Hasta La Gadget!

MyBallon is an balloon-simulating iPhone application that is simply dripping in innuendo. Using the accelerometer, the microphone and the touch-screen, it manages an extraordinary three-way which manages to achieve an oral and manual double-team.

Fire up the app and you’ll see a soft, deflated balloon on screen. Put your lips to the iPhone mic (if using an iPod Touch you’ll need an external mic) and blow. As the air rushes in, the balloon swells, becoming rigid rubber that flaps stiffly when you shake the iPhone. Press firmly on the screen at both sides of the perineal valve to keep the air trapped.

Now try releasing your fingers gently, bit by bit, teasing the entrance. The balloon goes from a fully engorged, swollen sack to flaccid red skin simply by manipulating it with your fingers, the air inside achieving release spurt by spurt, escaping with a gentle sigh.

Go too far and, just like the real thing, the membrane will burst leaving soft shards all over the screen. The price for this childish game? Just $1.

Product page [iTunes App Store. Thank, Bartosz!]

IBM’s already proven that a computer from its labs can take on the world’s best at chess, but what’ll happen when the boundaries of a square-filled board are removed? Researchers at the outfit are obviously excited to find out, today revealing that its Watson system will be pitted against brilliant Earthlings on Jeopardy! in an attempt to further artificial intelligence when it comes to semantics and searching for indexed information. Essentially, the machine will have to be remarkably labile in order to understand “analogies, puns, double entendres and relationships like size and location,” something that robotic linguists have long struggled with. There’s no mention of a solid date when it comes to the competition itself, but you can bet we’ll be setting our DVRs whenever it’s announced. Check out a video of the progress after the break.

[Via The New York Times]

Continue reading IBM’s Watson to rival humans in round of Jeopardy!

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets, Gaming

IBM’s Watson to rival humans in round of Jeopardy! originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 27 Apr 2009 09:56:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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With all the doom and gloom stories we’ve seen about PlayStation 3 getting beat by Nintendo Wii, it’s refreshing to have some good news for a change. For the first time in 16 months, Sony’s console managed to best its motion-controlled competitor, 146,948 to 99,335 this past March in Japan, according to gaming research group / Famitsu publisher Enterbrain. The sales are undoubtedly helped by PS3 heavy-hitters Yakuza 3 and Resident Evil 5 debuting last month, and at this point we don’t expect the trend to continue, but for now Sony, enjoy your victory and bask in the knowledge that you’re still totally kicking Xbox 360’s rear in your home country.

Filed under: Gaming

PlayStation 3 overtakes Wii in Japan, now about twice in a blue moon originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 07 Apr 2009 06:49:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Chinavision‘s CVFH-N03-4G may not have the catchiest titles, but it does boast an impressive array of emulators to satisfy your on-the-go retro gaming needs — although we imagine those tiny shoulder buttons would prove irksome after a while. Support includes NES, SNES, Sega Genesis, Game Boy Advance, SNK Neo-Geo and Capcom arcade systems CPS1 and CPS2 — sorry, no love for Atari 2600 or Commodore 64, here — all accessible through a menu that in no way, shape, or form resembles Sony’s Xross Media Bar. It also plays MP3, MPEG5, FLAC, WMV, AVI, and a few other audio / video formats, and reportedly can function as an e-book reader with text to speech capabilities — y’know, just in case there weren’t enough entities peeved at it being a beacon for ROMs. As for hardware, we’re looking at a 2.8-inch QVGA LCD, 4GB internal memory, a mini-SD card slot, and AV out for the television. Buy one for $87.31, three for $83.82 apiece, or if you’re feeling generous, pick up 50 for a more generous, undisclosed discount.

[Via Retro Thing]

Filed under: Gaming, Portable Audio, Portable Video

Chinavision CVFH-N03-4G portable emulator indulges your retro gaming cravings originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 03 Apr 2009 00:54:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Okay, yes, pardon the headline — we’re a little fired up about the 5800’s 3G situation at the moment, and at a time like this, nothing soothes the soul quite like some awesome hackery. Self-described “homebrew coder” Jamie Fuller has somehow magically turned the singletouch 5800 into a multitouch device, delivering a proof of concept in the form of a Guitar Hero-style game requiring cat-like thumb reflexes in response to the beat of one of the best songs we’ve ever heard. Considering that neither the hardware nor the software technically support multitouch here, it’s a hell of a feat — and it’s also proof that hope springs eternal for even the most seemingly hopeless limitations of your favorite gadget, no matter what that gadget might be. The developer says that the app will eventually be available for free once it’s further along, and in the meantime, he needs some beta testers and help with graphics — you know, something beyond colored circles — so if the dream of putting two fingers on your 5800’s screen at the same time keeps you awake at night, you might consider pitching in. Follow the break for a video demo.

[Via Symbian Freak, thanks mj]

Continue reading Hobbyist brings multitouch to the Nokia 5800, doesn’t fix 3G reception

Filed under: Cellphones, Gaming, Handhelds

Hobbyist brings multitouch to the Nokia 5800, doesn’t fix 3G reception originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 03 Mar 2009 07:39:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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