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Video: The Robo-Chef Makes Chinese Cooking Easy

Posted: 04 Mar 2011 05:22 AM PST

Cooking Chinese food? There is a robot for that: made by Japan-based MIK, the aptly named Robo-Chef boasts a number of pretty advanced cooking skills. It prepares various Chinese dishes like stir-fried noodles, stir-fried vegetables, fried rice “automatically” – basically anything that can be cooked in a wok.

MIK says that with the Robo-Chef “everybody can cook Chinese cuisine with no training”. Just place all ingredients you need in the wok and watch the Robo-Chef shake and rotate.

MIK offers the Robo-Chef as a gas type and an IH type, with the former retailing for $10,900. The company says it already sold the robot to buyers in six countries.

Here’s a video of the newest version (recently shot by Diginfonews in Tokyo):

Elfoid: Creepy Robot Cell Phone (Video)

Posted: 04 Mar 2011 04:05 AM PST

When it comes to bizarre robots, you can always count on Hiroshi Ishiguro: the so-called Elfoid [JP], a mix between mini humanoid, telepresence robot and cell phone, isn’t exactly made by him but based on his Telenoid robot from last year. Developed by Japan's Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute (ATR), the Elfoid phone is supposed to make remote communication more intimate and personal.

The 20cm long Elfoid features a number of control buttons (which are hidden behind its skin) and a camera that captures emotions on your face and your head’s movements. The Elfoid used by the person you are talking to replicates the information “in real-time”, transmitting not only your voice but also your “feelings”.

The ATR hopes to have a commercial version of the phone ready within 5 years. The plan is to equip future Elfoids with a range of motors, sensors and other bells and whistles to boost the level of realism.

Here’s a video:

Via Asahi Shimbun [JP]

Confirmed: Bungie’s Next Game Will Be An MMO

Posted: 03 Mar 2011 06:42 PM PST


Not every developer gets the headline treatment when they make an announcement like this, but Bungie is not just any developer. I don’t have a lot of love for Halo, but I respect Bungie and they’re a huge force in the market, so when they confirm their next project is “a massively multiplayer action game”, people like Blizzard tend to take notice.

Beyond what Bungie’s David Aldridge said at GDC today, there’s no new information, so we’ll probably have to wait until E3 before we hear anything new. It’s exciting, though — more competition for WoW is always good, in my opinion. (And here’s hoping it’s based in the Marathon universe.)

Doom: The Love Child Of D&D And NeXT

Posted: 03 Mar 2011 06:31 PM PST


We here at CrunchGear love John Carmack. His Quakeworld 2010 keynote remains one of our favorite no-nonsense tech talks, up there with the unveiling of the iPhone. So when he speaks, we listen with interest. Unfortunately, he wasn’t at GDC to talk about the origins of Doom, everyone’s favorite mom-shocking FPS from the early 90s. Fortunately, John Romero and Tom Hall were. Man, I wish I was there!

I’ve always been interested in the development of Doom and Quake, since those games were a serious cut above the competition at the time, and have aged extremely well. Some stuff is known about the incubation process of the game, but Romero and Hall today talked about how they digitized clay models on their NeXT Cube, played and replayed levels, and how they basically were inspired by (read: ripped off) D&D for a lot of their levels and monsters.

1up has more info on the panel, but I’m hoping a full transcript or video will be available later, this super-early game development stuff is really interesting to me.

Handy Android App: Launch Task Of Your Choice When You Plug In USB Or Headphones

Posted: 03 Mar 2011 06:00 PM PST


This is pretty sweet, I’m actually going to download it right now. Pretty much the only time I plug my phone in now is when I’m heading to bed, and the only time I plug in a headset is to listen to music. So why not get an app that automates launching those apps, saving me a few swipes of the finger? Plug In Launcher does just that. Useful!

