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Feline adventure game 'Stray' is getting a limited-edition cat backpack
Publisher Annapurna Interactive teamed up with pet accessory maker Travel Cat for the tie-in.
TikTok rolls out 1080p uploads and more editing features
You can now use GIFs from Giphy as Green Screen backgrounds and turn your voice into a cat's meow.
Behringer's latest synth clone is based on the Octave Cat from the 70s
Behringer hasn't been shy about its plans to clone some of the most iconic synthesizers ever made. In November alone, the company debuted the Poly D based on the Minimoog Model D, the Wasp Deluxe based on EDP Wasp and the TD-3 based on the Roland TB-303. Not wanting to let the calendar flip before it could tease its next revival, Behringer showed off the CAT synth earlier this week -- a Eurorack-compatible instrument based on the Octave Cat that debuted in 1976. The original was used by acts like Chemical Brothers, Devo and many more.
Japanese safety video teaches cats the rules of the road
As a species, we've done a pretty bang up job making the rest of the planet incredibly dangerous for other animals. Ask any badger and they'll tell you, "humans are the worst." Roadways are particularly treacherous to the rest of the animal kingdom. But a Japanese auto parts and service chain, Yellow Hat is doing its part to help some of our four-legged companions on this big blue orb navigate the dangers of the streets.
After Math: How we survived CES 2019
As cleanup crews descend on the Las Vegas Convention Center and the events attendees reluctantly make their ways home, it's hard to believe that the weeklong technology expo is already over. We saw autonomous bread machines, self-driving semis, and even self-heating razors amidst the gaggle of cutting edge gadgets. Here are some of the coolest tech toys that we got to play with at CES 2019.
This cute Def Con badge beckons you to hack it
At previous Def Cons I wrote about the unofficial badges and the culture surrounding those pieces of technology. This year I was determined to move past my infatuation with blinking lights and colorful PCBs (printed circuit boards). Then I saw the Maneki Neko badge. It's the iconic beckoning cat (literally what "maneki-neko" means) with a moving 3D-printed arm and two 16-segment LEDs that blink at you while it waves.
Cat's S61 is an ideal phone for blue-collar workers
Two years ago, I was shown a Cat-branded smartphone with a thermal camera for people who work in construction and other outdoors-y, get-your-hands-dirty professions. I wasn't the target market, of course, and struggled to judge whether the feature was a gimmick or not. Turns out it was the latter; Bullitt, the British phone maker that built the Cat S60, is back with a new model called the S61. The heat-sensing FLIR camera now goes up to 400 degrees celsius (the S60 maxed out at 120 degrees) so workers can analyze faulty engines, electronic equipment and more.
Sometimes, all you need in life is a cat tail cushion
You may not instantly recognize the name "Yukai Engineering," but you may have already come across its earlier products like the Necomimi brainwave cat ears or the Bocco "family robot" at some point. At CEATEC, the Japanese company unveiled its latest wacky product, the Qoobo "tail therapy" robot. This is essentially a cushion with a realistic cat tail that reacts to stroking and patting, such that it's able to comfort its "owner" like a real pet would simply through tail wagging. To make it more lifelike, Qoobo also wags its tail randomly when it is left alone for too long.
The Morning After: Monday, May 1st 2017
Welcome to your Monday morning. China is making its own giant fighting robot, hackers have pillaged a bunch of forthcoming TV shows, and we explain how The Circle takes anti-tech paranoia a little too far.
ICYMI: Eye exams go DIY and smartfeeding your pets
try{document.getElementById("aol-cms-player-1").style.display="none";}catch(e){}Today on In Case You Missed It: A new device can calculate people's eyeglass prescriptions without needing to see an optometrist, though whether that's actually responsible or not is up to you. Meanwhile a cloud-connected smart petfeeder that suffered from downed servers had to send a notice to owners to feed their pets manually, since the machines lost all connection and didn't release food. There's a lot to talk about this week but we recommend reading up on NOAA's three month weather outlook, since everyone will be talking about the DNC this weekend anyway. As always, please share any interesting tech or science videos you find by using the #ICYMI hashtag on Twitter for @mskerryd.
