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Video: Mini Humanoid PALRO Now Speaks English

Posted: 21 Jan 2011 05:04 AM PST


As if mini humanoid PALRO wasn’t awesome enough already, he now can speak English, too. I always thought he was being marketed as a “male” robot, but Tokyo-based maker Fuji Soft gave PALRO a female voice (not that it really matters).

Technically, you are still looking at a robot that features 20 joints, five mics, voice recognition, mono speakers, a 0.3MP camera, Wi-Fi, a USB port, an Intel Atom 1.6GHz processor, 1GB internal memory, 4GB flash memory, and a set of sensors. PALRO stands 39.8cm tall, weighs 1.6kg.

Here’s the promo video in which you can hear PALRO conversing with a human in English:

Via Plastic Pals

Toshiba Announces dynabook 3D Laptop

Posted: 21 Jan 2011 03:24 AM PST

Like so many companies nowadays, Toshiba is betting high on 3D. The company has announced [JP] the dynabook T551/D8B, a 3D-enabled laptop that boast quite a few impressive features (glasses are required to view pictures in 3D).

Here are the main specs:

  • 15.6-inch screen with 1,366 x 768 resolution
  • Blu-ray drive (3D-compatible)
  • Core i7-2630QM (2GHz) CPU
  • 1 GB NVIDIA GeForce GT 540M graphics card
  • Intel HM65 Express chip set
  • 8GB memory
  • 750GB HDD
  • one USB 3.0 port, three USB 2.0 ports, one HDMI interface
  • 0.3MP web cam
  • Gigabit Ethernet
  • Wi-Fi IEEE 802.11b/g/n
  • Windows 7 Home Premium (64bit) plus Office Home and Business 2010

Toshiba will start selling the dynabook T551/D8B in Japan next month (price: $2,540).

Video: ZMP’s “RoboCar MEV”

Posted: 21 Jan 2011 02:01 AM PST


The idea of using robot technology for cars isn’t new, but this new model, the so-called RoboCar MEV [JP], is pretty cool. The one-seater, made by Japanese maker ZMP, is actually the company’s second robot car (following a similar vehicle they showed last February).

The RoboCar MEV is sized at 2.4x 1.0x 1.6m and weighs 350kg. Powered by two 0.29kW in-wheel motors, the car features a stereo camera, an IMU (inertial measurement unit), Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, 3G, GPS, laser ranger finders, and speed sensors. ZMP says the top speed is 60km/h.

ZMP is selling the RoboCar MEV for $83,000 and two trimmed-down versions for $35,000 and $59,000, respectively.

This video shows the robot vehicle in action:

Want To Open Your iPhone? Use This $2.35 Screwdriver

Posted: 20 Jan 2011 06:40 PM PST

I’m not sure why it took a screw type change to open everyone’s eyes that Apple’s approach to hardware and software is over-protective and damaging to user rights, especially when the problem of an uncommon screw type is easily solved by buying a new screwdriver.

Shouldn’t we be worried about all the other heinous things Apple, Sony, and other consumer tech companies are doing? The things we can’t fix by googling them and making a three-dollar purchase?

Minimalist Turntable Plays Your Records Minimally

Posted: 20 Jan 2011 06:32 PM PST


This isn’t the first turntable we’ve seen that’s been stripped down to its bare parts, but it has the distinction of being more a deconstruction than a compacting of function. The Crosley Revolution and others like it take the whole turntable idea and crush it into a single slab, but this concept from R.D. Silva seems to keep the structure of the classic record player but remove anything extraneous.

There’s an argument for both, and I can’t decide which I’d actually rather have. The concept one has a built-in speaker, which is handy… but it’s not exactly portable in the first place, so you don’t really need to care about built-in speakers. The Crosley is portable, but you’d need speakers as well. Eh! They’re both sweet in different ways.

[via Dvice]

Verizon’s “Countdown” iPhone Ad: Watch It Here So You Don’t Have To Watch American Idol

Posted: 20 Jan 2011 05:53 PM PST


Although, as usual, I feel a little silly posting a commercial, this one from Verizon thanking their customers for sticking it out (whether they really did or not) is too decent to skip. It should be playing a lot in prime time, but of course that means you have to watch prime time shows to see it. Or you could just hit play right here and get the same experience. Yes, we spoil you.

Toy DSLR Actually Shoots Stills And Video, Has Swappable Lenses

Posted: 20 Jan 2011 05:41 PM PST


Although this might actually also work as a gag gift your favorite photographer, it might be a pretty cool thing to give a kid, too. I mean really, if you want them to like the idea of interchangeable lenses and cameras, a little thing like this would be great way to introduce them.

