Newseater - Adult Edition

The director of “Caligula” has announced that he plans to make the world’s first 3D erotic film. Anyone know who’s supplying him with his time machine? (hollywoodreporter.com, thumbnail)

Original post by Lux Alptraum

Internet-enabled computers managed to transform the way we consume porn—as did smartphones like the iPhone a few years later. Now, with the iPad, Apple’s released a whole new class of device: how will it effect adult entertainment?

Well, if you ask us, it probably won’t—or at least, not in the way its predecessors did. While there’s no doubt that the iPad is a hugely transformative device that will shape the way we consume a great deal of media, when it comes to porn…well, it just doesn’t quite cut it.

As we see it, there are two main problems with the device:

Content: The iPad is set up to download media from three sources: the app store, the iTunes store, and the iBooks store. Awesome, sure—unless you like porn. As Apple has shown, time and time again, they’re just not to keen on letting adult entertainment into their universe. And since there’s no DVD drive on this baby, you can forget about watching porn that way. If you want to consume anything dirty, you have two options:

1) Go to a porn website using Safari (and forget about sites using Flash-based streaming video).

2) Load a dirty movie into iTunes (that you got from some place other than the iTunes store), and load it on to your iPad that way.

Not the worst options, of course—after all, those are the same ways one gets porn onto the iPhone. But that brings us to the second issue.

It’s not discreet: The iPad has—rightly—been described as a very big iPhone…and that’s exactly the problem. The main reason why the iPhone has had such a successful career in porn is because it’s tiny. As a small, portable device, the iPhone allows you to browse porn discreetly, wherever you may be: at home, at the office, out on the town…and do we really have to explain the benefits of being able to comfortably hold it with one hand?

The iPad, on the other hand, though more manageable than a laptop, is hardly a discreet device. No one’s going to believe you’re bringing it to the bathroom “to do some reading”—and can you imagine the strain you’ll get from holding it in one hand as you lie in bed? And don’t even get us started on what would happen if you tried to browse porn on it in public…

Steve Jobs described the iPad as a device that fills the gap between computers and smartphones. And it’s true. But in occupying that central position, the iPad’s a device that’s neither here nor there. Too limited in content to be a portable porn library, and too big and bulky for secret porn watching, it’s pretty much the worst of both worlds…at least for the porn connoisseurs of the world.

· iPad (apple.com)
· Image of Stoya courtesy of Digtal Playground (digitalplayground.com)

Original post by Lux Alptraum

The description for AEE’s Saturday morning main stage offering was simple, yet compelling: Sex Robot Unveiling. Yes, on the third day of the show, we were invited to watch history in the making, and meet Roxxxy TrueCompanion.

Granted, we’d already seen her sitting on the couch in the TrueCompanion booth—we’d even talked to her creator and learned a bit about her ins and outs (so to speak). But Saturday was the day we got to see her switched on, and actually get a glimpse at what this robot could do.

A disclaimer: the exhibitors were very emphatic about the fact that the Roxxy we saw last weekend was a prototype, and that future versions would be more advanced. At this stage, the A.I. component had been the priority; in later iterations, fancy shmancy things like the ability to move would, presumably, be added in.

And it was the A.I. we were most interested in. During our discussion with Greg Hines, a former employee of Bell Labs and the creator of Roxxxy (and her absent brother Rocky), we’d learned that our girl could be programmed with one of five personalities: Wild Wendy, who’s up for anything; Frigid Farrah, who’s not; S&M Susan, who likes pain with her pleasure (and will eventually have the ability to use a safe word); Mature Martha, who’s got experience under her belt; and Young, the girl so barely legal she didn’t even have time to think up a catchy, alliterative name.

Of course, if you’re left cold by these five preset personalities, it’s possible to create a custom one—and (and this is the exciting part) to trade personalities with other TrueCompanion users through the site’s forums. As Hines reminded us repeatedly, it’s just like wife swapping…only without the messiness that comes with swapping human wives.

Back to the unveiling, though: it was the personality that we were there to see. During our discussion, Hines had told us that Roxxxy had the ability to have a conversation. Like chess? She’ll learn about it and discuss it with you. Like something else? Yeah, she’ll learn about that, too. With baited breath, we waited, hoping that we’d get to see a true display of Roxxxy’s (artificial) intelligence.

Alas, it was not to be: the most we heard out of Roxxxy were saucy come-ons, uttered when Hines placed his hands upon her. “I know a place you could put that hand,” she purred as his hand grazed her fingers. Different sensors activated different responses—but still, we were left, not with the impression of Gigolo Joe’s ancestor, but more a sexier (and, true, more advanced) Teddy Ruxpin.

At heart, Roxxxy is really an enhanced, mildly interactive Real Doll—albeit one who’s a bit clunkier, and not quite as attractive. Then again, at a price point of $7k-9k (and an optional, nominal subscription package that gives access to software updates), perhaps that’s all we can expect.

No doubt, Roxxxy will fulfill a very important purpose for some lonely souls; and with time (and interest), she will progress closer to our image of a true robotic companion. Hopefully her makers will figure out how to put some life into her face in the process: with those cold dead eyes, she’s left us stranded in the Uncanny Valley.

· TrueCompanion (truecompanion.com)

Original post by Lux Alptraum