CrunchGear |  |
- Japanese Company Works On 13-Foot Robot With Built-In Cockpit
- Daily Crunch: Motorized
- Amazon Finally Releases OTA Kindle Fire Update To Address Performance And Touchscreen Issues
- Kickstarter: spnKiX Are Motorized Shoes – Yes, Motorized Shoes
- Kindle Fire Display Doesn’t Stand Up To Nook, iPad 2 In Tests
- Hands-On With The 4Moms Origami Stroller
- Apple Takes One Small Step Against HTC, One Giant Leap Against Android
- Myriad Alien Vue Brings Android Apps To Your TV Without The Extra Hardware
- In Which We Reveal The Top CES 2012 Trends Without Breaking Embargoes
- Casio Cancels Its CES 2012 Press Conference
- Razer Pulls In $50 Million In Capital From IDG And Accel
- Amazon Saves Christmas With Free Expedited Shipping For The Kindle And Thousands Of Other Items
- Hands-On With The Swivl Motion-Tracking Camera Dock
- Report: Lenovo Prepping A Quad-Core LePad Tablet PC For Early 2012
| Japanese Company Works On 13-Foot Robot With Built-In Cockpit Posted: 21 Dec 2011 04:03 AM PST  The Robocalypse is near: Osaka-based Hajime Research Institute is working on a humanoid that will stand 13 feet (4m) tall, which is much taller than most other existing robots of its kind (the latest version of Honda’s Asimo, for example, is just 130cm high). It will also sport a built-in cockpit. Hajime Sakamoto, president of the institute, is on a mission. After having successfully developed a 7-foot robot in 2009 (pictured above), the plan is to build the aforementioned giant robot next, before following up with humanoids that are 26 and 59 feet tall after that. Needless to say, the 13-foot version would be the tallest humanoid out there. Sakamoto is currently trying to find more contractors and sponsors to finish the project, for example by posting videos on YouTube, setting up a Facebook page, or running a blog (all in Japanese). Sakamoto doesn’t say how long it will take to build the robot, but this picture from Monday shows him standing him next to a completed leg: Via Plastic Pals
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| Posted: 21 Dec 2011 01:00 AM PST  Here are some of yesterday’s Gadgets stories: Kickstarter: spnKiX Are Motorized Shoes – Yes, Motorized Shoes Hands-On With The 4Moms Origami Stroller Kindle Fire Display Doesn't Stand Up To Nook, iPad 2 In Tests In Which We Reveal The Top CES 2012 Trends Without Breaking Embargoes
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| Amazon Finally Releases OTA Kindle Fire Update To Address Performance And Touchscreen Issues Posted: 20 Dec 2011 07:53 PM PST  Great news, Kindle Fire owners. Amazon just announced the long overdue Kindle Fire update that’s said to resolve many of the issues with the budget tablet. Most of the common complaints are addressed: owners can now select and remove items from the carousel, the WiFi system is more robust and supports passwords, but most importantly, update 6.2.1 reportledly improves overall performance and the touchscreen response. This update has been needed from the moment the Fire hit the scene. The first round of reviews praised the Fire for its overall value but pointed to sluggish performance as the device’s major downfall. Amazon maintained a system update would resolve many of the problems. Hopefully this is the update Fire owners have been waiting for. Update 6.2.1 should start hitting Kindle Fires soon but owners can force an update using the files and instructions here. As with any system update, make sure the Kindle has ample battery life. You’ll also need a USB cable if you’re going to update the tablet manually. The bad news is that the update breaks current jailbreaking utilities including SuperOneClick. Whether done OTA or manually, the update should make Fires burn bright with a renewed vigor. The Kindle Fire isn’t going to die out anytime soon.
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| Kickstarter: spnKiX Are Motorized Shoes – Yes, Motorized Shoes Posted: 20 Dec 2011 02:16 PM PST  Some projects you want to succeed just because they’re something the world should have. Even if they’d be expensive, dangerous, and probably not as cool as you want them to be. Case in point: spnKiX, a pair of battery-powered skates that scoot you around at up to 10MPH, and look as futuristic as they sound. They do indeed look like something from the future, though after a few hours of racing through trash and dust, they’ll look like a little more 21st century. I’m not a fan of the stylized name, but maybe in the future vowels are precious and the letter C has been eliminated. So I’ll let it fly. They’ve already gone through some design versions and the Kickstarter campaign is to pay for the initial production costs. The full retail cost will be $650, though you can get a pair if you pledge $500 now. I’d wait for the reviews, personally, but hey, how many people pre-ordered Segways? Enough, apparently. The wheeled shoes contain a motor and battery, last for about two or three miles, and are controlled (to my slight disappointment) by a little wireless handheld remote. I guess a lean-based system wasn’t really practical. But I don’t think I’ll be buying rocket shoes or wheelies until there’s something a little more elegant. But in the meantime it will be a comfort to my inner child that these things at least exist.
