EverQuest II Female Players Play Longer, Are Happier

Yes, there are women who play EverQuest II. And they play longer, are less likely to quit, and be happier than men who play EverQuest II.

Of the 7,000 players interviewed for the survey, 20% were women. Women typically underreported their game playing time (29 hours for women, 25 for men). The study also found that 15% of the women were bisexual, compared to 3% in the general population. As well, the ladies tended to weigh less–whether from not eating because of gaming or the gym, I couldn’t tell you.

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A Simple Yet Brilliant Way To Improve Road Safety

Art Lebedev Studio has come up with a simple concept that may soon change the way we all drive. By attaching a camera to the front of a semi, then projecting the image on the rear door, drivers can see what’s on the road ahead. The design basically makes the truck transparent.

The studio is calling the concept Transparentius. We call it brilliant!

[Via Engadget]

50% Want 3D TV — 50% Don't Know/Care

Is the current resurgence of 3D movies another passing fad or, as James Cameron would have you believe, is it hear to stay? While some of us still battle on whether we really want to pay extra to see a 3D movie in the theatre, the home theatre industry is continuing to bet we’ll want it at home.

A new study from Quixel Research, a firm specializing in home theatre/entertainment, suggests there is a growing market for 3D TVs and specialty channels. After surveying 1,000 HDTV owners, they found that half would be interested in watching 3D at home and over a third expect to see 3D TV within the next year. Those are some pretty bold statements about potential market demand for this technology. In fact, Quixel suggests that consumers are “eager” for it.

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Music Game Sales Hit Low Note

Last year music based games were king! In fact the games raked in nearly $1.4 billion in revenue. Not the case this year. By the end of 2009, analysts predict music based games will only bring in about $700 million. A far cry from last year.

According to data from market analyst NPD Group, sales of music games are way below expectations this year. While The Beatles: Rock Band sold a respectable 800,000 units since fall, it didn’t reach the expected 1 million mark. Meanwhile Guitar Hero 5 sold 500,000 copies. That doesn’t compare to Guitar Hero III which sold a whopping 1.4 million units in its first month when it launched two years ago. And let’s not forget DJ Hero. Sales predictions were at one point 1.6 million. In its first month of sales, only 123,000 units left the store.

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Firefox Mobile: Killer of App Stores

It’s not ready for you yet, but the Firefox Mobile browser is the free web’s hope for unshackling us from the tyranny of app stores. Codenamed Fennec, Mozilla execs are claiming a re-envisioned and much faster (compared to current options) web browser will encourage developers to make browser-based apps rather than ones that must be sold through various app stores (Blackberry, Android, Apple, Palm, etc).

The result: goodbye app store… hello the free web… thank you Mozilla.

The fennec is suspicious of your app store

But wait, isn’t there money to be made through app stores? Why, yes there is. Which means they’re not going the way of the dodo any time soon, and Mozilla knows it. The death of the app store is just Mozilla’s vision of the future. A distant future, but the future nonetheless.

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Top 2009 DIY Gadget Hacks

Not all gadgets are electronic whizzbangs with a billion LEDs. I like to think that gadgets can be elegant solutions to a troublesome situation.

A list from Lifehacker presents the most popular hacks from 2009 for common problems. Here are a couple of my favourites.

Ikea Shelves= Kitty Perch

If you’re cheap or live in a condo that doesn’t allow for huge cat climbers (or both), this may be for you. Mount some Ikea shelves on the wall, and voila a kitty perch for your feline to laze about on.

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LG Unveils World's Thinnest LCD

CES 2010 is only a couple of weeks away, but the announcements are already starting to leak out. Obviously LG couldn’t wait for the world’s largest consumer electronic show to reveal the world’s thinnest LCD TV. The 42-inch 1080p panel pictured above is just 2.6mm (.1 inch) thick thin.

It will be interesting to see what the other manufacturers have up their sleeves. Maybe LG is making the claim now because the company knows another manufacturer is going to announce an even thinner panel at CES. We’ll be watching closely when we head out for the show in January!

[Via I4U]

Dante's Inferno Human Christmas Tree

Dante’s Inferno won’t be out for another two months, but the folks at Visceral Games aren’t sitting back. No, they’re giving us another douse of PR, this time with some Christmas spirit.

If you hit up this page, you can check out the team’s Christmas greeting to you. Be warned, all three greetings, like the Human Christmas Tree pictured above, may have a “Christmas” theme but they are pretty grotesque. Definitely not for the faint of heart.

Go on, check it out. We double dog dare you.

Gamer Coffee –Try the Combo Mocha

It’s snomaggeddon 2009 and not even the promise of a warm latte from the shop down the street can get me out of the house. But wait, there’s the added benefit of some of the geekiest baristas around… hmmm… maybe I should be putting on my snowsuit.

A Canadian Starbucks is clearly run by games and sci-fi geeks and that’s A-OK by me. Forget boring signage such as “Your Barista today is Mary and she recommends a grande Americano.” No, in this java joint, the recommendations are coming from Link, Mudkip, Mario, Sackboy and the Weighted Companion Cube. I’ll have two please.

Check out more after the break.

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Cold Enough To Climb Into A Tauntaun

How do you know when it’s cold enough to wear your R2D-toque or X-Wing tobogganing hat? You could rely on normal (read boring) weather reports, but now there’s Star Wars Weather.

Just type in your location, and voila you get a report interpreted into Star Wars terms. According to Tom Scott’s website “It’s like Hoth out there.” and advises I find a poor, unsuspecting tauntaun to climb into.

[Star Wars Weather via Gizmodo]