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Tulip's Love Edition Ego gets ready for Valentine's Day
Yep, love is in the air folks, or that could be the smell of thousands of dollars burning a hole in your pocket. Either way, Tulip is offering up yet another completely extravagant carry-case laptop, but the Love Edition is unsurprisingly tailored specifically for next Wednesday. The curvaceous machine boasts a svelte leather wrapped enclosure, a stitched heart in the middle, a presumably pricey bow and pendent, and comes in a variety of lovely (ahem) colors to boot. Interestingly, no specifications at all are to be found, leaving us to assume that someone loaded enough to actually take interest in this piece are more interested in external pizzazz than internal ability. Moreover, we've got no pricing information whatsoever, but if this one's anything like the other Egos, you should probably be prepared to cough up quite a few bills to snag this. Click on through for a few more glamour shots.[Via Sybarites]
Echo Robotics kicks out matchmaker bears for the socially impaired
Alright fellas, you've got just over a fortnight remaining before what could possibly be your one and only shot (at least for this year) at hooking up with your dream gal, but if all the singles still in the pool end up toting one of Echo Robotics' latest creations, the hard work will already be done. In what looks to be the next step in finding true companionship for the socially impaired, the Echo team has unveiled a prototype bear which "serves as a nucleation point for conversation," and gives off your choice of signal when you've just brushed by your (potential) soulmate. Essentially, you program your "interests" into the Echo via Bluetooth, and when coming into range of another Echo (which can be housed in any "skin" or stuffed animal) with similar interests (hobbies, work, alma mater, etc.), it will start acting up by waving to alert you to start breakin' that ice. Of course, these little guys are only effective when being carried around by perfect strangers you come near, but the idea is intriguing nonetheless. So if you're interested in carrying around a conversation starter with you at all times, and want to bring back the Tamagotchi craze in a whole new light, be sure to click on through for the prototype in action.[Via RobbotGossip]
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Breakfast Topic: Which class do you love (besides yours)?
Yesterday we discussed which classes and specs people hated, whether in PVP or in your guild. Scientific studies have shown that too much rage can lead to heart disease, so today we'll lighten up and discuss which classes we really like (besides our own, of course.) I like resto shamans. Most of the resto shamans I know really, really love being resto, and they enjoy trying to figure out which totems to drop and being generally helpful. "Do you like my mana tide?" they'll say. "Grace of Air incoming! Do you want some free jewels for that socketed item? Look, I got an extra strength potion -- does a warrior or rogue need it?" It makes me feel bad that I have no way to buff them, aside from tossing them free mana pots. People will fight to have a good resto shaman in their raid group, and I don't blame them. Admittedly, some of them need a quick why-mutilate-rogues-don't-like-windfury tutorial, but that's a complicated issue and I don't expect them to remember rogue specs, especially since rogues are notorious for often forgetting that you can't drop every totem in the world at the same time. I also like really rare race/class combinations, like gnome fury warriors or female dwarf rogues. Something about them just makes me think "Good for you! Fight the man!" What class/race/spec is your favorite?
Study: One third of American teens own iPods
Teen iPod ownership is apparently way up from the 1% level reported in 2003. According to a recent study, one third of American teens aged 13 through 18 own an iPod. One can only presume that the other two thirds of American teens are ticked off with insane jealousy and/or hoping for an iPod under this year's Christmas tree. These numbers come from News.com's report on the findings of the Harrison Group's 2006 Teen Trends study. The article states, quite amusingly in my opinion, that "[The teen's] love of music is second only to their love of friends and even ahead of their love of family, according to the study." iPods: better love money can't buy.
HTC Love: like the Artemis, but not?
We're trying to flesh out exactly what it is HTC's "Love" brings to the table, and we have to admit, we're a little confused. We've heard that it's the same thing as the Artemis, but that can't really be true because it has an extra 128MB of internal storage (for a grand total of 256MB), some new media management software, and a funky new hump near the top of the device. We've also heard it's a mild upgrade to the Artemis, but if that were the case, we'd expect to see mention of GPS on board -- and we're not. Specs we do see mentioned, however, include 802.11b/g, integrated FM radio, 2 megapixel cam, Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP, microSD expansion, and a quadband GSM radio topping out with EDGE data. Looks like the Love is already filtering into Dopod's ranks as the M700, but we might hold off on pulling out the wallet until we get the GPS question cleared up.[Via Slashphone and Pocket PC Thoughts, thanks kerunt]
Video Sandwich: October 29, 2006
Zombies. Eat. Brains. This is a surprisingly well-made advertisement for Next New Networks. Too bad the actual website seems to be a work-in-progress... I'm assuming it'll offer PSP-formatted video in the future? Maybe we'll find out more soon.This second video shows off a man in yet another love affair with his PSP. Why? Why are these people putting these up on YouTube? Why do I keep on posting them on the site? And why do you still watch them? Strange. Maybe he's just in love with the deluge of demos that came out today. Enjoy the remaining hours of your weekend, folks.