[via Addictive Tips and Lifehacker]

Drop By The Behemoth’s Booth At PAX To See Their Hand-Built Arcade Machines

Posted: 03 Mar 2011 05:30 PM PST


If you’re going to PAX East this year, you should be sure to head over to The Behemoth’s booth (developers of Castle Crashers among other things) and check out their sweet arcade cabinets, which they’ve constructed by hand for you to fiddle around with. Four will be running their newest game, BattleBlock Theater, and one will have Castle Crashers on it for your medieval beat-em-up pleasure.

I’ve always wanted a home arcade machine. How hard can it be, anyway?

[via SlashGear]

Krator Desktop Speakers Inspired By Sydney Opera House

Posted: 03 Mar 2011 04:56 PM PST


Distinctive yet tasteful desktop speakers are hard to come by; I was always slightly jealous of my Mac friends and their cool Harmon Kardon Soundsticks (not that they were only for Mac, but you know what I mean), since the best PC speakers from Logitech and Klipsch have always been… not ugly, certainly, but not stylish, either.

Now, I’ll be the first to admit that these speakers from Krator aren’t for everyone, but at least they’ve got a definite design reference, bold lines, and a unique look.

They actually revealed a few different speaker sets over at CeBIT, but Akihabara News has the pictures and info, and I’d hate to just duplicate their content here. Will we ever see these speakers stateside? Anything’s possible, I guess.

Vetted, A New Shop For Exquisitely Overpriced Designer Goods

Posted: 03 Mar 2011 03:52 PM PST


Every once in a while I spend a few minutes perusing Supermarket, looking at all the things I can’t afford (like this fabulous lamp). There are a few such direct-from-designer shops out there, and now there’s one more. Vetted was started late last year and is offering a few items you might like.

For instance, I remember this Music Balloon from a while back, but this its US debut, I think. Cute and well-designed. Truth be told there’s really not a lot there yet (though their stationery section is robust), as it seems the editors of the store are quite selective. Check back occasionally, though, and you’ll be the first on your block with the next equivalent of a shirt with an X on it.

[via Swiss Miss]

Wi-Fi Xoom With “Homeycomb” To Sell For $539?

Posted: 03 Mar 2011 03:14 PM PST


An inside man or woman at Sam’s Club has sent Droid-Life a few pictures of the Motorola Xoom end cap display there, and the price is refreshingly low, considering the total cost of ownership for a subsidized 3G one. $539 is still a chunk of change, but it might give the iPad shopper pause. Bear in mind these prices are unconfirmed, and considering the other errors on the placard (“Android 2.0 Homeycomb”) could easily be a mistake or guess.

Trends Show Android Gaining Among The Young And Vivacious

Posted: 03 Mar 2011 02:42 PM PST

This little study by Nielson doesn’t actually say “vivacious,” but it’s implied — right there in the headline. The study is just an exercise in statistics and a look at the smartphone market, but it’s always worth taking a look and speculating based on the big bottom-line numbers like total market share.

These two attractive charts detail the distribution of OSes and manufacturers among smartphone owners, which, it should be noted, make up only about 25% of the mobile-using population, in the US at least. The information is through January of this year, so it’s quite current. So who’s winning? Everybody, it looks like. It really is a dead heat at the moment, but like Jell-O, there’s always room for analysis.

Continue reading…

The Snow Sledding Winch Makes Sledding More Fun But At What Cost….

Posted: 03 Mar 2011 02:08 PM PST

I’m by no means hating on this particular invention because it will without question extending the best part of sledding — the actual sledding — while reducing the worst part of sledding — walking up the damn hill. The winch even has a safety switch in case a little one gets close to the gears. But seriously, we’re at the point in our evolution where we can’t even walk up a hill? Sigh. Click through for the video demo.

