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by Donald Melanson 13 Oct 2008 at 3:36pm Filed under: Desktops  Well, it looks like Averatec is now fully on board the Atom bandwagon, with it now pushing its Buddy netbook out the door, and also getting official about the US launch for its Atom-based, 18.4-inch All-in-One desktop PC, which was first announced in Europe last month. This one's apparently intended to complement the company's larger, equally unimaginatively-named 22-inch All-in-One PC, and comes loaded with some expectedly more netbook-like specs, including 1GB of RAM, a 160GB hard drive, Windows XP and, of course, that ever-present 1.6GHz N270 Atom processor. You won't find anything like the 1680 x 945, 18.4-inch display on a netbook, however, or on many other desktop PCs with a $550 price tag, for that matter. [Image courtesy of Laptop] Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments by Samuel Axon 13 Oct 2008 at 3:04pm Filed under: Robots 
We've enjoyed watching KIST's Hubo do crazy things like wear the face of Albert Einstein and ride a Segway, but we haven't given as much attention to its brother Mahru. Feeling left out, the biped learned to dance with its upper body whilst walking around -- an impressive feat, considering it wasn't all that long ago that scientists first managed to get these things to take five steps without falling flat on their faces. Mahru also releases scents to express its artificial emotions, so you should be able to smell something fishy when it achieves sentience and begins angrily plotting to destroy its creators. Take a gander at a South Korean TV news report after the break.Continue reading Mahru the robot dances to mask its emotional insecurities Read | Permalink | Email this | Commentsby Joseph L. Flatley 13 Oct 2008 at 2:31pm Filed under: Desktops  Though there are few things as potentially cringe-worthy as a Battlestar Galactica-themed case mod (or toaster, or pumpkin), we must admit that this project is pretty impressive. Going beyond the realm of the expected (landing bay, running lights, engine pods and a suitable sci-fi paint job), this custom build rocks an array of ambitious features, including three 2.5-inch LCD screens, a 10-inch LCD on the left side panel and an automatic right side panel door (aka: "airlock"). The front of the case sports a laser-cut acrylic Battlestar Galactica logo that has been mounted to a slot-loading DVD drive (the disc appears to spin inside the logo) and the whole case is complimented by a suitably modified keyboard and monitor. If your curiosity has been whetted, hit the read link for a ton of images and blow-by-blow description of the build process ... and be sure to check out the videos after the break. Continue reading Battlestar Galactica case mod adds a touch of class and excitement to your work day Read | Permalink | Email this | Commentsby Donald Melanson 13 Oct 2008 at 1:59pm Filed under: Robots  While some folks are considering taking the Turing test one step further and applying it to military robots, a group of researchers in the UK led by none other than would-be cyborg Kevin Warwick are doing their best to keep things as Turing intended and simply trying to fool some humans into thinking that the robot they're taking to is actually a person. Fortunately for us on the human side of the equation, they weren't quite successful, though one "robot" known as Elbot did get relatively close to the goal, fooling 25% of its human interrogators, which is just 5% off the mark set by Alan Turing. Each of the four other "artificial conversational entities" also managed to fool at least one of their questioners, though they eventually showed their true colors with random answers like "soup" when pressed as to what their job was. Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments by Darren Murph 13 Oct 2008 at 1:28pm Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment  AT&T's not messing around with spreading the good word on its U-verse services, as it has just nailed down an agreement to sell the aforementioned products in two of America's largest retail outlets. Beginning this month, U-verse kiosks will emerge in over 600 Circuit City and Walmart locations, which will give unsuspecting consumers the chance to ditch their current cable / satellite / fiber provider and sign up for AT&T's own programming / high-speed internet / digital phone suite. The move comes in the midst of its nationwide Total Home DVR rollout, which enables any connected TV in the crib to watch a recorded SD or HD show. Of course, U-verse still serves a comparatively small amount of the country at present time, but with an initiative like this, we feel pretty good about future expansion.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments by Donald Melanson 13 Oct 2008 at 12:55pm Filed under: Desktops, Laptops, Peripherals  Yoggie's mini "security computers" have been at the disposal of PC users for some time now, and it looks like the company has now finally decided to give Mac users a taste of the completely hardware-based security solution. That comes in the form of both Mac-friendly versions of Yoggie's Gatekeeper ExpressCard and its Gatekeeper Pico USB stick, each of which are "full-blown" Linux-based computers in the own right, and include a slew of applications that promise to both increase security and take some of the load off of your laptop or desktop. What's more, it looks like Yoggie is also giving Mac users a slight discount for their patience, as the Gatekeeper ExpressCard and Gatekeeper Pico are now available to pre-order fro $150 and $119, respectively, a 20% discount compared to their usual price, and their PC counterparts. Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments by Darren Murph 13 Oct 2008 at 12:26pm Filed under: Displays, HDTV, Home Entertainment lg80.jpg) The highly controversial (okay, maybe not so much) Scarlet series from LG is being expanded today with the introduction of the LG80. The natural step-up from the LG60 and LG70 features an undisclosed screen size (though we assume it'll range from 42- to 65-inches) with a Full HD (1080p) resolution, 30,000:1 contrast ratio, three AV modes (for movies / video games / sports) and a USB 2.0 port for piping in photos or digital video files. You'll also find a pair of HDMI 1.3 sockets, but the real kicker is the sound system. When powered on, two side speakers extend from the rear of the unit while working alongside the stationary center speaker and "subwoofer" to create a 3.1 system with 50-watts of output. Sure, it's not a 3,000-watt, 7.1-channel master rig, but it's probably decent enough for an inbuilt setup. Look for this one to ship everywhere save for the US and Europe starting later this year. [Via Pocket-lint]Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments by Nilay Patel 13 Oct 2008 at 11:56am Filed under: Gaming  Sony's firmware elves haven't gotten a break since the last round of console updates -- PS3 2.50 and PSP 5.00 have just been announced on the PlayStation Blog. Nothing terrifically major for the PS3 apart from support for the SOCOM Bluetooth Headset's High Quality mode, as well as some trophy tweaks and power management options, but the PSP gets a WiFi version of the PlayStation Store, with downloadable games, trailers, and demos. No word on when these will actually become available, but we'd guess it'll be relatively soon.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments by Darren Murph 13 Oct 2008 at 11:21am Filed under: Cellphones  It's been a long time coming (isn't it always with Sony Ericsson and AT&T?), but the January-announced W760 Walkman slider is finally hitting the US on contract. Announced today, the shakeable W760a will be available in AT&T locations, bringing with it 3G support, a 3.2-megapixel camera, AT&T Navigator and "full HTML web browsing." In case you haven't seen already, it'll be available in red, black and silver motifs, with the latter hue being exclusive to RadioShack for a limited time. Check it as early as today for $129.99 (with a 2-year agreement) after mail-in rebate.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments by Nilay Patel 13 Oct 2008 at 10:58am Filed under: Misc. Gadgets  Elcomsoft has been using NVIDIA's CUDA GPU computing architecture to accelerate its Distributed Password Recovery tool for a while now, but it looks like the latest version of the cracking utility takes it to the next level -- it can break a WPA2 password using two GeForce GTX 280-based boards 100 times faster than with just a CPU. It's still a brute-force crack, but only a few packets need be sniffed, and the GPU accelerates the algorithm used to generate keys significantly -- even laptop-grade 8800M and 9800M GPUs speed things up 10 to 15 times. We wouldn't worry too much about wardrivers with trunk-mounted bladeservers going nuts, however -- the base version of the software costs $599, and things ramp up to $5,000 pretty quickly. [Via HotHardware]Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments by Darren Murph 13 Oct 2008 at 10:23am Filed under: Misc. Gadgets, Robots  After the whole Tickle Me Elmo craze a few years back, you just knew Fisher-Price was going to ride this wave until it simply couldn't stay afloat any longer. Elmo Live!, hailed as the "most innovative and engaging Elmo toy ever," will officially hit store shelves tomorrow (October 14th) for $59.99, though we suspect the first batch will be snapped up in no time flat. Of course, those of you intent on retaining your sanity probably pre-ordered a few months back, but for everyone else, your battle to get one of this year's hottest holiday gifts starts in under 24 hours. For those wondering what's so special about this fellow, he supposedly tells jokes and makes movements that "give kids the feeling that Elmo is alive in their own homes." Whether that's really a good thing, however, is totally up to you. Gallery: Elmo Live! on sale tomorrow for $59.99 (if you're lucky)    Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
by Nilay Patel 13 Oct 2008 at 10:01am Filed under: Cellphones  Most of the Windows Mobile / iPhone cross-breeding we've seen has either involved elaborate WinMo skinning or terrible iPhone KIRFs, but we suppose it was just a matter of time before Microsoft's mobile OS was made to run on Apple's hardware -- or at least that's what it looks like here. Pretty much everything about this video is suspect, from the shadiness of the MyPhone2008 conference it was shot at to the interviewer's ridiculously inane questions ("You don't have girlfriends in Norway?"), but damn if that isn't WinMo happily booting on what appears to be an iPhone 3G -- we can't tell, but it's a good bet it's jailbroken. The developer, Erik Kristiansen, says that mod is in beta right now but that he's looking at a January release -- we'll see what more we can dig up before then. Video after the break. Update: As several commenters have pointed out, this has the trappings of a bad viral for the crappy SonicEmotion app also on that page -- all of the other videos are suspiciously fake / ridiculous, and the phone responds oddly to several touches. So much for that, we suppose. [Via MacToday.nl; thanks Daniel] Continue reading Windows Mobile ported to iPhone, we think Read | Permalink | Email this | Commentsby Darren Murph 13 Oct 2008 at 9:25am Filed under: Laptops  Finally, a netbook with a name cute enough to fit the design. Averatec's 10.2-inch Buddy is now on sale after becoming official late last month, and it's in stock for shipment to boot. As a refresher, you'll get a 1.6GHz Intel Atom CPU, 1GB of DDR2 RAM, a 160GB hard drive, 802.11b/g WiFi, Ethernet, a 1.3-megapixel webcam, a WXGA panel, 4-in-1 multicard reader, three USB 2.0 ports and Windows XP Home running the show. Oh, and Averatec's own e-store asserts that this 10.2-inch machine has a 12.1-inch LCD, but you know better than that. Yours now for $449.99.