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Men treat virtual girlfriends to beach vacations

If you visited the Japanese hot springs resort of Atami recently and spotted a disproportionate number of men gazing longingly at their smartphones, it probably wasn't because they were playing Angry Birds. This summer, the beach town became a vacation hub for guys who like to treat their girlfriends to sun-and-fun holidays. Girlfriends, that is, who only exist on-screen.

And yes, there are such men, particularly those enthralled with Konami's Love Plus, a popular dating sim for Nintendo DS that also comes as an augmented-reality application for iPhones. Players of the game know that to keep their virtual gals happy, they'd best spend quality time with them, throw them birthday parties, take them on dates, and yes, shell out yen for beach getaways. After all, at $84, a return fare from Tokyo to Atami on the Shinkansen bullet train ain't cheap (fortunately virtual girlfriends travel free).

Sadly for romantics everywhere, Atami's summer of virtual love ends Tuesday. It was geared toward players of Love Plus Plus, a sequel to Love Plus released this year. The object is to form and nurture a relationship with one of three high school girls with rotating outfits, distinct musical tastes, and clearly permissive parents. (See a game trailer featuring stars Rinko Kobayakawa, Manaka Takane, and Nene Anegasaki below.)

More than 2,000 visitors have taken part in events related to Atami's lovefest, according to reports, with some traveling from as far as South Korea and Taiwan, locals say. The young bucks did things fairly typical of suitors--gaze into their girlfriends' eyes during long sunset walks on the beach, admire their pixilated bikinis, and touch their virtual cheeks with a stylus.

The Asahi Shimbun newspaper quoted a 21-year-old Tokyo man as saying the game has encouraged him in his search for his first human paramour. "I hope that this will serve as practice for when I have a real girlfriend," he said. … Read more

Show your work

One of the drawbacks of many basic calculators is that you can't view each operation in a long equation all at once. CCCalc seeks to remedy this problem by providing users with a view of their work as though it's been written on a piece of graph paper. The program isn't crammed with features, but it is a nice alternative for people who like to view their work as they go.

The program's interface is plain, with a keypad at the bottom and the graph paper-style display on top. The keypad can be turned off if … Read more

IM+ comes to the browser: Is it a Meebo killer?

Hopping onto several instant-messaging networks at once is often best done with the help of IM software, but in recent years Web-based chat tools have gotten to the point where software is not as much of a necessity. Shape Services, the maker of several mobile software applications, has put together just such a tool called IM+ for Web that does well to fit into that category.

Like the popular Meebo, IM+ for Web lets you connect to multiple IM networks at once and juggle several chats in one browser window. All the while it provides notifications when new messages arrive, … Read more

Thin Samsung TV fat with features, Hulu Plus

Samsung's ultra-thin edge-lit LED-based LCD TVs created quite a stir last year, and in 2010 numerous other makers have followed the Korean giant's lead with inch-or-so-thick panels of their own. Samsung's are generally still the thinnest, however, and on models like the UNC6500 series the company manages to pack more features and extras--the latest being Hulu Plus--into its TVs than just about anyone else. In terms of picture quality, as expected, the UNC6500 doesn't offer a significant improvement over standard LCDs, but it is mighty efficient as well as oh-so-sleek, which might be enough to justify … Read more

BlackBerry Torch on the horizon

Links from Tuesday's episode of Loaded:

Research in Motion unveils the Torch Android overtakes iPhone in smartphone market CBS content finally coming to Hulu? Connecticut Attorney General warns Amazon, Apple over e-book prices Mac Office 2011 gets a release date

Hulu Plus on the go is still Hulu minus

I've been cable-TV-free for the better part of a year and a half. First, the idea was to save money. Second, the idea of watching TV via the Internet and on my assorted devices--iPad, iPhone, PS3, laptop--is an appealing and, honestly, preferable way of dealing with content at this point, especially since the TV is usually out of bounds in our household, since our sleeping child dictates silence. Though I feel like my idea was personally motivated, it's increasingly becoming part of a cable-cutting trend that many are adopting. (For more advice, see Maggie Reardon's tips on cutting cable for online video.)

