Crave

Natali Del Conte's alter-ego, Motherboard, returns to the show to fight your computer worms and viruses! On today's show, we start off with a bit about fishing and gadgets. I think we have a new show idea: Ms. Del Conte will demo the latest fishing technology on a boat every week. Any takers?

(Credit: Radioshack)

Radioshack is trying to be cool again by renaming itself "The Shack." Too easy when it comes to jokes. There's no way that we're going to hang out at "The Shack." For a matter of fact, the only reason we can think to really go to Radioshack is if we needed something random, like a cable or a transistor.

Further down the show, we find out that scientists think women are getting hotter because of evolution. Apparently, attractive women tend to breed more, but for some reason or another this has no effect on men. We're ugly as ever. Natali testifies to this when she looks at Jeff and Wilson.

A recent graduate of Monroe College in the Bronx decided to sue her school after her information technology degree proved pretty useless in this economy. While we don't know the details of the situation, this can't be good for art school. Perhaps students will get disclaimers when they get Bachelor of Fine Arts or anthropology degrees?

We finish the show with some iPhone app updates. The new OS 3.01 has beefed up Wi-Fi connections in addition to its SMS fixes, but it still doesn't discount Apple's move to block Google's Voice app on its App Store. The Palm Pre gleefully still holds onto its Google Voice app. Finally, Steven Spielberg announces that he will be remaking the Jimmy Stewart classic "Harvey." Why? Didn't Hollywood see what happened to the remake of "Miracle on 34th Street?"

Single women rival single men as tech device owners, according to a Forrester Research survey released Thursday.

Obviously, to an organization filled with female tech geeks, the study was met with bemusement.

But the survey of more than 1,000 single adult males and more than 1,000 single adult females in the United States and Canada had some interesting gems.

Did you know that single women prefer laptops while single men prefer desktops? Among the adult singles surveyed, 47 percent of women said their next computer would be a laptop, and 29 percent said it would be a desktop, while 47 percent of men said their next computer would be a desktop and 38 percent said it would be a laptop.

Forty-four percent of all single women surveyed own a game console, compared to 53 percent of single men, confirming reports from International Game Developers Association and Entertainment Software Association illustrating that women do play video games.

When it comes to handheld-game devices, 27 percent of single women surveyed count themselves as owners while 29 percent of single men said they have one, according to the study. Single women, meanwhile, surpassed single men slightly on digital-camera ownership, 78 percent to 76 percent.

Alas, less than 20 percent of single women said they followed technology news, compared to less than 40 percent of single men.

(Credit: Forrester Research)

Erica Boeke is on the show today to talk about her new book "GameFace: The Kick-Ass Guide for Women Who Seriously Love Pro Sports." On the show, we talk about women and their fascination with watching hockey players kick each others' ass. And Justin reveals that he has never played baseball, basketball, football, or hell, even played catch in his life.

Ericka Boeke in a 404 sandwich.

(Credit: Matt Fitzgerald/CNET)

We don't talk too much technology today, but we promise: we have a good time with sports and our general ability to turn any seemingly benign topic into a sexual innuendo. After Justin talks about men playing hockey, you'll never think about it in an unerotic way again.

Briefly on the show, we mention the war going on between Jon Stewart, host of Comedy Central's "The Daily Show," and Jim Cramer, host of CNBC's "Mad Money." Jon Stewart pretty much destroys Jim Cramer and the entire financial news media. We've never almost seen a grown man crying on cable television.

As usual, keep the voice mails coming: 1-866-404-CNET (2638). We still haven't found the right motto yet, but boy do we have a good time sorting through them. Or if you just want to leave a message about how Erica Boeke looks like Helen Hunt, that's fine too. Everyone have a great weekend, and you'll hear us next week when Jeff asks the Sleep Doctor Michael Breus how to stop farting in his sleep.

Julia Brasil, a game art and design student at The Art Institute of California-San Francisco, is generally unimpressed with the lack of women in the gaming industry and female game characters who lack depth. Brasil hopes to do her part change that as the first-ever winner of Sony Online Entertainment's SOE Gamers in Real Life, or G.I.R.L., competition.

Brasil's concept art for SOE's Everquest II.

(Credit: Sony Online Entertainment\Julia Brasil)

Earlier this month, Brasil, 20, beat out nearly 100 competitors to win a video gamer's dream package. Not only did she get a $10,000 scholarship toward her education, but she also landed a 10-week internship at the Sony Online Entertainment studio of her choice in Denver, San Diego, Seattle, or Austin, Texas.

