Fallout: New Vegas (PC)
A few bits of info emerge.

Continue reading from the original source:
Fallout: New Vegas Details

Assassin’s Creed II: Bonfire of the Vanities (PS3)
The Bonfire of the Vanities coming this week.

Continue reading from the original source:
Second Assassin’s Creed II Expansion Dated

Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth (DS)
Crime is about to get a kick in the ass.

Continue reading from the original source:
Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth Review

And looks forward to what’s coming in the next 10 years

Stuart revisits the technology of Christmas past, takes a look at the current gadgets of Christmas present and even leaps ahead to predict the technical wizardry we can expect of Christmas in the future.

Take a trip down memory lane as Miles gets in mentions of Betamax, HD DVD and the Dreamcast and reminds us of the tech, we now take for granted, which might have seemed futuristic back in 2000.

In addition, there’s a glimpse at the gadgets of the future as Stuart shares what he thinks the big technologies of the next decade will be. Hit play to see it all now..

Tags:
Audio Car And GPS Dad Gadgets Gaming Hardware Home And Kitchen Home Cinema Phones Cameras Software Sports Fitness Video Comment Christmas Megawhat

?

VIDEO: Megawhat takes a look back at the decade in tech originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Mon, 28 Dec 2009 09:00:00 +0000

Continue reading from the original source:
NEWS: VIDEO: Megawhat takes a look back at the decade in tech

Does Android sweeten the deal?

The Acer Aspire One D250 takes a standard netbook spec machine and adds the Android operating system into the mix.?You get an Intel Atom N270 1.6GHz processor, 1GB RAM and a 250GB hard drive, and Android deployed in the same way that Asus and Sony (to name two) have used Linux kernels in the past.

Connectivity comes in the form of an Ethernet socket and Wi-Fi b/g, with 3x USB 2.0 connections, VGA, headphone and mic sockets. A card reader sits in the edge so you can slot in an SD card, which will sit flush with the edge so you can leave it in all the time if that’s what you want to do.

The D250 itself measures 257 x 185 x 24mm and is lightweight at just over 1kg including the battery. The construction is predominantly plastic and whilst the base of the D250 feels solid enough, the screen feels decidedly flimsy, not helped by the elevated hinges.

The internal finish is reasonable enough when you lift the lid, with a brushed effect around the keyboard and trackpad that keeps things relatively clear of fingerprints. The glossy plastic bezel surrounding the 10.1-inch LED backlit display and housing the webcam unfortunately doesn’t get the same treatment.

That 10.1-inch display comes in with a resolution of 1024 x 600, which isn’t the highest resolution you’ll find on a small format notebook, but is pretty common. The finish is glossy, which makes content appear nice and sharp, but isn’t the most practical for when you are out and about, as it suffers from reflections.

The keyboard itself is good however, and crams a fair amount into a small space. It doesn’t quite reach edge-to-edge on the chassis, so there was potential to squeeze a little more space out of the thing, be we were impressed by the action of the keys and it doesn’t suffer from the same degree of flex that many keyboards do.

The trackpad is small and purports to offer a degree of multi-touch functionality, but this is hit and miss at best, and doesn’t rival the sort of experience you’ll get from a MacBook touchpad and the experience can be bettered using a mouse when possible.

Now that Windows 7 has launched, it’s a pleasure to find the D250 running Windows 7 Starter edition, which runs along at a reasonable pace giving you a full operating system. There isn’t really the power for a high degree of multitasking, but it will handle most office programs. It isn’t designed for gaming or playing HD content and in our tests it struggled to deliver 720p content at a watchable frame rate.

For basic online work and light office tasks, however, the D250 should be fine for your needs. However, the unique proposition here is the inclusion of the Android operating system, designed to give you quick and easy access online, by providing a quick start option so you don’t have to wait for Windows to boot.

It works too, launching in around 16 seconds and presenting you with an Android homepage reminiscent of that which you’ll find on a phone. Booting Windows 7 by contrast takes about 1 minute, but this is with a fairly clean install. Even better, shutdown of Android takes 2 seconds.

You are invited to enter your Google account details, which the netbook can then use to synchronise with your account, which then means you have quick access to your email, calendar and contacts. It’s not quite as glorious as it might seem, as all you need is a browser window and logging into your Google account will give you access to these items anyway.

