Hasta La Gadget!

These avatars are dressed for a Jane Austen novel.

(Credit: Screenshot by Amanda Kooser/CNET)

World of Warcraft may be the gold standard of massively multiplayer online role-playing games, but it’s mostly about monsters, warriors, and physical battles. Sometimes you just want to cut your enemies down with a well-timed bit of gossip. If that sounds more your speed, then you should check out Ever, Jane, an MMO raising funds on Kickstarter.

You choose a proper English gentleman or lady as your avatar and move about through a world of high-stakes ball invitations, gossip, and curtsies. It’s all about building up your reputation and status while subtly tearing down others without getting caught.

Everything about this MMO is a bit different from the norm. Personality traits don’t hinge on magic skills or brute force, but rather qualities like duty, happiness, and kindness. There is a gossip system that lets you spread rumors and lie about your rivals. But, if you’re not careful, your actions can backlash and erode your own status. It’s all about the psychological intrigue.

If endless hours spent gossiping doesn’t lure you in, perhaps the planned mini-games around dinner parties, balls, landscaping, estate management, and embroidery will. Yes, embroidery. Did I mentio… [Read more]

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Bringing your lunch to work or class is far cheaper than buying a to-go meal on the regular. More often than not, it’s far healthier too, as you know exactly how fresh the food is and where it all came from. While you may have packed something tasty, what you store it in is going to be the biggest factor in whether or not it will be enjoyable to eat.

While a big lunchbox can store a lot of food, it’s not really meant to keep your food stationary, and often rattles around the contents, smashing things as it does so. This is especially the case with sandwiches. One delicious sandwich can be very easily become a soggy blob all too quickly. If this is your common staple, you might want to have something like the FoodSkin Flexible Lunchbox to tote your goodies around in instead.

This is a silicon container that has some elasticity to one side which will allow you to stretch it over whatever food you put into it. While it will keep things in place, you’ll want to make sure you don’t crush it during your travels from point A to B. This means not haphazardly tossing it into your bag with all of your other junk. Whenever it’s not in use, it packs down flat, and is said to keep your food ‘Zip-Loc fresh’. You can toss this $32~ purchase into the dishwasher, but avoid putting it in the microwave.

Available for purchase on Firebox
[ FoodSkin Flexible Lunchbox will save your sandwich copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]

There’s a big competitor out in the wild today for the Chromecast called the PLAiR 2, a new generation of the original PLAiR, made to connect to your television’s HDMI port and act as a full-fledged smart TV. You’ll be able to connect to and control this machine from your Android smartphone or iPhone – […]

I’m a very accomplished photographer. My photos have been in magazines, newspapers, textbooks, blogs, online videos, television and any other medium that you can think of. My work has been seen by millions and will be one of the most important resources for the history of video games. The only catch is that I’m almost never credited and don’t get paid for it.

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Despite contrary reports, Oculus CEO Brendan Iribe says that only one version of his company’s consumer-ready virtual reality gaming headset is planned for launch. “We will be delivering a single Oculus Rift,” Iribe tells Engadget. After giving a keynote during GamesBeat 2013 this week, it was …