The Brazilian-born student hopes her internship will help her narrow her career choices and bring to Sony the knowledge of a young, international woman gamer.

"Right now, according to, I think it was (International Game Developers Association), only 20 percent of everyone working in the game industry are women," Brasil said. "Which is a lot better than previous years, but they still have a long way to go." The numbers may be even smaller, with some citing them at just under 12 percent.

That statistic was the main drive behind the contest, which was created by Torrie Dorrell, senior vice president of global sales and marketing for SOE, and her colleagues. SOE said in a statement that while many women play games, it wants women to create games as well.

In April, Sony invited students at Art Institutes around the country to apply for the inaugural G.I.R.L. competition. Contestants were asked to submit an in-game design, concept art, and two essays.

Brasil's design was a humorous and "somewhat crazy" take on a "low-level newbie zone" for SOE's EverQuest II. Brasil said some of her favorite game genres include role-playing games and survivor horror titles, and she named Shadow of the Colossus and Fatal Frame II as two of her top titles.

Julia Brasil won Sony's first G.I.R.L. competition. Here she poses with her check.

(Credit: Sony Online Entertainment)

Although she's loved playing games since she was a child, Brasil said she's found few female characters who are easy to connect with.

"There quite a few games nowadays that have a female protagonist, like Tomb Raider's Lara Croft or Heavenly Sword recently. But they just seem like eye candy to me," she said. "They just don't seem very feminine or that attractive to other women. You play them and they are pretty and smart but they don't seem to have a lot of depth to them."

Her winning essay touched on her belief that many games are masculine, with women, like Princess Peach of the Mario franchise, serving as motivators.

"If we're going to start to have more women playing games," Brasil said, "we should do games that involve women in something other than a motivator or a sidekick character."

AUDIO

Contest winner on girls and gaming
CNET News intern Holly Jackson talks to Julia Brasil, winner of Sony Online Entertainment's first Gamers in Real Life, or G.I.R.L., competition.
Download mp3 (1.78MB)

A new report on the tech habits of women shows that the female of the species is edging out the male in the areas of DVR use and ownership of portable game devices.

The study, done independently by Solutions Research Group, and released Thursday, was undertaken to explore the "digital lifestyles" of American women. Data was collected from more than 2,000 respondents between October 2006 and February 2008.

What the final tally shows is that women are as comfortable with popular consumer technology as men (not really a surprise), and that they're making significant inroads into the gaming lifestyle, which has long been dominated by men.

Women who own DVRs spend more than half of their TV viewing time watching time-shifted content.

(Credit: TiVo)

For example, SGR characterizes women who own DVRs as much "more enthusiastic" about them than men. That's because women spend 56 percent of their TV-watching time viewing time-shifted content on their DVR. Men spend 42 percent of their time using their DVRs. The discrepancy between the two has much to do with the type of shows men and women watch, according to Kaan Yigit, SGR's director of syndicated studies.

"Men are more likely to watch sports, which has more impact live, obviously," he said. Women are more likely to watch half-hour comedies and 1-hour dramas, he said. Because of those same content preferences, women are also more likely to stream television shows from network TV Web sites.

In the gaming realm, men continue to lead in playing video game consoles--half of all men had played a console game in the previous month, whereas 38 percent of women had--but women are demonstrating a taste for portable game devices. Fourteen percent of women who describe themselves as "gamers" own a PSP (PlayStation Portable), compared to 11 percent of men who are gamers.

"It's a marginal difference, but in every other category, men or boys are slightly or substantially higher, as in the case of Xbox 360 ownership," Yigit said. "We find in general that girls and young women are more likely to skew to (owning) portable units, like the Game Boy Advance for the convenience and portability."

Lousy move, Nintendo. The company's U.K. arm has released a promotional Girl Gamer magazine to pimp its products, which Geeksugar has posted about, and it makes me want to puke up that steak fajita I had for lunch.

Let's see what's on the cover, underneath that ghastly pink masthead: Cooking Mama, Imagine Babies, and a pink DS Lite. Ick. It sure makes a gal want to go wild with the Manhunt 2 machete.

Not to mention the fact that I haven't seen eyeliner that atrocious since Congresswoman Katherine Harris.