The browser comes courtesy of Mozilla and gives you the functions you’d expect, so you can browse full websites and play back Flash video and so on. The browser isn’t the best performer and we found it would often stop navigating and need refreshing to get it to land on the site we asked it.

The performance of online video wasn’t as good under Android as it was under Windows 7 either. Both BBC iPlayer content and some DemandFive content on YouTube struggled to play smoothly, especially in full screen modes, so if you are planning on starting up to watch an episode of Eastenders, it is worth loading Windows 7 to do so.

There is also a second Android browser that doesn’t know you are using a netbook, so renders pages a mobile pages and won’t read the keyboard properly either (picking up alternate characters rather than the letters). Stumbling on things like this do make you think that something hasn’t been fully thought through here.

You can head into email and setup your email address as normal to use the mail client rather than just using webmail. If you set-up your Google account you will get all of your Google Contacts, which is good for reference, but doesn’t seem to realise that you aren’t using a phone.

Navigation of Android is rather crude, with no provision for moving around the OS on the D250 itself and no included instructions. Android would normally use a back and menu button for operation, here replicated by Esc (for back) and a right click for the menus. You can customise the homepage, adding basic widgets, but little else.

With no sign of Android Marketplace, you really are just left with email and whenever you can do through a browser (which admittedly is pretty much anything these days). A Google Talk app is provided, but you’d be better using an online cross-platform messenger service like Nimbuzz, for example.

The battery life comes in at a fairly average 3 hours under general usage, which is now starting to look a little low compared to some of the much more generous batteries that are starting to appear on netbooks.

Verdict:

Overall Android is an interesting addition, but not one that is very compelling. With the browser not returning a solid performance, we’d be tempted just to let Windows 7 boot, in which case you can ignore this edition of the netbook altogether.

What you are left with is a netbook that works well enough, but without the Android OS as a valid differentiator, there are plenty of other netbooks out there to consider. Android fans might be tempted, but as a mainstream netbook this has limited appeal.

Tags:
Hardware Laptops Netbooks Android Acer Acer Aspire One D250

?
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
?

Acer Aspire One D250 Android notebook originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Mon, 28 Dec 2009 09:00:00 +0000

Continue reading from the original source:
REVIEWS: Acer Aspire One D250 Android notebook

Help put a stop to crime

As the UK Government launches a new post-Christmas anti-burglary campaign, it’s worth remembering that this time of year is made very unhappy for an unlucky few by the criminal actions of others.

Crimestoppers is the place to go to help put a stop to all kinds of crime and it’s full of tips on preventing crime as well as advice on what to do if you’re a witness or think you know something.

www.crimestoppers.org.uk

If you have a website that you want to tell us about email us via the feedback form.

Tags:
WebsiteOfTheDay Websites Software Online

WEBSITE OF THE DAY – Crimestoppers originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Mon, 28 Dec 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Continue reading from the original source:
NEWS: WEBSITE OF THE DAY – Crimestoppers

It takes a village to raise a child, and it takes a mouse to run a computer, but nothing says you can’t run it with a little personality. Trackballs and touchpads are the preferred controls of some people, but if you really want to your computer to make a statement for you, there’s a bunch of options with mice. From big to little, high tech to steampunk, there’s something for just about everybody. Just to make the miles of anonymous scrolling and clicking that we do all day long a little more bearable. Now, check out our novelty mouse list.
Permanent Link

Continue reading from the original source:
7 Novelty Mice for Geeks of All Sorts

I used to think “sexual enhancement” just meant “sex toys.” That is, until I started exploring the wonderful—and sometimes utterly weird—world of mechanical and electronic sex augmentations. Here’s what’s happening now and what will happen soon.

As you’ll see, existing innovations take our tongues, fingers, vulvas and penises to the next level. But the future of sex augmentations appears to lie in biometrics and in networking. Soon toys will learn from and interact with our bodies’ responses, with or without a partner, while teledildonics will help people separated by vast distances get closer (and wetter).

Tongue, Extended
Whoever made women’s genitals certainly made them tricky to stimulate—especially orally. Enter the Tongue Joy, a vibrating tongue enhancement to help human tongues do what no human can in terms of sensation and endurance. Strap the silicone-banded vibe on your tongue (or, if your tongue is pierced, use the barbell piercing attachment) and proceed with awesome. It’s battery operated and comes with multiple band sizes in case you want to strap it around something bigger. Four silicone sleeve attachments enhance the size and texture of the vibrating yummy-ness. Lovely for oral sex on a man, too, particularly those who are into hummers that aren’t cars.

