Help Bob make money in Sticks, a fun physics game

sticks
Sticks is another one of those rare games where the intro is actually worth watching. It introduces you to office worker Bob, who is basically a wage slave fantasizing about a better existence.

Then, on his way back home from another grueling day at the office, he passes a huge sign which says "Sticks." This is where the game starts.

Each level has a number of coins hovering in mid-air, and your goal is to place sticks that lead those coins to Bob -- but you only have a limited amount of wood to play with. As soon as you're done placing your sticks strategically, hit the big Play button and let nature, or rather gravity, run its course. The coins will drop down, and if you place your sticks correctly, they will roll all the way to Bob.

The soundtrack is soothing and playful, and didn't get on my nerves even after playing for quite a while. All in all, a very cute game, especially for a day at the office.

Help Bob make money in Sticks, a fun physics game originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 18 Feb 2011 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/02/18/help-bob-make-money-in-sticks-a-fun-physics-game/

Simone Temme Heidemarie Stegmann Annika Schäffer Edgar Betz

Cloud Girlfriend will use a swarm of females to satisfy men

The social network Cloud Girlfriend
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.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/03/30/cloud-girlfriend-will-use-an-army-of-females-to-please-lonely-me/

Margarethe Lachner Lutz Yalcin Birte Höß Kerstin Klos

Pix4D turns your 2D aerial photographs into 3D maps on the fly (video)

Assuming you own a Sensefly Swinglet CAM or some other high-res camera-equipped UAV, you could be just minutes away from turning your plain old 2D aerial photos into comprehensive 3D maps. Pix4D, a new software program coming out of EPFL -- the same institute that brought us this race of altruistic robots -- takes images shot using an aerial drone to render 3D maps in the cloud in just 30 minutes. Users upload images taken with their flying machines, at which point Pix4D kicks into action, defining high contrast points in the phots and pasting them together based on those points. It then renders a 3D model, overlays the graphics, and spits out a Google Earth-style map. So what's with this 4D business? Well, its developers claim that users can easily see the progression of any model by deploying their Sensefly drone whenever they see fit, throwing the added layer of time into the mix. You can see the fruits of Pix4D's labor in the video after the break.

Continue reading Pix4D turns your 2D aerial photographs into 3D maps on the fly (video)

Pix4D turns your 2D aerial photographs into 3D maps on the fly (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 07 May 2011 00:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourcePix4D  | Email this | Comments

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/05/07/pix4d-turns-your-2d-aerial-photographs-into-3d-maps-on-the-fly/

Hans-Jürgen Haake Arno Zimmerling Jacqueline Kiesel Michel Rohr

Wired, GQ and New Yorker Subscriptions Are Coming to the iPad [Blip]

One year, 20 bucks. That's what subscriptions to Wired, Vogue, GQ, Vanity Fair and the New Yorker will likely cost when Conde Nast confirms their subscription pact with Apple in the near future. Single issues will probably cost $2. It's expected that, as in the deal Time Inc. reportedly struck, current dead-tree subscribers will have iPad access for free. [NY Post via Wired] More »


Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/xvLsbN9TAhM/wired-gq-and-new-yorker-subscriptions-are-coming-to-the-ipad

Mika Bernhardt Ingeburg Liebermann Elsa Alexander Furtmann Siegrid Holstein

iPad 2 light leakage due to faulty LG panels? (update)

We don't have official word from Apple on the subject, but we're hearing rumors that might explain why some iPad 2 backlights tend to bleed -- according to Digitimes' anonymous sources, LG Display was "forced to reduce its shipments in the first quarter due to light leakage problem for panels," and that Samsung took up the slack. That suggests that some of today's vaunted 9.7-inch IPS displays may be from LG's faulty batch and some may be slightly superior Samsung screens, but we don't really recommend you crack yours open on the basis of an uncorroborated rumor (or at all, really) to find out the truth of the matter.

