Water Strider is Mini-Spy

Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: Misc. Tech, Science, Videos

Carnegie Mellon University’s NanoRobotics lab has devised a robotic water strider. The insects can travel 100 body lengths per second, which would be equal to a human running 400 mph. The team uses micro-actuators and motors to create the movement so that it can walk and bounce on still water. We expect that the military will snap them up before Whammo can turn them into toys. After all, who would suspect that the enemy would place a mini recording device on a common bug?

Read More | NanoRobotics Lab

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Mecha Mushi Spreads its Wings

Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: Misc. Tech, Toys

Our latest find in RC toys is the Mecha Mushi.  At a size of 1.7 x 3.6 x 6.5-inches, the insect with foam body is available in silver or rainbow hues, with separate frequencies for each. Its internal battery is chargeable by connection to its remote. The MM is designed for internal flight, so make sure you bring it along to work to see if your co-workers are paying attention. Available for pre-order at a price of $79.00, the bug requires 6 AAA batteries to fly.

Read More | CScout

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iPhone password entry in software version 1.1.1: seriously flawed

Posted by Sparky Categories: Apple, Cell Phones, Handhelds, Music, Portable Audio / Video, Product Reviews, Software, Wireless / WiFi

In a previous post, Gear Live discovered that the new iTunes WiFi Music Store has a few bugs here and there. The bug I encountered prevents some users from authenticating easily to purchase tracks. With a little sleuth work I managed to track down the problem: the password fields in the new iPhone software version 1.1.1 don’t work well with capitol letters in passwords. Click through for a full run down of the problem, and how to fix it if it affects you.

Click to continue reading iPhone password entry in software version 1.1.1: seriously flawed

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Mercury, Robot Seeker of Light

Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: Design, Misc. Tech, Toys

While we are on the subject of creepy things that go bump in the night, take a peek at Harold Ilano’s Mercury, named for the light-seeker. Made from an old Playstation, a Li-Poly 3.6 V cell phone battery, and a few analog components. The robotic bug zig-zags across your floor, seeking the light via its sensors, and pauses occasionally to regroup. Red LEDs were added to keep people from tripping over it in the dark and because it, in Ilano’s own words, “makes him look cool.” The designer was kind enough to post instructions if you want to make your own horde of robotic insects.

Read More | Make

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Capcom: No Dead Rising SDTV Patch

Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Action, CAPCOM, Xbox 360

When Dead Rising for the Xbox 360 shipped a few weeks ago, many gamers immediately reported an issue with the mission text in the game being unreadable on some SDTV sets. Capcom stated that they were investigating the problem, and a short time later provided some suggestions that might help ameliorate the issue. However, this did not fix the problem for all users. Now, according to statements received by 1up, there will be no patch addressing this problem. Capcom representatives were quoted as saying “Due to the amount of text and the size of the patch necessary to change the text, a patch isn’t possible for this issue.”

While this is disappointing for a number of gamers, this problem could have been minimized. Capcom could have expanded its quality assurance process to include a wider variety of television types, but to really address this, Microsoft should make both SDTV and HDTV readability a requirement for a game title to be released on the Xbox 360 platform.

Read More | 1up

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