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CrunchGear
CrunchGear |  |
- The cheapest iPad case you’ll see today
- Mahru: Meet Korea’s awesome dancing humanoid (videos)
- UFC Undisputed 2010 roster revealed: Who else wants to ‘disrespect’ Anderson Silva?
- Daily Crunch: Terrestrial Duel Edition
- James Cameron helping design 3D camera for new Mars rover
- Verbarius: a FuzzyClock for your bedroom
- VW rolls out folding electric bicycle
- Darth Coffee Cup, everyone
- World’s largest telescope to open in Chile
- CrunchDeals: Zx1 weather-proof Pocket Video Camera for $54
- Steam for Mac made official for May 12
- Open source handheld Pandora’s maker explains delays
- Apple news of the weird: iPad causes MacBook Pro to freak out, turn off?
- Self-leveling Acadalus tripod head keeps your horizons straight
- Nikon patents strange LCD screen
- Plugable shows off new USB display and docking adapters
- Microsoft cancels the Courier, the Internet sheds a tear
- OLPC gets a boost: 500,000 units ordered by U.N. for Palestinian children
- Tesla to bring out CUV in 2013, other vehicles in 2014
- Acer preparing to flood the MID market this May
| The cheapest iPad case you’ll see today Posted: 30 Apr 2010 05:32 AM PDT
Step 1: Get a padded document mailer and medium-sized binder clip from your company’s supply closest. Step 2: Spend most of the morning decorating it with Sharpie and/or Expo markers also obtained from the supply closest. Step 3: Insert iPad Step 4: Seal the mailer with a binder clip Step 5: Rock out like a wannabe hipster [Thanks for the project, Kurt!]
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| Mahru: Meet Korea’s awesome dancing humanoid (videos) Posted: 30 Apr 2010 05:02 AM PDT
It’s not only Japan, but Korea is developing advanced robots, too. Case in point: Mahru, the dancing humanoid, made by the Korea Institute of Science & Technology (KIST). And this robot is way more impressive than similar models we’ve seen before. The way it works is that the robot can mimic dance (and other) moves of a nearby human operator wearing a motion capture suit. And that happens (almost) in real-time), as explained in this video: This video shows Mahru dancing and performing Taekwando moves: Via Plastic Pals via IEEE Spectrum
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| UFC Undisputed 2010 roster revealed: Who else wants to ‘disrespect’ Anderson Silva? Posted: 30 Apr 2010 05:00 AM PDT
Come May 25, you’ll be able teach that punk Anderson Silva a lesson. Well, on your Xbox 360 or PS3, that is. That’s right, THQ has announced the full roster list for UFC Undisputed 2010. (I wonder if the fighters get a royalty cut from the game like they do in WWE?) The game comes out for the Xbox 360, PS3, and PSP on May 25. Some fighters are console-exclusive or can only be obtained by pre-ordering, at least for a little while. Wouldn’t be surprised they’re made available as DLC in the following months. I’m just gonna copy-paste the list from GameSpot. It’s easier for everyone.
Not in the game: Randy Couture (he’ll be in EA Sports MMA). That stinks. (P) means pre-order, (L) means exclusive to PS3 (“Legendary fighters”), and (N) means new fighter. The game is developed by Yuke’s (published by THQ), the same folks who make the popular WWE Smackdown vs. Raw series.
