Avatar

It's always been my pet peeve in gaming when the guy on the other side blames the equipment (i.e. "I have bad lag" or "my mouse skips") for his defeat, making my pwnage a little less glorious. Well, get a new mouse, I say.

And not just any mouse, a good gaming mouse.

NZXT, a company that makes accessories for gamers, released on Monday the newest of those mice. Called Avatar, the mouse is designed to provide gamers with significant enhancements in gaming with a few breakthrough features.

First, it sports a 2600dpi optical … Read more

If you're a social media addict but think that visiting regular Web sites is a lonely experience, you might want to take a look at Weblin.

Created by a German company, Weblin is designed to make the experience of surfing Web sites social--or make services like Facebook or MySpace.com more social. It does so by letting users create an avatar that they can then, effectively, take with them as they move around from site to site.

If they then find themselves on a site that is being visited at the same time by other Weblin users, then they … Read more

LAS VEGAS-- Intel CEO Paul Otellini's CES keynote was sparkling. In contrast to Bill Gates' pastel portrait of the future, Otellini presented a concrete vision of a personal, reactive Web, and the challenges to creating it (Silicon, Infrastructure, Context, and Interface). For a full rundown, see Dan Farber's writeup on ZDNet.

Intel loves where the Web is going. The more interactive and personal it gets, the more processing power is required and the more new chips Intel sells, for both servers and local workstations. The most interesting (and newest) product that Otellini brought to the stage in his … Read more

Every time I stop by my local Petsmart store to buy kibble, I can't help but notice the explosion in the sheer number and variety of dog outfits on display. This trend really reached the tipping point for me when I saw that they had a sale on winter fashions that were about to go out of season and they needed to make room for the spring collection! If you go to the Petsmart website, they have the several departments for dog clothes including dresses, holiday apparel, pajamas, sweaters & coats, t-shirts, and costumes including a Princess Leia outfit that epitomizes the height of anthropomorphic madness. This pet fashion craze clearly isn't just about protecting Fluffy against frigid weather.

Then the trend truly jumped the shark in my mind when I saw that there were decorative harnesses and outfits for ferrets as well. "Great for Special Occasions" says the Marshall Pet Fashions tag that shows ferrets sporting a leather jacket, tie-dyed shirt, or Santa outfit. Interesting to wonder what constitutes a special occasion for a ferret.

Of course the ads are really speaking to the pet owners. This trend feels like a convergence of several social forces: kids as status symbols, pets as family members, pets as an expression of individuality, fashionistas carrying little dogs in handbags, and our general American preoccupation with buying stuff.… Read more

We bet you know someone who does everything online, from banking to making friends, to kicking back. If you're stuck trying to find great gifts for the constant blogger, video vulture, or online socialite in your life, take a look at this virtual gift guide that shows you get it, and you care.

We're total suckers for video products that let us use our face. A few months back, Caroline put my head on a woman's body with the launch of JibJab's Starring You service, and shortly before that, Rafe played around with Fix8, which lets you overlay live video with avatar and object overlays. Both are vastly different technologies, but the idea is the same: quick entertainment with very little effort on the part of the end user. Along the same lines, Gizmoz, which has been providing 3-D face-mapping technology to the masses since late May, is launching a … Read more

NEW YORK--U.B.Funkeys is a new line of vinyl figures from Mattel that double as avatars in a virtual world.

Instead of entering a code as with the Webkinz, you place your Funkey in a USB docking station. The character is then recognized in the virtual world of Terrapinia, a place filled with funk and other music.

The starter kit with USB docking station and two characters is available for $19.99, with additional Funkeys vinyl figures for $4.99 each. There are over 40 different Funkeys and each one has unique abilities in-world in addition to a bio … Read more

The truth is, some people just don't have much style; and it's up to you to usher in the revelation.

That's one way to look at a Yahoo Messenger plug-in that helps you give your buddies' avatars a makeover (see special feature for more on avatars). Back in the old days, before plug-ins were invented, we had to coax and needle our contacts for permission to outfit them with some fancy new 'dos and duds. Now we can mount an indirect atta--suggestion--for avatar rebirth, all in the name of good chatting fun.… Read more

When you first look at 3D Mailbox, it almost seems like a joke, or an article from The Onion. "The world's first 3D e-mail client!" the Web site proclaims. Well, there's a reason for that. Most of us struggle with too much e-mail these days. Taking the time to add 3D animations to each message seems ludicrous...and it is!

3D Mailbox delivers almost exactly what it promises. It creates a 3D world in which your e-mail messages can live...and walk, shower, swim, or even shuffle about aimlessly. When you receive mail in 3D Mailbox, a 3D character representing each message walks in the front gate and talks to the bouncer (who decides if he or she is spam).

By default, the gender of the new avatar is determined by the (supposed) gender of the sender (it thinks Vladimir is a woman's name), and any questionable senders default to female. If the bouncer lets him or her through, the 3D character for each message takes a disinfecting shower, then walks extremely slowly over to the pool, climbs the high-dive platform, jumps in the pool, and swims laps until you decide to read it.… Read more