barbie

This week, Lego goes crazy for Minecraft (even if we don't); the Death Star gets a real-world estimate; DARPA invests in making "Avatar" a reality; and Eric and Bonnie make their Barbie dreams come true. In Geek News, Eric is obsessed with Mass Effect 3, and shows off a mashup of "The Prestige" and the latest "Dark Knight" trailers.

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If only I had a pair of plastic pink pumps for every time I've wondered what it would be like to sail through life as Barbie, she of the perpetually perfect skin and hair day and cute but crotch-challenged boyfriend.

Well, thanks to the "try almost anything out virtually" technology known as augmented reality, I can now step into Barbie's gold-beaded slip-ons.

The iconic and sometimes controversial doll/brand has employed Zugara's Webcam Social Shopper platform to let fans go inside Barbie's Dream Closet and see how they'd look in some of her most famous, mostly pink outfits. … Read more

Barbie is a digital camera, Angry Birds flock to Facebook, and iPad 3 rumors hint at 4G connection speeds.

Links from Tuesday's episode of Loaded:

This is the time of year when you try to calculate how little time you can spend buying things for people who are trying to spend as little time as possible buying things for you.

Online shopping has helped hugely in this regard. You can show your closest friends and family how much you love them without leaving your bed.

However, there are so many choices that one can become addled.

So let me lift your burden and toss it into space. For the perfect Xmas gift is here. Yes, Computer Engineer Barbie.

Perhaps you had assumed Barbie was, at … Read more

With only a few weeks left before the holidays, we're getting picky about the guest hosts while Wilson is out of town, so show veteran Russ Frushtick makes another appearance on the show and rounds up the year in video games with his top three picks for the holiday season. He also runs down his spoiler-free review of TRON: Legacy and chews some beef with Time Warner!

Forget about WikiLeaks, the FBI is apparently downplaying an internally leaked memo that warns field agents of Barbie Video Girl that features a video camera built into her necklace.

You're supposed to use it to record video from the doll's perspective and upload it to your computer, but the FBI is worried that deviants will use the technology to exploit young children. And although there haven't been any reported incidents relating to the new doll, the FBI still has no problem spreading the idea themselves.

We've all received gift cards for the holidays that we have no interest in using, but now online gift stores like Plastic Jungle, Cardpool, and Gift Card Rescue are letting consumers sell back their unused cards and buy new ones at a discount.

The amount of money you receive for a card depends on the popularity of the store, with in-demand retailers like Wal-Mart and Target going for up to 92 percent of the value. Less popular cards only get 80-85 percent, but it's still better than looking for $100 worth of merchandise to spend at Blockbuster.

Google has a new operating system called Chrome OS that will compete with Apple Mac OS and Microsoft Windows for a spot on your computer, but one of the interesting features is Cloud Print that you can use to access your home printer from any Chrome-powered smartphone or computer .

Cloud Print is a Web service, so it's easy to share printers with family and friends from anywhere in the world, and even set up private lists to block Spam. Google hopes that all devices will eventually support Cloud-based printing, and you can take it for a test-drive today by downloading Chrome at Google.com/chrome.

Much thanks to Russ Frushtick for waking up before noon to help us out on the show, and keep an ear out for another appearance on the Back to the Future Yuletide episode that will debut while we're away for the holiday!

As if she hasn't cycled through enough jobs in the last 50 years, Barbie has once again decided to eschew retirement and add another career to her resume. This time, she's Video Girl.

With a camera on her chest and an LCD screen on her back, the newest Barbie doll will kick off sales with a Foursquare-powered scavenger hunt in four cities across the U.S.

The hunt--which begins Tuesday in San Francisco before heading to Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York--asks Barbie fans to follow the locations of Barbie Roberts (her full name) on social geo-tagging service Foursquare and physically meet her and her promotional street team at those locations.

The first Barbie fan to show up and check in wins a $50 Video Girl Barbie doll.

By using Foursquare and other integrated social media such as Twitter and Facebook, the Barbie team hopes to increase its presence and buzz online.

Barbie currently has a blog, Web site, and pages on various social networks, but has yet to build a loyal online community that's engaged and eager to purchase Barbie products.