It’s called the Chobi Cam One, and it costs around $110 (if you can figure out how to order and deliver to a non-Japan address). It shoots 1600×1200 stills and really, really bad video, though at a full 30fps. The fun part is that there are actually three extra lenses to choose from, which presumably have actually different optical qualities. They cost… looks like around $50 each. Yow! A little more and you could pick up an actual lens for your DSLR.

[via PetaPixel]

Amazon Pegs September 27th As The Star Wars Blu-ray Release Date

Posted: 20 Jan 2011 03:17 PM PST

Star Wars is finally getting released on Blu-ray. That’s a fact, jack. Sometime in September is what the initial announcement stated. Now, Amazon is listing the actual date as September 27. You know what this means? It’s time dig out the trusty Travel John and camp out in front of Best Buy. [Amazon via Engadget

Hadoukinect! Kinect Hacked To Play Street Fighter

Posted: 20 Jan 2011 02:27 PM PST

An enterprising young hacker has connected the Kinect to a keyboard controlled Street Fighter game, thereby allowing him to throw real punches at Dhalsim.

The code to run the interface is here – it’s basically a set of physical triggers that fire off key combinations – and there’s also a nunchaku add-on that allow for some true man-on-machine action.

via Shoryuken


$3.9 Billion Of Apple’s Massive Cash Reserves To Go Toward LCD Displays?

Posted: 20 Jan 2011 02:10 PM PST

When Apple announced their Q1 2011 numbers on Tuesday, Apple’s Tim Cook made an interesting comment about what Apple plans to do with their massive, nearly $60 billion, war chest of cash. Apple will do the same for some ‘secret’ components, which is not dissimilar to the time that Apple bought all the flash memory. We think we might know what the secret is and here’s why.

When Tim Cook was talking on the conference call, he stated that “we’ve historically entered into agreements with others to supply; largest one was with flash memory suppliers back in 2005 that totaled over a $1 billion, because flash would become increasingly important across product line and industry.” And because of that Apple became the largest consumers of flash memory, at the time for use in iPods. Cook later commented that the ‘secret’ deal is just like the flash deal, that it is “focused in an area that we feel is very strategic.” Cook wouldn’t say just what because of competitive advantage. So what could the next strategy be?

An interesting note in the Q1 results call is that just three months Apple sold 7.3 million iPads — 14.8 total since April — and that number is only expected to grow, especially after iPad 2 release. Some estimates have topped 50 million. That’s a lot of iPads, and that means Apple better lock down supplies to keep up with demand. If any of the rumors about a possible Retina Display are true, the difficult to produces screens need to be ready. That is where Apple is spending its $3.9 billion.

Early in July 2010, when LG was struggling to supply iPad screens, LG CEO Kwon Young-soo said that “Demand (from Apple) keeps growing and we can’t meet it all. Apple may have to delay launches of the iPad for some countries due to tight component supplies and strong demand. We are considering increasing production lines for iPad products but overall supply is likely to remain tight until early next year.” If Apple learned anything from this, then they know that it is extremely important to secure more than one supplier for future screens.

In December of 2010, there were two reports that Sharp and Toshiba were investing, along with Apple, $1.2 billion on small to midsize LCDs. It was later confirmed that Apple would be using the screens for iPhones. So what about those midsize LCDs?

On a side note, Hon Hai, a big supplier for Apple, is also said to investing $1.2 billion in Hitachi’s LCD business to build a new factory in Japan.

So all the big screen makers are reportable spending $1.2 billion each on new facilities to manufacture LCD screens and all of the work with Apple.

At the beginning of Apple’s Q1 results, CFO Peter Oppenheimer stated that the $3.9 billion had already started to get spent, with contracts starting in September 2010 and December 2010; if you notice these were all right around the times that we began to hear of the LCD investments. September, right after LG stated they were struggling to meet demand and in December when both Sharp and Toshiba were tapped for their LCDs.

“During the September and December quarters, we executed long-term supply agreements with three vendors through which we expect to spend a total of approximately $3.9 billion in inventory component prepayment and capital expenditures over a two-year period. We made approximately $650 million in payments under these agreements in the December quarter, and anticipate making $1.05 billion in payments in the March quarter.”

While this gives us no clue as to the type of screen, Retina or not, one can only imagine.