[Via thegadgetsite]Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments by Darren Murph 13 Oct 2008 at 8:42am Filed under: Transportation  While outfits like Lightning and Tesla are attempting to make eco-friendly cars sexy, MDI is taking things in a completely different direction. The recently-made-official Airpod looks practically nothing like anything seen on American roadways today, which is probably why it's apt to hit the streets of France and New Zealand first. The oddly shaped automobile will reportedly reach a top speed of 70kmh (44mph) and cruise 100-kilometers (62 miles) on just $2. The secret? A minuscule compressed air-powered engine on each of the rear wheels, both of which get instructed by the car's joystick (Atari fans, rejoice!). We're told that reloading the engine with hot air takes less than two minutes, and if all goes well, the first of the urban vehicles will hit the cobblestones in the spring of 2009. Is that the sound of Tata's NANO feeling threatened, or what? [Via EcoGeek]Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments by Darren Murph 13 Oct 2008 at 8:14am Filed under: Cellphones, Laptops  You were looking for a laugh to start your Columbus Day / Canadian Thanksgiving Day / etc. off, weren't you? Consider yourself lucky. OLO Computer is reportedly thinking of bringing to market a netbook-styled device that would actually enable (require?) users to plop their iPhone / iPhone 3G into the palm rest; from there, the handset would act as the brains of the operation and double as a trackpad. At the present time, there are no real specifications to speak of -- just a zany teaser page and lots of speculation. We shouldn't have to remind you what an epic failure the whole "cellphone companion" sector has been, as one look at Palm's axed Foleo and the deeply discounted Celio REDFLY should be explanation enough. Hey, we're not trying to discourage you from giving this a go, OLO, but we'd probably have a backup plan ready to roll in case Apple itself drops a netbook on the world in the next 48 hours. [Via Liliputing] Read - Official teaser page Read - Netbook-style clamshell for iPhone is comingPermalink | Email this | Comments |
newVideoPlayer("/Robothand.flv", 506, 423,""); We've written about the amazing iLIMB bionic hand before, but the newest version of it was showed off on the Today Show this morning, and it looks pretty incredible. For one, the guy who had it was able to simply pop one off and put another on without skipping a beat, with the new hand working almost instantly. He seemed able to control the fingers easily, and he had the added bonus of being able to rotate the hand 360 degrees, which is something those of us with fleshy, non-bionic hands are unable to do. In the future, bionic hands won't be replacements for real hands; they'll be upgrades. 13 Oct 2008 at 1:20pm As you probably already know, space is full of crap. It's not something the average Joe thinks about, but when the government starts blowing dead satellites out of the sky, it may be time to start worrying whether or not the gadget that brings soft-core pornography to your TV will end up crushing you as you mow the lawn. Researchers at Queen?s University are jumping in to help with the problem by developing a robotic repair system that will service the approx. 8000 satellites currently orbiting the Earth. Keep in mind that about only around 800 of those satellites are currently operational. The core of the system will involve tracking software that alerts a Autonomous Space Servicing Vehicle (ASSV) to a satellites location. Once found, it will draw the device into its bay where humans on the ground can conduct remote-controlled repairs. So far, the main obstacle to the development of the ASSV has been computer vision. Any robot attempting to grab a satellite must not only locate the device but determine and match its motion before making a move. To aid in that situation, the researchers will employ a form of light-based radar called LIDAR, "which provides a set of 3D points that accurately measure the surface geometry of the satellite." The video above illustrates this real-time tracking sequence. So far, there is no word on when such a system might be deployed. [Queens University via Science Daily] 13 Oct 2008 at 1:00pm
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You already know about all of the different ways to watch TV online. Now you just want links to your favorite shows (plus all those new ones) as quickly as possible so you can ditch your TiVo and TV once and for all. Our Internet TV remote has the best links to every prime-time show currently streaming online at full length. Bookmark it and check back often, we'll update it as new shows come out... *Note: Many of these streams will not work outside of the US, but if you're out of the country and need your fix, you know where to go without any help from us.