Bionic Fingers
The vibrating three-finger power pack and glove by Fukuoku enhance the size and function of one’s digits, transforming your fingers into vibrators that run at up to 45,000 vpm (that would be vibes per minute). They’re more particularly cyborgy than most sex toys, if that’s your thing. (Ahem, Malebots subscribers!)

Unnatural Male Enhancement
The Ride On (pun intended) blows most penis extenders (pun not intended) out of the water. It’s more comfortable, less bulky and stays on in more positions than other models—all while fulfilling its purpose of enhancing the size and function of a man’s penis. Function? Yes. Some men use these not for length or girth but to keep having sex during half time. Available from Vixens Creations, the Ride On gets men around that annoying “refractory period” that is the curse of many a man’s sexistence. It’s also useful for men with severe or chronic erectile dysfunction (ED) who want in.

Electronic Condoms?
Given the perception that condoms may reduce sensation, sex-loving scientists have been proposing vibrating condom designs since at least the 1990s. Given the enormous improvements in vibrators since then, it’s unclear what a vibrating condom—if ever brought to market—would ultimately look like. Will it have an awkward external wire and power pack like the one in this 1995 patent image? (Here’s a PDF of the actual patent.) Or will it be built into the condom itself, as thin as a BandAid, as in my dreams? The design will have to depend on functionality: The vagina is not as sensitive as a woman’s vulva (clitoris, labia, etc) so the value of a vibrating shaft may be more for a man than his partner. That is, unless it vibrates at the base by a woman’s vaginal opening or clitoris, like the Trojan Vibrating Ring or the Bo—a favorite.

The Hydraulic Penis
As potentially borgy as it is, this pre-Viagra augmentation is for now only available for men with ED that is unlikely to respond to medication or sex therapy. This type of penile implant lets men pump themselves into an erect state whenever they want—note that pump in the scrotum—and deflate on command. There’s none of those scary erections lasting longer than 4 hours that we hear about in commercials starring Bob Dole. Though many men may dream of having this much control over their erections, the ones who use this do it as a last resort. Once it’s been in use for a while, some men lose their natural erectile reflex because their body no longer has to work at it. Moral of the story: Enjoy what you’ve got.

Hymen Again
Fake hymens give the illusion that one is going where no man has gone before. One option is a hymenoplasty—a surgical procedure that “restores” a woman’s hymen. This is done only rarely in the US, but is performed increasingly in other countries, often for women who who feel they need to prove their virginity to their fiancé or his family lest they risk shame or, scarily, even violence. Sometimes, the operation is requested by women who want to give their partner the “gift” of taking their virginity, like as an anniversary gift (for serious—and to think I’d go with golf clubs or a Garmin).

There is a mail-order product that a woman places inside her vagina which simulates the loss of virginity, fake blood and all. Gigimo’s Artificial Virginity Hymen, has come under fire by some Egyptian politicians, who even called for a ban on it. Meanwhile, women everywhere are still calling for an end to practices that insist they “prove” their virginity to anyone or anything. On a different note, a quick word to Gigimo: When you write that you can “have your first night back anytime,” does that include the awkward fumbling, 20-second staying power, and the two weeks of worrying about being pregnant?

Biometrics: Gadgets That Get You
I’ve seen (dreamed?) the future of sex toys and It. Is. Awesome. Ideas are swirling about how to create sex toys that rely on digital biometrics. No, we’re not talking fingerprint-activated toys that prevent women’s husbands from getting curious when they’re home alone. We’re talking about products that respond to vaginal temperature, pelvic contractions leading up to orgasm, heart rate, even pelvic blood flow. Sexual Aids of the Future may be able to learn a person’s sexual response and alter stimulation patterns based on the data.

Maybe there will eventually be a gadget that will help men to last longer (so long, baseball!) or women to come more quickly. Maybe it will build sexual tension in such a lovely way that pleasure and orgasm are on the “better than average” side of the mountain more often than not. The technology is there, the ideas are there, all it takes is execution, I’m betting sooner rather than later. When the day of biometrically enhanced stimulation comes, I guarantee we will wake ‘n gadget with more than our iPhones.

