aging

If roller skating is one of the fun physical activities you hate to give up as you age, and you care more about your health than what you look like maintaining it, the just-released Skaters Coach might be for you.

The device, which looks like what might happen if a walker and a tricycle got together and made babies, is bound to turn heads as you flex your age-defying muscles to the delight of passersby. It's neither as lazy as steering a Segway, nor as crazy as staying upright on a unicycle.

"It's a perfect tool for … Read more

Crazy as this sounds, the Japanese have uncovered a secret that would have Archimedes too surprised to even yell, "Eureka!" Enter the Age Prediction Machine, a device supposedly capable of guesstimating how old you are just by emitting a high-frequency sound similar to a mosquito's buzz.

There's actually a science behind this. As we age, our hearing deteriorates and loses its ability to tune in to high pitches. The Sonic Teenager Deterrent alarm uses just such a principle to solve loitering problems.

There's an equally nefarious purpose behind this 924 yen ($10) gadget. Just in … Read more

There was a time when role-playing games were the domain of geeked-out obsessives overly concerned with stats, percentages, and the rolling of virtual 20-sided dice--or else fans of ornate, absurdist Japanese RPGs (such as the Final Fantasy series). For the coveted mainstream gamer, it could be very unfriendly territory.

For that reason, the original Mass Effect (EA, 2007), was something of a revelation, keeping much of the strategy and complexity of a traditional RPG, but wrapping it up in an action-packed third-person shooter, with a compelling (but digestible) storyline, and massive set pieces straight out of a big-budget Hollywood sci-fi epic.

Developer BioWare seems to have cornered the market on this new breed of RPG, following up with the very similar Dragon Age: Origins (a sword-and-sorcery take that managed to overcome the staleness of its genre), and now Mass Effect 2--which has quickly become the first critical darling of 2010.

Dan: Mass Effect 2 nails that elusive mix of highbrow and lowbrow (as the terms apply to game mechanics). There's still a complex plot, and characters with intertwining motives and methods, plus the flexibility to approach tasks in whatever order you choose. At the same time, most of the actual RPG stat-counting takes place behind the scenes (weapons stats no longer need to be pored over, the game simply defaults to the best guns you have), and the physical actions of running, shooting, and taking cover are much closer to what we expect from the current generation of highly polished third-person action games.

The focus on traditional duck-and-cover shooting is a clear indication of Mass Effect's console origins. Sister game Dragon Age was originally developed for PCs and ported to consoles (instead of the other way around), so it feels slower and more strategic (plus, that game lets you travel with three companions at a time, rather than Mass Effect's two).

The game definitely has that elusive 'X' factor that draws players in, perhaps partly by presenting a greatest hits melody of pop-culture highlights, from the thinly veiled political subtext of 'BSG,' and routinely shifting alliances of '24,' to the Star-Wars-reminiscent design, such as the Coruscant-like planet of Illium. For whatever reasons, the game is simply impossible to put down once you start playing, leading to many late nights of galaxy-saving (and resource mining on random planets).

And yet, despite racking up 25-plus hours of in-game time over the past week, there's still a nagging feeling that we've hit something of a wall in terms of game design.… Read more

Ford this week announced it is partnering with MIT's AgeLab on a project to identify specific stress-inducing driving situations, monitor a driver's reaction to the situations using biometrics, and evaluate methods to incorporate new stress-reducing features into the next generation of Ford products. The six-month effort will begin in January and will focus on human interaction with a specially equipped 2010 Lincoln MKS.

Ford's goal for the program is to take this a step further by creating the most comfortable driving environment possible so that the driver is always relaxed and calm.

By using the Lincoln MKS, … Read more

It feels good to let the poison out every once in a while, so today's episode of CNET's The 404 Podcast is all about human vices, starting with a story about a controversial secret love scene in Dragon Age: Origins between two gay elves. While conservatives are up in arms about the cut scene, Wilson and Jeff stand by the Mature rating and hold parents responsible for making the final buying decision, but I have to play devil's advocate and ask why it's necessary to have sex scenes in video games in the first place; are there really gamers out there actually getting a kick out of seeing it, or is it just creating more trouble than it's worth?