CrunchBase Information
Apple
Information provided by CrunchBase

RB5X “Intelligent Robot” From The 80s For Sale On eBay

Posted: 20 Jan 2011 01:45 PM PST


While this particular item, like most electronics in the 80s, probably overstates its capabilities to some degree, it does seem like a pretty great little testbed for up-and-coming roboticists — at least in the early 80s. Time has rendered this little guy’s 8K of RAM rather inadequate, and I’m not sure people want to program their robot in BASIC any more.

Aside from the outdated control mechanisms, this thing is surprisingly forward-thinking: it’s got modular slots for adding functionality like a robot arm or disk drive, it has pressure-sensitive bumpers and a system for remembering the layout of the room it’s in, and a “Polaroid Rangefinder” sonar sensor to aid in navigation.

You can buy this one on eBay for $2100, or try your luck on the bids. Note that it does not come with the arm, or batteries, though the seller seems to know where you can get such things.

[via Reddit]

Now Kevin Rose Is Saying The iPad 2 Won’t Feature A High-Res Screen

Posted: 20 Jan 2011 01:20 PM PST


Will the iPad 2 have a fancy new screen? That’s the question clearly on everyone’s mind. Not US/China relations, not American Idol’s dipping ratings. It’s the damn iPad 2. First the Internet stated with plenty of confidence that the next-gen iPad was going to have either a true retina display or at least one with a higher dramatically resolution. Then John Gruber threw a rat in the soup.

Gruber said, in short, “nonsense.” [my words, not his] His sources say the iPad will not have a super-res screen. Now Kevin Rose of Internet fame and fortune is saying the same thing BUT THROUGH INSTAGRAM! Because you know, Instagram puts a fun spin on everything including iPad 2 non-news. [via 9to5mac]

Can You Spot The Lacie Galet USB Drive In This Picture?

Posted: 20 Jan 2011 01:00 PM PST


Hint: it is not the cufflinks, but it is near them. Yes, that thing. Lacie is making forays into the world of fashion, if we are to take their word for it, and the Galet is their first entry. “Hand-crafted in France, each piece is individually plated with precious silver through Christofle's 150 year-old silvering process.” How luxurious!

The trouble comes when you have to plug it in. There are two issues.

First, on the fashion front, if you have anything to do with a computer while you are being fashion conscious, there’s something amiss. Most people using a laptop don’t have to look good doing it. And of course, the laptop itself is likely to be vulgar plastic, and union of such base design with this sleek silver semicircle seems unnatural.

Second, look at that chubby little thing. It’s going to block like three ports! As nice as the scalloping and silver are, it’s clear the designers weren’t thinking of usability. I mean, it’s not really about usability, but still.

The 4GB Galet costs $130. Stop, I don’t want to hear it! This is a luxury item, people.

MSI Tablet Concept Has… A Rotating Projector On It

Posted: 20 Jan 2011 12:30 PM PST


This is probably one of the more baffling concepts I’ve seen. It’s a 10-inch tablet from MSI with a projector mounted as a sort of rotating hat. There are two obvious applications: projecting an image on the wall behind the tablet (putting the image on a table results, as you can see, in a distorted image) and projecting a virtual keyboard. Of course, it can’t actually do the virtual keyboard thing, it’s just an idea.

I just reviewed the Microvision ShowWX+, which mates incredibly easily with an iPad, and can be used to throw an image anywhere, since the projector is so incredibly small and light. But a lot of the time, you’re not going to want to use a projector… so you don’t really want it permanently attached to your tablet, do you? It’s like attaching a crowbar to a screwdriver. Sure, sometimes you want both, but that doesn’t mean they combine the two.

[via Electronista]

Deloitte: 2011 Will Be The Year Of The Tablet (Say Goodbye To Your Laptop)

Posted: 20 Jan 2011 12:00 PM PST

Flickr’d

Deloitte, the multi-faceted professional services company that’s perhaps best known for its annual Football Money League study, says that 2011 will be the year that computers stop being computers. The agency says that more than 50 percent of all "computing devices" sold this year will be non-PCs. You know, things like tablets, smartphones, and the like. So not only are the days of big, hulking desktops behind us (with the exception of gaming PCs, like the Digital Storm Black Ops), but other traditional computers, like your friendly neighborhood laptop, are on the way out.

There’s two other "big" predictions from Deloitte in this release.

One is that there will be zero operating system standardization when it comes to smartphones and tablets this year. I suppose that’s true, but there sorta is standardization in that there’s only two real options out there: iOS and Android. And really, both are fine operating systems; it’s not as if you’re walking in with a loss if you pick one over the other.

