girlfriends

Top 5 sci-fi robot girlfriends

Valentine's Day is a horrible tradition. It's a romantic "musical chairs" where you either stand alone in a metaphorical puddle of rejection, or turn to your partner and price out the worth of their love in flowers and chocolates.

To hell with it.

To level the playing field, I say we need to put science fiction's premise of the humanoid robot companion on the fast track to becoming a reality. … Read more

Want a fake Facebook girlfriend? Here's how to get one

Some people are just unlovable. Or they seem to attract lovers who are one leg short of a stable table and cause them such misery that they have to consign them to history.

This would have been fine in olden times. They would have gone to a bar with a book, and drunk themselves quite silly.

But now there's Facebook, the all-encompassing, always-on repository of everything that is happening to everyone.

So being a singleton doesn't look good. It makes you look like the spare part that no one desires.

Thankfully, a group of very caring Brazilians has … Read more

Manti Te'o's fake girlfriend was born and died on social media

Manti Te'o's tale was a portrait of a heartbroken football player overcoming adversity -- triumphing over the tragic death of his girlfriend.

The devout Mormon, Notre Dame linebacker, and runner up to the 2012 Heisman Trophy first suffered the loss of his grandmother, then his girlfriend to leukemia. On the day she died, he had one of the best games of his college career, logging 12 tackles.

The only problem is that she didn't die...because she apparently never existed.

In an exhaustive investigation, Deadspin's Timothy Burke and Jack Dickey detail how Te'o started dating … Read more

'Gangnam Style,' Grumpy Cat top 2012 meme list

Whether you love them or hate them, memes -- culturally relevant multimedia often enhanced with a witty caption -- are here to stay.

In an attempt to crown the king of all that is viral, the meme maniacs at the site Know Your Meme analyzed internal page views, search interest on Google Trends, covers, and even parodies to suss out the top memes of 2012. … Read more

Watch guy's date with augmented-reality girlfriend

Why is it that all the geeks of the universe haven't just up and relocated to Japan by now? The latest demonstration that the island nation is a nerd utopia comes in this video of one man's real-world "date" with a programmed augmented-reality girlfriend.

Using a Microsoft Kinect, AR goggles, and some other sensors, the unidentified man in the video goes to the park with a digital representation of virtual pop star Hatsune Miku. Yes, they have virtual pop idols in Japan, too -- it's kind of like if Max Headroom and Katy Perry somehow managed to get together and reproduce a singing anime hologram.… Read more

Fashion site Nerd Boyfriend finds its Nerd Girlfriend

Trendsetting fashion site The Sartorialist be damned! Everyone knows the geeky guys featured on Nerd Boyfriend dress much, much classier.

And now it looks like the geeky girls will get their own chance to stumble strut down the virtual runway too.

Hubba hubba: Nerd Girlfriend has arrived!

Debut "cover girl" Gilda Radner is somewhat surprisingly not in Lisa Loopner garb, but then, that's one of the things we've always liked about Nerd Boyfriend: in addition to nailing the thick-rimmed stereotype in spot-on but unexpected ways, NBF is very good at offering up a nerdy revelation or two.

In part that's because the site doesn't limit "nerd" to the tech-, science-, or intellectually oriented. And we agree: a nerd is a nerd--and though we might not always be able to define the term with slide-rule precision, we know one when we see one.… Read more

The 404 915: Where we're not as think as you drunk we are (podcast)

CNET's Bridget Carey is here to talk about the imminence of the next iPhone. Signs like cases arriving at AT&T stores and the new smartphone appearing in Apple's inventory system have Wilson almost giddy.

Jeff obviously doesn't really understand why anybody would be interested in the new iPhone. It's just a different shape with more storage, right? Well, the iPhone 4S/5 may include some new patented technology that stabilizes shaky smartphone video. It might be the end of an era of vomit-inducing iPhone videos.

We also chat a bit about the crazy idea that Amazon may want to buy the beleaguered remains of Palm from HP. It seems to be a strange purchase, given that this week, Amazon seems to have a buzz-inducing product with the Kindle Fire.