Will it hurt Nintendo's business? Will there be mass protests? Of course not; there are a lot worse things a company could do than put out a Pepto Bismol-hued marketing blitz geared toward teenage girls who like "video games." But come on. I don't need to see this sort of thing when I've just eaten.

Men and women see things differently. Take audio: A guy might be impressed with a big honkin' speaker, but a woman probably sees a hideous box. Being a guy, I might not be the most sensitive to what females want from a hi-fi, so I'm more than willing to hear about it from the other side. I stumbled upon a well-written piece on a speaker manufacturer's (Klipsch) site that does just that. It's jam-packed with great advice--and don't worry--it never even mentions Klipsch speakers. Sarah Knight's "Get Turned On: A Woman's Guide to Purchasing Audio Gear" is a fun read. Here's an excerpt: "It's important to determine everything you want this system to do. Will it be used to listen to music, watch movies and TV, play video games or all of the above? For instance, if all you want to do is listen to music, a 2.1 system (two speakers and a subwoofer) should suffice. But by adding movies and TV into the mix, you might consider a home theater system that includes 5.1-channel surround sound, which means three speakers positioned in front, two for surround speakers at the sides and a subwoofer placed in the front corner to capture those deep-driving sound effects you feel and hear."

Of course, the tips are equally valuable to male shoppers. When I sold high-end audio female customers were pretty rare, but fact is, women's ability to appreciate quality sound is probably better than men's. They don't get caught up on the technical bits so much, they focus on the sonic/musical results. Which is, after all, what it's all about.

(Credit: Henri Bendel)

According to the PSFK blog, Manhattan's legendary luxury department store Henri Bendel is so notoriously old-school that it launched its first Web site a month ago. But the retailer is moving a step further into the Digital Age by opening a holiday gadget "pop-up store"-- curated by bloggers--inside its Fifth Avenue space.

Last year, Bendel had a holiday shop centered on the youth-oriented mobile phone carrier Helio.

But for 2007, Popgadget, which caters to female readers who appreciate both style and function and is staffed by a team of writers around the world, has selected an array of about 20 gadgets to be sold at Bendel for the duration of the holiday season. The "pop-up store" apparently opened on Monday; I might have to go check it out.

As for Bendel, this is probably a smart move for the store. The upscale women's fashion hub, which first opened in 1895, has become closely associated with the young and tech-savvy Gossip Girl crowd, so the displays of Prada cell phones, Archos portable media players, and high-end Griffin iPod accessories won't be particularly out of place.

But if the selection (or the luxe atmosphere at Bendel) isn't quite your thing, there are other holiday tech shops that have sprung up around the city--like the Wired Store, which opened in SoHo last week.

Could the company that brought you this cinematic classic manage to create a successful women's Web site network?

(Credit: National Lampoon)

Comedy house National Lampoon, which has brought the entertainment world everything from Animal House to the more recent Van Wilder, is courting the babes. A Media Week article details the brand's impending launch of 8228, the latest addition to the online National Lampoon Humor Network, which is a network of gossip and entertainment sites for a female audience.

We're guessing the tone will be a little different from TeamSugar or iVillage.

Expanding its Web presence is inherently a good move for National Lampoon: Van Wilder was a hit on DVD among the college crowd, but the once-iconic comedy brand has been largely eclipsed at the box office by such "Frat Pack" hits as Old School and Wedding Crashers, and more recently the phenomenon of Judd Apatow-affiliated "bromances" like The 40-Year-Old Virgin and Knocked Up. And apparently, the Lampoon has thus far been successful in its digital initiatives--the formation of a network of college-oriented media sites, including the purchase of DrunkUniversity.com earlier this year, has helped to boost its Web traffic, and some viral buzz has ensued from a fake movie trailer about two dumb college students who pledge a frat called 'Alpha Qaeda.'

Launching a targeted set of "gossip and entertainment" sites for women, however, has the potential for disaster. Many female Web users just don't like being pigeonholed; Gawker Media's Jezebel blog has turned out to be a surprising success, but the company was walking a fine line by launching a brand specifically geared toward women. As Jossip puts it with regard to 8228, "We're thinking Animal House meets The Vagina Monologues. We're also thinking, 'This is National Lampoon's worst idea since Van Wilder 2: The Rise Of Taj.'" Couldn't have put it better myself.

In any case, let's hope they don't make it pink.