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| Kindle Fire Display Doesn’t Stand Up To Nook, iPad 2 In Tests Posted: 20 Dec 2011 01:36 PM PST  You probably know that not all LCDs are created equal: at a given size, you can have different resolutions, lighting methods, and display-driving technologies. Apple has led the way in this regard, generally shelling out in its products for the best options available, while cheaper brands tend to take a bit off the price tag by going with a cheaper or smaller display. That’s certainly the case with the Kindle Fire and Nook Tablet, both of which are aimed at a lower price point and must make sacrifices to reach it. But an examination by DisplayMate indicates that Amazon might have cut corners just a little too much, or perhaps rushed the Fire to market without too much thought about image quality. It’s nothing truly problematic, it should be said right away, and DisplayMate notes that it’s still a good display, but it has a couple serious problems that, objectively speaking, put it on a lower tier than the competition. The “anti-reflective treatment” on the Fire appears to have backfired, as the display had the highest reflectance of any tablet they’d tested. Reflected ambient light (as in a bright room) and directed light (as from overhead lights) was significantly higher than the iPad, and more than twice as high as the Nooks, which by the by had extremely low reflectance, making it good for reading in diverse lighting situations. The reflectance also caused a reduction in effective contrast, which is bad news for reading print. The Fire also uses an outdated gallery app that doesn’t use the full 24 bits of color depth of which the display is capable, resulting in banding and apparently a washed-out look that really has no place on a premium device. The second problem may be fixed in a software update (it’s a bit like the problem Nexus Ones had back in the day), but the poor coating or material that’s resulting in the high reflectance likely isn’t going anywhere (unless this was an early batch problem). In many ways the Fire is the equal of the Nook and the iPad 2 displays, but all other things being equal, it’s just not as good. If possible, do a visual comparison in person to see if the difference is significant to you, and of course if you find the display is not up to your standards, you should feel perfectly justified in returning it. But if it looks good to you, it looks good, and there’s no point getting caught up in a few percentage points of difference here and there. Note: the article referenced is not a review of the tablets themselves, only of the performance of their displays. And the iPad, Kindle, and Nook displays are certainly comparable, being the same class of relatively high quality IPS LCD, with similar costs and similar requirements: low power, capacitive touch component, thin and lightweight. Except where there is a software component to the display performance (as with the Fire), the DisplayMate comparison is limited to an observation of how these tablets’ displays perform.
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| Hands-On With The 4Moms Origami Stroller Posted: 20 Dec 2011 12:26 PM PST  When I first saw the 4moms Origami stroller, I knew it would be a hit. It’s a robotic stroller that unfolds like the Autobots getting ready to roll out and has one of the nicest interfaces I’ve ever seen on a stroller (which is saying a lot). Why did it make me so excited? Well, first this stroller will beat the pants off any of those feature-rich Stokkes or Buzzes out there. Pull this thing out on the playground and you are the true Ninja Parent. Bugaboo? Whatever. My kid is riding Optimus Prime. I’m pleased to report that the buggy is as cool as it looks on video. The one-handed operation is seamless and incredibly satisfying and the fun LCD readout – complete with trip meter, battery level, and external temperature sensor – is just icing on the cake. 4moms is a small company based in Pittsburgh that is making a go of entering the entrenched baby market where Maclaren and Bugaboo are able to make money hand over fist while simply swapping out the seat colors. I’m glad to see some investment in stroller technology and it’s a fascinating product on many levels. I can’t review this completely right now as my wife will give birth to our newest test subject in March but from our initial tests we found the seat was a bit small for kids 3 years and older (the little girl in the video wasn’t quite comfortable). In terms of handling the buggy corners and takes bumps like a champ and an optional car seat adapter makes it good for the littlest ones. Also, to be clear, there is no way your child will get smashed inside this thing. A sensor disables the closing motor when there is any weight at all in the seat. There are a few problems, however. First, the Origami is heavy. 4moms has assuaged this a bit by adding a small central wheel on the main front hub that allows you to drag this around like a suitcase. However, lifting it is a chore, even if you have both hands free. There is clearly a lot of gearing in the front to make this work, so I can excuse it to a degree, but don’t plan on toting it around for very long. This buggy is designed to assist moms and dads who need to hold a crying baby and fold up their buggy at the same time. To that end it performs admirably, if not magically. However, I wouldn’t recommend this for a long sprint down an airport hallway nor would I suggest it get mixed in with the luggage on a flight. Then there’s the price. At $850 it’s on par with some of the fancier strollers out there but it’s still wildly expensive when compared to an umbrella stroller or the like. My recommendation would be to hit up the rich grandparents. In the end, these strollers are very cool, have a fairly strong resale value in the Baby Supply Gray Market every parent knows about, and the technology is impressive. Would I recommend it to a general buggy buyer? If you drive a lot and need to get in and out of the car as easily is possible, this thing would be a godsend. If you’re in a walking neighborhood, however, I feel that this might be a bit of overkill, especially at the price. However, if you just want to smoke other parents in the endless stroller arms race, you really can’t go wrong.
