Filed under: Robots
While they may be lacking in technical prowess, Crabfu bots never are lacking in charm, and this here remote controlled Tortoise bot charmed our very pants off. Video is after to the break, but be sure to be on your guard for Tortoise bot’s war of attrition with an indifferent kitty — you may just end up trouserless, and we can’t be held responsible. Hrm, that didn’t come out right.
[Via technabob]
Continue reading Crabfu strikes again with Tortoise RC bot
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Filed under: Gaming
Nintendo talks a big talk, but has never invested heavily in actually protecting its systems from those nefarious homebrew junkies. While the Wii Menu 3.3 did slightly break the Twilight Hack, it didn’t even bust up folks who already had the hombrew channel installed, and its protections against further hacks were minimal. Now the HackMii folks are back with Twilight Hack v0.1beta1, which bests Wii Menu 3.3, along with some other improvements for homebrew usage. We can’t tell if this is incompetence or benevolence on Nintendo’s part, or perhaps these hackers are just that good, but either way we’re lovin’ it JT-style.
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Filed under: Gaming
Nintendo talks a big talk, but has never invested heavily in actually protecting its systems from those nefarious homebrew junkies. While the Wii Menu 3.3 did slightly break the Twilight Hack, it didn’t even bust up folks who already had the hombrew channel installed, and its protections against further hacks were minimal. Now the HackMii folks are back with Twilight Hack v0.1beta1, which bests Wii Menu 3.3, along with some other improvements for homebrew usage. We can’t tell if this is incompetence or benevolence on Nintendo’s part, or perhaps these hackers are just that good, but either way we’re lovin’ it JT-style.
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Filed under: Desktops, Laptops
A few dubious screens from Apple’s upcoming OS X mini-update “Snow Leopard” popped up the other week, but now we’re staring at a full-on collection of shots from the folks at German site Apfeltalk. They seem legit enough, but given the fact that Snow Leopard’s improvements primary are under the hood, there’s not a ton to see. Most interesting is a new Safari 4.0 feature to “Save as Web Application,” which creates a Safari-lite, double-clickable application out of any webpage, similar to Firefox’s Prism. Google Docs, anyone? Other features shown off in the screenshots include Exchange integration and Javascript benchmarks, but it’s clear to see that Apple has perhaps a tiny bit more in store for Snow Leopard than what it’s letting on.
[Thanks, John]
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Filed under: Desktops
Sure, you’ll be able to pay out the nose for a Vista machine with a XP Professional “downgrade” soon enough, but Dell just pushed back its cutoff for straight-up XP machines. They’ll be selling select Inspiron and XPS desktop with whatever flavor of XP you choose up until June 26th, at precisely 6:59AM EST. Naturally after June 26 you’ll be able to buy a Vista Biz or Ultimate machine and downgrade to XP Pro, but we’ll hope it doesn’t have to come to that. We heard that one guy even got a printer to work with Vista. Things are looking up, folks!
[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
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Filed under: Podcasts, Portable Video
iriver’s Lplayer, which we just got done handling ourselves, made it over to the review crew at PC Magazine. As expected, both design and interface were smiled upon, and critics also felt the price was fair. Upon using the admittedly wee device, they seemed to have problems getting the click buttons to respond like they wanted, but aside from that, hardly anything negative was said. The broad codec support was praised, the built-in equalizer worked as advertised and the FM tuner / voice recorder were welcome extras. All in all, it was seen as a worthy rival to the iPod nano, and if you’re the type that prefers something different in the pocket, this puppy just might be the ticket.
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Filed under: Misc. Gadgets
Brain-computer interfaces have been popping up left and right lately, but the latest system from Germany’s Technical University of Braunschweig, might be the silliest one we’ve seen so far. While the system doesn’t involve the careful placement of electrodes, it does require you to don a large metal helmet fitted with sensors, which can even detect brain activity through hair — and makes you look like Magneto on a bad day. The system is solid enough to allow test subjects to control an RC car and researchers say the tech is similarly applicable to wheelchairs and prosthetics. Yeah, that’s great — we’ll stick with the dangerous neurosurgery implantation over this contraption, guys. Video after the break.
Continue reading German scientists develop nerdiest brain-computer interface yet
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Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video
These days, it’s pretty wild and crazy if a PMP manufacturer manages to do anything different than what’s already out there, so we’ve got a soft spot for Shenzhen’s EM-2811, being sold as the “Latte ICE.” Sure, nothing spectacular, and the 1GB-4GB capacity is seriously amature hour, but we like the look of the device, and the interface is pretty strong for a no-name DAP. There’s a miniSD slot to overcome that capacity handicap, a 2.8-inch QVGA screen, FM radio, voice support, AVI / MPEG video playback, and a built-in speaker. Tetris is included, but with the button layout we’re hoping they can finagle a couple emulators on there. Battery life of 4 hours video and 8 hours audio is painful, but overall the Latte ICE isn’t at all bad for a $70 starting price. Video is after the break.
[Via PMP Today]
Continue reading Shenzhen EM-2811 “Latte ICE” is actually kind of neat
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Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video
These days, it’s pretty wild and crazy if a PMP manufacturer manages to do anything different than what’s already out there, so we’ve got a soft spot for Shenzhen’s EM-2811, being sold as the “Latte ICE.” Sure, nothing spectacular, and the 1GB-4GB capacity is seriously amature hour, but we like the look of the device, and the interface is pretty strong for a no-name DAP. There’s a miniSD slot to overcome that capacity handicap, a 2.8-inch QVGA screen, FM radio, voice support, AVI / MPEG video playback, and a built-in speaker. Tetris is included, but with the button layout we’re hoping they can finagle a couple emulators on there. Battery life of 4 hours video and 8 hours audio is painful, but overall the Latte ICE isn’t at all bad for a $70 starting price. Video is after the break.
[Via PMP Today]
Continue reading Shenzhen EM-2811 “Latte ICE” is actually kind of neat
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Filed under: Cellphones, Digital Cameras, Displays
We’ve seen a couple handheld 3D devices, but Infosys just announced that developed a chipset capable of capturing and projecting 3D holograms from ordinary cellphones, and that it hopes to take the tech mainstream by 2010. The system captures a series of 2D images from normal cameras and uses them to develop 3D holograms, projecting received images using a laser projector and micro optical elements. Infosys also had a patent granted on the system required to transmit 3D data over normal telecom networks without clogging them up — the data is transmitted unprocessed, and the chipsets at either end do the heavy lifting. There’s no word on what devices this stuff might appear in, but we’re wondering what that laser system is supposed to project onto — or if we’ll have to take up smoking to get our 3D on.
[Thanks, Bucky]
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