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Meet the robot enforcer: The Husqvana DXR 310 demolition robot

Posted: 23 Apr 2010 06:30 PM PDT

I for one welcome our new robot overlords.. And I have the sinking feeling that this particular robot will be the enforcer of the group. It’s a damn good thing that the Cylons didn’t have one of these, or it would have just chewed through the side of the Galactica and made for a very short series.

All kidding aside, the Husq.. Husqv.. the DXR 310 is a industrial demolition robot designed to work in hard to reach, or just plain dangerous areas. Everything is controlled hydraulically, but it’s actually powered by an electric motor. This self-propelled robot also has a variety of attachments, like jack hammers, scoops, and claws. This means it can tear through pretty much anything the operator (who controls it remotely) wants to. No idea how much it costs, I suspect if you have to ask, you can’t afford it.

[via Red Ferret]

CrunchDeal: 1TB for $70

Posted: 23 Apr 2010 06:00 PM PDT

Just to help you spend your paycheck today, we’ve got another CrunchDeal for you. Let’s say you’re running out of space, so you don’t have enough room to download Left 4 Dead 2. No problem, Newegg.com is selling a Western Digital Caviar Green 1TB drive for $70. This is the SATA 3.0Gb/s version, with the 4kb physical sectors. That makes it perfect for Windows 7, but no so great for XP. You can still use it, but it’ll require WD’s Align application. It’s still a great deal at $70, particularly if you have something like a NAS. The Western Digital Caviar Green drives actually run a little cooler then most other models, so you shouldn’t run into thermal issues.

[via Tech Report]

This robot appendage could dismantle you before you had a chance to scream

Posted: 23 Apr 2010 05:30 PM PDT


This is a great demonstration of the speed and precision with which things like car factory robots can manipulate things. Remember those arms that were throwing a baseball back and forth? Throw in a little human interference and this is what you get.

In case you can’t tell, the little platform is being controlled by a Wiimote. Obviously the creators have capped the platform’s speed at something the robot arm can keep up with, but it’s still impressive to watch. Now just imagine one of these things dissecting you in fast forward and keeping all the useful parts — you know, after they take over.

On the bright side, they’ll probably be able to serve ramen even faster.

[via Crave]

ATP SSD connect to the USB header on your motherboad

Posted: 23 Apr 2010 05:30 PM PDT

This is brilliant. I’m not 100% sure what the practical application is yet, but I think I want one. ATP built an SLC NAND-based solid state drive designed to plug directly into the USB header on your motherboard. Great idea right?

ATPs product doesn’t have a huge storage capacity, so I’m not sure what you’d use it for, but the idea has promise. The drive is only available in capacities of 512mb to 4GB, but the transfer speeds are up to 30 Mb/s, and you could boot from it. No word on how much it’s going to cost, but according to ATPs website you should be able to buy it at Wal-Mart and Target.

[via Tom's Hardware]


Lomography Diana F+ winner! Plus: consolation prize!

Posted: 23 Apr 2010 05:00 PM PDT


Congrats to Jay S., who will be shooting weird multi-exposure photos on a brand new Diana F+ in just a few short days. Thanks to everyone who entered!

If you didn’t win, that’s very sad, but we have a consolation prize for you. Use the coupon code CRUNCHGEAR at checkout to save 15% off whatever Lomo stuff looks cool to you. There’s some pretty cool stuff for under $50 there.

Asus Eee Pad coming in July

Posted: 23 Apr 2010 04:30 PM PDT

We’re about to see another manufacturer throw their hat into the Tablet PC ring. ASUS is expected to show out their EeePad in June at Computex, with a July launch date. Of course, ASUS has a reputation for needing to push those launch dates out a little bit, so we’ll see if things go as planned.

After their market domination with the netbook PC, ASUS is looking to repeat that success by addressing the complaints that are cropping up with that other pad computer out there. ASUS has stated that they are planning on running Android, including a webcam, and a USB port. The only thing that worries me is the price, I think they’ll need to come in lower then the iPad if they want to compete. Current estimates put the EeePad at between $479 and $500. I’ll be honest, I’m a little more excited about this then I was about the iPad.