Video Sandwich: October 28, 2006
Ever want the whole world in your hands? YouTube user zachetus has turned his PSP into a remote control for the NASA World Wind program. This will become really helpful when satellite data gets strong enough so we can peek into showers. Yes, "helpful" is the word I'd use in a scenario like that...Speaking of creepy, YouTube user EnKeRaDc has a torrid love affair with his PSP. He makes a very disturbing tribute video to his somehow broken handheld. I like my PSP, but this guy took being a fanboy to a whole new, scary, level.
Love Love Hamster loves to give us new screens
A whole slew of new screens from the upcoming Nintendogs clone Love Love Hamster have hit the net over at Famitsu. The screens depict some of the stat screens Japanese gamers (or foreign importers) can expect to see whilst playing the game, as well as some screens of the in-cage environment. Also present are some heart-warming screens of hamsters at play, as they wrestle and just overall crush your heart under the power of their cuteness. Check after the break for included screens.
Sega's feminine e-reader
Sega has decided that they want to go ahead and make an e-Reader for the DS. This e-Reader, which takes cards and electronically scans them via a hardware attachment to affect gameplay, works with their game Oshare Majo Love and Berry (Love and Berry Dress up and Dance in the US). The awkward thing is, you get the cards to go with the game from the arcade, which are used in the DS game to dress up your character with new outfits and hairstyles.
WoW and The "Impossible" Romance
Nick Yee's excellent Daedalus Project (covering the psychology of MMORPGs) has put up its latest edition, and it includes some interesting articles about players and the meta-game (of which WoW Insider is a part), seasonal play patterns, and active subscriptions per player. But the most interesting one is called "The 'Impossible' Romance," about romantic relationships that originate from within an MMORPG game like World of Warcraft.Nick first covers the patterns of ingame to real life romances-- there's the "First Contact," the "Incubation Period," the "Moment of Truth" (where two people finally decide there's a possibility of having a real-life relationship), meeting face to face, and finally the "Ever After." Surprisingly, 67% of those surveyed had relationships when the survey was collected. I'm not quite sure if that means relationships in an online game work better than other relationships-- seems to me to be a high figure.Yee then covers the reasons why lots of people meet in places like Azeroth: it's a low pressure environment, like work, or the gym. Because first contact is anonymous and remote, shy people often are willing to take the first step when they might not in real life. And he says that online relationships benefit from working "inside-out" instead of "outside-in" like most offline relationships.Interesting stuff-- to tell the truth, I've never met anyone personally from playing with them in an online game, romantically or not. Maybe it's because I'm more focused on the gameplay, or maybe it's just me (I can be pretty smug sometimes, I'll admit). But I'm interested in hearing other people's success (or, maybe more interesting, failure) stories. Does meeting a romantic partner in an MMORPG mean it's more likely to work? Or less?
Nintendogs paves way for hamsters?
Given the success of Nintendo's dog-training, dog-loving sim Nintendogs, it's no wonder third-party developer Digital Kids is trying to strike while the iron is hot. We've seen clones centering around cats and dogs already, but this is a first. Now you'll be able to virtually pet and talk to a hamster in Love Love Hamster, which is set for release on the 2nd of November in Japan.There are 6 total breeds in all, including the Golden hamster, Dzungarian hamster, Chinese hamster, Campbells hamster, Roborovskii hamster and Panda hamster. The Panda hamster, by far, is the hamster of choice for the DS Fanboy staff and could help pave the way to cross-breeding other species. We hope to soon create the Bark; half-bear, half-shark, all unstoppable killing machine (not to be confused with the Bear-Shark). Anyway, a trailer, which sadly lacks sound, for the game may be found here.
Breakfast Topic: Romance and WoW?
I hear about a lot of drama, usually caused by excessive WoW playing -- and a huge amount of the drama involves couples. Whether you both play, or the gaming is one-sided, it seems rare that trouble doesn't occur in a relationship. Of course, it's not just WoW that can cause rifts like this, but the popularity of the game means that drama seems more widespread than with other titles.If you're part of a WoW couple, how do you manage your time together and time online? How have you persuaded your non-gaming other half that staring mindlessly at a computer seven days a week is a healthy hobby?Personally, my partner doesn't play games, and I feel very isolated from him when I play. Especially when I turn down dinner because I'm scheduled for a raid, and numbers are tight. As I only raid a couple of times a week, this isn't a big problem, but I can imagine the love lives of those in hardcore guilds may be less fortunate.
