Robot "dog" crosses obstacles, lacks head
Filed under: Robots
[Via SlashGear]
Continue reading Robot "dog" crosses obstacles, lacks head
Filed under: Robots
Continue reading Robot "dog" crosses obstacles, lacks head
Posted by Web Centric at 2:42 PM 0 comments
Filed under: Peripherals
It was supposed to ship in June, but it looks like Belkin is finally shipping the Network USB Hub this week. The five-port USB hub "simulates a direct USB connection" that allows you to use all your USB devices over the network -- and special caching software even lets you use USB 2.0 devices at full speed. Looks like Windows users can nab one of these now for $129 -- Mac users are still waiting on driver support.
Posted by Web Centric at 2:11 PM 0 comments
Filed under: Gaming, HDTV, Home Entertainment
Details are beyond sketchy at this point, but Personal Computer World is reporting that Mark Bennett, Microsoft's European HD DVD business director, announced that Microsoft would be shipping a revised 360 HD DVD drive in 2008 -- presumably one with support for HD DVD's HDi interactive features, which Microsoft is touting as being "nine months" ahead of Blu-ray. That's all the info we have for now, but you can bet we haven't heard the last of this one.
Posted by Web Centric at 2:11 PM 0 comments
Filed under: Displays, Portable Video
Nearing on a year from its first unveiling, it's nice to finally see the Headplay Personal Cinema System head mounted display "out and about." That Visor headset is stilling rocking support for up to XGA resolutions with a pair of single LCoS micro-displays that are supposed to reduce eye strain, while the Liberator "brains" of the operation accepts composite, component and S-video inputs, while also playing media off of its built-in CompactFlash slot and USB ports. Finally, the Navigator remote acts as the hook-up for the included earbuds, and allows you to control the system and settings. In addition to plain old flat content, you can view stereoscopic 3D games and movies if you've got the right hardware to plug into. The Headplay is available now online, and goes for $499, or $549 with an internal rechargeable battery. Unfortunately, all we've got for pictures is those same old renders we saw at the start of the year, but hopefully Headplay will hit the true wild soon enough.
Posted by Web Centric at 1:40 PM 0 comments
Filed under: Digital Cameras
Posted by Web Centric at 1:05 PM 0 comments
Filed under: Portable Audio, Transportation
Posted by Web Centric at 1:04 PM 0 comments
Filed under: Peripherals
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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!
Posted by Web Centric at 12:35 PM 0 comments
Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video
Posted by Web Centric at 12:03 PM 0 comments
Filed under: HDTV, Peripherals
Posted by Web Centric at 11:56 AM 0 comments
Filed under: Household
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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!
Posted by Web Centric at 11:55 AM 0 comments
Filed under: Laptops, Wireless
You may remember good-old David Maynor, the infamous hacker who caused a stir in the Mac community by "exploiting" a "loophole" in a MacBook's WiFi that allowed an outside user to gain control of the system. Of course, the hack was then promptly disputed by all sorts of people, said to be a hoax, and generally made fun of. A little bit later on, Maynor and co. turned up in a nerd-tastic war of words on the internet over an OS X "worm," trading barbs, assuming fake names, creating counterfeit blogs, and eventually being reduced to death-threats and public "outings" of their online personalities. Now, according to reports, Maynor is "officially" publishing the details of his original exploit, freed from legal shackles (i.e., NDAs) which he claim prevented him from revealing the truth about his hack. The hot-blooded work is to be published in the September issue of Uninformed.org (an online hacking journal). Says Maynor, "Let them tear me apart all they want but at the end of the day the technical merit of the paper will stand on its own." To which we respond: your 15 minutes are up.
Posted by Web Centric at 11:51 AM 0 comments
Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video
Well, that didn't take long. Hot on the heels of the iPod touch starting to ship, spunky Chinese upstart Meizu has announce the M7, a curiously-familiar PMP featuring a 3-inch touchscreen. Meizu CEO Jack Wong announced the player on the company's forums, so details are a little sketchy, but it looks like the unit will feature a 16:9 480 x 288 screen and support H.264 playback. The picture is apparently a mockup, but we're hearing that the M7 will go on sale in late 2008 in 1GB, 2GB and 8GB versions for $100, $110, and $150. Of course, given how long it's taken the M8 to hit, that's all up in the air, but something tells us we'll be hearing a lot about this thing in the future.
