Tag: FUN

Okay, let's just go ahead and get this out there: We are not purposefully trying to undermine job productivity or performance. But, even the hardest working brown-nosers need to periodically escape the office monotony with (somewhat) brainless computer games. Not long ago, those procrastinating office workers typically sought refuge in the hands of solitaire and 'Minesweeper,' but Java and ...

Even though Google is supplying airports with free Wi-Fi, the Big G has one more trick up its all-encompassing sleeve. Despite being the e-mail program of plenty of Americans, Gmail acknowledges that, while an e-card is easy, nothing is more charming than a snail-mail greeting. So, if you and a beloved other share a love for that simple red Gmail "M", head on over and create a free card to be ...

We are but one site, with a relatively small staff (albeit one of dedicated Web addicts), so every once in a while something slips past that makes us give ourselves a collective kick in the ass. 'Textminator' managed to avoid our radar when it was announced in August, but this arcade machine from LAI Games has piqued our interest enough to go back and cover it anyway. With proper, full-sized ...

Dan Muriello had a bit of a problem: his brother Joe and his friends didn't believe Dan was actually employed by social networking behemoth Facebook. So Dan, in an effort to quiet the naysayers once and for all, called in a favor from a guy you might recognize. Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg went to bat for Dan, on video, confirming that he is indeed an employee at the painfully popular ...

The advent of automated assembly lines, besides allowing for mass production of various wares, saved humans from long, arduous hours, physical exhaustion, lost digits, and other various labor-related injuries. But creating robots to perform difficult human jobs just wasn't enough. People have apparently grown so incredibly lazy that they can't even play games for themselves, anymore. According ...

We stumbled on this mind-boggling 'Star Trek' dog costume earlier today on The Daily What, and just had to share. In the tradition of our friends over at Engadget, we gathered captions from team Switched. Josh F: "I swear to God if you laugh even a little I will totally bite your #@&*@ ankle." Chad: "Dog's [sic] die in space" Leila: "Deep Space K-9: The Trouble with Kibbles" Warren: "Where ...

If you thought gaming on the iPhone was the ultimate in next-generation time-wasting, think again. Gaming has come back to the real world with 'Sportpong.' Billed as an "interactive physical computer game," the game responds to your movements as you play on a 'field' projected on the floor. Two teams face off in the rectangle and kick (with the aid of a foot-mounted reflector) a projected ball ...

The winner of the ongoing Mario A.I. Competition must create, using a learning algorithm, a controller (or agent) that can complete the most difficult levels of the game 'Infinite Mario' without any human aid. According to Joystiq, a video of one recent entry looks like it may be tough to top. Creator Robin Baumgarten, a PhD student at Imperial College, London, writes on his site that he ...

We can't read Japanese, and using Google Translate is a bit like reading poetry written by a stoned Yoda, so we're left trying to piece together what's going on here from a bunch of photos of people standing next to giant "pins" a la Google Maps. Our assumption? Either Google has decided that the next frontier in information sharing isn't the Internet, or it's trying to locate the best places to ...

In case you haven't blown your weekend yet by diving into the ADD-wonderland that is the Internet, we recommend you check out 'Effing Hail,' a free online flash game. The concept is simple enough: Move a cursor with the mouse, and click down to control the wind. A continuous stream of hail falls from the sky, and these lumps of ice will grow larger (and harder to control) as you balance them ...

Yes, Twitter is now officially inescapable, especially now that the one-and-only Oprah has blessed the wildly popular (and hyped) microblogging service with her magic touch. Even if you're using Twitter on your phone, it's not easy to tweet while at work; Twitter's now-iconic page design is instantly recognizable from across a large room. Fortunately for you cubicle dwellers out there, a free ...

digg_url = 'http://digg.com/gadgets/DIY_34_Round_per_second_Paintball_Turret'; The appeal of the Paintball Turret can pretty much be summed up in its inventor's own words: "It shoots things." What grabbed our attention, though, is just how sophisticated the contraption appears to be. Two years in development, Jared Bouck's turret fires 34 balls per second (per second!) and is designed to be ...

Here at Switched, we're always on the look out for cool ways you can modify your pictures. A few months ago, we posted about a downloadable app that turns your photos into Polaroids, and now Unplggd has alerted us to this Japanese Web site that gives your photos a convincing vintage look. Despite being written in a language indecipherable to most Switched readers, the Web site is easy to use. ...

LeapFrog's been very busy of late -- they recently added Tag Junior to their line of edutainment products for the wee ones --and now there's this. The Text and Learn children's "PDA" hasn't been officially announced yet, but details are slipping out from the U.K. Toy Fair, so here's what we know about the must-have device of the year: boasting a full QWERTY keyboard, the Text and Learn has a ...

It's not quite as elaborate as some foosball tables we've seen, but this new rig from 2eleven will no doubt attract its fair share of attention nonetheless and, unlike some of those other units, it's actually pre-built. While there doesn't seem to be a complete breakdown of all its intricacies, the table does come equipped with some LED score displays, a pair of LCD displays apparently intended ...