A Surfboard Bag for Dedicated Beach Bums [Surfing]

Camping on the beach with the sound of the surf is a great way to relax, but when you're a surfer, it's also the easiest way to guarantee you won't miss a great wave when the tide rolls in. So the Wave Cave is kind of like an emergency shelter for a situation that's not really an emergency. More »

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Cloud Girlfriend will use a swarm of females to satisfy men

Cloud Girlfriend, despite what it sounds like, doesn't really have anything to do with cloud computing. Rather, it uses a cloud of women to pose as your girlfriend on Facebook, or your favorite social network of choice. The service is scheduled to launch 'soon,' and there's no indication of how much it will cost.

With the tagline 'The easiest way to get a girlfriend is to already have one,' Cloud Girlfriend promises to be a very interesting startup indeed. The brains of the operation, David Fuhriman, speaking to CNET, says it's all about fulfilling Maslow's hierarchy of needs. "CloudGirlfriend.com can fulfill Maslow's higher needs, even though the users know that the interaction is virtual. They will interact with a real person and see real profile images of the girl with whom they interact. This interaction can build confidence and esteem as well as provide real training experiences in navigating a friendship and a relationship."

Our concern, of course, is that it's very nearly April 1. We're also worried by the fact that Fuhriman has a name that sounds ominously like a social subculture that we've grown strangely attracted to here in the Download Squad bunker.

Finally, just stop and think about it for a second. Because your cloud girlfriend will be entirely virtual, she could be based anywhere. She could be underage -- or overage -- or she might be someone who you know in real life. She could even be a relative of yours, and you'd never know.

Let's not forget this is the Internet we're talking about, folks. Worst case scenario, she could turn out to be a hairy, male truck driver from Texas. Such as... your dad, perhaps?

Cloud Girlfriend will use a swarm of females to satisfy men originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 30 Mar 2011 06:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Amazon Prime Instant Video expands its library with even more video from PBS

PBS has been down with Amazon's Prime Instant Video service since it launched, and now it's providing even more all-you-can-eat video for streaming under an expanded agreement. Naturally that means lots of episodes of NOVA and Antiques Roadshow, and "for the first time on digital video", 200 episodes of The French Chef with Julia Child. According to Amazon, that puts its total number of selections over 12,000, more than double the amount of content it launched with. It still has a ways to go to match Netflix, but with a lower yearly price, sweet shipping deal and now the ability to teach you how to make an omelet, Amazon has developed a very compelling alternative.

Continue reading Amazon Prime Instant Video expands its library with even more video from PBS

Amazon Prime Instant Video expands its library with even more video from PBS originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 21 Oct 2011 13:40:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sand Trap is a fun and difficult physics maze game

Sand Trap is one of those games that at first seem too hard to bother with, but when you try to stop playing it you discover you're hooked.

The goal is to get as much sand as you possibly can out of the maze and into the bucket at the bottom of the screen. You need to rotate your maze every which way to get the sand rolling around it. You then try to direct the sand to one of the exits of the maze, and hopefully into the bucket. It took me several tries to actually get sand into the bucket, but that might be due to the fact that I didn't even realize the bucket was there at first. Things improved significantly after that.

As you level up, the mazes get more complicated, with moving parts and other things making your life more difficult. Once you manage to get through all these obstacles and get enough sand into your bucket, you can move on.

As I mentioned, this is not an easy game, but it's highly addictive. The graphics remind me of some long lost game from the 80s, but this just proves that you don't need super graphics and crazy sound to make a game work. There's a soothing guitar track playing in the background and that's it, as far as I could hear, and you can enjoy it just as much with no sound at all.

If you like a fun physics challenge, don't miss out on this one!

Sand Trap is a fun and difficult physics maze game originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 04 Apr 2011 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Engadget Podcast 261 - 10.21.2011

We're not gonna lie: we're on one. One heck of a crazy week, that is! Two big phone launches kept our feet close to the fire, and a couple of odds n' ends rounded out the week in the way that only odds and ends can -- oddly. It's the Engadget Podcasters, live in a room together, at last, and with devastatingly informative consequences.