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| Daily Crunch: Terrestrial Duel Edition Posted: 30 Apr 2010 12:28 AM PDT |
| James Cameron helping design 3D camera for new Mars rover Posted: 29 Apr 2010 08:18 PM PDT
The question is whether they can sell it to audiences without [via CNET]
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| Verbarius: a FuzzyClock for your bedroom Posted: 29 Apr 2010 06:30 PM PDT
The Verbarius is… how do you say, kind of a rip-off. But cool nonetheless. In fact, cool is what you’re buying when you get something by Art Lebedev. Wait a second. Why don’t we have any E-ink clocks? If they only change every minute, and even then only a little part of the screen, they could last for a year on one battery charge. Someone make this happen. Back to the clock. It spells out time in a way not unlike FuzzyClock, which I don’t find useful, though I do understand the attraction. You can load up the Verbarius with any language and it’ll happily spell it out. I’d go with piglatin, and then insist that it’s French and I should know because I speak fluent French, have been for years, etc etc. Oh, gadget jokes. Not the funniest. And yes, that little image editing up there is pretty bad, but let’s put the blame square where it belongs: on Pixelmator, because this program is really quite useless. Oh for Paint.net on a Mac. [via The Awesomer]
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| VW rolls out folding electric bicycle Posted: 29 Apr 2010 06:00 PM PDT Volkswagen just announced their latest gadget, the Bik.e – a folding electric bicycle designed to fit in the trunk of your car, in the space currently taken up by your spare tire. With a maximum range of 12.5 miles, I question whether it would be a good spare tire replacement, but I still like it. It is interesting to see a company like Volkswagen get into the electric bicycle concept though. Of course, it’s not available yet, no one knows when it will be, or how much it will cost. We do know that the Bik.e will charge itself up from your car so you won’t have to worry about keeping it powered up. Regardless of how much it costs, it definitely looks cool. I’m not 100% behind the fact that you can’t pedal it though, that kind of limits the functionality. [via Gizmodo]
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| Posted: 29 Apr 2010 05:30 PM PDT
These design competitions are fun brainstorms, but because the ideas are essentially finalized and then face professional scrutiny, a lot of them don’t make it past the first cut. Making a cup out of coffee grounds? Same problems as paper cups. Make the Darth cup above? Great, more plastic consumption. The most practical submission I see is this one, with built-in fins to help radiate heat.
Stackable, familiar form and color, same materials — which is more than I could say for the (admittedly cool) heatswell cup. It’s interesting what people come up with, though: check out the rest of the submissions here.
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| World’s largest telescope to open in Chile Posted: 29 Apr 2010 05:00 PM PDT
The European Southern Observatory will construct the world’s largest telescope in Chile. They’re calling it the European Extremely Large Telescope, and it’s being constructed in Chile because the night sky there is totally clear some 320 days per year. The name isn’t just some gimmick. The telescope’s primary mirror will be 138 feet wide, dwarfing other, similarly large telescopes. (One such telescope in Hawaii has a 33-feet wide mirror.) Any guesses as to how much it costs? I mean, how much is a enthusiast telescope these days? A fancy one will run you maybe in the $100 range (give or take). Try one billion euros ($1.3 billion). Chump change! If all goes well, the telescope could be up and running by 2018.
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| CrunchDeals: Zx1 weather-proof Pocket Video Camera for $54 Posted: 29 Apr 2010 04:30 PM PDT
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| Steam for Mac made official for May 12 Posted: 29 Apr 2010 04:22 PM PDT
Whoa whoa whoa. Valve has officially announced Steam for Mac’s release date: May 12. So says an e-mail straight from Valve HQ. Feel free to freak out.
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| Open source handheld Pandora’s maker explains delays Posted: 29 Apr 2010 04:00 PM PDT
The full story can be found in this interview over at MaxConsole, but the gist is that they underestimated the amount of time it takes to go from prototype to production. They had the final spec ages ago but with several thousand orders the only way they could do it was via Chinese factories, which are apparently taking forever. Like they put in the order in October forever. Still, the project is very much alive and if you haven’t looked into it yet, now’s your chance. This thing looks like pretty much the ultimate retro gaming handheld, and it’s got a full Linux-based OS as well, so you’ll have a whole bunch of apps and games to choose from aside from emulated ones. We hope to hear from these fellows as soon as they start shipping. You can pre-order ‘em here.
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| Apple news of the weird: iPad causes MacBook Pro to freak out, turn off? Posted: 29 Apr 2010 03:20 PM PDT This is an interesting little video. This fellow put his iPad down on his MacBook Pro to answer a phone call (hmm) and observed the bizarre behavior shown above. Seems inexplicable, but the only explanation is that the MacBook thinks its lid is being closed. There must be some element of the iPad that reacts with the magnet or sensor that detects the MBP’s lid is shut. Probably something to be aware of if you’re a big Apple fanboy and often stack one Apple product on another.
