Hottest Electronic Gadgets

Archive for July, 2009

As first outlined at the E3 video game industry trade show in June, Microsoft is readying an update to the dashboard software that runs on Xbox 360 game consoles, as well as the Xbox Live online service.

While it’s not as radical a change as the fall 2008 dashboard update …

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Over at Healthcare Robotics, they’re still working on Project Clickable World, but what they’ve got so far is amazing. A green laser pointer serves as a “mouse” to select real world objects and command a robot to interact with them.

The researchers explain how this clickable world interface is supposed to work:

In our object fetching application there are initially virtual buttons surrounding objects within the environment. If the user illuminates an object (“clicks it”) the robot moves to the object, grasps it, and lifts it up. Once the robot has an object in its hand, a separate set of virtual buttons get mapped onto the world. At this point, clicking near a person tells the robot to deliver the object to the person. Clicking on a tabletop tells the robot to place the object on the table. While clicking on the floor tells the robot to move to the selected location.

Check out the video below to see this process in action and head over to the Healthcare Robotics page for more info and clips.

[Vimeo via HCR]

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Sure, an optical drive isn’t going to explode the definition of netbooks as we know it — we’ll have to wait for Windows 7 to do that — but perhaps we can all learn to live lives of greater peace and harmony now that you can spin up a plastic circle of ones and zeros inside an Eee PC. The new 1004DN is now available in Taiwan for NT$19,988, about $609 US.

[Via Liliputing]

Filed under: Laptops

ASUS Eee PC 1004DN lands in Taiwan, gives the netbook a serious identity crisis originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 26 Jul 2009 05:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s a free-for-all gripe fest, as we talk about our personal frustrations with the PS3, AT&T, the iPhone, and whatever else was crossing our minds at that point.

From cyber doormen, …

Originally posted at Digital City Podcast

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A recently dug-up Time Magazine article from 1951 applauds Zenith’s “Phonevision,” a way-ahead-of-its-time invention that allowed movies ordered over the phone to be watched on a set-top box, no physical media required.

Phonevision wasn’t exactly a home theater PC or a Roku box, and actually had more in common with something like Pay Per View: It had three scheduled showings each evening, and you called and ordered one of the few options offered at a cost of one dollar per film. The set-top box would unscramble the picture and allow the movie to be watched on your TV. It was also limited to about 300 test subjects in the Chicago area, but they apparently loved it and Zenith was very excited about the prospects of moving “the theater into the living room.” But what, you might ask, were the choices on this very early service?

The 300 Phonevision subscribers had an initial choice of April Showers, a 1948 musical starring Jack Carson; Welcome Stranger, a 1947 Bing Crosby comedy, and 1948′s Homecoming, with Clark Gable and Lana Turner.

Interestingly, while the industry called Phonevision a “massive flop,” Zenith president Eugene F. Macdonald loved it and considered it a rousing success, though it never penetrated very many markets and was officially cancelled in 1969. [Time, image from Early Television]

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Redmond was the place to be last night, as Microsoft gave over that long-anticipated Windows 7 RTM code to its favorite OEM partners, including HP, Toshiba, Lenovo, ASUS (pictured), Acer, Dell, Sony and Fujitsu-Siemens. Even if you’re not big into operating system nuts and bolts, it’s hard not to get just a little choked up as one nerd hands a nondescript white box to another nerd. You know there’s magic in the air.

[Thanks, JagsLive]

Filed under: Software

Microsoft invites some of its bestest OEM buddies over for a Windows 7 RTM code handoff party originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 25 Jul 2009 13:54:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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(Credit: CNET/Screenshot by Bonnie Cha)

Another week comes to a close, and surely you missed some stuff. Here’s a sample of some of our favorite things from Crave from the last five days.

• Palm throws down with Apple. After last week’s iTunes update cut off the …

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All bridges move, but isn’t the Manhattan Bridge—captured in this time lapse video—bouncing way too much? I’m not an engineer, but I’m glad I take the L line under the East River to get into Manhattan. [Gawker—Thanks OMGPonies]

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So we already knew Verizon was looking to push LTE out the door and to about 20 to 30 markets in the second half of 2010, but Tech Crunch’s got it on good word that the company’s doing everything in its power to get the service ready to go in a number of areas in time for Q1 2010. That’s interesting in and of itself, but together with this morning’s whispers of Apple’s tablet coming early next year and past talk of an Apple / VZW partnership, and the tale gets exponentially more intriguing. As TC suggests, a tablet lacking voice service on the LTE network wouldn’t violate AT&T’s not-at-all permanent exclusivity. Its source said there was one LTE device, not a wireless card, that this early launch was being “specifically geared towards,” but even if so, that could apply to any number of other non-Apple gadgets (from Nokia, perhaps?). Of course, much of this is rumor built on rumor, so no matter how well these pieces might seem to fall in place — or how potentially awesome the idea might seem — there’s a large grain of salt you should be taking with you.

Filed under: Cellphones, Laptops

Verizon rumored to be pushing up LTE plans to Q1 2010, new Apple device the catalyst? originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 24 Jul 2009 20:41:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Jasmine France joins us as we cover a slew of unreadable watches, clocks and bulletproof watch winding safes. She also shows off her insane ability to read the faces of watches that no one else can decipher. We shall forever refer to Jasmine as “The Watch Whisperer.”

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EPISODE 147

Samsung claims its watch is world’s slimmest

LG Watch Phone clears FCC

Turning a Power Mac G3 into a wall clock (Thanks, Nicholas!)

Pong clock (Thanks, Jon!)

Continue Time clock

Digital black-and-white clock is a milestone in minimalism

The Twilight Watch

…

Originally posted at Gadgettes, the blog

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