Gearfuse

If you’re a double amputee, congratulations, you get a free pass. No fetch playing for you. But if you’re a pet owner lucky enough to own two or even one functioning arm their is absolutely no reason to own this Dog Ball Fetch Machine unless you’re extremely lazy or if you want to offer your dog constant, albeit tedious, entertainment.

Long after you become tired, the fetching machine will keep your dog busy, catapulting tennis balls between 15 and 30 feet, based on an interval you set. As long as your dog knows how to dump the ball back into the machine, the fun can continue indefinitely, or at least until your dog collapses from exhaustion.

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Who ever said that playing with your food is bad manners clearly lacked the artistic talent the creators behind this apple possess. Even cats enjoy playing with their food right before they eat it, because playing with prey is fun. Bookofjoe has posted a slew of imaginative creations made up from everyday consumables. Click the link to see more and if you really want to be impressed – hit the jump to check out Vince’s own creation. It’s alive!

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Playing fetch with a dog can be a tiresome activity, especially if your dog has the energy of an Ox which has the energy of two Oxen. That’s where the Fetchbot comes in to play. It’s essentially a tennis ball catapult that’s designed to keep your dog busy while you can enjoy the finer things in life, like not playing with your dog. It’s made out of a document scanner, though you’d never guess it just by taking a gander.

The next time your dog is looking for someone to play with, screw taking it for a walk or playing fetch. That’s a waste of your precious energy. Set the Fetchbot up in your backyard and your dog will have endless hours of fun while you can sit back, relax and enjoy the time you have to make a papercraft dog.

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When you’re having company over, you can never be too sure whether or not they’re gamers. If they are, they’ll embrace your secret with open arms. If they aren’t, they’ll mock you. So, it’s best to keep your mouth shut about games and pour some drinks, instead.

Burke Lashell has drinking friends, gaming friends and a whole lotta’ beer. When he turned his bar into a barcade with a flip-out four-player arcade setup and a big-screen TV mounted on the wall, he had no idea whether all of his friends, gamers or not, would dig it. Dig it, they did. It’s still missing a few buttons, but hey, it’s a work in progress.

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Tonight, MySpace kicked off its new commercial free music service which doesn’t include any of that bullshit DRM business.  Using its ever popular Flash player, users can purchase songs or add them to a playlist. It’s now possible to create a streaming playlist of as many as 100 songs each that can be shared and ranked.  MySpace music will also offer on-demand, ad-subsidized playback of full tracks in addition to allowing users to purchase unprotected MP3s of songs through Amazon.

Could MySpace music be another competitor for iTunes? It’s certainly looking that way. Just wait until Facebook joins with iTunes commercially. The “Great Social Networking” war is upon us.

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As part of Liverpool’s Capital of Culture celebrations, the French company La Machine created this 50 foot monstrosity and called it art, when in actuality it is a movie prop from Eight Legged Freaks that none of the cast wanted to take home.

The installation cost £1.8million to bring to Liverpool – and all but £250,000 of this was funded by the taxpayer.

Man, if I lived in Liverpool (I’m glad I don’t because I hear they’ve got a spider problem these days), I’d be glad to know my tax dollars are being put to good use creating robot spiders that roam the streets.  The worst part about this entire thing is that, in the name of art, La Machine is turning this into some kind of weird city-wide LARP. That’s live action role play.  After some phony story about this mechanical spider was written, the citizens of Liverpool still approve and want to go along for the ride.

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Nowadays, tire swings are built horizontally instead of vertically. A rope tied around a tire just isn’t as fun as it used to be for the kids. This brings a whole new area of challenges in crafting a tire swing. User adlabens from Instructables has come up with a great tutorial for making your very own horizontal tire swing. This 18-step procedure is well documented and highly thorough. Everyone in the neighborhood will take notice to your vastly more affordable tire swing after comparing it to their flimsy, pre-purchased overpriced version.

Be sure to check it out if your kids have been bugging you in the past for some sort of enjoyment outside of the house.
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Harman Kardon is known for its excellent audio equipment, so when they came out with the Guide + Play GPS-500 navigation system, some people were surprised. They were not trying to go all out with this player; it’s about equal with many other GPS systems out on the market. It can play audio and video, has a 4GB SD card, and uses a 4â€? touch-screen monitor. Navigation features are also pretty similar, with a route simulator and multiple views (think 2D or 3D). Harman Kardon is planning at selling this beginning in March for around $500, but there is really no point in waiting for this particular one, considering there are many just like it out there. What’s a little confusing is why Harman Kardon decided to come out with the Guide + Play GPS-500. they are already very highly regarded in audio equipment, so it’s a mystery as to why they would come into a very competitive GPS market. I guess we’ll all find out come March whether or not this was a good idea. — Nick Rice

Harman finds its way into navigation [Crave]