In February, Web users, including Barbie fans and social-media power users, voted for Barbie's next career in the "I Can Be..." campaign. With girl geeks fueling the campaign, the bespectacled Computer Engineer Barbie took the vote and is now available for sale.

February's campaign greatly increased Barbie's online presence, and the scavenger hunt is already drawing a lot of media attention, but will these campaigns translate to real-life profit? Using Foursquare to bridge virtual interactions with physical ones is a good move on Barbie's part, but the company is seemingly forgetting its target market: young girls (and boys). … Read more

The original rundown for today's episode of The 404 Podcast started with a bunch of stories about tech-related violence, but we decided to scrap all that for a more positive show. And we're also putting Wilson on a temporary story time-out for the next few days so this doesn't happen again.

Jeff is particularly excited about this first story, because it involves two of his close loves: video games and Playboy bunnies. This fall, Take Two Interactive is partnering with Playboy on Mafia II, a mature video game that lets you play as a gangster in the 1940s and '50s. The game is replete with vintage Playboy magazines and, of course, the centerfolds. Before you start writing your local government reps, keep in mind that the images are tastefully integrated into the game's nostalgia, which also includes vintage cars and firearms to invoke the 1940s zeitgeist. Additionally, the scenes in question are fairly tame compared with another Take Two game series, "Grand Theft Auto." Remember the Hot Coffee mod in GTA: San Andreas?

The 404 prides itself on keeping up to date on pop culture trends, but the newest fad among teenage girls is churning our stomachs. Across the country, the newest thing is to get intoxicated by an alternative form of ingestion. We'll spare you the details in this blog, because my physical demonstration in the video makes it so much easier to digest. This is why we're absolutely terrified of having kids.

Now that spring has finally decided to visit New York, it's time for backyard BBQs, rooftop parties, and bikes rides! New York certainly isn't the easiest city to navigate on a bicycle, but Google Maps is now offering a cycling navigation feature to guide you along your way.

The directions route you through to your destination by cross-referencing the least busiest streets with the ones that have clearly defined bike lanes, getting you there faster and, most importantly, in one piece. Once you get to your destination, however, be sure to do everything you can to minimize the chance of theft.

In perhaps its first practical application, local New York bike messenger Austin Horse successfully recovered his stolen bike using Twitter. After someone snatched his bike, Horse immediately notified his followers to keep a lookout (not too difficult a task, as the frame is bright orange) and posted the same to a local message board. In less than 24 hours, someone recovered his vehicle in the Lower East Side and it's now back with its rightful owner--great news!

Keep sending us voice mails to 1-866-404-CNET because you know we love to hear how you're doing, and don't forget to send in your 404 sticker pictures to the404(at)cnet[dot]com. High quality shots have a good chance of making it to a blog post, like the one you see up there from our buddy Derrick Chen. Natali Del Conte on the show tomorrow, so be sure to catch us live at 11 a.m. EST/8 a.m. PST on CNET TV.

If you didn't see Shaun White destroying the competition at the Men's Olympic Halfpipe Finals in Vancouver last night, check out the video and prepare for a face melt, and don't forget to watch our interview with the man himself! And there's even more good news: it's Thursday, which means Natali Del Conte is on today's show! We start off the show with a quick news recap from the Olympic games, then NDC tells us about last night's interview with Justin Timberlake.

The first story of the day is about PleaseRobMe.com, a new Web site that uses geolocation check-ins from Gowalla, Brightkite, or Foursquare to exploit folks broadcasting their unprotected abodes. The vulnerability assumes that you don't have a roommate, and, of course, it doesn't say where your houses actually is, but it certainly highlights the continued lack of privacy surrounding this latest batch of social networks.

The Barbie poll results are in. Over a half million votes were cast, and the public chose her next career: Computer Engineer! The new doll will hit shelves this fall and will feature a binary code patterned shirt, a pink laptop, a teched-out watch, and a Bluetooth headset. We all agree that Barbie isn't the best toy for young girls, but we can still appreciate the cultural relevance, even if everything she owns is blasted in bright pink. Besides, it could be worse: auto-tune Barbie with talk-box accessory, anyone?