I accidentally broke the super-rugged Cat S60 smartphone
This year's Mobile World Congress played host to plenty of phones I couldn't stop playing with, and the $599 Caterpillar-branded Cat S60 was near the top of my list. First, though, a painfully obvious disclosure: I have never, nor do I currently, work in construction. I'm not an outdoorsman either, and I'm a terrible amateur plumber. That makes me half a lousy test subject here. Bullitt Group, the UK-based phone maker that licenses the Caterpillar brand, is targeting people working in trades, as well as folks who are generally just rough on their phones. I've definitely fallen into the latter camp on occasion, but either way, there's more to the S60 than just how hardy it is.
ICYMI: How cancer travels, true hoverboard and more
#fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-226789{display:none;} .cke_show_borders #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-226789, #postcontentcontainer #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-226789{width:570px;display:block;} try{document.getElementById("fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-226789").style.display="none";}catch(e){}Today on In Case You Missed It: MIT researchers discovered that cancer cells can unclump to squeeze through teeny capillaries, then reassemble as cancer clumps on the other side. Zapata Racing has a prototype of a real hoverboard that can fly just like the Green Goblin's, but only for 10 minutes at a time. And a smart toy for pets called PlayDate will let you play with your cat or dog remotely, by moving the ball around through an app and watching your pet's reaction. We also wanted you to see the video of some construction equipment in a Transformers-like battle, after the humans operating them got into some sort of argument and decided to settle it like Gladiators of road construction. As always, please share any great tech or science videos you find by using the #ICYMI hashtag on Twitter for @mskerryd.
People tweeted their phone number and got spammed with cat facts
There are people who share their real phone numbers via a tweet. Yes, really. One programmer decided to teach those folks a lesson by spamming them with cat facts. Using phone numbers that were beamed out in public tweets, the joke included sending text messages about cats until the person tweeted at Edward Snowden "Meow, I <3 catfacts." Although Snowden isn't in on the gag, he is a bit of a feline fanatic. He was also quite forthcoming about his own Twitter faux pas. In this case, automated script pulls data from the Twitter API before blasting out the messages full of meow-based facts with an anonymous texting app. The programmer says the goal of the stunt is to teach users who are so loose with their personal details a lesson on how a more ruthless hacker might attack their mobile devices. Pretty solid way to do so, if you ask us. [Image credit: AFP/Getty Images]
All of your feline fantasies come true in 'Catlateral Damage'
In this first-person cat simulator you are a kitty locked up in a house full of annoying human things, your goal is to knock down as many objects as possible, including books, lamps, groceries, toys and plants.
Caturday: Le magnifique chat devant l'iMac
Ahhh, the hunting grounds of the magnificent tuxedo cat ... in front of an iMac. This is Kali, a cat belonging to the daughter of TUAW reader Denis Giguere of Laval, Quebec. Denis poetically notes that: We are currently sitting Kali, one of our daughter's cats. In Hindu religion, Kali is the Goddess of time and change, others say of universal destruction. This little tuxedo cat bears well its name as it enjoyed chewing the USB cables connected to my iMac. But how to resist such a lovely brat That likes to hang around for a belly scratch While working on my iMac? Simply get Apple wireless trackpad and keyboard! We'd love to see photos of your favorite feline soaking up the warmth of an Apple product, chasing a Magic Mouse, or just being a general nuisance while you're attempting to work on your Mac, iPad, or iPhone. Please let us know via our feedback page and please remember that your cat photo has to have some sort of connection to Apple or its products. For security reasons we can't accept inbound attachments, so you should host the photo (Dropbox, Flickr, iPhoto Journals, etc.) and send us the link. Merci à Denis et Kali!
This dog has no patience for your stupid iPad games
Everyone's gotten a little bit heated over a rough game of Candy Crush Saga, but if you think your iOS gaming temper is bad then you've never met Violet. Violet is a greyhound that loves her iPad, but doesn't take kindly to being bested by a game that's made for cats. As you can see in the video below, sometimes her temper gets the best of her.
CAT's next phone is so rugged we're surprised it doesn't have a beard
We'd hate to admit it, but you could never really mistake your humble narrator for a manly man, breaking cinder blocks with his pectoral muscles and hanging out at monster truck rallies. That doesn't mean, however, that we can't appreciate the engineering and effort that went into CAT's newest rugged smartphone, the S50. We're told that it's designed "for the outdoors," that terrifying world where there's no WiFi and comfortable furniture we see only in our nightmares. The 4.7-inch handset is coated in a liberal helping of Gorilla Glass 3, but the first time we asked about resolution -- which we later learned is 1,280 x 720 -- the device just glowered at us as if we'd challenged its masculinity.