Teledildonics: Long-Distance Yearning
Though most sex toys enhance in-person play, some toys facilitate sex between people across the miles. Take the PenisTron, for example, which looks and probably feels (thanks to vacuum effects) like a Fleshlight version of a vagina—and it can be controlled, tightened or slowed to a seductive drag by a man’s partner out in the ether to simulate the two of them having sex.

There’s also the Communication Hole Rider (which involves vacuum effects) and the Joystick (vacuum effects on the penis and a joystick up the butt)—all which can help to connect two people for interactive sex play.

It’s not sex with a toy; it’s sex with a person via a toy: Big difference. Sure, you miss out on the kissing. (The mostly male sex toy designers never seem to create toys that make out with you, except for some freaky robot girlfriends.) On the other hand, there’s no risk for infection or pregnancy when you’re doing it teledildonically.

My dream for teledildonics is that we eventually fine tune toys to produce more variety and transitions. IRL sex tends to move, for example, from sucking (vacuum effects) to licking (hey there, Sqweel) to mouth kissing (freaky robot girlfriend) to intercourse (vacuum again) to hand play (toned down version of the Fukuako glove) or whatever else you’re into (furniture play?). And if it were me playing with a partner over the internet I’d want to touch, to kiss, to lick, to play in varied teasing ways—not just yank their junk with the PenisTron (though it’s a good start). Who’s with me?

Debby Herbenick, PhD is a Research Scientist and Associate Director of The Center for Sexual Health Promotion at Indiana University, a sexual health educator at The Kinsey Institute and author of Because It Feels Good: A Woman’s Guide to Sexual Pleasure and Satisfaction. She blogs at MySexProfessor.com.

This week, Gizmodo is exploring the enhanced human future in a segment we call This Cyborg Life. It’s about what happens when we treat our body less as a sacred object and more as what it is: Nature’s ultimate machine.

Continue reading from the original source:
Becoming a Sexual Cyborg (NSFW) [Cyborg Sex]

Sign up and help raise money for charity

Men of this world, this is your calling, your calling to sign up to become a real man, the kind of man that can present the news (Ron Burgundy), the kind of man that can be a private dick (Magnum PI) and not laugh about it, the kind of man….

Okay you get the gist. Movember is now almost upon us, and that means you need to sign up and get your moustache thoughts in gear.

Once again Pocket-lint will be going Movember for November in aid of charity and we are asking for your help.

We aren’t asking for money (although you can pledge if you want), we aren’t asking you to run hundreds of miles, all we want from you is to join our TechMo team, grow a moustache in November and help rid the world of the disease that kills thousands of men each year.

What many people don’t appreciate is that one man dies every hour of prostate cancer in the UK, more than 35,000 men will be diagnosed this year and that prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men in the UK.

The more that join us, the more we can ‘change the face of men’s health’ through raising awareness and the money that will be raised.

Let’s do this – register and grow a moustache as a Mo Bro, or sign on as a Mo Sista.

To join this Movember team go to http://uk.movember.com/register/7181 and follow the steps.

Once registered you’ll be sent all the information you need to get growing.

Let’s ‘Change the Face of Mens Health.’

Stuart Miles and the Pocket-lint team

P.S PR’s of this world. Pledge money and we will give you a big shout out on the site for helping us in a good cause

Related links:

• Link – Movember TechMo team page

Tags:
Audio Car And GPS Dad Gadgets Gaming Hardware Home And Kitchen Home Cinema Phones Cameras Software Sports Fitness Movember

?
?
?

Movember 2009: Join our TechMo team originally appeared on Pocket-lint on Mon, 12 Oct 2009 23:10:58 +0100

Continue reading from the original source:
NEWS: Movember 2009: Join our TechMo team

Battlefield Heroes (PC)
Two screens of fall maps.

Continue reading from the original source:
TGS 09: Battlefield Heroes Images

Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth (DS)
Latest DS installment of the Attorney series gets its own website.

Continue reading from the original source:
New Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth Website Launches Today

Crystal Defenders (PSP)
This game sure feels familiar…

Continue reading from the original source:
TGS 09: Crystal Defenders Hands-on

Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep (PSP)
Square’s pocket Hearts is looking very, very good. Check out our updated impressions inside.

Continue reading from the original source:
TGS 09: Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep Hands-on

Dead Rising 2 (PC)
Gameplay and a trailer.

Continue reading from the original source:
TGS 09: Dead Rising 2 Videos

Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth (DS)
Objection? Nope, none here.

Continue reading from the original source:
TGS 09: Miles Edgeworth Hands-on