Star Wars Is Going 3D Starting On Feb 10, 2012 — Or Rather, George Lucas Will Fail Humanity On Feb 10, 2012

Posted: 03 Mar 2011 01:46 PM PST

Take offensive action! It’s a trap! Oh never mind. The right people aren’t listening. Star Wars is going 3D and short of a glorious asteroid crashing into Earth, there’s not a damn thing we can do about it. The plan is to release one film a year in 3D starting with Episode One on February 10, 2012. This chronological order will retell the story in proper timeline order while at the same time giving Lucas a potential escape pod just in case the 3D fad dies before it’s time to release A New Hope in the gimmick that is 3D. Please let the Mayans be right.

First Hands-On With The Phosphor Reveal Crystal Watch

Posted: 03 Mar 2011 12:24 PM PST


The Phosphor Reveal is one of the coolest timepieces I’ve seen in a long time. This is an extremely simple digital watch with a surprising trick: it shows the time by “flipping” little jewels from dark to light. The face is actually covered in little crystal nubs but some of the nubs can retract into the body of the watch and, in essence, disappear.

The watch contains a few hundred Swarovski crystals and uses a micro-magnetic mechanical movement to move them up and down. This model, made and sold by E-ink watchmakers Phosphor will be available on March 7 for an unannounced price.

This model has two read-outs, a time display and a seconds display. You change the time by holding down the button and advancing the hours and minutes. It’s quite simple, but this is the first watch that my wife actually loved out of the box. It’s a really cool idea and a very handsome timepiece.

Here is a quick video of the watch in action. I love how the read-out makes a little tapping noise when the digits change.

Control Your Hexapod Robot Via Bluetooth

Posted: 03 Mar 2011 11:16 AM PST

Dan Piponi made this wild, Bluetooth-controlled Hexapod just for kicks and it looks like a lot of fun. The best part? He gave us all the instructions so we can build one ourselves.

This is obviously completely beyond my understanding, but all the DIY instructions and code are here and presumably you could attach this to another robot and make something even cooler do something cooler. I’d attach this to a kegbot and go nuts.

The only thing you need is the robot and a BlueSMiRF Gold Bluetooth modem. You also need some skill as an electronics engineer, but that’s a given.

via Make


U.S. Air Force Prepares For Second X-37B Launch

Posted: 03 Mar 2011 11:00 AM PST

What is the U.S. Air Force doing up there? The mysterious X-37B spacecraft will begin its second voyage on Friday, provided the weather cooperates. It’s not the same exact spacecraft that went up last April, but it’s the same model. The Air Force has classified the activities of the spacecraft, so unless we have another Wikileaks we’ll have no idea what it’s doing up there.

Boeing made the spacecraft, and it’ll hurtle up there on top of an Atlas 5 rocket.

The X-37B resembles the Space Shuttle, but it’s slightly smaller. It can stay in orbit for 270 days. The most the Air Force will say about the program is that’s being used to test out new and exciting technologies.

I know this seems sparse, but actual information is sorta hard to come by when the military deems something classified. I’m shocked even the spacecraft’s existence has been acknowledged.


The SmartShopper Makes You A Smart Shopper

Posted: 03 Mar 2011 10:20 AM PST


In my house, we have a baseline shopping list that contains the things we almost always need to buy — you know, the things we go through quickly like milk, butter, rubber bands, extension cords — and then a rotating selection of fancy cheeses we’d like to try. We usually don’t bother to write down our staple items because we buy them so regularly, but sometimes we get waylaid in the grocery store by some new free samples and then forget to buy what we really need. That’s why I’m excited about the SmartShopper, “a voice recognition grocery list organizer” with an intuitive interface that is “fun to use and easy to master.” Fun and voice activated? Sign me up!

Here’s just a quick peek at the Smart Shopper’s list of features:

  • Two lists can be individually named and kept simultaneously.
  • Smaller, More attractive look.
  • Category Mgt. which allows the user to match their store layout, change and add categories.
  • Built-In Kitchen Timer
  • Flag items that you have coupons for, and designate quantities
  • Enhanced procedure for adding custom items.
  • Many others.