Hosts: Tim Stevens, Brian Heater
Guest: Dana Wollman
Producer: Trent Wolbe
Music: Devil's Haircut

02:30 - Samsung and Google's Ice Cream Sandwich event liveblog!
03:30 - Samsung's Galaxy Nexus gets official: Android 4.0, 4.65-inch HD Super AMOLED display (video)
06:22 - Samsung Galaxy Nexus with Ice Cream Sandwich hands-on (video)
07:57 - Samsung's Galaxy Nexus launches in November on NTT Docomo, Verizon, and more
08:18 - Android Beam takes us to the future of close-proximity data exchange (video)
18:00 - Motorola Droid RAZR unveiled: LTE, 4.3-inch qHD Super AMOLED display, available November for $299
27:00 - Motorola Droid RAZR hands-on (video)
29:15 - Motorola RAZR to get updated to Ice Cream Sandwich in early 2012
34:45 - Samsung's Won-Pyo Hong: Galaxy Nexus wasn't designed just to skirt Apple patents
38:37 - Motorola Motoactv hands-on (update: video with Dean Karnazes!)
41:45 - Research in Motion announces BBX, 'combines the best of BlackBerry and QNX'
43:36 - Lytro camera hands-on (video)
46:45 - ASUS' Jonney Shih: Padfone will ship in Q1 2012 with Ice Cream Sandwich
46:55 - Microsoft's Andy Lees: Nokia will announce 'its Windows Phones' at Nokia World
51:36 - The Engadget Show
56:04 - Listener questions


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Filed under: Podcasts

Engadget Podcast 261 - 10.21.2011 originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 21 Oct 2011 11:04:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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O'Reilly helps Japan, offers entire e-book catalog for 50% off, today only

O'reilly make some of the best computer books in the world. They also sell them as DRM-free e-books in a bunch of formats, including PDFs and Mobi for Kindle.

They usually offer one "Deal of the Day", which is a 50% discount code for a book chosen for that one day. But just for for today, they've created a discount code -- DDJPN -- that gives you a 50% discount on their entire catalog, and they give a part of the proceeds to aid Japan relief efforts.

So far they've raised over $60,000, and the day is still young. So if you've been recently hankering after some nerdy book (or three), now would be a great time to grab one.

O'Reilly helps Japan, offers entire e-book catalog for 50% off, today only originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 22 Mar 2011 14:35:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Best Videos of the Week [Video]

Maybe you were swamped at the office this week and couldn't check your favorite Gawker Media sites. Or maybe you're about to go back to work and could use one last distraction. Whatever the case, we've got you covered. Here are some of the best videos we watched during the week that was.
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Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus WiFi hitting the US November 13th for $400, available in 16GB for now

Nearly a month after its initial announcement, Samsung's ready to deliver the Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus to the good ol' US of A just in time for the winter gift-giving season. The WiFi-only device, which packs a 1.2GHz dual-core CPU with 1GB of RAM, Android 3.2, 3MP camera with 720p HD video capture and a 7-inch LCD with 1024 x 600 resolution, will be begging for your credit card as of November 13th at Best Buy, Amazon and other retailers. Are you an early adopter? No prob -- you'll have the opportunity to pre-order yours at "select retailers" this coming Sunday, though no specific outlets were called out by name. The 16GB is the only version arriving so far, but Sammy told us to expect the 32GB flavor later this year or early 2012 (likely for $499, if yesterday's brief appearance on Amazon is any indicator). No word on partnerships with carriers yet, but we'll keep you posted on any updates. View the press release in all its glory below.

Continue reading Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus WiFi hitting the US November 13th for $400, available in 16GB for now

Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus WiFi hitting the US November 13th for $400, available in 16GB for now originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 21 Oct 2011 14:29:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Razer Synapse 2.0: take your fussy gaming setup wherever you go

Ever go to a LAN party and find it's taking too long to get your gear set up the way you like? Probably not, especially if you own a Razer or other gaming mouse that stores your preferences on its internal memory. Still, it would be far easier if your tweaks were stored in the cloud and available everywhere -- which is the thinking behind Synapse 2.0. All of your button, axis and sensitivity adjustments will be available for you to pull down and use with the company's range of peripherals if you're at home, the LAN center or at work (after hours, of course.) The service is currently in internal beta but 500 lucky Razer Naga owners will get access to the second beta if they sign up at the source link below. There's also a press release -- scroll down at 5600dpi and click "Read More."

Continue reading Razer Synapse 2.0: take your fussy gaming setup wherever you go

Razer Synapse 2.0: take your fussy gaming setup wherever you go originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 21 Oct 2011 14:04:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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These Ethereal Landscape Photos Were Faked in a Cloud Tank [Imagecache]

Looking at his work it seems like Kim Keever always has his camera in the right place at the right time for capturing stunning landscape photos. But unlike that debacle over the shot of the wolf jumping over the fence, Keever readily admits his shots are fake, created in a very controlled studio environment. More »

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Ninjas Do Not Fight Fair [Video]

Ninjas are cunning foes. The purpose of the ninja is to flip out and kill people. Foolish Canadians learned this valuable lesson after challenging one ninja and being ambushed by scores of the deadly assassins. More »

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