Posted by Web Centric at 11:51 AM 0 comments
Filed under: Desktops, Home Entertainment
Bose, everyone's favorite quasi-audiophile audio-goods manufacturer is lowering themselves down into the seedy world of PC audio and introducing a new set of speakers designed for your desktop. The new Computer MusicMonitors -- 5-inch by 2-inch, 25-watt speakers with "dual internal opposing passover radiators" -- are Bose's first foray into a busy market already crowded by scores of other models, though the Boston-based company thinks they've got something new to bring to the game. "I think the demand for smaller and better sound will never stop," said a Bose business manager who introduced the new system, adding, "this is our best effort to deliver lifelike sound from something smaller than we've ever done before." For those willing to drop $399 on your computer speakers, these beauties can be yours on October 4th.
Posted by Web Centric at 11:51 AM 0 comments
Filed under: GPS, Transportation
The Dynasty-esque drama of the New York City taxi / GPS saga doesn't seem to be petering out. Two weeks ago, thousands of New York City cabbies went on strike (albeit not very successfully) to protest the city's insistence on adding elaborate GPS / entertainment systems to driver's cars which are capable of tracking pick-up and drop-off points. Now it appears that a group of cabbies are taking the fight to court, filing a lawsuit against the city claiming that the mandate to include the GPS units was unconstitutional, and that the devices will give away "trade secrets" by revealing their driving patterns. "Each taxi driver regards his or her own pattern as proprietary," the suit states. The New York Taxi Workers Alliance -- the group that organized the strike -- is also behind this latest move, though not all drivers are united against the GPS units, which will also add credit card services, text messaging, and television to the cars.
Posted by Web Centric at 11:51 AM 0 comments
Filed under: Gaming
Kaz Hirai has come to the Tokyo Game Show bearing good news indeed: Sony's finally putting out a SIXAXIS with rumble, the DualShock 3. The controller will look exactly like the SIXAXIS, and is going to be hitting Japan this November, and North America and Europe in spring 2008. A few games in development have the function already, including Metal Gear Solid 4, and existing games can be updated with rumble over the PlayStation Network. Of course, the beans were spilled by EA earlier today, and Kaz says Sony let developers know about the controller as soon as it was decided upon, which would explain all the other leaks over the year. What Sony has constantly described as a technical difficulty stemming from the motion sensitivity of the controller has apparently been overcome, but it's still hard not to pin it all on that Immersion lawsuit no matter how much spin Sony puts on things. There's no word on price for the DualShock 3; official list of games that will use the DualShock 3 or get a software update to use it follows after the break.Continue reading Sony's DualShock 3 is finally official: PS3 gets rumble
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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!
Posted by Web Centric at 11:50 AM 0 comments
Filed under: Desktops, Gaming, Laptops
Posted by Web Centric at 11:50 AM 0 comments
Filed under: Home Entertainment, Portable Video
Apparently a move to Amazon Unbox isn't all that's in the cards for NBC's lineup of television programming, newly free of those iTunes shackles. The company is going to start testing a new NBC Direct service in October with full, free downloadable episodes which can be stored up to seven days on Windows PCs. The shows will be on offer for a week as soon as they've aired, and will include imbedded, un-skippable ads. But that's just for starters, apparently NBC wants to eventually transform the service into an iTunes-competitor, with pay-to-download episodes. "We did this to eliminate the middleman," says NBC's Jeff Gaspin. That they did, and we suppose we finally know what NBC was talking about when it comes to "packaging options."
Posted by Web Centric at 11:50 AM 0 comments
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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!
Posted by Web Centric at 11:50 AM 0 comments
Filed under: Cellphones, Wearables
Let's be honest, Bluetooth headsets can garner awkward stares when used in public, but it's understandable if you're not keen on flashing that new iPhone whilst creeping home in the wee hours of the morning. Blazing to the rescue is the Bluetooth Mini Phone, which pairs up to your handset and goes nicely around your neck. Essentially, you can answer your phone calls with this wee, retro-influenced gizmo rather than whipping your mobile out, and while the utility here is certainly debatable, those sold on the idea can snap one up (when it returns to stock) for £24.99 ($50).
