dream

LOS ANGELES--At Sony's 2012 E3 press conference, one of the high notes of the entire show turned up during the opening minutes. Beyond: Two Souls, a new game from designer David Cage and his company, Quantic Dream, showed a lengthy, if noninteractive, trailer. In one sense, it's a new game from a quirky cult favorite who shies away from mainstream gaming conventions. In another sense, it's Sony, the only console maker that also runs a major movie studio, embracing the true cinematic potential of games.

To fully understand why I think this is one of the under-the-radar highlights of E3, we should look back at why Cage (the nom de game of French designer David De Gruttola) is up there with Miyamoto or any of the other handful of name-brand game designers, by taking a look his unique genre-bending projects over the past 14 years. … Read more

In today's show, the postman always scans twice, a new Kindle could let you read in the dark, and catch all the Pokémon hiding in your living room:

We're keeping a close eye on Facebook as it prepares to go public on the Nasdaq this week. Values for its initial public offering are in the $34 to $38 range. At the high end, it would make Facebook worth more than $100 billion. But we will find out Thursday what the actual initial stock price will be.

But will it keep that high value for long? A poll shows … Read more

You could hire a dream specialist to sit beside your bed and whisper dream-altering commands at you all night long, or you could pick up the Sigmund app for iOS for 99 cents.

I had a dream a few weeks ago where I was having a hard time breathing, like the atmosphere was incredibly thick. I woke up to find a cat weighing down my chest. External stimuli can impact the content of your dreams.

That's the thinking behind Sigmund. The app uses an algorithm to determine when you go into REM sleep and then whispers sweet nothings into your ear. Actually, it quietly speaks up to five words of your choosing from the app's list.… Read more

The Remee Lucid Dreaming Mask is worn like a regular sleep mask, but it has built-in LEDs that flash in patterns. The idea is that the sleeper recognizes the lights as visual anomalies, realizes he is sleeping, and then takes control of the dream.

The LED patterns and delay times before the lights trigger will be customizable through a Web site. There's also a dimmer control so the LEDs don't wake you up by blaring through your eyelids.

Remee isn't the first lucid dreaming mask, but it's cheaper than existing options like the $190 REM-Dreamer. Remee … Read more

Android has gotten a lot of negative buzz for its susceptibility to malware. But a new study from Juniper Networks suggests that iOS could also be at risk.

Scanning hundreds of thousands of applications across the mobile landscape for its 2011 Mobile Threats Report, Juniper uncovered more than 28,000 pieces of malware last year, a rise of 155 percent from 2010.

As expected, Android was the post popular target.

Malware aimed at Google's mobile OS surged to 13,000 samples at the end of last year from only 400 in June, an increase of 3,325 percent. The … Read more

Many people believe their dreams reveal deeper insights. Dream journals or dream diaries let dreamers record their dreams while they're still fresh in their minds, which means as soon as they wake up. Lightened Dream is a freeware dream journal, but it also promises to help you understand, interpret, and even control your dreams. While the software is well-executed, the psychological concepts are less convincing. But we think skepticism is a sensible way to approach any such program, let alone one with as many unique twists as Lightened Dream.

LucidCode's highly unusual EULA requires users to swear not … Read more

DreamHost customers should change their passwords asap.

That's the word from the Web-hosting service and domain name registrar, which sent an e-mail to customers last night saying that their FTP passwords may have been accessed by hackers.

The company said it had reset all customer FTP passwords as a precaution and that users would have to create new ones by logging in to their DreamHost Web panel. It also advised customers to change their e-mail passwords, though it said e-mail passwords and billing information were not accessed.

DreamHost added today that handling new password requests was taking some time:… Read more

I haven't picked up a bearded 12-inch action figure since the 1970s, when the G.I. Joe Action Adventure Team was a kick-ass toy. But I can't resist this new fuzzhead from In Icons that's the spitting image of Steve Jobs.

The craftsmanship that went into this fully poseable collectible from In Icons and Hong Kong-based Dragon in Dream, known for its hyper-realistic Barack Obama figure, is quite striking.

This isn't the first Jobs action figure--last year, Apple lawyers put the kibosh on a predecessor by China's MIC Gadget.

But this one is far more … Read more

When Robert Moog originally pioneered the modular voltage-controlled analog synthesizer in the 1950s and 1960s, I don't think he could have imagined the instrument's tremendous impact on music.

Moog's synthesizers continued to evolve, and his Minimoog became the most popular monophonic synthesizer of the 1970s; it was embraced by bands such as Yes and Tangerine Dream.

Robert Moog passed away in 2005, so I wonder what he would have thought of the Animoog, a fully featured synthesizer designed for the iPhone 4 and 4S. According to the Moog Web site, "The Animoog captures the vast sonic … Read more