Hottest Electronic Gadgets

Archive for September, 2009

The Power Loader “dual-arm power amplification robot” uses 18 electromagnetic motors that let the wearer lift 220lbs without blinking. It gets its name from the exoskeleton from Aliens (get away from her you bitch!), and even has force-feedback.

It’s being developed by a Panasonic subsidiary called ActiveLink, who say they don’t expect to see it being used for things like disaster relief efforts until around 2015. At the moment it has an aluminum-allow frame weighing around 500lbs, so hopefully they can shrink it down a bit. Very cool, though. Check out the vid: [Mainichi (translated) via PinkTentacle]

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We’ve been furnished with the above page from an O2 in-store catalog detailing the HTC HD2 (aka Leo), which was set for a UK release on October 12 (though we’re hearing that may have slipped to the 26th). Interesting that it’s pictured with a stock Windows Mobile 6.5 UI instead of TouchFLO 3D. Is O2 rushing HTC’s new hotness out the door in response to losing its iPhone supremacy? Or did an absent-minded employee just slip out the catalogs ahead of time? We’re getting in touch with O2 to find out for ourselves and will update with more details as we get them. For now, check out the full catalog page after the break.

[Thanks, Peter W.]

Continue reading HTC HD2 makes first official appearance in O2 UK catalog

Filed under: Cellphones

HTC HD2 makes first official appearance in O2 UK catalog originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 30 Sep 2009 08:42:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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I’m still holding out for the internet-surfing CrunchPad, but the $250 Lighthouse SQ7 is an interesting take on a tablet just for the couch (especially if you’re super in to social networking).

The 7-inch (800×480) tablet runs Ubuntu and a browser based upon WebKit. The light footprint software allows its 667MHz ARM processor with 1GB of RAM to browse the internet, Facebook and Twitter. (Given that we’re talking Ubuntu, there’s a world of other software you could run, too.)

But where the software/hardware shines is a one-button text-to-speech updates on social networking sites. Just hold the button and say things like “Today, I stepped in a pile of dog crap. The crap flicked off my shoe into my mouth. Then, out of nowhere, the girl I’ve had a crush on since first grade decided to kiss me for the first time. It happens that’s she was not only disgusted but also deathly allergic to canine feces. I no longer have a date to the prom, and now my dad is making me go hunting instead. FML.” Then they’ll show up on Facebook or Twitter. You can also speak URLs rather than typing them in.

The SQ7 weighs slightly more than a pound and runs for a modest 5 hours per charge. But at just $250 this October, it’s lower risk than it could be. We’ll try to get our hands on one to test it out. You can also watch a demo here. [AdelaVoice via besttabletreview via ubergizmo]

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It doesn’t matter who your carrier is, you’re gonna have some complaints. But is the grass always greener somewhere else? To answer that question, the kids at Laptop Magazine have conducted a test of the customer service practices of the big four (Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile, and AT&T) to ascertain each company’s friendliness, knowledge, and timeliness. The publication placed customer service calls twice during a week (once at midday and once during rush hour), visited two stores per carrier in New York City, and tried to find solutions to its problems using each carrier’s online knowledge base. Apparently, T-Mobile takes the prize for in-store assistance and web support, and Sprint, while not always able to answer questions, at least had taken steps to streamline the support process (and the fact that its employees were friendly didn’t hurt). Apparently Verizon Wireless offered solid in-store support (albeit with grumpy employees), “quick and accurate phone support” and “solid” online help. AT&T, sadly, was the loser here — Laptop says it left the store “shocked” that one representative couldn’t figure out how to get email up and running on its Blackberry. Shocking! Hit the read link to see for yourself.

Filed under: Cellphones

AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon goaded into customer service showdown originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 29 Sep 2009 14:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Fitbit uses a 3D motion sensor like the one in Nintendo's Wii to track everything from calories burned to minutes slept.

(Credit: Fitbit)

Amount of steps you took today: 3,451. Miles traveled: 1.4. Calories burned: 348. Calories consumed: 625. Then you went to bed at 12:…

Originally posted at News – Health Tech

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I don’t know about you, but this thing doesn’t seem like a scintillating bolometer to me. At all. Eduardo Abancens—a University of Zaragoza’s physicist—says it’s a dark matter detector. One that looks capable of sucking your soul.

Dark matter—which is believed to form 20% of the universe—is invisible to us. We know it’s there, floating somewhere, because it affects the behavior of galaxies and stars. The scintillating bolometer is a crystal that—in theory—would be able to detect it. It is so pure that it can conduct the energy generated as a dark matter particle strikes the nucleus of one of the crystal’s atom.

The crystal is placed inside this lead box to avoid interference from cosmic rays. The instrument is going to be buried under almost one kilometer of rock, and frozen near to absolute zero. That way, if a dark matter particle collides with a crystal atom, the team lead by Abancens will be able to detect a temperature change, therefore confirming its existence. Or that is what they say, anyway.

I will keep thinking that a scintillating bolometer is a fancy name for a vibrating scrotum ring. [Wired Science]

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Originally announced at CES this year, Netgear’s 3G Mobile Broadband Wireless Router just recently started making its way into stores. Essentially, the MBR624GU enables your USB WWAN stick to become an internet source for multiple computers, handhelds or any other device that understands WiFi. You simply plug your USB WWAN modem into the rear of the unit (or into the bundled USB dongle), fire it up, and connect via WiFi or Ethernet. Sounds good in theory, right? Follow us past the break for a few impressions on how this admittedly promising device performed in the real world.

Continue reading Netgear 3G Mobile Broadband Wireless Router unboxing and impressions

Filed under: Networking

Netgear 3G Mobile Broadband Wireless Router unboxing and impressions originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 28 Sep 2009 20:19:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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OmniZero carries Takeshi Maeda at Robo-One.

(Credit: Video screenshot by Tim Hornyak/CNET)

Japanese robot builder Takeshi Maeda is blowing minds with an exciting demo of the latest version of his OmniZero robot.

The ninth generation of OmniZero can transform from bipedal fighting machine into a rolling vehicle as well …

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Honestly, this song is catchy as hell. The kid looks like a bit of a tool singing at the Apple Store on 5th Ave in NYC, but he isn’t the only vlogger to use the store as a recording studio.

Uh, is that a homeless guy in the back? Oh if you think he green screened the video, he put up this vid to prove he dominated a Macbook on display. [YouTube Fatty Spins]

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