Sometimes the best apps are the simplest, and CatPaint is nothing if not simple. Cats can be added to pre-existing photos or cat-scarce shots from the iPhone’s camera, and either saved to your camera roll or sent via email. Using it takes a while to get used to: Once you’ve selected a cat from the app’s animal palette and set the slider for size, each tap on the photo instantly splashes a new cat at the point of contact, which can’t be edited, save for a temperamental shake-to-delete function. But seriously, not the point:

See?!? $1.19. [iTunes via Macworld]

The point of the Autofetch Motion Pet Ball is to stick some pet treats inside, activate the internal gyro-drive, and let the ball spin around to entertain and reward your pet. Well, at least I think you’re supposed to use it for your pet, because one of the two “frequently asked questions” listed on the product page is a bit odd:

Can I use this motion ball with my pet Rabbit or Pig or Iguana?

Yes, it can be used with any pet, child, or adult human.

I really want to give whoever wrote that the benefit of the doubt and assume that the intent is to say that it’s safe for kids to use the toy to play with their pets and that they’re not encouraging shoving Halloween candy in there and watching a kid chase after the ball. Although maybe that could be fun to watch. [China Vision Red Ferret via Wired]

The Dream Cat Venus is coming to Japan this month for $US110. Both touch and sound sensitive, the Venus (no relation to the planet or the feminine razor) reacts to your petting and talking with a proper amount of nudging and purring. And like the Sony Aibo, the Dream Cat can actually “see” through its camera-enabled eyes.

But does this poor robot need to look like the product from a My First Taxidermy kit? Drop the realism for a moment, Sega, and let these helpless kittenbots out of your dungeon in the uncanny valley. Such amoral plush tactics may work fine to tease the buffets of Melmac, but no one wants to see Japan become Melmac…any more than it already has. [Sega Toys (pdf) via CrunchGear]

According to the Courier Mail, two teenage boys were home alone for the weekend when their house caught fire, which was traced back to a laptop. Apparently the boys let the cat out, but it somehow got back inside, peed on the laptop and burnt the house down.

Both boys evacuated the house after smoke detectors went off. The well being of the cat is unknown.

I hate to state the obvious but it just goes to show: cat pee and electronics don’t mix.

[Courier Mail – Thanks Matt!]
[Image Credit: Wabisabi2015]

If I could pay $1000 to never pick up a dog’s feces, I might spend that money. Alas, the PowerLoo does not prevent that egobreaking act.

Despite connecting to your outdoor plumbing lines, the PowerLoo is not a backyard doggie toilet. The PowerLoo is a backyard crap flusher (read: you pick up dog crap then place it in the toilet). And while I’m sure it adds some level of convenience to doodie disposal, the $US1000 price is on par with one of those fancy, Japanese toilets that literally air dries the cellulite from your butt. Coming this June. [PowerLoo via Treehugger via DVICE]

In the war between Man and Machine, kittens are a toss up of allegiance.

On one hand, kittens are organic lifeforms, presumably loyal to other organic lifeforms. On the other, kittens grow into cats. And for thousands of years, cats have refused to follow the human code.

What I postulate is a future in which there is a sort of war trifecta. It will be Man vs. Machine vs. Kittens. And with the feline world showing up as an insane wild card, anything can happen…though in the immortal words of John Connor, the outcome is most likely that, “We are dead!! We are all dead!! Because of kittens!!!” [Cute Overload]

Machines Behaving Deadly: A week exploring the sometimes difficult relationship between man and technology.

Pets can be difficult to photograph. Once, someone quoted me $US1000 for a pet portrait! The NYTimes has a long interview with Li Ward on how to do it best.

Ward is a photographer of pets for Fat Orange Cat Studios. The photos are ok. But she’s got some good advice over there:

I also almost always shoot in burst mode, usually in slow burst at 2 to 3 frames per second.

I end up doing a lot of gymnastics during a shoot. I’m crouching, kneeling, on my back, on my side, waking up sore the next morning.

I sort of treat my still camera as a video camera. Even if I’m not actively shooting, and even if the subject is not doing something “capture-worthy,” I continue tracking through the viewfinder and recomposing. Because soon enough they will do something capture-worthy, and I’ll be ready to press the shutter the second it happens.

Treats, ham, roast beef, squeaky toys, patience. With dogs, I like making meowing sounds. Seems to get their attention every time, and as a bonus, they give the quizzical head tilt. It’s a little trickier with cats because if you make an attention-making noise more than even once, they will ignore you thereafter.

Damn cats.

I am reminded, reading all of this, of how insane pet owners are, and how a the professional pet photographer is an unsung hero of portraiture. Their subjects are only somewhat less difficult than what Annie Leibovitz has to deal with when photographing rock and movie stars.

There is the greater question of why people don’t just buy nice DSLRs and take photos of their own pets. But I suppose all the tricks and tips in here—far greater in number and substance than you’d assume a list could be for mere humans—are the answer. [NYT]

My cat discovers yet another of life’s simple pleasures: The sensation of $US500 warming one’s butt.

(Steve Jobs’ disdain for the whirring of cooling fans is pretty good at creating devices that felines enjoy parking themselves on.)

In round 2 of Cat vs. Printer, we have to raise the electronic fist of the printer in victory. The cat takes (invisible) punch after punch, only striking back rarely and feebly. [via Geekologie]