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| Self-leveling Acadalus tripod head keeps your horizons straight Posted: 29 Apr 2010 03:00 PM PDT
Well, maybe robotic isn’t the right term, but the Acadalus uses a built-in inclinometer and motors to level your camera just right, without any help from you, you fallible, fleshy human. After it’s leveled itself (which according to PDN Gear Guide it does just fine) you can adjust it with the buttons there. This isn’t for moving video shots, though — I don’t think it would work well for that. If it sounds excessive to you, consider that (as the creator notes) we used to have manual focus and exposure on every shot, and now it’s adjusted for us — often to the setting we would have chosen anyway. For a tripod, you want a perfectly level shot 90% of the time, why not make it easy on yourself? I mean, assuming you’ve got a spare $5000. [via Gadget Lab]
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| Nikon patents strange LCD screen Posted: 29 Apr 2010 02:30 PM PDT
In my opinion, it’s a for some kind of hybrid still and video camera. It just feels like something that you’d see on the back of a pretty advanced camcorder, but we still see the manual controls you’d expect on a still camera. Of course, I could be completely wrong, but that’s the fun of it right? Here’s Nikon’s wording from the patent application:
Nothing really concrete there, right? Well, I’m sure we’ll see what it is later. Here’s some more images from the patent application.
[via Nikon Rumors]
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| Plugable shows off new USB display and docking adapters Posted: 29 Apr 2010 02:00 PM PDT
The Plugable UGA-125 is available today, selling for $49.99 with free shipping, this model is a basic adapter that allows you to mirror your display to an external monitor, and not much else. The UGA-125-HUB is available shortly, selling for $59.99. This model is a display adapter along with a 4 port USB 2.0 hub. And for a universal USB docking station in a single unit, the Plugable UD-160-A is $96.99. From the press release:
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| Microsoft cancels the Courier, the Internet sheds a tear Posted: 29 Apr 2010 01:12 PM PDT
The Microsoft Courier will never make it out of Microsoft’s labs and into consumers hands. The project is dead. Kaput. Finished. At least that’s what two sources told Gizmodo. Apparently the Courier team got an email from Microsoft execs that stated the project will “no longer be supported,” which pretty much means the project is dead. Even though it’s somewhat surprising that the project was axed seeing as it was reportedly close to completion, it’s not unheard of in other industries for companies to spend untold fortunes on a concept just for the hell of it. The auto industry has been doing it for years. Some of the concept cars that are rolled into auto shows are fully-functional models, complete with advance drivetrains and electronics. But yet they never hit the streets in a mass-market form. Perhaps the Courier was always designed as such, a technology research project and/or marketing ploy. It always seemed like a “don’t forget about ol’ Microsoft” item anyway. But it doesn’t matter any more. The Courier that we came to know from a series of orchestrated leaks is no more. But it makes you wonder what else Microsoft is working on…(that’s what Microsoft wants us to think, btw)
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| OLPC gets a boost: 500,000 units ordered by U.N. for Palestinian children Posted: 29 Apr 2010 12:30 PM PDT
Although the original goals of saturating the world with XO units seems out of reach now, there’s still a lot of good to be done. Even the growth of competitors like the Classmate PC signals that a low-cost, single-purpose computer like this is a compelling device — if they can only get governments, who sign all the big contracts, to agree. In this case, it’s the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, which is working on behalf of kids and refugees in the West Bank, Gaza, Lebanon, Syria and Jordan. Good for them. Off-topic comments will be deleted, by the way. [via ComputerWorld]
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| Tesla to bring out CUV in 2013, other vehicles in 2014 Posted: 29 Apr 2010 12:00 PM PDT
The CUV is only the beginning apparently, too. More vehicles are said to be announced for the 2013 and 2014 model years. Not too shabby for an automaker as young as Tesla. [autoweek via autoblog]
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| Acer preparing to flood the MID market this May Posted: 29 Apr 2010 11:31 AM PDT
As far as Acer is concerned, life is good. Right now, they're coming off the kind of high only good Q1 results can give, but they've got a not-so-secret plan to push even further into the black:
Brilliant plan, no? For a company like Acer, whose proverbial bread and butter are portable computing units, flooding the market with low-cost internet devices seems like the next logical step. Laptop and netbook sales for the company were up 54% year over year, and they’re taking this as a sign to dig even deeper into their niche. The upcoming MID lineup is expected to include devices from tablet size all the way down to 7 inches, and they’ve committed to running the gamut as far as hardware and software are concerned. Maybe, just maybe we’ll see them churn out the Android tablet everyone’s been clamoring for, but for now we’ll just have to wait and see. [via InfoWorld]
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A good tripod head can cost you several thousand dollars, but this one isn’t just hand-made and high-quality. It’s freaking robotic.
Patents are always so much fun, and such a source of random speculation. Take for example this new LCD display from Nikon. What could it be? Is it for a DLSR? Maybe for video? No one knows, and of course Nikon isn’t talking, but it’s interesting to put your best guess out there.
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