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Perky avatars bring 'Uncanny Valley' to NYC airports

Perky avatars bring 'Uncanny Valley' to NYC airports

A cheery, two-dimensional lady will soon be arriving in New York City area airports to make the agony of modern air travel a little easier -- if she doesn't totally creep you out, that is.

The Port Authority of New York yesterday unveiled new customer service avatars at Newark and La Guardia airports. For now, the quarter-million-dollar units are essentially woman-shaped, motion-activated looping video billboards that dispense the same prerecorded but helpful information about shuttle buses and restrooms to anyone who walks by. Port Authority representatives said they hope future versions of the technology will be more interactive and capable of holding conversations.

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Does Diablo III's big online-only bet pay off?

Does Diablo III's big online-only bet pay off?

One week after its release, Diablo III remains the only PC game anyone is talking about. Some of that talk is about how the game, a decade in the making, is a huge hit, with millions of copies presold before the May 15 launch. But much of the talk is also about the big bet developer and publisher Blizzard is making by forcing even solitary players to log in online to play.

Dan:
I've spent years attempting to divine the line between mainstream and enthusiast gaming, trying to figure out which games could cross over into popular culture, and which ones were going to stay locked into a small, but dedicated, core audience.

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Best 3D gaming monitors

Best 3D gaming monitors

I prefer to not play games in 3D. Aside from the stress it puts on my eyes, there's something about the stereo effect where it never becomes completely seamless. It never melts into the background and, for me at least, is constantly drawing my attention away from the actual game.

However, I understand that there are those who appreciate 3D much more than I do, and if I were going to invest in a 3D monitor, the following five are the ones I'd choose from. Just to be clear, these are the best monitors for 3D gaming, not the best overall monitors that happen to have a 3D component.

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Ward off malaria -- and look sexy doing it

Ward off malaria -- and look sexy doing it

Malaria nets don't generally grace the pages of Vogue. But that could change, thanks to a couple of inventive Cornell University scientists.

The two, both from Africa, have created a hooded garment embedded with insecticide to ward off mosquitoes infected with malaria, a preventable and curable infectious disease that kills more than 650,000 people a year on the continent, according to the World Health Organization.

The getup consists of a colorful hand-dyed one-piece bodysuit and a mesh cape and hood. While nets treated with insecticide are a common, cost-effective prevention tool in Africa, the Cornellians say their garment can be worn during the day for extra protection. Plus, their fabric's mosquito-repellant properties are extra strong and long-lasting.

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Sprint to start shipping HTC's Evo 4G LTE on Thursday

Sprint to start shipping HTC's Evo 4G LTE on Thursday

After a week-long delay caused by a patent spat with Apple, HTC's Evo 4G LTE will finally begin shipping to Sprint customers later this week.

The carrier made the announcement on a company blog this afternoon:

Customers who preordered HTC EVO 4G LTE...Your wait is almost over! Sprint expects to begin shipping HTC EVO 4G LTE for arrival on or around Thursday, May 24 to customers who pre-ordered the device online from Sprint. We will provide details on the full national launch as soon as possible.

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Super Diet Genius app puts superfoods to work

Super Diet Genius app puts superfoods to work

Diet apps are a dime a dozen. And with good reason: your smartphone is the ideal mobile companion for counting calories, managing exercise, and tracking overall health.

The latest entry into this crowded field: Super Diet Genius. What separates this $3.99 app from the likes of Lose It, Calorie Tracker, and MyFitnessPal? It's all in the "super."

Specifically, Super Diet Genius puts you on a diet that relies heavily on superfoods -- stuff that packs the maximum vitamins, minerals, fiber, antioxidants, and overall nutrition goodness. (You know: not pizza. Not candy bars. Not French fries.)

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iPhone-powered gTar shreds digitally

iPhone-powered gTar shreds digitally

At first glance, a digital guitar with the brains of a super-powered smartphone and illuminated fretboard seems like a product that could change everything about guitar instrumentation. The digital dynamo by Incident Technologies aims to work as "the first guitar that anybody can play," as noted in description of the gTar on Kickstarter.

To start, one merely needs to plug an iPhone 4/4S in to the digital guitar. After selecting a song in the gTar app, illuminated frets await your fingertips to help you start playing along.

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Pentax debuts adventure-ready, $850 dSLR

Pentax debuts adventure-ready, $850 dSLR

I have to admit: the $900 Pentax K-30 dSLR sounds like a pretty promising replacement for the K-r. Rugged on the outside with the potential for the same excellent photo quality as the K-01 mirrorless ILC, claimed faster autofocus performance than the already fast K-5, and a 100 percent coverage viewfinder that you usually only see in more expensive models all add up to a possibly great start to the Pentax-Ricoh era.

Though it's not "durable" in the same sense as bodies like the Nikon D4 or Canon EOS-1D X, with parts designed to withstand heavy photographic abuse, the K-30 offers weather-and-dust resistance, with claims of usability down to 14 degrees (most cameras only guarantee down to 32 degrees); that said, Pentax makes no claims about battery life at those temperatures. The next least-expensive camera making similar claims is the Olympus E-5 at $1,699. And none of them come in Pentax's selection of colors, which include white and blue in addition to standard black. It has a rubber grip for improved security in adverse conditions.

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Verizon preps four LTE Android phones for international travel

Verizon preps four LTE Android phones for international travel

Wondering when you can take your Verizon Android phone overseas without hassle? The answer is soon.

Verizon just dropped us a line to say that it will be update the HTC Rezound, Motorola Droid Razr, Droid Razr Maxx, and Droid 4 for global use.

Customers will receive a prompt to download a software update. With that in place, phone owners will be able to use Verizon's voice service overseas in more than 220 countries and use data in more than 205 countries, according to Verizon's latest numbers. Of course, they'll need to turn on a global plan or feature more

God seems fine with Babel-like Lego tower

God seems fine with Babel-like Lego tower

It's the tallest Lego tower ever, soaring to the heavens at more than 104 feet and setting a geek world record last week.

The Lego World Tower brought joy to the hearts of Koreans last week when it went up in Seoul's Olympic Stadium.

At 104 feet and 7 inches, it edged out a similar tower erected in France last year at 103 feet. It took some 4,000 Korean kids five days and half a million bricks to put it together.

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