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13 Oct 2008 at 12:00pm If you weren't already convinced that Obama is the candidate of choice for geeks, there's now an entire website dedicated to preaching his tech merits to nerds everywhere. Yeah, essentially Tech for Obama is a bunch of techie talking heads—the CEOs of Craigslist and Real Networks, Googlers, former Wired editors, among others—explaining why you should vote Obama. (Which we already did.) It supposedly tracks Obama tech news and events, but it does a pretty crappy job at it, even though there's a ton of stuff to cover, which would go to their whole point—no mention of the Dems' digital billboard at the Palin rally, the fact that the $3 million dollar projector he supported is sweetass, or most surprisingly, the Obama iPhone app. They don't talk about the fact that Joe Biden sucks on tech stuff, either, but that's kind of expected. He's, like, old and stuff. [Tech for Obama] P.S. Please keep all flaming to a low smolder, thanks. 13 Oct 2008 at 11:50am
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Here's the color/price/model list, according to the tipster: GREEN = $1,999.99 - 15" MacBook Pro base model If any other Best Buy employees out there want to confirm or help us make some more sense out of these, please shoot us an email (about this, or anything else). It's not unexpected that Apple would keep prices exactly the same, but a hell of a lot of people were definitely bellyaching hard for some cheaper wares. If they're not cheaper, are you still planning on buying one, if you were thinking about it? Update: A few Best Buyers have written in to say that while the program here, called RSS, is totally legit, its accuracy is essentially a crapshoot—"70 percent accurate" at best. More importantly, anything under contract, like new MacBooks, wouldn't show new info (like a lower price) until it was released, which would go out in a batch update that would hit every Best Buy's computers at once. Still, that doesn't mean prices won't stay exactly the same, which would match what Apple has done historically.
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As anyone who's been to Japan knows, there are vending machines all over the place there, especially in the cities. They're on every block and ever corner, offering up hot coffee in a can and cigarettes whenever you need them. The next generation of vending machines, as first released on Friday, will also include a security camera, an emergency phone and an alarm. The camera will be a CCTV camera accessed by the police department. When the door to the emergency phone is opened, an alarm on the top of the machine starts going off, alerting those around you that you're in trouble. With only the first machine being installed a few days ago, there's already been a backlash against it, with someone tearing off the camera and spraypainting "Surveillance Society" on the machine. Will these machines catch on, slowly replacing the thousands of vending machine already spread across Japan, or will the people there stand up against becoming another country where privacy takes a backseat to security? Time will tell. [JapanProbe] 13 Oct 2008 at 10:20am |
We've written about the amazing 
We've certainly seen our fair share of insane, overpriced equipment aimed at overmonied audiophiles (usually from 
Apple's 
NBC
ABC
CBS
FOX
The CW
Comedy Central
MTV
FX
Circuit City isn't planning on going gently into that 
Your Mission: Recover missing SONY® HDNA molecules by completing a series of missions. Three lucky agents will win a trip to an exclusive event, at a top secret location, for the chance to win $1,000,000. 
Mainly for use with their 
Drawing doesn't come easy to all of us. I worked as a professional artist on and off for years and God knows I have seen some horrible stuff. Like someone put a pencil between their butt-cheeks horrible. Like other tasks, we have turned to robotics in an effort to make the process a little easier. OObject has compiled 16 of these contraptions—everything from devices that draw intricate geometric patterns to a crazy boot contraption that pushes around dirt from a nuclear test site. It may not technically be drawing, but I am partial to the 
Without that cup of coffee in the morning most of us would be completely useless. Now our gadgets can get the same jump start thanks to this coffee cup charger from PowerLine. It features 2 AC outlets and one USB charging port with 200 watts of continuous power (400 watt peak). That's enough to power up some TVs and laptops. Because of its coffee cup shape, the charger fits snugly into most cup holders so it would be ideal for long trips. Just make sure that you don't reach for the PowerLine when you are looking for a sip of Starbucks. Sticking your tongue in this thing would be seriously unpleasant. Available for $27. [
We just got these printouts that supposedly show the fresh SKUs in Best Buy's inventory for the MacBooks that'll 
Thanks tipsters!
The beer phone isn't the most full-featured phone available, what with its lack of a screen making everything from texting to emailing to web surfing impossible, but it is shaped like a beer bottle. And that's more than you can say for your precious Blackberry or iPhone. Also, it's only $12 because it's actually just a landline phone. So if you've still got a landline for some reason and also like to have normal household objects remind you of your dependence on alcohol, you really can't go wrong. [
Following in Britain's footsteps, it looks like the Japanese government is looking to install CCTV cameras in every conceivable public place in order to keep an eye on the populous. But since it's Japan, they're doing it in a uniquely Japanese way: via their ubiquitous vending machines.