The other one is that enterprise will take tablets seriously this year. Remember netbooks? Those were big for about a minute (well, a few years), and then tablets showed up on the scene, pretty much out of the blue, and flashed that Men In Black memory-easer on us all, making us forget notebooks ever existed. Enterprise never really "took" to notebooks, but that will not be the case with tablets, where it’s predicted that enterprise will purchase a solid 25 percent of all tablets this year.

The $35 Indian Tablet Delayed, Possibly Up For A Vaporware Award

Posted: 20 Jan 2011 11:42 AM PST

You must recall the $35 Indian tablet. This was the tablet that through the magic of subsidies — and outsourced Chinese labor — was going to rain from the mana from the heavens and cover all of India with affordable touchscreen computing. Yeah, that’s not going to happen anytime soon.

According to The Times Of India, the project just lost HCL Infosystems as its primary contractor. This presumably means the project will then shop around for another vender, which will then lead to a new round of contract talks, negotiations, and whatnot. Basically, don’t expect this thing anytime soon. In the mean time, India-based Notion Ink just started shipping their Indian-designed, Chinese-made tablet although this version is slightly more than $35. [Times of India via Slashgear]

TSOVET Time Watches Are Avionic Influenced

Posted: 20 Jan 2011 11:14 AM PST

We at CrunchGear love watches. So, when we see something we like, we tend to share it with you guys. Like the TSOVET Time watches, they are pretty cool and resemble avionic instruments. And now, they’re on sale.

Movements are swiss, leathers are Italian and the stainless is aeronautical-grade. Pretty top-notch stuff. Right now there is free shipping on the watches at Watchismo.com with the code TSOVETISMO, offer ends Jan 31st. If I had to go with one, I’d go with the SVT-AT76 in all black (pictured above). Price is $595.

Study: Kids Today Living A ‘Screen-Based’ Existence At The Expense Of Real Life

Posted: 20 Jan 2011 10:15 AM PST

Flickr’d

Are you suggesting we raise a generation of super-kids? Even if you are, know this: we may be raising a generation of super-kids, but we’re also raising a generation of kids who don’t know how to tie their shoes. New research, from the University of Southern California, shows that today’s kids are able to do any number of "technological" things, like playing video games or tweeting their friends, but they can’t do "normal" things as well, like tie their shoes or swim. Out with the old, in with the new.

None of this is "bad" news, per se. There’s nothing wrong with children learning how to use a computer effectively, and safely, is there? All it shows is that the skills people need to be successful are changing. I don’t see too many public schools teaching penmanship these days—where’s the outrage there?

(It sorta reminds me of something I saw last night, a young girl breaking the Guinness World Record for most consecutive hours played in a platform game, which just so happened to be LittleBigPlanet 2. Fifty hours in a row, people!)

The research shows that children these days are learning more about the world "virtually" than they are in actuality. They’re growing up in a "screen-based existence" at the expense of an actual existence, which could have detrimental effects later in life.

Then there’s the scary comparison: one in five know how to use an iPad, but only 48 percent know their home address; two-thirds can use a computer, but only one-third can write their first and last name; 73 percent can use a mouse, but only 11 percent can tie their shoes.

I’d be more concerned with this story if I didn’t hear last week at the IBM Jeopardy challenge that the average person doesn’t even come close to fully taking advantage of their capacity to learn. It took IBM four years to develop software that barely approaches the capability of the human brain, and even that’s clunky at best.

There’s no reason why children can’t learn how to both use Microsoft Word and how to tie their shoes.

The Final Fantasy XIII-2 Trailer Has Arrived

Posted: 20 Jan 2011 09:45 AM PST

Devin pretty much spoke for all of us with the Final Fantasy XIII-2 write-up of his the other day (why does the game need a sequel?), but today we have the trailer. Try to enjoy it (if you can).

Boxee Box Gets Another Firmware Upgrade, No Netflix Yet

Posted: 20 Jan 2011 08:45 AM PST

Everyone likes the Boxee Box, even Viewsonic is adding Boxee inside their new TVs. It just that, most of the other streaming media boxes have Netflix — even Apple TV. When Boxee CEO responded to complaints about Boxee’s lack of Netflix he said, “[they] are working hard to get Netflix out the door.”

As of the latest update, they didn’t work hard enough, because Netflix still isn’t there. In the latest firmware update of Boxee Box, we get Vudu. Vudu, as you know, is the Walmart owned movie-streaming service. And not dissimilar to what Amazon is doing on Roku, is offering a $5.99 credit towards the first purchase for new users.

Also included in the update are a host of performance and other bug fixes.

Demo of the Boxee Box by CEO Avner Ronen
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