myself. On Friday, I reached my final destination. I can now say that it is a clumsy, unremarkable future. NSFW Warning: This story may contain links to and descriptions or images of explicit sexual acts. This is the first in a two-part series exploring the future of sex. To read the conclusion, click here at your own risk.
Sex censorship breeds a fetish-focused social network
She lay back on a tan leather chaise lounge in a luxury suite in a Las Vegas hotel, a VR headset covering her eyes, surrounded by strangers and coworkers. She squirmed with embarrassment, screamed, giggled and covered her already-obstructed eyes. Engadget's Director of Production, Heather Frank, was experiencing the future of pornography firsthand, and I captured it all for posterity. When I went to add the video to my collection of #VRPorn reaction posts, I did what any socially responsible millennial would and asked our hosts for their Instagram handle. As it turns out, Instagram was a touchy subject.
Junk technology: Why your penis pedometer is DOA
If all you want for Christmas is a penis pedometer, get ready to be disappointed. NSFW Warning: This story may contain links to and descriptions or images of explicit sexual acts.
Kink.com's VR porn experiment is a lesson in extreme anatomy
Six years ago, I exited the porn industry after the studio I worked for succumbed to a decline in DVD sales. Toward the end, I was one of two employees. I answered phones, designed box covers, scripted Brazilian gang bangs and spent hours airbrushing razor burn and other skin conditions in Photoshop. I thought I'd seen everything until I saw inside Ella Nova's anus.
Facebook has a cure for your broken heart: more Facebook
Your best friend, Facebook — you know the one who toyed with your emotions for personal gain; repeatedly brought up moments you'd rather forget; and refused to call you by your chosen name for, like, ever — really wants to help you get over your ex. That's right, yesterday the good vibes social network that wears its thumbs-up on its sleeve, started testing a set of features for the recently estranged.
In the App Store, love comes cheap
When you're a writer, people expect you to write. And when you're courting someone the pressure to write for them, and to do it well, is amplified. My most recent romantic conquest, a Mexican interior designer, lived in LA. He was a diehard romantic, hundreds of miles away, and despite a slight language barrier, he had a way with words that I struggled to match. He had the ability to make me melt with a single text. I, in turn, would sit for minutes at a time, wringing my heart and brain for just one drop of sweet sentiment.