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| Apple Takes One Small Step Against HTC, One Giant Leap Against Android Posted: 20 Dec 2011 11:08 AM PST  Apple has been duking it out with Android manufacturers for the past couple years, and very few are safe. Samsung has already suffered some big losses with the banning of its Galaxy Tab in Germany and Australia. HTC, however, has remained mostly safe from Apple’s wrath. In July the Taiwanese manufacturer had a close call, as Administrative Law Judge Carl Charneski ruled that HTC was infringing two of Apple’s proposed 10 patents. Of course, before any serious action could be taken the ITC needed to have a look, which is exactly what’s happened. Luckily for HTC, most of the infringement “charges” have been dropped, save for two claims in one patent, ruled the ITC. The patent HTC is apparently infringing is U.S. Patent No. 5,946,647, specifically claims 1 and 8. Unfortunately for HTC and all other Android manufacturers, those claims cover a few different features that are baked right into Android, including the ability to push-to-talk on a phone number within an email. As far as HTC is concerned, this is a rather small win for Apple. Reuters reports that the infringing products won’t be allowed into the country if HTC can’t alter them. According to the official paperwork, the limited exclusion order will begin on April 19, 2012. But there’s an exception:
HTC has seemingly already figured a solution to the problem, offering the following statement to BGR.
While HTC asserts that the claims only cover a UI experience, supposedly HTC’s Sense UI, the Galaxy Nexus which runs pure Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich also allows for push-to-call within an email. So, this likely presents a greater problem for Android makers in general. A feature as simple as push-to-talk within an email is something we’ve all grown accustomed to. Who knows how many more simple, but wonderful, features within Android are also infringing Apple patents? It’s been Apple’s mission to destroy Android, and HTC is but a mere stepping stone.
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| Myriad Alien Vue Brings Android Apps To Your TV Without The Extra Hardware Posted: 20 Dec 2011 08:58 AM PST  Myriad Group is probably best known for creating a solution that brings Android apps to some decidedly non-Android devices, and it looks like the Zurich-based company has set their sights on app-ifying yet another screen in your life: your television. Sorry tweakers, this isn’t the sort of thing you’ll spend a weekend hacking together. Rather, Myriad’s new Alien Vue software (powered by the now familiar Alien Dalvik) is meant for television service providers looking for a bit of an edge against the robust media experiences that Google and Apple can deliver. Don’t expect unfettered access to the Android Market, though: a Myriad rep tells me that Alien Vue is only compatible with about 80% of the Android apps that are available in the Market. Alien Vue is also compatible with HTML5 web apps, and plays especially well with Android apps that were designed for use with Google TV. Service providers can customize and rebrand their own Alien Vue individual app stores too, and it seems that the app selection will remain consistent even across companies. According to Myriad, use of the Alien Vue service doesn’t require any additional hardware beyond your existing set-top box, though the service does play nice with Android tablets if you were looking to control your media while skimming TechCrunch. Some television providers have already played with the concept of delivering apps to customers (DIRECTV comes to mind), but in those cases, apps have to be specifically written for that platform. That in and of itself isn’t a huge stumbling block, as apps on TV are still likely to be seen as more of a novelty than an actual desired feature. Still, being able to capitalize on apps that already have established audiences is an interesting twist, especially when those apps are being delivered from your cable company instead of a hardware vendor. It’s an ambitious idea (and one I never expected from Myriad), but we’ll have to see how well it performs if/when a television provider decides to run with it in the coming months.