WSJ: Gamers find love in MMOs
It goes without saying how MMO games have embedded themselves into our culture -- we have heard for some time about quite a few people who have found love in MMOs, gotten married in-game, and have even seen a few funerals take place in the virtual world. Page one of the Wall Street Journal had an interesting article, tackling the very topic of finding offline love through online gaming. In a survey conducted by Stanford University's Nick Yee, a Ph.D. student, 29% of women and 8% of men have admitted to have gone on dates with someone they met in a game. Yee attributes this phenomenon to the "trust-building exercises" of working in team scenarios -- how one player acts during an in-game raid may reveal traits relative to the avatar's actual personality, through "situations that ... are less common in the real world." The stories featured in the piece are fascinating, with one man quipping "I have to remember two wedding days and two engagement days," referring to how he and his wife had separate ceremonies both in the virtual world and in the real world. Have any Joystiq readers found love in an online game? We'd love to hear your stories.See Also:Would you dump your wife for an online romance?
"I Hate You, E3," declares Escapist writer
Okay, so maybe not hate completely.The eye-catching title of an essay from the latest installment of The Escapist puts the emphasis on the negative aspect of the love-hate relationship many industry vets have with E3, but there's surprisingly a lot of love for the trade show here, even if you don't subscribe to the hardened "I hate E3 because I love it" theory of convention devotion.While the Joystiq staff hasn't been to quite as many E3s as the founder of the International Game Journalists Association (IGJA), we can certainly empathize with the world-weariness that might accumulate after years of weeklong death- press-marches and working in overcrowded, sensory-overloaded spaces. We just hope our love of the game(s) will stay with us as it has for Mr. Thomas, whether we're watching from home or working the show floor in person in post-apocalyptic L.A. The parties will be sure to be awesome.See also: Joystiq at E3 2006 mega-site The Escapist's big E3 issue this week, with references within to Joystiq's Paris Hilton story and some E3 party pics orig. from Joystiq The Game of Journalism -- the IGJA's official web site
"Love Detector" service now available for mobile matchmaking
We're not quite sure that the type of person who uses Nemesysco Entertainment's home or PocketPC (pictured) versions of the "Love Detector" service is out and about all that much, but the Israeli company has nonetheless released a mobile alternative that lets you discover your crush's innermost feelings while chatting on your cellphone. Already "wildy popular" in Israel, "Love Detector" allows you to dial a certain number before calling your intended target sweetie so that the company's server (and no snickering employees, we're certain) can eavesdrop on the coversation and calculate (with deadly accuracy, we're certain) four key parameters that supposedly determine your chances of mating. After the call is over (or the other person hangs up on you), the server delivers a text message to your phone that helpfully breaks the complicated analysis down into plain English, and even more helpfully, offers advice on how to proceed ("Love is detected! Proceed with caution!" or "Never call this person again, you perv."). Besides Israel, the precision service is unfortunately (?) only available in Turkey, Hungary, and the UK for now, but we're sure that once our US readers begin deluging Nemesysco with pleading emails, they'll have a version for the States in no time.[Via Shiny Shiny and Gizmos for Geeks]
Breakfast Topic: Disgruntled spouses
Following on from the love letter we saw yesterday, we return to the topic of couples playing together. Do you play WoW with your spouse or partner?I know of many couples who play together, varying from those with separate mains who share a single computer to those who sit side-by-side and take part in the same raiding guild. I also know of relationships where only one half plays WoW, though it hasn't caused any break-ups as far as I know. I think either can have its happy moments. My other half refuses to play games at all, but we share so much else that having a few different hobbies makes life more interesting. He listens patiently to my babble about dinging and a good night's loot, which is about all I could ask for. Does your partner put up with WoW with gritted teeth, or with a smile?
You take my breath (bar) away
The Onion has published a humorous love letter which makes sense to any WoW player, though it has a poignant side. Sometimes it's hard to understand life without WoW -- just as it's hard to decipher the terminology any Azeroth resident is steeped in -- and relationships bridging the chasm can have their problems.Ever tried to convince your other half to see the setting sun in Southshore rather than go out on the town? If your love life is eerily like this, perhaps it's time to reconsider your priorities. However, I know plenty of couples who play together and find it a good way to spend time together -- perhaps you can get your other half interested, though mine is quite happy not sharing this particular hobby.[Via Joystiq]