Smart collar turns your cat into a WiFi hacking weapon
Forget Trojan horses -- it's the cats you have to worry about. Security engineer Gene Bransfield has developed WarKitteh, a tech-laden collar that turns feline companions into scouts for WiFi hackers. The innocuous-looking accessory hides a Spark Core board that maps wireless networks and their vulnerabilities wherever the pet wanders. If used in the field, the technology would be pretty sneaky; the cat stalking mice in your backyard could represent the prelude to an attack on your wireless router.
The one iMac feature cat lovers really want
A kitten-creating iMac. Want now, please.
Cat Scratch Fever: The complete Friskies iOS cat app library
Kittens are on the minds of part of the TUAW crew this week; Editor-In-Chief Victor Agreda, Jr. is now the proud dad of Kit-Kat (yes, we know she has an Android OS name), while my wife and I decided to open our home to two adorable new kitties named Merry and Pippin. While looking around last night for something that might keep the two hyperactive felines entertained for a few milliseconds, I remembered that Friskies cat food had a free "advo-tainment" app or two a few years ago. A glance at the App Store showed that the company has now has a whole litter of free apps to try to keep your kitties mesmerized for at least a little while. Here's the whole kit and caboodle: Friskies JitterBug -- Most of these cat-only apps have a certain theme going on that focuses on how felines love to go after anything that moves. Jitterbug gives your kitties five fifteen-second rounds to try to swat as many bugs on an iPad or iPhone screen as possible. If your cat happens to be the Jackie Chan of kittehs and swats a big number, you'll be glad to know you can share his or her score on Facebook. Cat Fishing 2.1 -- You know how Mr. Grumbles likes to watch the fishbowl for hours? No need to be concerned about him accidentally going for a swim when you set the iPad in front of him and launch Cat Fishing 2.1. Here we have fish as the target for your cat's lightning-fast paw, with three rounds with one, two and three fish at a time. Cat bragging rights can not only be displayed on Facebook, but on the Friskies world-wide leaderboard. For a full review by Mike Wehner's cat Cinnamon, click here. Happy Wings -- Let's see, we had crawling bugs, swimming fish... what else can keep a cat excited? Oh, yeah -- things that fly! Happy Wings features three rounds, the first with fluttering moths, the second with dragonflies, and the third with rare tropical hummingbirds that will be wiped out by your cat's baser instincts. According to the app notes, if your cat happens to make it through a few levels, she'll be rewarded with a "You Won" screen and a cat-friendly Play Again button. At this point, my new kittens have the attention span that is measured in Yoctoseconds. Friskies Call-A-Cat -- It's not really a game, but more a way to see what sounds interest your kitties the most. Friskies Call-A-Cat includes several intriguing noises, like bird chirps and opening a can of cat food. The idea is that you can play the most attractive sound just before feeding time to get your cat into the habit of running to the bowl when you tap the sound on your iPhone or iPad. Friskies You vs. Cat -- Tired of letting your cat have all the fun? You vs. Cat is brilliant, since you basically fling playing pieces with a flick of the finger and your cat has to "catch" them. If the cat does stop the playing piece, he gets points; if it goes into the "goal," you get points. The first one who gets to 50 points wins. Note: don't gloat if you win, as your cat may leave a gift where you least expect it. Party Mix-Up -- Yes, in this game your cat gets to catch Friskies Party Mix cat treats. Does this sound basically like subliminal advertising targeted at cats? Tasty Treasures Hunt -- By this point, you'll need an iPhone or iPad with more storage just to hold all of the cat games. In Tasty Treasure Hunt, the gato will be chasing after little cartoon doodles of chickens, turkeys, cheese slices, and fish. Same idea, different graphics. That's about it for the cat apps from Friskies. They also have some games to keep humans occupied, including the search games Friskies Wonderland Quest and Wonderland Quest II for iPad. I have a sinking suspicion that the basic idea of these games is to find hidden items and to drum a certain pet care product line into your brain. And you can't forget Catify Yourself, which turns selfies into nightmarish cat-human hybrids (image below). Have any TUAW readers had success amusing your cats with the Friskies apps? Or did you end up calling "Confuse-A-Cat"? Let us know in the comments.