Update: An astute reader reminds us that while LG, Panasonic and Chimei make IPS screens, Samsung traditionally does not. Perhaps Samsung has managed to get its plane-line switching (PLS) displays into iPads instead, as was rumored last month, or perhaps this rumor is simply inaccurate, in whole or in part.

[Thanks, trucker boy]

iPad 2 light leakage due to faulty LG panels? (update) originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 07 May 2011 18:09:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink CNET  |  sourceDigitimes  | Email this | Comments


Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/IOgWtochJN0/

Claus Rehberg Tobias Leinenbach Olga Kreibich Nathalie Donnerhacke

Daily Crunch: Ship Shape Edition

Be A Sky Pirate At Last With This Sweet Kite The Five (Minor) Differences Between The Motorola Xoom And Acer Iconia Tab Conan On The World?s Most Expensive Toilet By Kohler The Finger-nose Stylus Is, As Far As We Can Tell, Not A Joke Colorware Now Doing Its Thing On The iPad 2

Source: http://www.crunchgear.com/2011/05/04/daily-crunch-ship-shape/

Emma Sauter Rosemarie Ramsauer Jörn Domenighini Marion Dallmeyer

Artist Turned Typewriter Into This Sculpture of Your Grandpa [Art]

What with all the recent buzz about the death of the typewriter — that turned out to be super false — artist Jeremy Mayer went ahead and created this piece, Bust V (Grandfather), to comment on the hullabaloo. More »


Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/z0JoGnooKhs/artist-turned-typewriter-into-this-sculpture-of-your-grandpa

Birte Höß Kerstin Klos Dieter Schreiter Monika Kley

Survival Lab is a fun pixelated game where dying doesn't matter

Survival Lab
In most games, dying is a bad thing. You have to start all over again, or at least revert to the last save point and lose some progress. Not so in Survival Lab: in this pixelated gem you play as a lone individual pitted against ruthless weapons in a sealed chamber. You have to run, jump and duck, collecting little yellow things (I have no idea what they're called).

For each donut-like yellow thing you pick up, you gain a bit of experience. If you manage to collect several in a row without getting hit, this counts as a combo. You can see my mad combo skills in the screenshot, of course. Collecting combos is a good thing, because a ten-point combo gives you for more experience than just collecting ten dounts one by one (getting hit in-between).

Having experience is useful, because once you die, you get to a screen where you can upgrade your skills. You can learn to run faster, double-jump (and then double-jump higher), and duck. You can also gain more armour so that getting hit won't kill you so quickly.

What makes this simple game so addictive is that when you die, your experience doesn't reset. You just go back to the same level, or another level of your choosing, and keep accumulating more and more experience. Lots of fun, especially if you're into the whole retro-gaming thing.

Survival Lab is a fun pixelated game where dying doesn't matter originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 28 Feb 2011 16:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/02/28/survival-lab-is-a-fun-pixelated-game-where-dying-doesnt-matter/

Arne Koller Fiona Brandenburg Franziska Spanier Erna Van den Hout

Vending Machine for Geeks Stocks USB Cables, LEDs, Arduinos

Visitors to Metrix Create:Space in Seattle can avail themselves of the hacker space’s many amenities: 3-D printers, work benches, hand tools, power tools, oscilloscopes, and 50 Mbps internet. If you need something more than that for your project, there’s a good chance you’ll find it in the shop’s vending machine. Alongside such vending staples as candy bars [...]

Source: http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2011/05/vending-machine-geeks/

Claus Rehberg Tobias Leinenbach Olga Kreibich Nathalie Donnerhacke

myPadMedia And iPad ? A Perfect Combination

The Apple workforce is continuously exceeding expectations and transforming the way in which people today do stuff from enjoying music to keeping in touch with their buddies and loved ones. Initially, these people released us their innovative brilliance with the creation with the iPod and iTunes. They virtually transformed the way in which we get [...]

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ipadbuzzblog/~3/hFK3dTKYk5U/

Gertrud Hölzl Ulrike Kellner Nicola Kohnen Laura Ungricht