I should be getting a review unit soon, so stay tuned for a thorough hands-on review of this hot new kitchen technology!

Dragon Age 2 For Xbox 360 Leaks. How Will This Be Blamed On PC Gamers? (Update: And Now The PS3!)

Posted: 03 Mar 2011 09:45 AM PST

When that dev build of Crysis 2 leaked a few weeks ago, EA was quick to condemn the PC gaming community, saying that piracy "continues to damage the PC packaged goods market and the PC development community." I do wonder whether EA will be as quick to condemn console piracy now that Dragon Age 2, to be released next week, has also leaked. That’s right: the Xbox 360 version is now floating around out there, so it’s clear to me that console owners should now be subjected to the same kind of silly DRM that PC owners have had to put up with for years now.

The game can now be found wherever you find such things, and any 16-year-old with a free afternoon can figure out how to rig his Xbox 360 to run it flawlessly.

But no, PC gamers are the ones responsible for the collapse of the industry, right?

Please.

UPDATE Well look at that, the PS3 version has now leaked, according to a famous, owl-mascotted database. And we all know how terribly difficult it is to jailbreak a PS3, right? Oh, wait: it takes less than five minutes. So that’s both console versions leaking on the same day, and both before the PC version. But again, PC gamers are somehow responsible for the world’s injustices. Give me a break.

The iPad 2 Fancy Case Looks Like A Japanese Bathtub Lid

Posted: 03 Mar 2011 09:21 AM PST

Ok, first let me get this one little cultural quirk out of the way: Japanese families share bathwater and the new iPad 2 case looks just like a bathtub lid. Yeah. Really:

Japanese bath tub lid is common item in Japanese home. The reason is that in Japan, family members share the same hot water (sounds dirty? Japanese wash their body outside of tub first, and bathing is thought as kind of lustral thing. And many Japanese take bath every day.) so this lid is used to keep the water warm for the next person when you are done.


Wow. Ok. So anyway, if you’re in Japan and someone starts snickering at you (besides for having a Japanese tattoo that that you thought meant “Great Power” and instead says “Lots Of Big”), it’s probably because you’re lifting the fancy lid off of your iPad 2 and they’re remind of all the times they bathed after their dad.

via TUAW


March Madness On Demand: Free Live Streams For Your iPad

Posted: 03 Mar 2011 09:20 AM PST

What month is it? March, yes. Thanks, iCal. That means it’s time for March Madness~! (Followed by April craziness, of course.) This year the NCAA, along with its television partners Turner Sports and CBS Sports, have noticeably improved the tournament’s new media presence. Every game, and there are 68 of them, will be live-streamed, and they’ll be viewable online and on all your iOS devices, including the shiny and new iPad 2.

The app is called March Madness on Demand, and it’ll be available starting on March 10. Streams will be of the highest quality, so there’s no reason to tune into one of those shady sports live-stream sites. They’ll work over both Wi-Fi and 3G.

In addition to live-streams, fans can also look forward to live stats and what they’re calling the Coke Zero NCAA March Madness Social Arena. (Gotta love cross-promotional sponsorships.) Think live comments, news feeds, highlights, etc. Sounds a bit like the new UFC Internet pay-per-view system.

And to think, just a few years ago if you wanted to follow March Madness online you’d have to be content with mere text play-by-play commentary.

This Is Not An iPad Post. It Is About A Robotic Seal

Posted: 03 Mar 2011 08:56 AM PST

Shhhh…. sit down. Relax. Take off your shoes. That’s right. Just unclench that fist. Ok. Ok. That’s right.

This is not an iPad-powered robotic seal. No, don’t worry. Sit back down. Ok. Look. This seal plays basketball. I know, right? Swish! Nothin’ but net!

That’s the stuff. How about a whiskey? Don’t drink? Maybe some kombucha? OK. There you go. Just drink it down. Breathe.

Breathe.

via Ubergizmo


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