personals

After last year's ho-hum (but nevertheless profitable) Modern Warfare 3 release, it honestly takes a healthy dose of caffeine to get excited about Call of Duty these days. However, Crave can't deny the cool factor in these Black Ops 2 collector's editions, available for pre-order before the game arrives November 13 for PC, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3 platforms.

Developer Treyarch put together two configurations -- a Hardened Edition and a Care Package ($79 and $179, respectively) -- that should mostly satisfy the Call of Duty junkies who love to incessantly purchase every iteration of the game. … Read more

Coinciding with many other announcements during its presser today at the IFA 2012 confab in Berlin, Sony quietly launched the HMZ-T2 personal 3D head-mounted display.

The headset -- vastly similar to its predecessor (the HMZ-T1) -- contains two small 0.7-inch OLED (organic light-emitting diode) displays placed in front of the wearer's eyes that simulate a big screen and can display 2D/3D content from any HDMI source. Crave sent Sony an e-mail to see if the HMZ-T2 offers the same 720-pixel resolution and picture quality as before, which seems likely, as T2's marketing babble reads very much like that of the HMZ-T1. We'll let you know. … Read more

- What artists and songs were found on John Lennon's long lost jukebox?

- Ultimate Ears' custom tuned in-ear monitors.

- Condav99's custom Nintendo Boomcase! More on Boomcases here.

- Can a tiny $39 amp make your headphones sound a lot better?

- The Audiophiliac picks 11 of the world's best headphones.

- The Philips Shoqbox is our favorite camp-friendly, rugged Bluetooth speaker.

- Self-portraits done to a different drug every day.

Follow Steve Sphere Guttenberg on Twitter.

Bathroom break video: Steve Coogan impersonates Steve Hawking.… Read more

The recent flooding in the Philippines has left many people stranded or missing. Now Google is using its Person Finder to aid in the search.

Person Finder is aimed at connecting missing persons with their loved ones. Anyone who is looking for a lost person or has information about someone who's been found can use the Person Finder page to post that person's name.

If you're looking for someone who's missing, you can enter the person's name or at least parts of the name. And if you've have information on someone who's been … Read more

Nobody wants to admit it, but building a personal brand is essential if you want to thrive in a business world dominated by social media. This is especially true for entrepreneurs and even venture capitalists who have only recently stepped out from the shadows and into the spotlight.

I became intrigued by the rising role of personal branding in the VC world by a New York Times article last week that discussed how more VC firms are hiring PR specialists to help brand their firms.

Here's a quick excerpt from that article:

"Now, Sand Hill Road in Silicon … Read more

I have to put our Always On supervising producer, Eileen Rivera, on front street a little bit this week: that woman hates the Samsung Galaxy Beam. More accurately, she hates the cheeseball YouTube videos that promote the Beam's signature feature: its built-in pico projector. And I agree ... those ads are bad. Like, bad, bad.

But after spending some time playing with the Beam, I have to confess, I was kind of taken with its little parlor trick! I can't imagine using it often, unless it was for work, but it would certainly thrill the grandparents as a better … Read more

Apple's Siri has been known to get some queries wrong. But it might have flubbed an advertising opportunity as well.

In a July issue of The Economist, Apple reportedly took out an ad for Siri. In it, users are shown a forest behind a hand holding the iPhone, and a question at the top, saying, "What does poison oak look like?" On the iPhone, Siri provides an answer, but appears to display poison ivy and not poison oak.

According to the Associated Press, which was first to report on the news, Lena Struwe, an associate professor of … Read more

Sony, as is typical for this time of year, has refreshed its Walkman lineup for the fall. Take a look at our breakdown of the new devices:

Sony F800 series Android Walkman At first glance, Sony's F800 Walkman, due in the U.S. this August, looks uninspiring, but it actually packs a feature never before seen in a Walkman. We'll discuss that later.

First, the basics. The Walkman F series features a 3.5-inch multitouch-capable LCD screen and a Tegra 2 (dual-core) processor running Android 4.0. In its press release, the company wastes no time mentioning Google Play and Music Unlimited support. Unfortunately, it appears Sony decided to play capacities conservatively with 16GB ($269) and 32GB ($299) options (Europe gets an additional 8GB model). CNET queried Sony as to why it didn't go with a 64GB option F series for music aficionados, and a representative said that "if there was expressed demand for it, we could consider it, but it was not offered at this time due to current demand statistics."

The F's aesthetics look typical for Sony's current design mantra: minimalism across the board, thin profile (2.23 inches wide by 4.5 inches high by 0.3 inches deep), and a thoughtful throwback Walkman logo to please the reminiscent. … Read more

Hello Internet. Eileen here, Supervising Producer for Always On. Molly is on vacation, so I'm filling in to give you a little background on this week's episode!

This week we get physical! Molly is in the best shape of her life and was inspired by her road test of both the Nike+ FuelBand and Fit Bit Ultra to enter her first half-marathon! She said to me, "I think we need to stay true to the extreme nature of the show. How about I sign up for a half-marathon?!?"

At first I thought she was crazy to … Read more