14-Aug-07 22:24:00
Filed under: Robots
We can't stress our "don't try this at home" attitude strongly enough towards readers over this piece of robot hackery from the 5Voltcore collective, called the knife.hand.chop.bot. The basic premise is this: the robot plays a game of "Mumblety-Peg," a test of courage wherein a blade is brought down between your fingers at an ever increasing pace. Of course, we've all played a round or two of this game with friends, but it's unlikely that many of us have allowed a bot to play, much less do all the shot-calling. The system manages to avoid slicing fingers due to signals it receives from an onboard sensor which guides the knife, however, it also utilizes contact sensors underneath the user's hand, which can detect moisture (aka "nervous sweat"). The sweat triggers "stressful" sounds via closure of the contacts, and can have an adverse effect on the accuracy of the aiming mechanism, thus increasing your stress, thus causing you to sweat, thus throwing off t...
We can't stress our "don't try this at home" attitude strongly enough towards readers over this piece of robot hackery from the 5Voltcore collective, called the knife.hand.chop.bot. The basic premise is this: the robot plays a game of "Mumblety-Peg," a test of courage wherein a blade is brought down between your fingers at an ever increasing pace. Of course, we've all played a round or two of this game with friends, but it's unlikely that many of us have allowed a bot to play, much less do all the shot-calling. The system manages to avoid slicing fingers due to signals it receives from an onboard sensor which guides the knife, however, it also utilizes contact sensors underneath the user's hand, which can detect moisture (aka "nervous sweat"). The sweat triggers "stressful" sounds via closure of the contacts, and can have an adverse effect on the accuracy of the aiming mechanism, thus increasing your stress, thus causing you to sweat, thus throwing off t...
Source: Engadget
14-Aug-07 21:53:00
Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video
Although hearing this thing on video is probably the only review you need, where's the harm in taking a more in-depth look at the rest of the Zen Wav? Apparently sharing our sentiments, the folks over at AnythingButiPod were able to snag a unit to test, and while it did point out that there's really nothing outstanding here beyond the integrated speakers and MSC support, we're sure there's a niche who'd find that enough to warrant a purchase. As you'd probably expect, design and construction were ho hum, controls were basic and lacking a dedicated volume button(s), the FM tuner was deemed "solid," and the rest of the amenities (photo viewing, sound quality, video playback, etc.) seemed satisfactory enough. Overall, Creative's Zen Wav looks alright if you're particularly interested in the unique features it offers, but if you're not mesmerized by built-in drivers or the MSC connection, you'll likely be served better by som...
Although hearing this thing on video is probably the only review you need, where's the harm in taking a more in-depth look at the rest of the Zen Wav? Apparently sharing our sentiments, the folks over at AnythingButiPod were able to snag a unit to test, and while it did point out that there's really nothing outstanding here beyond the integrated speakers and MSC support, we're sure there's a niche who'd find that enough to warrant a purchase. As you'd probably expect, design and construction were ho hum, controls were basic and lacking a dedicated volume button(s), the FM tuner was deemed "solid," and the rest of the amenities (photo viewing, sound quality, video playback, etc.) seemed satisfactory enough. Overall, Creative's Zen Wav looks alright if you're particularly interested in the unique features it offers, but if you're not mesmerized by built-in drivers or the MSC connection, you'll likely be served better by som...
Source: Engadget
14-Aug-07 21:24:00
Filed under: Storage
As if there weren't enough options to cram underneath your Mac mini, here's yet another. NewerTech is introducing its miniStack NAS enclosure, which can be pre-configured with as much as 750GB of storage, and should fit quite well above or below your mini. The box sports Ethernet / USB 2.0 ports, PC and Mac support, Ximeta's NDAS 2011 network chipset, LED status lights, auto power on / off, and "intelligent thermal monitoring for minimal fan power consumption." For those interested in adding their own HDD, the device itself can be snagged for $79.99, while ordering with a hard drive already included will run you up to $329.99 depending on capacity.
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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!
As if there weren't enough options to cram underneath your Mac mini, here's yet another. NewerTech is introducing its miniStack NAS enclosure, which can be pre-configured with as much as 750GB of storage, and should fit quite well above or below your mini. The box sports Ethernet / USB 2.0 ports, PC and Mac support, Ximeta's NDAS 2011 network chipset, LED status lights, auto power on / off, and "intelligent thermal monitoring for minimal fan power consumption." For those interested in adding their own HDD, the device itself can be snagged for $79.99, while ordering with a hard drive already included will run you up to $329.99 depending on capacity.
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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!
