gamifications

A look at our gamified, augmented-reality future

Imagine a future where everything is a game, from cooking to dating, thanks to pervasive augmented-reality technology.

That's the premise behind this deliciously geeky, but ultimately disturbing Israeli short film titled "Sight." This seven-minute flick takes us along for a day in the life of an engineer at a dominant AR company, from breakfast to a date that goes off the rails and has to be "reprogrammed." The concept imagines the merging of big data, social media, gamification, and augmented reality into something that ultimately doesn't seem that far-fetched, or even that far down the road.… Read more

The 404 1,074: Where it's not you, it's us (podcast)

The new Apple MacBook Pro with Retina Display announced earlier this week just got an Editors' Choice review on CNET, but some die-hard tinkerers are upset about the lack of upgradeable components inside. According to iFixit.org, the latest MacBook Pro is the least reparable Apple laptop to date.

For starters, users are locked into the amount of RAM they choose at the purchase date, as the memory is actually soldered to the logic board. The proprietary solid-state hard drive is staying put as well, and watch out for a couple of booby traps concealed underneath the lithium-polymer battery! The laptop certainly remains incomparable in terms of display, I/O ports, and chassis, but keep in mind that your upgrade options down the line are severely limited if you go with this model.… Read more

Fitness app Fleetly aims to make workouts a game

So you want to lose weight? Train for a marathon? Swim faster? With 9,000 health apps in Apple's iOS App Store--with such titles as RunKeeper for runners, Strava for cyclists, and Gain Fitness for weight lifters--the health app market can appear pretty bloated. And most apps are built with a specific activity in mind.

A former triathlete, Geoff Pitfield wanted to build an app that could track his varied exercise and rate his overall fitness level. That's why he created Fleetly, a health-tracking service that launched last week on iOS devices.

Built using game design elements, Fleetly … Read more

Nissan's Leaf featuring automatic gaming system

A few weeks ago we wrote about Phylo, a Flash-based puzzle game that uses addictive gameplay to help scientists map human genetic code. It's part of the trend of making otherwise mundane things fun by adding gaming elements, especially Xbox-like achievements. Another good example is Foursquare, which awards users "badges" for checking in a certain venues. The idea is to give users reasons to use a service by providing bragging rights to those who achieve the most. And now Nissan is adding the concept to its new electric car, the Leaf.

It's been known for a … Read more