reviews

Amazon reviewers skewer froufrou Bic pens for women

Sometimes the world takes an unfortunate sidestep in the long journey for women's equality. Bic, maker of pens and lighters, just stubbed its toe with Bic for Her, a misguided attempt at making pens appeal to the womanly masses.

The pens come in vibrant shades of pink and purple with a grip that is "designed to fit comfortably in a woman's hand."

There could have been an outpouring of distaste for this marketing attempt gone awry, but instead Amazon reviewers have rushed to the rescue, pouring out reviews on par with the famous Tuscan Whole Milk, 1 Gallon incident.

The whole Bic for Her phenomenon can be summed up in one review headline from Rachel Parris: "I thought it was a kitten, then some words came out! wonderful!"… Read more

The 404 1,118: Where we've got the right stuff (podcast)

Leaked from today's 404 episode:

- Study finds "about one-third of all consumer reviews on the Internet are fake."

- Why investors (but not consumers) love LinkedIn.

- Meet the people who comment on porn videos.

- Religious sites have more Trojans than naughty ones.… Read more

This week in Crave: The patented edition

It's election time! Too busy deciding who should make it into the Robot Hall of Fame to keep up with Crave all week? Put down your ballots for a moment and take a look back at the week that was.

- You might have heard of a verdict reached in an itty-bitty patent case? The result you expected?

- If Venus de Milo had an iPhone, she would look like this.

- Microsoft's logo got a makeover. What do you think of it?

- Note-taking app Evernote teams with... a paper company?

- Yee-haw! The west is getting even wilder in Grand Theft Auto V. … Read more

In Apple v. Samsung, the jury has spoken

Apple and Samsung both rested their cases this week in the ongoing billion-dollar patent infringement dispute, and the jury has found Apple the clear victor.

After 21 hours of deliberation, a nine-person jury Friday afternoon sided with Apple on a majority of its patent infringement claims against Samsung Electronics. The jury also awarded Apple more than $1 billion in damages.

Apple had originally sought $2.75 billion in damages and although it wasn't unanimous on all counts, the verdict was overwhelmingly in Apple's favor. Apple's $1,049,343,540 victory: Google, don't tread on me … Read more

This week in Crave: The toil and trouble edition

Been busy looking for places to buy genie manifestation potions now that eBay won't be selling them anymore? Slow down for a moment. We've got plenty of spells and hexes for you right here in our weekly Crave rundown.

- Oh. My. God. Churchill received history's first OMG?

- Darksiders II will brighten your summer, gamers.

- A Windows RT Surface tablet for $199? Don't bet on it quite yet. … Read more

New Super Mario Bros. 2: Nintendo 3DS gets a new game that's all too familiar

Jeff: The 3DS needs all the help it can get, so a new Mario Bros. game has worked in the past, why not again now? The problem with that mentality is that after a while, even the great Mario isn't invulnerable to becoming stale. And in the case of New Super Mario Bros. 2, I'm afraid it has finally happened.

Now before you gather up the pitchforks and start heading my way, you'll be happy to hear that I still think the game is fun to play. If you own a 3DS odds are you haven't bought a game in a while, so this will most likely find its way into your portable system. That said, you may fall into the same deja-vu trance that I did while playing and begin muttering, "Haven't I done this before?"… Read more

Patience waning in Apple-Samsung patent fight

The Apple-Samsung patent infringement trial is on fire, with the presiding judge applying much of the heat.

Tension appeared to peak this week when U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh began yelling at Apple for trying to book too many witnesses in its last few hours.

"I am not going to be running around trying to get 75 pages of briefings for people who are not going to be testifying," Koh told Apple's lawyer Bill Lee.

"I mean come on. 75 pages! 75 pages! You want me to do an order on 75 pages, (and) unless … Read more

Wake up, gamers, Darksiders II has saved your summer

I know I've used this tired cliche a few too many times, but the summer really does suck if you're a gamer. It used to be that the summer was reserved for indie titles on Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network to rise to the top in, but in 2012 it's seemed that's not necessarily the case.

With just about a month to go before the industry begins to pick up again, Vigil Games' Darksiders II may just be the piece of software that saves your gaming summer. The follow-up to 2010's sleeper hit, Darksiders II delivers a lot of what I'd expect to see in a proper sequel.… Read more

This week in Crave: The Mars-struck edition

Too busy professing your love to "NASA Mohawk Guy" this week to keep up with Crave? Look this way, starry-eyed Mars watchers, and catch up on what you missed.

- Mohawk man wasn't the only part of the Curiosity story that had us curious. Do you think the rover will find signs of life? And why on earth (and the Red Planet) does the rover have measly 2MP cameras?

- As Lego turns 80, it seems no major modern news event can escape being Lego-ized.

- Evolta stackable battery lets you build a tower of gadget power.

- Got home-networking questions? We got home-networking answers. … Read more

Apple calls Samsung a copycat in court

Apple is using Samsung's own words against it in their high-stakes patent-infringement trial.

Apple pointed to an internal Samsung document highlighting the weaknesses of the Galaxy S1 compared with the iPhone as further evidence that Samsung has copied its work. The document, a "relative evaluation report" on the Galaxy S1 and iPhone published in March 2010 and unearthed by Apple, highlights where Samsung's flagship phone fell short of the iPhone.

Apple will draw on this document as proof that Samsung actively compared its products against the iPhone, and made strides to better mimic the blockbuster device. … Read more