CHICAGO, Ill.--This might just be the perfect city for a Second Life convention. At least this out-of-towner thinks so.

When you think about it, a good number of Chicago's urban planning quirks have quite a bit in common with the aesthetics of some of Second Life's more popular "sims." It's because parts of the city are so planned--as though they were created with a few well-thought-out mouse clicks that could easily be tweaked and improved. The business and shopping districts are peppered with bright displays of greenery and flowers, the streets and gardens in … Read more

CHICAGO--One of the predictions in the lead-up to this weekend's Second Life Community Convention here has focused on the potential for lots of talk about organization.

There are plenty of critics who claim, however erroneously, that Second Life is a mess both structurally and technologically. And Linden Lab's decentralized and laissez-faire approach to the largely user-created virtual world, it could be argued, has allowed its identity to be shaped by its most prominent and press-worthy residents--who are, on occasion, blowing up buildings, stealing identities, and barraging lectures with oversized flying man-parts.

We won't really know until tonight … Read more

We reviewed one of our favorite gadgets of 2007 earlier this month--the all-sexed-up Archos 605. It was quite literally the most bootylicious piece of tech we'd seen all year. However, for those of you who can't afford the class "A" model, the cheaper, stripped-down version sells for half the price but with half the spec. This younger sibling goes by the name 405.

The Archos 405 is a small and portable multimedia player, with an 89mm (3.5-inch) colour screen and superb sound quality. Initially you may be disappointed about the 2GB internal memory capacity, especially … Read more

CHICAGO, Ill.--They call it the Windy City, but I don't think travelers to this weekend's Second Life Community Convention in Chicago were expecting tornadoes to get in their way.

The Midwest was smacked with thunderstorms and flooding on Thursday, with winds in one storm hitting 70 miles per hour, and a tornado (albeit not a very big one) running amok and even entering the grounds of Chicago's O'Hare Airport.

I, for one, was scheduled to take a 4:25 flight out of New York's JFK Airport that would (allegedly) touch down at 6:15 … Read more

Playboy has launched its own social network, aimed at college students and built on Ning, the create-your-own social networking service. The site is called PlayboyU, and from the start it's taking a very early-Facebook approach, including an .edu-only e-mail domain requirement for potential users. For many there's still an allure for a service that's privatized by an educational pedigree the way Facebook used to be. But that's far from the most interesting distinction. This is Playboy we're talking about--but there's no nudity allowed.

The site is advertising the typical offerings made available through … Read more

Could this finally be what breaks Twitter out of the early-adopter geek set and into the population at large? The microblogging service has partnered with the inarguably mainstream MTV for its upcoming Video Music Awards (or VMAs), according to an e-mail sent to Twitter members by founder Biz Stone.

So far, the partnership isn't totally clear. A Twitter account has been set up for the VMA "Moon Man" mascot, the pop-culture awards' equivalent of the Oscar statue. In Stone's e-mail, he elaborated that the VMA Twittering will expand, too: "(MTV has) some fun ideas which … Read more

With their new joint digital music initiative, MTV Networks, RealNetworks and Verizon Wireless are taking a direct aim at Apple's iTunes powerhouse.

Called Rhapsody America, the yet-to-launch collaboration among the three companies will combine MTV's relatively unsuccessful Urge music store, the Real-owned Rhapsody subscription download service, and Verizon's V Cast mobile media service to create a music store that reaches across the PC, digital music player, and mobile phone platforms.

The new Rhapsody America company is officially a joint venture between MTV Networks and Real Networks, with Verizon Wireless as its exclusive mobile partner. Urge as a … Read more

Of all the places to escape the noise of this madcap, technology-fueled world, yoga class is pretty high up there on the list. Maybe not for long.

Designer Hui-Zong Chen has created a concept for an AV yoga mat, complete with an scrolling "electronic paper" surface that streams video. The tube the mat/screen scrolls out of would also house speakers, an MP3 player, and a memory-card reader.

Think of this mat as an added challenge. After all, you know you're fully enlightened if you can meditate while simultaneously watching Deliverance, blasting Rage Against the Machine, and … Read more

This Lego Ice Brick tray is as cold as ice, and willing to sacrifice our love. But not our love of Legos.

The $7.99 tray, available through Lego's online store turns boring old ice into ridiculously awesome Lego ice bricks.

According to the Lego site, you can build little Lego sculptures out of the ice bricks...but a close inspection of the tray reveals that it only creates the "male," nubby side of the bricks, and not the "female," Lego-nub-receptor side of the bricks.

Thus, cool as these ice cubes look, your "sculptures&… Read more