[via Gizmodo]

Soon you won’t even have to touch that touchscreen

Posted: 23 Apr 2010 04:00 PM PDT


One of the issues that comes up in touchscreen user interfaces is that, well, you have to touch them. Sure, you can move your finger, or use two, or tap it twice, that sort of thing — but you’re either touching it or not. Essentially you only have one type of “click” any given input can do. Hover detection is something Wacom tablet users will be familiar with, as the type of detection used by their pads is a different kind, in fact designed around the idea of the hover and touch as separate input elements. But on smartphones, not so much.

Cypress’s newest TrueTouch touchscreen, conveniently smartphone-sized, detects hovering like a champ. About a quarter of an inch from the screen, a finger can be detected, and to some extent its distance can be determined. This could be the beginning of something very interesting.

The trouble is, of course, how to handle this new and foreign input? That’s what she said, by the way. But seriously. Hovering over things is a naturally passive behavior for us, since we’ve learned on our phones and other devices that it doesn’t really do anything. I don’t want to get into all the UI implications here, though I might at a future date, but if this technology is adopted (it’d be a strong point against the iPad in a competing tablet), it’ll be fun to see how it gets taken advantage of.

[via SlashGear]

Dodongo dislikes video game soap (not me though, I like it)

Posted: 23 Apr 2010 03:30 PM PDT


Oh, soap. You are made in so many shapes and colors. Even, though I never would have guessed it, Super Nintendo cartridge shape and color. I can’t tell you how many of these soaps I want to have, though I’d be hard pressed to choose between Triforce and Pac-Man when washing my hands. Plus, I still haven’t used up my Han Solo.

[via GameSetWatch (nice headline) and GearFuse]

Steer your car with your eyes? Sure, what’s the worst that could happen?

Posted: 23 Apr 2010 03:00 PM PDT


For some reason, I get the feeling that this eyeDriver technology will not be adopted widely, or at least not in consumer vehicles. I mean, with this thing on, being aware of pedestrians means driving through them. And what if a car pulls up next to you and you look over to see whether it’s turning? Crunch!

To be fair, this stuff really isn’t meant for commuters. I can think of applications for people without hands or arms, for instance, or for the military. One less guy driving means one more guy shooting.


And the research isn’t being done for Ford or something. It’s about AI and eye tracking more than anything. I’m guessing it’ll be snapped up by Lockheed Martin or something, and used by fighter pilots.

[via Reddit; images: Gero Breloer / AP, Thilo Kunz /AFP/Getty Images]

Review: GelaSkins for iPad

Posted: 23 Apr 2010 02:26 PM PDT

Short Version:

GelaSkins for iPad do everything they promise, and they do it well. For 30 bucks a pop, it’ll wrap your iPad up in a work of art — be it one of GelaSkin’s roughly 200 pre-designed pieces, or one of your own. It also does a fine job of protecting the back of the iPad from whatever grit and grime might be sitting between it and your desk.

Long Version:

I’ve got a problem. You see, I love to customize my stuff. I paint it. I shoot at it with lasers. I put stickers all over it. If something I own looks the same as one you could pick up at the store, it’s because I just bought it that day.

My problem: I get tired of customizations fast. As soon as the paint dries, I’m mad at myself for painting it pink instead of black. As soon as the lasers taper off, I’m wondering why the hell I just etched an obese cat riding a unicorn onto my $500 device. As soon as I work all the bubbles out from beneath a sticker, I’m trying to figure out how the hell I’m going to get rid of all the sticky residue once I peel it off.

Enter GelaSkins. These things are essentially big ol’ high-quality stickers, printed on a material that, through what I can only assume is the devil’s work, leaves no residue when peeled away.

GelaSkin’s got a catalog of around 200 pieces, ranging from the emo chicks to emo robots. If none of their offerings pop your kernel, they’ll also print up your own design at no extra cost. I went with Nanami Cowdroy’s Ink Pond.