Source: Engadget
14-Aug-07 20:55:00
Filed under: Storage
LaCie is apparently looking to grab video editors' attention with the introduction of its latest RAID tower, which comes stocked with 5TB of storage and is scalable to up to 20TB for HD multi-stream support. The 5TB Biggest S2S five-disk RAID boasts a 3Gbit/sec eSATA interface, direct eSATA-to-SATA connection, burst rates of over 200MB/sec, and the ability to link up with three other S2S units on the eSATA PCI-X / ExpressCard to achieve the aforementioned 20TB solution. Furthermore, the disks are hot-swappable and the tower is hot-pluggable, and it can even be setup to beam out email alerts in the event of disk failure. The 5TB S2S is available now for $3,699 with a PCI-X card, or you can toss in an extra Benjamin and go for the PCI-E bundle.
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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!
LaCie is apparently looking to grab video editors' attention with the introduction of its latest RAID tower, which comes stocked with 5TB of storage and is scalable to up to 20TB for HD multi-stream support. The 5TB Biggest S2S five-disk RAID boasts a 3Gbit/sec eSATA interface, direct eSATA-to-SATA connection, burst rates of over 200MB/sec, and the ability to link up with three other S2S units on the eSATA PCI-X / ExpressCard to achieve the aforementioned 20TB solution. Furthermore, the disks are hot-swappable and the tower is hot-pluggable, and it can even be setup to beam out email alerts in the event of disk failure. The 5TB S2S is available now for $3,699 with a PCI-X card, or you can toss in an extra Benjamin and go for the PCI-E bundle.
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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!
Source: Engadget
14-Aug-07 20:27:00
Filed under: Robots
The US military has already upped the arsenal of its robots deployed in Iraq, and it now looks to be planning to expand its non-human forces even further, with it recently putting out word of a competition to find a company that can quickly deliver a slew of new bots. According to Wired's Danger Room, these new robots won't be armed, but will instead mainly be used for reconnaissance duty, and must include the ability to look inside car windows and peer underneath vehicles. Due to the urgent need for the bots, the Army's done away with the usual formal bid process and will effectively be awarding a contract on the spot to the winner of the competition, who will be required to deliver its first bots within ten days. The Army then hopes to have 1,000 new reconnaissance bots by the end of the year, with another 2,000 planned for the next five years. As Danger Room reports, iRobot seems to be the favorite to win the competition, especially considering the requirem...
The US military has already upped the arsenal of its robots deployed in Iraq, and it now looks to be planning to expand its non-human forces even further, with it recently putting out word of a competition to find a company that can quickly deliver a slew of new bots. According to Wired's Danger Room, these new robots won't be armed, but will instead mainly be used for reconnaissance duty, and must include the ability to look inside car windows and peer underneath vehicles. Due to the urgent need for the bots, the Army's done away with the usual formal bid process and will effectively be awarding a contract on the spot to the winner of the competition, who will be required to deliver its first bots within ten days. The Army then hopes to have 1,000 new reconnaissance bots by the end of the year, with another 2,000 planned for the next five years. As Danger Room reports, iRobot seems to be the favorite to win the competition, especially considering the requirem...
Source: Engadget
14-Aug-07 20:06:00
Filed under: Displays
Just months after displaying Dahan T&S' 120-inch multi-touch panel, the firm is now showing off its 42-inch widescreen LCD that incorporates the same technology. This living-room-friendly display contains "multi-dot recognition functions to control image size and direction by [using your] fingers," meaning that a single press will translate into a left-click, while using two fingers will replicate a right-click. No word on resolution, price, or a release date just yet, but click on if you're down with a couple more pics.Continue reading Dahan T&S shows off 42-inch widescreen multi-touch LCD
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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!
Just months after displaying Dahan T&S' 120-inch multi-touch panel, the firm is now showing off its 42-inch widescreen LCD that incorporates the same technology. This living-room-friendly display contains "multi-dot recognition functions to control image size and direction by [using your] fingers," meaning that a single press will translate into a left-click, while using two fingers will replicate a right-click. No word on resolution, price, or a release date just yet, but click on if you're down with a couple more pics.Continue reading Dahan T&S shows off 42-inch widescreen multi-touch LCD
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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!
Source: Engadget
14-Aug-07 19:41:00
Filed under: Cellphones
We're getting reports that AT&T customers have gone without their precious bits and bytes for at least part of the day today. It's unclear what the problem is or how widespread it may be, but it seems that folks in a number of metropolitan areas are unable to connect or are suffering with unusually slow data rates. Anyone out there notice anything fishy?
[Thanks, Michael K.]
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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!
We're getting reports that AT&T customers have gone without their precious bits and bytes for at least part of the day today. It's unclear what the problem is or how widespread it may be, but it seems that folks in a number of metropolitan areas are unable to connect or are suffering with unusually slow data rates. Anyone out there notice anything fishy?