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| In Which We Reveal The Top CES 2012 Trends Without Breaking Embargoes Posted: 20 Dec 2011 08:53 AM PST  CES 2012 is going to be a crapshoot of predictable products. How do we know? Meetings, lots and lots of pre-show meetings. Like previous shows, Apple will not be present in person but still has a major presence. Consumer electronic companies are seemingly trying to build product lines and feature sets that compete directly with current and future Apple products. It’s as if these companies are prematurely releasing items just to head off Apple. The iPad took them by surprise and they’re not going to let that happen again — even if that means announcing and releasing half-baked products. So, what can we expect to see at CES this year? What are we going to cover live at the show? Read on. MacBook Air Clones Larger screened ultrabooks are also on tap. Look for 14-inch and larger models. Just like it we predicted, many of these models feature prices lower than current models and in some cases, dramatically lower. 2012 will be the year of the ultrabook, for better or worse. So-called Smart HDTVs From what we’ve seen, several major manufacturers will debut Android powered HDTVs that feature little to no Google TV 2.0 design elements. We’re not sure how much Google TV underpins these smart TVs, but the majority of what we’ve seen has been labeled as Android TV, not Google TV. The companies debuting smart TVs at CES are seemingly determined to get the jump on Apple this time around. If Apple is in fact releasing a smart HDTV product in 2012, these companies will be ready with their own models built around Android. Ironically, since there are several such TVs coming from different manufacturers, the smart TV market might collapse prematurely under the weight of half-baked models all trying to outdo an Apple HDTV that doesn’t even exist yet. Android Tabs And More Predictably, these tablets and the others we’ve seen, mostly run on quad-core platforms with the Nvidia Tegra 3 as the clear favorite. Ice Cream Sandwich is of course present, and most of the tabs are set to ship within the early months of 2012 at $399 to $499 price points. Voice Control Is The Unwanted Future Several smart TV concepts have optional voice controls. Using a mic embedded in a remote, viewers are supposedly able to control certain functions with just their voice. We haven’t seen any demos but the company’s limited descriptions lends us to believe that the feature set is very limited and is probably more of a novelty than a useful feature. But don’t fret, friends. CES 2012 will be huge. We didn’t ruin all the fun. We’re still going to be there, reporting with a constant live video stream. It will be the biggest collection of exciting gadgets and tantalizing products assembled to date. Items like voice controls and smart TVs will likely fade to obscurity shortly afterwards, just as 3DTVs did last year. The real star of CES is the odd, unusual, and paradigm-busting item that defies the popular trends. That’s why we love CES. Tune in Sunday, January 8th (around 4:00 PST) as we kick off our live video coverage of the 2012 International CES. Like previous years, we’re going to livestream all of our tomfoolery as we roam the halls of the Las Vegas Convention Center. There will be giveaways, tweetups and, of course, a drinking game. It will be great fun for all.
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| Casio Cancels Its CES 2012 Press Conference Posted: 20 Dec 2011 08:43 AM PST  Hopefully you weren’t looking forward to Casio’s CES 2012 press conference. It’s not going happen. The Japanese manufacturer just sent us a note indicating that while they will still be at the show, “we are not prepared yet to announce our future plans.” Casio used an 45 minute long press conference to announce several cameras at CES 2011. The highlight, at least in Casio’s eyes, was in-camera and online picture editing tools that attempts to simulate HDR modes. CES 2012′s press was originally scheduled for 1:00 pm on Monday, January 9th. Seeing how many outlets were left underwhelmed by last year’s odd demos of crappy picture modes (full video here), it’s not that surprising that Casio pulled its upcoming press conference if the company wasn’t fully ready. Thank you for not wasting our time, Casio. Thank you.