This thing goes on like lotion, and comes off like a prom dress. I’ve put a whole lot of these sorts of things (mainly screen protectors) on devices. It’s generally an absurdly frustrating process; getting them to go on is one thing – but getting them to go on without looking like bubble-filled crap? That’s almost always a whole different story – but not with these.

GelaSkins have an odd grid of squares etched lightly into the back of the material — and whatever this does makes the entire application experience a breeze.

Peeling it off is even easier. It comes up without a struggle when you slip a fingernail underneath, but I’ve yet to see any stray, unwanted peeling after slipping it in and out of my bag a ton. (For reference, I’ve had another GelaSkin on my MacBook Pro for around 4 months now. No peeling there, either). I’ve applied and removed this skin a few times now, and it seems like it would maintain its stick for at least a dozen applications if you bought more than one and wanted to rotate.

The skin comes in two pieces: front and back. I probably won’t use the front piece after this review — there’s nothing inherently wrong with it, I just like the way the front of the iPad looks originally. For people who stick with this front sheet, GelaSkins provides an iPhone OS app with matching lockscreen/homescreen wallpapers to give it a really slick, unified look. As of the time of publishing, however, this app hasn’t been updated for the iPad – while you can use the iPhone version in the mean time, the images won’t be as high resolution as you might hope. Even the “full size” images on the Gelaskins site aren’t quite big enough.

The back piece.. that, I’ll be keeping on. It’s glorious. The art is wonderfully detailed, and the material wraps the back of my iPad from edge to edge.

It also provides just a liiiittle bit of protection without bulking things up. Will it protect it against 5 foot falls or douchebags with baseball bats? Of course not. But it will protect it from a much sneakier, much more nefarious villain: all the grit and grime sitting on coffee tables and office desks everywhere. The aluminum back of the iPad is surprisingly weak against these itty-bitty monsters, resulting in equally itty-bitty scratches all over your new toy. These do a pretty good job of keeping things in like-new condition without requiring a big, bulky case.

Product page: GelaSkins iPad collection

The Goods:

  • Fantastic artwork, with great quality printing
  • Easy to put on, easier to take off.
  • It really doesn’t leave any residue

The Bads:

  • The wallpaper’s Gelaskins provides — or the ones I checked, at least) aren’t up to the iPad resolution yet. You can still use them, they just won’t look as nice as they should.

The Neutral Stuff:

  • No screen protection. The iPad’s screen is glass, so it’s not really necessary at all – but seeing how many people I see each day walking around with screen protector’s on their iPhones, it’s probably worth noting.

Air rockets are dumb. Make your own floppy drive echo / delay unit

Posted: 23 Apr 2010 02:20 PM PDT

You could spend your weekend making the compressed air rocket posted below. That’d be fun. Or you could get a few floppy drives together and make your own tape delay and reverb. Yeah, that sounds much more exciting.

This DIY project comes by way of Oakland, CA from a Daniel McAnulty. Musician, tinkerer, and just a cool guy all around.

My goal with this project was at first to make new kind of tape delay that is cheap, robust and easy to build yourself. It quickly became clear that the most interesting aspects are completely unrelated to traditional tape delay systems – random access, movable heads, simultaneous forward and reverse, changable loop size on the fly, easy automation etc. etc.

This ingenious build works on the same principle as the original tape delay units. A signal is written to the magnetic tape and then read as it passes the playback head however many milliseconds later. Add the delayed signal to your original, and suddenly it sounds like the room doubled in size.

In order to create a complete system that behaves like an original tape delay, i.e. continuous recording of your input signal, the wiring diagram gets a little crazy.

Seeing as tape delays are no longer manufactured, I will definitely be giving this build a shot.

Videos of the system in action here.

via [SynthGear]

CrunchDeal: Left 4 Dead 2 for $20 on Steam

Posted: 23 Apr 2010 01:45 PM PDT

Curse you Steam store, and all your weekend deals. I’m weak before your offers of gaming goodness, and my list of games in the new Steam client grows ever larger. It’s particularly bad when you offer games like Left 4 Dead 2 for $20. Don’t tell my wife, I just clicked on that buy button.