While we're on the subject of nerds, World of Warcraft players are rejoicing at Blizzard's "ever-expanding line of merchandise" that now includes customized posters featuring your in-game WoW character. It's called Print Warcraft, and it's already so popular that the Web site is apologizing for its overloaded servers. We have a few problems with the idea of the service, so be sure to listen to the whole episode for our breakdown.

The last vice of the day might change the way you party on the weekends: a researcher in Russia has found a way to solidify your favorite liquors into pill form. Evgeny Moskalev of the Saint Petersburg Technological University has figured out how to turn alcohol into powder and pack the concentration into a "dry pill." We seriously doubt party animals in Russia will be able to measure out the exact vodka dosage needed to get blotto, but we'll raise our pill box to it anyway.

We've also got two new user submitted theme songs thanks to PA Stubbs and David, and DON'T FORGET! It's not to late to enter for a chance to win one of ten Otterbox cases for your iPhone 3G or 3GS. All you have to do is leave a comment on yesterday's episode and wait to see if you win! The contest runs until noon tomorrow, December 4, so don't forget!

Russ Frushtick from MTV's Multiplayer blog joins us on today's episode of The 404 Podcast to give us the rundown of this month's upcoming video game releases, but first we have to give a quick head nod to the Yankees for winning the World Series and, of course, Matsui for coming through with the MVP of the series.

Also, were you as annoyed with the lame tech commercials during the game as we were? Between James Cameron's upcoming flop "Avatar" that looks like a 2-hour video game cut scene, the new Droid phone ripping Apple apart, and the rather malicious new Mac ads practically lying about past versions of Windows, we could barely watch the game!

Next, we run down a list of near-extinct tech that just won't seem to go away. The list includes items like the landline telephone, Twitter, vinyl, fax machines, Windows XP, and Sonic the Hedgehog, and although we agree with most of them, how are people supposed to send sandwiches to loved ones without a fax machine?

By far, the highlight of today's episode comes toward the tail end of the show during our classic Calls From the Public segment, where Jeff is the reluctant receiver of a huge spoiler to his current read, Lois Lowry's "The Giver." If you're planning on reading the book for the first time, you might want to click the mute button for the remainder of the episode, or risk suffering a similar fate. On the other hand, the look on Jeff's face when things get spoiled is too hilarious to miss.

As what one might call mainstream consumers of interactive entertainment, we're quick to snicker at anything too concerned with elves and dragons, or any kind of stat-juggling role-playing game. That said, we've always had a soft spot for epic, story-driven games such as Oblivion and Fallout 3, which use the trapping of the RPG format to build a fully realized virtual world.

This year's entry in the epic RPG/adventure game category is Dragon Age: Origins, released Tuesday. After getting an early preview during this year's Game Developer's Conference, we were surprisingly hooked and eager … Read more

Kudos is an entertaining strategy game in which users manage their character's career, social life, romantic relationships, and more. There's not a whole lot of action, but users who enjoy text-based life simulation games will find Kudos quite enjoyable.

The program's interface is sleek and attractive. Users select a gender and name for their characters and then customize his or her appearance. As the game began, our character had just had her 20th birthday and was ready to make something of her life. We moved through each virtual day with our character, making decisions about how she'… Read more

One of the holiday season games we're most bullish on is Dragon Age: Origins. While this nerd-tastic tale of dragons and elves and guys wearing chainmail armor isn't for everyone (or even usually our cup of tea), the large chunks of the game we've played have had a mainstream Lord of the Rings epic action movie vibe, rather than rolling a 20-sided die in your parents' basement. Plus, it's one of the only big budget games in recent years developed first for PC gaming, and then ported to living room consoles, rather than the other way … Read more