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| Razer Pulls In $50 Million In Capital From IDG And Accel Posted: 20 Dec 2011 07:58 AM PST  Gaming hardware company Razer has been on our radar for quite a long time: they’ve made high-end gaming peripherals like mice and keyboards for years, and have recently expanded into more esoteric devices and game-specific partnerships. They’ve been running under their own steam this whole time as what’s called a “successful business,” but they’ve decided to take a big funding round to expand their reach. IDG-Accel, specifically their joint China Capital Fund, has chipped in to the tune of $50 million, a minority investment that allows the fund to join the board at Razer, and allows Razer to expand further into the whole-systems business, something that requires considerably more R&D and space to manage. Razer tells us that the new money and board member shouldn’t affect day-to-day operation, and says the investment was “fairly straightforward,” though they wouldn’t say whether it was contingent on any goals, markets, or products. The money will largely be used for R&D, particularly in gaming user interfaces and systems. The company has been putting more effort into partnership deals, like World of Warcraft branded mice and keyboards, and most recently they put out a full-on gaming laptop, the Blade, with a built-in touchscreen and LCD keys among other things. Presumably more systems like this or product partnerships with larger OEMs will be enabled by the cash infusion. And the fact that the fund is China-focused is not trivial; the Chinese gaming market is exploding and is considerably more PC-based than the US and Japan, where consoles are more popular. PC gaming is the primordial ooze from which Razer emerged, and although it is still going strong here, it’s going stronger in China and Razer likely senses the magnitude of the opportunity.
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| Amazon Saves Christmas With Free Expedited Shipping For The Kindle And Thousands Of Other Items Posted: 20 Dec 2011 06:47 AM PST  Last minute Christmas shoppers, take notice. Amazon has your back. The online retailer announced free expedited shipping on many items. Stop procrastinating and get your Christmas shopping done. Or wait a bit longer. The cut-off is tomorrow night anyway. Order by 8 pm PT on December 21 for free two-day shipping on the $79 Kindle, $99 Kindle Touch, $149 Kindle Touch 3G and $199 Kindle Fire. Amazon is already selling the product family at a rate of more than 1 million units per week and this offer will likely up that count. To take advantage of the offer, shoppers simply need to add the desired Kindle to their shopping cart. But if the Kindle isn’t on your shopping list, Amazon has an even more tempting offer involving free one-day shipping. The offer only applies to a limited selection of items, but if the order is placed by 11:59 pm PT on December 21, Amazon will throw in free one-day shipping. The expedited shipping will mostly likely get the item to its location with plenty of time for wrapping before Christmas morning. I say you put off buying your significant other’s gift just a little bit longer. You’ve already waited this long so why not wait a bit longer? Thankfully both of these offers expire tomorrow evening. That leaves plenty of time for more procrastination, right? I mean, you have plenty of time to take advantage of these offers. 36 hours is, like, forever.
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| Hands-On With The Swivl Motion-Tracking Camera Dock Posted: 20 Dec 2011 06:00 AM PST We saw an early version of Swivl a month or so ago and the $159 device is now ready to ship. It’s basically a camera dock with a twist. Instead of holding your camera still, the Swivl will follow you around the room, tracking you as you move around on stage or in front of an audience. Why is it good? Well, it keeps the camera on you at all times and, more important, you can control the swivel speed and tilt using a small hand-held remote, thereby turning you into a one-man (or one-woman) film crew. Swivl’s utility, while limited to a few specific use cases, is quite impressive. It can, for example, record on-stage presentations with ease, following you from one side of the stage to the other with aplomb. It can also grab tracking shots at multiple speeds, from slow to lightning fast. The kit is shipping soon and is available for pre-order now. They are working on a number of improvements including a computer controlled system that will allow you to program motions into the Swivl, allowing for clever pans and tilts. Click to view slideshow.
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| Report: Lenovo Prepping A Quad-Core LePad Tablet PC For Early 2012 Posted: 20 Dec 2011 05:47 AM PST  Lenovo is reportedly working on a quad-core LePad (ThinkPad in other markets) tablet. This comes from a Digitimes report that credits upstream supply chain partners as the source. The news, if it’s true, is somewhat predictable as tablet makers move to dual-core CPU platforms. Lenovo has seen a fair amount of success in the tablet market thanks to its solid ThinkPad Android tablet. The Digitimes reports states that Lenovo has managed to steal a bit of market share from Apple, which is currently around 8.4% in Lenovo’s home market of China. The report goes on to state that the upcoming tablet is set to enter mass production after the first of the year. With that timetable, a CES 2012 debut is highly likely. No other details were given including specs or price point. With several large Android tablet players exiting the game, it creates a bit of breathing room for companies like Lenovo sticking with it. Android tablets will likely always take a back seat to iOS models, but there’s still money to be made and fans to be fulfilled. Lenovo’s first go at an Android tablet was a home run. With a solid feature set including an active digitizer stylus, IPS screen, and a great look and build, the company has solid foundation to build future models upon. I fully expect Lenovo’s next Android tablet to be a similar market leader.
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