Posted by Web Centric at 11:50 AM 0 comments
Filed under: GPS, Handhelds, Portable Audio, Portable Video
Man, we've been painstakingly following iriver's development of the W10 media player since it was first rumored back in July of 2006. Well before touchscreen DAPs were all the rage. One hands-on and several postings later, iRiver seems prepped to push their baby out in November to what will assuredly be an adoring public, in S.Korea anyway. What's the fuss? 3-inch, 480 x 272 TFT touchscreen interface; WiFi with Skyhook's GPS-like positioning and NAVTEQ maps; VoIP; FM tuner; AOL XM radio streaming; 2/4/8GB capacities with miniSD expansion; and support for MP3, WMA, OGG audio and MPEG-4, WMV9 video all riding atop an iriver tuned WinCE 5.0 OS. Thing is, those NAVTEQ maps and POIs are "only suitable for US" -- a hopeful sign that we'll see these Stateside in time for the holidays.
Posted by Web Centric at 11:50 AM 0 comments
Filed under: GPS
With the almost-ubiquitous nature of GPS, it's hard to imagine that US government still maintains the ability to degrade the system's resolution or even just turn it off for national security reasons, but every GPS satellite launched to date features what the military calls Selective Availability -- an option that hasn't been used since 2000, but has still been implemented throughout the GPS system. That's about to change, however, as the Pentagon announced yesterday that new GPS satellites will no longer feature SA. No official reason was given other than a "strong commitment to users by reinforcing that this global utility can be counted on to support peaceful civil applications around the globe," but hey -- we'll take what we can get.
Posted by Web Centric at 11:50 AM 0 comments
Filed under: Portable Video
It's not clear how much of this is optimistic name-dropping and how much is real, but Australian video retailer Video Ezy (they just bought Blockbuster Australia) has announced that it's in talks with Apple, as well as several other supppliers, on a kiosk-style movie delivery system that would allow customers to download up to 40 movies onto an iPod and then pay as they watch. The system, called eBox, would still require you to actually visit a retail location, a compromise Video Ezy says is required because broadband speeds still aren't high enough to support a pure download model. We can see why Apple would be an attractive partner -- download on your iPod, watch on your Apple TV certainly seems feasible -- but true to form, Apple Australia refused to comment. Looks like we won't know the truth until eBox launches in the second quarter of next year.
Posted by Web Centric at 11:50 AM 0 comments
Filed under: Desktops
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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!
Posted by Web Centric at 11:49 AM 0 comments
Filed under: Misc. Gadgets
Developments in nanotechnology aren't all hard drive and bionic-hornet related -- researchers at the University of Missouri have developed a "dual-use" nanotech drug delivery device that they say can be used to target HIV and cancer. The device, which has a total volume of just a cubic inch, fires off supersonic shockwaves to make nearby tissues permeable to the proper drugs. The tech is still three years from being made available to pharmaceutical companies, but we're definitely counting the days until we can treat our colds with nanotech shockwaves.
Posted by Web Centric at 11:49 AM 0 comments
Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video
That purported iAudio X5 picture above comes courtesy of the Chinese language site Reesun. Authentic? Sure, why not. The only real difference we see is a thinning of the overall device along with a uniform flattening of the front panel which allows the joystick to move front-and-center just the way the good lord intended it. You know, like the way the earth is a perfect circle at the center of the known universe, eh Copernicus? But 30GB... you'll be tempting her wrath with that pitiful tithe Cowon.
Posted by Web Centric at 11:49 AM 0 comments
Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video
Posted by Web Centric at 11:49 AM 0 comments
Filed under: Gaming
Pocket-link UK is confidently reporting that those 40GB PS3 rumors are true. In fact, they've gone so far as to claim that Sony has turned away from ASUS and in the direction of Foxconn to manufacture their new entry-level console. Pricing is still unknown but formerly pegged at $400 for the US. If there's any truth to this then we should expect a Sony announcement to come during the Tokyo Game show, underway as we speak, or early next week in order to "spoil" Microsoft's Halo 3 launch.
Posted by Web Centric at 11:49 AM 0 comments
Filed under: Displays, Household
It's one thing to have an outdoor viewable, waterproof LCD TV, but you can seriously up the bragging if that set is integrated right into your jacuzzi. For those that settle for only the best, Catalina Spas is offering up a "61-inch Theater Spa," which not only seats four very comfortably, but it also includes a 61-inch LCD HDTV that "automatically stores along the side wall of the spa and raises and lowers for viewing." Of course, considering that it's "priced upon request," you should probably bring the bank if eying this one with any level of seriousness.
Posted by Web Centric at 11:49 AM 0 comments