It's not as crazy as Microsoft wanting to start its own TV service on the Xbox 360. That doesn't seem like a terrible idea, given the number of boxes that we have to hook into our televisions these days just to watch cable TV. In our opinion, we think it would be a lot better of a TV tuner than those generic cable boxes that seem to crash every other day.

Rounding out today's craziness, we also talk about faking a girlfriend with a Web site called Fakegirlfriend.co. Don't think that it is going to get you much help with your social life if you ever use it. Finally, we talk about the anarchy that will ensue if Facebook ever gets hacked, and your poke history is revealed.

Let us know what you think of the show by calling and leaving a voice mail at 1-866-CNET (2638). If it's good, funny and short, we'll play it. Or if the phone is foreign to you, you can send us an e-mail at the404 [at] cnet [dot] com, follow us on Twitter @the404 and like our Facebook page. OK, we're going to stop with the plugs now.

The 404 Digest for Episode 915

New iPhone appears in Apple's inventory system iPhone 5 case arrives at a AT&T retail store New iPhone may use accelerometer and gyro to stabilize video Amazon may want to buy Palm Microsoft looking into a Xbox TV service Fakegirlfriend.co lets you pretend to have a girlfriend Scientists use brain imaging to reveal the movies in our mind Facebook keeps history of pokes Justin's Bathroom Break: Kid video bombs sister's YouTube video Justin's Bathroom Break: Dog only responds to terrible Beatle's impression

Episode 915 Subscribe in iTunes (audio) | Subscribe in iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video… Read more

The 404 915: Where we're not as think as you drunk we are (podcast)

CNET's Bridget Carey is here to talk about the imminence of the next iPhone. Signs like cases arriving at AT&T stores and the new smartphone appearing in Apple's inventory system have Wilson almost giddy.

Jeff obviously doesn't really understand why anybody would be interested in the new iPhone. It's just a different shape with more storage, right? Well, the iPhone 4S/5 may include some new patented technology that stabilizes shaky smartphone video. It might be the end of an era of vomit-inducing iPhone videos.

We also chat a bit about the crazy idea that Amazon may want to buy the beleaguered remains of Palm from HP. It seems to be a strange purchase, given that this week, Amazon seems to have a buzz-inducing product with the Kindle Fire.

It's not as crazy as Microsoft wanting to start its own TV service on the Xbox 360. That doesn't seem like a terrible idea, given the number of boxes that we have to hook into our televisions these days just to watch cable TV. In our opinion, we think it would be a lot better of a TV tuner than those generic cable boxes that seem to crash every other day.

Rounding out today's craziness, we also talk about faking a girlfriend with a Web site called Fakegirlfriend.co. Don't think that it is going to get you much help with your social life if you ever use it. Finally, we talk about the anarchy that will ensue if Facebook ever gets hacked, and your poke history is revealed.

Let us know what you think of the show by calling and leaving a voice mail at 1-866-CNET (2638). If it's good, funny and short, we'll play it. Or if the phone is foreign to you, you can send us an e-mail at the404 [at] cnet [dot] com, follow us on Twitter @the404 and like our Facebook page. OK, we're going to stop with the plugs now.

The 404 Digest for Episode 915

New iPhone appears in Apple's inventory system iPhone 5 case arrives at a AT&T retail store New iPhone may use accelerometer and gyro to stabilize video Amazon may want to buy Palm Microsoft looking into a Xbox TV service Fakegirlfriend.co lets you pretend to have a girlfriend Scientists use brain imaging to reveal the movies in our mind Facebook keeps history of pokes Justin's Bathroom Break: Kid video bombs sister's YouTube video Justin's Bathroom Break: Dog only responds to terrible Beatle's impression

Episode 915 Subscribe in iTunes (audio) | Subscribe in iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video… Read more

What happens when you try for a Cloud Girlfriend

For those at CNET who tug on my leash, I am sometimes a guinea pig.

However, when they ordered me to get a new girlfriend, I was a little disturbed by the personal nature of the request.

Weren't there laws against this kind of thing? Politely, they explained to me that I needed a girlfriend who didn't actually exist, but who would satisfy me at a virtual--and therefore more profound--level than any terrestrial being.

Feeling deeply relieved--as anything other than a virtual woman would most certainly cause intractable problems--I set about testing Cloud Girlfriend.

This was launched in a flurry of hype-nosis … Read more