Admittedly, we're not really off-grid at all. We still use the cable provider's Internet service. We also subscribe to Netflix, a virtual necessity when off-grid. Hulu has always offered a good selection of current shows on many networks, acting as a decent stand-in for a DVR.

Hulu Plus, with its promise of a larger library and an ability to work on the iPad, iPhone, and game consoles, got my attention when it was launched. Its price--$9.99 a month--did, too, for all the wrong reasons. Still, when I received my e-mail inviting me to sign up for the "preview," I ponied up my credit card. Is it worth it? And can it really help fulfill my wishes to watch TV off the grid without spending a fortune in iTunes? Well, that depends.

Content surprises Hulu Plus offers no free trial period other than a few free shows on its app, unlike Netflix which gives new users 30 days to try the service. Users have to discover for themselves what Hulu Plus' library actually consists of, which at the moment has its ups and downs. Some people on forums I've read seem confused as to whether the "Hulu Plus Preview" is currently free, or costs money. Hulu doesn't make the distinction clear of what a "preview" really even means, since this looks like a final product. And, yes, it costs money right now.… Read more

Hands-on: Hulu Plus on the Samsung BD-C6900

We've looked at Hulu Plus on the iPhone and iPad, which looks a lot like Hulu on the Web, but Hulu Plus on Samsung home theater devices (thankfully) features a completely different user interface. We fired up the Samsung BD-C6900, downloaded Hulu Plus from Samsung Apps, and were up and running in minutes. We're going to focus on the user experience in a home theater environment; for more information about exactly what Hulu Plus offers and how it compares with other media options, check out Scott Stein's analysis.

User interface Hulu Plus on the BD-C6900 looks much different than Hulu on the Web; it's a 10-foot user interface that shows less information at once, but it's easy to navigate with a remote control.

The initial screen has a carousel of featured content and there are several categories to browse from on the bottom, such as "Browse TV," "Recently Added," "Most Popular," and "Queue." If you select "Browse TV," there are several additional filters ("TV Shows with Full Episodes," "All TV Shows," "Networks"), plus the ability to sort alphabetically.

The shows are aligned horizontally--like Netflix's standard-streaming interface--with a photo, the overall user rating of the show, and a short description. Clicking on a show brings up a similar interface, with all of the episodes listed. If you're watching a program and go back to browsing, the video you're watching continues playing in a small window in the upper-right-hand corner, which feels pretty slick.… Read more

A GPS device from the 1920s

What did people do before the days of GPS satellites and battery-sucking A-GPS phones? Not only was there a navigational device that gave driving directions in the early 20th century, it was small enough to fit on your wrist.

This product from the 1920s is a scroll-map navigator in the shape of a watch. It came with tiny interchangeable instructions that you scrolled manually to see which roads to take when driving.

Named the Plus Four Wristlet Route Indicator, this relic from the past was a British product that would have cost about 5 pounds at the time, about 50 … Read more

Hulu's iPhone hiccups (with video)

With such insistent clamoring for a mobile version of Hulu.com ever since the streaming TV site captured the hearts and eyeballs of American viewers, this week's release of Hulu's new Hulu Plus app for iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch has received a surprisingly large number of user complaints.

Why? Of the multiple reasons, the most significant is price.

Although the Hulu Plus app is free to download, the premium Hulu Plus service costs $10 a month for access to a full helping of TV series and movies, rather than the current online sampling of five episodes for each show. For many users, the price feels too steep, and the fact that advertisements run with the same frequency for subscribers as they do for online viewers of free shows only serves to rub salt in the wound.

The detractions, however, are countered by profuse praise from Hulu fans who enjoy strong signal on their iPads, iPhones, and iPod Touches. Indeed, when the iPhone and iPad are glutted on data and Wi-Fi, Hulu Plus runs extremely well.

However, we also experienced signal interruptions even with reliable 3G and Wi-Fi while testing the Hulu Plus service on both the iPad and iPhone 4.… Read more