Unsuccessful boycott aside, Left 4 Dead 2 is a great game, and you can’t really argue with the fact that $20 is a great deal. You also get access to The Passing DLC for free, so go pick up some zombie killing goodness.


This weekend make your own compressed air rocket

Posted: 23 Apr 2010 01:17 PM PDT

I’ve always loved the compressed air rocket. I bought my son one of the pre-made ones at a science museum and it broke on first flight, which was pretty frustrating. Had I known about this MAKE video, however, I would have built my son one from scratch.

You technically don’t need more that 25 cents worth of hardware for this thing, but getting some of these parts might be cost a bit more. Here is this how-to PDF and here’s the original article.


Seattle civil rights issue turns on hacking and police gadgetry

Posted: 23 Apr 2010 12:40 PM PDT


When you watch CSI or 24, you see all kinds of technology being employed to catch the bad guy. On a regular police beat, however, much of that technology is used for administration, records, and protection of the cops against allegations of abuse of authority, brutality, and so on. Either way, it’s comforting to know that every interaction I’ll have with a cop if I were to be, say, arrested for being a blogger on a Friday night, will be recorded and kept at least for the duration of the trial.

That’s something that also comforted Eric Rachner way back in 2008, after a stunt that those of us in the neighborhood heard about shortly after. Some drunken street golf (don’t ask) resulted in a bystander being hit with a foam ball; the police were called, and a few of the guys were arrested. Rachner wasn’t actually implicated in the “assault,” and having done no crime, he refused to show his ID to an officer. The officer arrested him for obstruction of justice. Rachner ended up spending only a couple hours in jail, but charges were filed.

Now here’s the key part. Being sure he had committed no crime, and knowing there was a recording of the entire arrest, he and his lawyer requested the video. The Police refused to provide it on the grounds that the charges were pending, and some months later when the charges were dropped and the recordings requested again, they responded that the recordings were “past [their] retention period” and had been erased. Essentially, they wouldn’t give him the recording of his arrest until they knew they couldn’t. Sounds sketchy to me.

Rachner thought so too. As a computer security expert and “amateur civil rights buff” who believed a violation had occurred, he found it a lot to swallow. Could they really be deleting everything after 90 days? In this era of infinite storage? He felt sure that footage involved in an ongoing case would almost certainly be retained. After making sure it’d be legal, he started going over every detail of the video recording equipment and process. And after some investigation he had determined that a log is kept of every video that is recorded, watched, or deleted. He requested the log, and (I suspect) seeing the gig was up, the records department surrendered it, along with the videos the police had said didn’t exist (they later said there was a server error, which is not reflected in the logs). That was March of this year.

It’s really just a simple story of police trying to protect their own, but it really only reached its conclusion a short time ago, when Rachner’s investigation finally bore fruit — which is the reason I’m writing it up now and not last year. I thought it was interesting how this whole thing turned on the knowledge that data usually goes somewhere, and a little technical expertise and willpower set things right. It’s really only tangentially related to gadgets, but I think it’s a nice reminder of the responsibility we all bear in a society that relies on technology more and more every day.

More details and video at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

Review: Kodak 7250 All-in-One Printer

Posted: 23 Apr 2010 11:32 AM PDT

Scrapbookin’ and it feels so good

Short Version: Kodak knows how to make low-cost printers with plenty of great features. The 7250 is no exception.

Features:

  • 802.11n wireless and Ethernet
  • LCD display
  • 32ppm black and wite, 30ppm color
  • Wireless printing from iPhone, Blackberry
  • MSRP: $199

Pros:

  • Great networking features
  • Compact
  • Duplexing

Cons:

  • UI a bit hard to follow
  • Low-resolution LCD
  • Small paper trays

There are few things are boring as printers. Perhaps you could think of a few things – maybe C-SPAN or modern dance – but if you’re looking for a printer you’re probably going to go to the store, pick the cheapest thing you see, and plug it in, and start printing. The less attention paid the better.

