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Microsoft patents asking your friends 'does my butt look big in this?'
Microsoft has patented an online personal appearance adviser for those of us without a hotline straight through to Put This On's Jesse Thorn. Simply upload a pair of pictures of yourself in different hair, makeup and clothing choices and let the denizens of the internet vote on which one makes you look the best. Sounding similar to HotorNot and FaceMash, this patent purports to shift the emphasis to help the style-challenged choose a suitable wardrobe. We just hope the company built in some snark-protection -- or else we might see plenty of ingenues with ruined self esteem arrive at the opera in a dinosaur costume.
Spotify welcomes new apps from Warner, Def Jam, Matador, more
So, now that Rdio's got itself a fancy redesign, it's time for Spotify to fire back, right? The Swedish streaming service announced a new round of third-party apps, including selections from some big industry names, like Warner, Def Jam, Domino and Matador Records. The list also includes Classify, an app designed to help users discover classical music on the service, The Complete Collection, which offers up supplementary images, lyrics and liner notes and Fitr, which lets you build playlists based on Facebook friends. Also new is Hot or Not, which offers a song-based take on the internet voting site and [PIAS], which provides some curated playlists. In all, the site is rolling out a dozen new apps. Check the press release after the break for more info.
2Chicks1Mac - Tip Applications: Hot? or Not?
Christina Warren. Erica Sadun. Two Women. Two Opinions. One love of all things Macintosh. This week, it's all about iPhone Tip Calculators. Are they a waste of Apple's time and resources, along with all those Sudoko games and Flashlights, or a clever and creative way for App developers to offer a useful product? Tell us what you think... then read on for C vs. E in the tip-top battle royale. %Poll-19159%
MissBimbo -- When satire turns serious
With a name like MissBimbo.com, you probably won't expect to find a reasoned, measured website where girls are taught the finer points of economic theory. Its founders, however, have definitely learned that lesson. Since launching in France two years ago as Ma-Bimbo.com, girls have created over 1.3 million "bimbos" which they teach to become fashion superstars. Like superstar celebrities Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan, success for a girl is defined by these sites not by what they do, but by how they look. We live in a Barbie world, with Bratz dolls all around, constantly discussing fashionable celebrities' every moves. Aren't girls continually soaked in an increasingly confined prison of society's expectations? Parents turn a blind eye while their daughters eagerly learn the answer to the only question the world wants to ask them -- Hot or Not?Where parents were content to let the television raise their children, now they have the Internet to do their babysitting for them. Soupy Sales asked children to reach into their sleeping parents' wallets and send him those "funny green pieces of paper" (in return they'd receive a lovely postcard from Puerto Rico!). Parents were outraged! Now the Internet asks the children to text MissBimbo for $1.99 per text, and the parents gladly pay. Perhaps it isn't only the children that are learning a lesson. Kids should not be set free, unsupervised, on the Internet. Villainous marketers are waiting for them there. If it takes an over-the-top satirical (yet profitable) website like MissBimbo to make parents understand what's happened, then it has provided a real service. We come here not to bury MissBimbo, but to praise it.
Scientists devise software that can interpret attractiveness
Believe it or not, this isn't the first time we've seen software created in order to determine whether a subject is drop-dead gorgeous, but scientists at Tel Aviv University have seemingly concocted a program of their own that can "interpret attractiveness in women." Before you ask, the researchers have yet to perfect the art of computing the beauty of males, but they're attributing said omission to the difficulty in "defining" attractiveness in dudes. Nevertheless, the software was purportedly able to reach nearly the same conclusion as humans about how lovely (or not) a hundred different ladies were, as it broke down features like face symmetry, smoothness of the skin and hair color. We're told the development could eventually be used in "plastic and reconstructive surgery and computer visualization programs," but c'mon, this is totally meant to automate the grueling Hot or Not process.[Via Physorg]