[Thanks, Michael K.]
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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!
Source: Engadget
14-Aug-07 19:39:00
Filed under: Laptops, Wireless
Option has already done quite a bit of bragging about its various HSUPA and HSDPA offerings, but it looks like the company now has one more cause to pat itself on the back, as its GlobeTrotter Express HSUPA card has netted the all-important FCC approval. According to the company, that makes it the first such card to do so, paving the way for it to be released in the U.S. Apart from the ExpressCard form factor, however, the card is pretty much in line with the company's HSUPA USB adapter, with it boasting 7.2 Mbps download speeds and upload speeds approaching 2 Mbps, along with support for tri-band UMTS operation and compatibility with quad-band EDGE and GPRS. While there's nothing to hold it back now, there unfortunately still doesn't appear to be any word on a price or release date.
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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!
Option has already done quite a bit of bragging about its various HSUPA and HSDPA offerings, but it looks like the company now has one more cause to pat itself on the back, as its GlobeTrotter Express HSUPA card has netted the all-important FCC approval. According to the company, that makes it the first such card to do so, paving the way for it to be released in the U.S. Apart from the ExpressCard form factor, however, the card is pretty much in line with the company's HSUPA USB adapter, with it boasting 7.2 Mbps download speeds and upload speeds approaching 2 Mbps, along with support for tri-band UMTS operation and compatibility with quad-band EDGE and GPRS. While there's nothing to hold it back now, there unfortunately still doesn't appear to be any word on a price or release date.
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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!
Source: Engadget
14-Aug-07 19:15:00
Filed under: Home Entertainment, Robots
Imagi, the animation studio behind the recent Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film, and the upcoming Gatchaman and Astro Boy movies, has inked a deal with Wowwee Ltd., makers of the infamous Robosapien (amongst others), which will grant the toy-maker exclusive distribution rights for the studio's properties. According to the company press release, Wowwee will provide some of its proprietary technology for use in toys related to the upcoming pictures, which will closely replicate the look and story of the films in both design and "play patterns." As Imagi co-CEO Douglas Glen puts it "All too often, film-licensed toys fail to live up to kids' expectations, because they fall so far short of what the kids see on the movie screen," but Imagi and Wowwee will seek to avoid this by having toy designers and filmmakers work closely with one-another. Our personal hope is to see a life-size, fully functional Astro Boy... w...
Imagi, the animation studio behind the recent Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film, and the upcoming Gatchaman and Astro Boy movies, has inked a deal with Wowwee Ltd., makers of the infamous Robosapien (amongst others), which will grant the toy-maker exclusive distribution rights for the studio's properties. According to the company press release, Wowwee will provide some of its proprietary technology for use in toys related to the upcoming pictures, which will closely replicate the look and story of the films in both design and "play patterns." As Imagi co-CEO Douglas Glen puts it "All too often, film-licensed toys fail to live up to kids' expectations, because they fall so far short of what the kids see on the movie screen," but Imagi and Wowwee will seek to avoid this by having toy designers and filmmakers work closely with one-another. Our personal hope is to see a life-size, fully functional Astro Boy... w...
Source: Engadget
14-Aug-07 18:54:00
Filed under: Portable Audio, Wearables, Wireless
Nike's iPod nano-controlling Amp+ watch has been making itself known since late last year, but it looks like it could finally be getting close to a release, with it recently making its debut on the FCC's website. That, of course, means that we can get a look at some less than flattering photos of it, along with the user manual and the usual test reports. One particularly interesting detail in that last item is that the watch apparently operates on the non-Bluetooth 2425MHz frequency, the very same frequency that the Nike+iPod Sport Kit uses. As further explained in the user manual, that means you'll be able to use the watch with your other Nike+ gear, with the watch giving you control over both your tunes and your workout. Click on through for a few more pics, including a look at the watch's innards.
Continue reading iPod-controlling Nike Amp+ watch makes FCC appearance
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Nike's iPod nano-controlling Amp+ watch has been making itself known since late last year, but it looks like it could finally be getting close to a release, with it recently making its debut on the FCC's website. That, of course, means that we can get a look at some less than flattering photos of it, along with the user manual and the usual test reports. One particularly interesting detail in that last item is that the watch apparently operates on the non-Bluetooth 2425MHz frequency, the very same frequency that the Nike+iPod Sport Kit uses. As further explained in the user manual, that means you'll be able to use the watch with your other Nike+ gear, with the watch giving you control over both your tunes and your workout. Click on through for a few more pics, including a look at the watch's innards.
Continue reading iPod-controlling Nike Amp+ watch makes FCC appearance
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Source: Engadget