Well, not all all-in-one printers are created equal. While most of them work just fine out of the box, it’s the little differences that make a big difference. The 7250 has a few of those little features.

First, it has 802.11n networking. Not amazing in itself, but it’s nice to have. You also have an Ethernet port as well as a PictBridge support. Most important, however, is iPhone and Blackberry wireless printing, a surprising addition that is actually quite useful.

The cost of ink is also excellent for this printer. At $9.99 for black and white and $17.99 for color is pretty great. The print outs weren’t absolutely stellar but they were sufficiently sharp and crisp with a fresh ink cartridge.

Duplexing is also included, which is a great addition. The scanner/copier is also quite intelligent, splitting separate scanned documents into separate files even during the same scan job.

A few little extras I liked? Built-in templates for to-do lists, graph paper, and the like as well as quick color and black and white copies.

Bottom Line

Kodak tried stuff a lot of power into a small package. It’s an impressive printer but they did cut corners on the resolution of the 2.4-inch LCD. As I mentioned before, I’ve seen sharper prints from other, more expensive printers, but if you’re looking for something that’s inexpensive, you’re going to do just fine with this thing.

Product Page

Video: The many multi-player modes of Red Dead Redemption

Posted: 23 Apr 2010 11:00 AM PDT

We’re only a month out from the release of Rockstar’s Red Dead Redemption, and if there’s anything we’ve learned in our illustrious history is that if it’s Friday, it’s video day here. There’s no writing required and no reading required—everyone wins! Anyhow, today’s Red Dead Redemption video highlights the game’s many multi-player modes. Pretty sure East Side Dave, who’s currently beating Fez in another gripping Siren Series on Ron and Fez, is in the game. (Update: Dave won!) I can’t wait.


LOL! Some1s stealing ur car!: Viper SmartStart for iPhone gets push notifications

Posted: 23 Apr 2010 10:49 AM PDT

We’ve written about the Viper SmartStart system before. It’s the $30-per-year iPhone/BlackBerry app that, when paired with a $500 component in your car, ensures that you never have to worry about strenuous nonsense like turning a key to start your car or unlock your doors ever again.

Up until this point, its been a one way deal. You can tell your car to turn on and fire up the AC, or use your alarm to scare the hell out of people in parking lots miles away – but what if your car wanted to talk back to you?

Now it can!

Read the rest at Mobilecrunch >>

Can you guess the inspiration for the Bionic Handling Assistant?

Posted: 23 Apr 2010 10:30 AM PDT


What you see here is the Bionic Handling Assistant, a sort of robotic arm designed to improve the interaction between humans and robots. Clearly this thing was inspired by Doc Ock from Spider-Man, right? There can be no doubt! Look at those articulated arms. Look at those pincers. Look at the sheer menace these things give off!

Actually, the Bionic Handling Assistant was inspired by elephant trunks.



Pretty cool stuff. I’d love to see these in real-world use on a factory floor somewhere.

Via MedGadget.

HTC tells Palm “It’s not me, it’s you”, backs away from acquisition

Posted: 23 Apr 2010 10:05 AM PDT


NOOOOOOOOOOO.

There I was, letting myself get excited about possibility of HTC acquiring Palm. I mean, can you imagine webOS on HTC-made hardware? I’d buy one for each hand. Alas, those hopes and dreams have been dashed.

Read the rest at MobileCrunch >>

What could be better than watching MLB games on your PS3?

Posted: 23 Apr 2010 10:00 AM PDT

Back in my day a video game console was a video game console. Now? They’re all over the place. The latest example: Sony has inked a deal with Major League Baseball to bring live baseball games to a PS3 near you.

No price has been announced for the service. Plain ol’ MLB.tv costs you $100 per year, or $20 per month. HD costs extra. I guess the league has to pay for those fancy camera somehow.

I think in the UK you can watch Sky Sports live on the Xbox 360, and word on the street is that Microsoft is, or has been, trying to convince Disney to send over ESPN programming to Xbox Live.

Not sure I understand the point of this, but if it floats your boat, eh, no harm there.

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