bears

SAN FRANCISCO--"I'm getting medieval on your apps."

That was how one member of the Subutai Corporation, a San Francisco- and Seattle-based application company, referred to "The Mongoliad," a forthcoming interactive serial novel it's producing for the iPad, featuring work by famed authors Neal Stephenson, Greg Bear, and others.

"The Mongoliad" was publicly unveiled for the first time Tuesday evening at the SFAppShow, a monthly application showcase put on here by the SFAppStudio, a firm specializing in developing and marketing iPhone, iPad, and Android apps.

According to Jeremy Bornstein, the CEO of … Read more

If you've seen any of the previews for Pixar's forthcoming movie, the terrific "Toy Story 3," you've no doubt caught wind of one of the new toys in the trilogy's roster of playthings: Lots-o-Huggin' Bear.

The movie opens on June 18, and until then viewers won't have much of a sense of how Lotso figures into the film's full story line. Suffice it to say, Lotso is a leader at Sunnyside Day Care, the new home of the stars of Pixar's 11th feature, Woody, Buzz Lightyear, Jessie, Hamm, Mr. and Mrs. … Read more

Natali Del Conte replaces Justin Yu on today's show, as he's out looking for pickles. The name of today's show refers to the news that William Shatner of "Star Trek" fame will star in CBS' new sitcom "S**t My Dad Says," based on the same expletive-filled Twitter phenomenon. We think Jerry Stiller would make a better cranky old man. (By the way, CBS, you own a equally funny podcast/show/Twitter called The 404, available on @the404.)

Jeff has a beef with the number of 3D movie theaters out there right now. Apparently, the success of "Avatar" has led a swarm of 3D films to be released, and many theaters aren't equipped to handle the 3D projections just yet.

Next, we get to Sony building a universal game controller (a la the Logitech Harmony One, but for videogame consoles). We're not exactly sure how they plan on doing this, or whether it's useful in any way. We do, however, reminisce a bit about our favorite game controllers. The original Sega Saturn controller is Wilson's favorite for 2D games. "It melts in your hands," he says.

Finally, we get to some voice mails, and the racist polar bear on Xbox Live has really taken off as a meme now. We're encouraging our fans to send in their renditions of this meme. The best ones we will showcase on the show. Maybe a few Photoshoped images? Maybe a few voice mails as the racist polar bear? Send them in to the404 [at] cnet [dot] com or call us at 1-866-404-CNET (2638).

… Read more

This week has been big on Google. The company's Nexus One's pricing has gotten a few tweaks and The Woz declared it his favorite gadget--quite a statement coming from the co-founder of Apple, makers of the iPhone, the Nexus One's direct target.

Speaking of Apple, one of its lawyers accidentally let slip the fact that the infamous Apple tablet might someday exist even though it doesn't really exist. This is due to Gawker's $10,000 bounty on anything confirming that the nonexistent tablet exists. I hope he takes PayPal.

Speaking of people messing things … Read more

Any geek worth his (or her) weight in salt will tell you that one of the most necessary tools for ad hoc repairs is duct tape. In fact, the one thing geeks don't use it for is to tape ducts. I've known people who have used duct tape to mount a hard drive, weather-proof a camera, build a cantenna, make ice skates, and affix a flash defuser for a camera.

But nothing my super-nerd friends have done compares with the story that comes to us via forums of ArmyParatrooper.org, where user lz_NorthPole shares this tale from the Alaskan wilderness.

A fisherman chartered a small plane to fly into the Alaskan backcountry for some fishing. The fisherman unwisely left fresh bait in the plane, which attracted a bear--this being bear country and all--and the animal then tore the airplane apart. The image you see above is the trashed plane.

But the charter pilot supposedly was a bad-ass. And like a bad-ass he wouldn't just let a bear get away with tearing up his airplane. No, this bad-ass--who must be a geek--called another pilot to ferry in new tires, sheet plastic, and three cases of duct tape.

lz_NorthPole claims the pilot applied the materials, flew the thing home, and arrived safely. I fervently hope he is not playing an early April Fools' joke, because this is the best use of duct tape I've seen in a long time.

What you see above is the before. The "after" shot is after the jump. Take a look and tell us: do you think this story (and plane) flies? … Read more

Bears have some awfully funny inclinations. Back in 2004 there were all those wackynews stories about the bear who'd downed three dozen cans of beer at a campground and proceeded to pass out.

But this one takes the cake: this summer, when Vermont hiker Kris Rowley was approached by a bear and it kept following her, it proved more interested in chowing down on her iPhone.

Rowley, who serves as Vermont's chief information security officer, tells CIO.com: "In a semi-panic, I threw the phone at the bear."

The bear proceeded to ignore Rowley and started … Read more

We've heard that the recession is waning. But our gut tells us something different. Today we examine gadgets that appeal to our recession-warped minds.

Downturn doll sleeps in a car - but costs $95

Dell banks its brand on artists, baseball and nail polish

Netbooks rise, notebooks fall

Sony’s new Vaio X: thinnest laptop ever, $1,300 and up

After multiple cancellations and attempts to get him on the show, Mr. Ngo is finally in the 404 studio in New York! We're excited to pick his brain on all the new advancements in the CNET labs, but we get sidetracked by the most random conversations. Dong and I have a special relationship (don't go there): Dong was actually the first person I met when I first started working at CNET! In fact, you could consider him my printer mentor! Thanks, Dong.

Since we have Dong in the hot seat, we take this opportunity to pick his brain about his experiences coming to America from Vietnam. As you can imagine, it took the young Dong awhile to adjust to our idioms and figures of speech, which he illustrates beautifully in a cheeky story involving an attractive blond woman and a big, yellow Hummer.

In addition, Dong surprises us all and tell us that it was actually Michael Jackson who inspired him to learn English! I can just imagine little Dong saying "Who is the Man in the Mirror and why are we asking him to change his ways?"

Believe it or not, we finally arrive at an actual news story in the second half of the show. This one is about a Japanese teddy bear robot nurse named RIBA (Robot for Interactive Body Assistance) meant to transport the elderly and handicapped in its creepy outstretched arms. Has anyone noticed that it looks a lot like a certain bear meme?

Either way, we all take issue with the fact that the bear can only hold up to 134 pounds in its foam-padded paws! Clearly this robot ain't picking any Americans up anytime soon. I think we actually have babies that weigh more than that.

Big thanks goes out to Paul Ramsay for inviting us to last night's hypnotism show at the Julliard Academy. It was tons of fun--who knew a group of kids could Riverdance so well!? Maybe you can help Jeff through his knife phobia! If you're not familiar with Paul's work, be sure to check out his appearance on our show. Also, head over to the Inside CNET Labs Podcast to catch more of Dong Ngo's crazy antics.

While unmanned air vehicles are putting pilots out of business, a new U.S. Army-funded robot could do the same for rescuers and stevedores.

The humanoid BEAR (Battlefield Extraction-Assist Robot) can locate victims in a mine shaft, battlefield, toxic spill, or earthquake-damaged structure. And then it can lift them up and then carry them over long distances to safety, according to the manufacturer Vecna Robotics. And it does this without risking any more lives (PDF).

The challenge was to enhance search and rescue while reducing the time military, police, and emergency response personnel have to risk their lives each day. … Read more