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Chroino, created by Robo Garage’s Tomotaka Takahashi at Kyoto University, made his debut at this past weekend’s NextFest. This amiable little robot, made of carbon and plastic, has a monocoque frame and uses a new technology named SHIN-Walk, so that he can trek around more naturally than the other robots. At a height of 35 cm and a weight of 1.05 kg, Chroino utilizes lithium polymer batteries, has a high athletic ability, and can be radio or PC controlled. Although still a prototype with no price tag, we already want to adopt the little fellow.
Read More 
| Chroino via Nextfest
Ballroom Dance Robot Comes Out at NextFest
Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: Misc. Tech, Science,
Never go dateless to a prom again. Nomura’s Partner Ballroom Dance Robot (PBDR) first made its appearance at Japan’s EXPO 2005. This past weekend, the PBDR showed up at Wired Magazine’s NextFest in New York City. These $300,000 battery-powered prototypes can anticipate and match their partners’ dance steps by use of force and torque sensors.
Developed at the The Kosuge-Wang Laboratory located at Tohoku University, Nomura also hopes that someday their ladies will assist the infirm and elderly by walking with them. I wonder if one of them could take my dog for a leisurely stroll around the park and anticipate the use of a pooper scooper.
Read More | Nomura via NextFest
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Slingbox Tuner Turns PCs Into Portable TVs
Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: Internet, Misc. Tech,
For those of you who just can’t wait for another gadget to shift time, Sling Media’s Slingbox Tuner allows you to control and watch basic cable, including on-demand and and pay-per-view, on your PC or mobile device anywhere you can access the Internet. The Slingbox is also available in an AV model for your digital cable, satellite, or DVR system. Go for the Pro Slingbox and hook up with your entire HD home entertainment system (up to 4 devices), although you will lose your high-definition once you hit the Net. The Slingbox Tuner and AV models are available online and in retail stores at an MSRP of $189, while the Pro (pictured) goes for $250.
Read More | Sling Media Press Release
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Hot on the trail of the recently announced MBW-100 Bluetooth watch comes Thanko’s own little contribution to the world of Dick Tracy. The FMP3 has all the same features of the Sony Ericson/Fossil watch, such as voice name and number display, voice mail, and text messaging. With WMA playback, the watch can also send your MP3s via FM to your radio. You can even transmit your audio collection with a USB 2.0 drive to your computer.
Sold in Japan for 512 MB/1 GB models for ¥12,800/¥16,800 or ~$109/$143, it may be less than half the price, but we think that Tracy would never accept a round knockoff watch. It just isn’t cool.
Read More | FMP3 Product Page via engadget
Sony Ericsson’s MBW-100 Bluetooth Watch Is No Toy
Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: Misc. Tech, Wireless / WiFi,
Dick Tracy has finally left the comics and joined reality. Sony Ericsson’s new MBW-100 Bluetooth watch shows the caller’s name or number on its OLED display beneath the watch face. If you’re too busy fighting crime to answer the phone, you simply press a key to send the caller voice mail. You can also play music and text message. Designed in cooperation with Fossil, it is available in silver and a limited edition black, and weighs 6.61 oz.
If you already have a Sony Ericsson cell phone, the watch will alert you with an out-of-range notification when the two of you are separated. The MBW-100 will be available at the end of this year for $399 (charger included) and is compatible with Sony Ericsson cell phones K610, K610i, K618, K790, K800, V630, W710, W850, Z610, and Z710.
Read More | Sony Ericsson Press Release
Sony Turns A Page With Reader
Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: Misc. Tech, Portable Audio / Video,
Never worry again that the dog will eat your homework. Smaller than most paperbacks, the Sony Reader has a high contrast, high resolution display, as well as a magnification feature for the visually-impaired. You can download over 10,000 titles of eBooks from such publishers as McGraw Hill, Peguin-Putnam, Simon and Schuster, and Random house. Simply download a book to your PC, then to your Reader. It will also download and display PDFs, blogs, newsfeeds, and personal documents, in addition to JPEGs, MP3s, and AAC audio files.
Utilizing e-Ink tecnnology, Sony claims that it is a “significant improvement” over current CRT and LCD screens and displays at a 180º angle. At dimensions of 6.9 x 4.9 x 5.8-inches and a weight of 9 oz., the Reader has 64 MB of memory and a slot for optional memory cards. A rechargeable battery affords you up to 7,500 page turns and can recharge in as little a time as 4 hours with included AC adapter. The Reader is now available online for $350 with a $50 credit towards eBook titles, and will become available in retail stores in October.
Read More | Sony Reader Product Page
Gemini is proud to present its second generation iKey. Connect to your iPod or any external USB storage device, and record live audio to uncompressed WAV, MP3 (with a selectable bit rate of 320kbps,) or USB compatible hard disk. With dimensions of 5.43 x 1.1 x 3.27-inch and a weight of 2 pounds, features include 1/8-inch mic input, phono pre-amp, 6-bar VU meter, headphones output, LED memory and low battery indicators, and an included DC adapter. The iKey Plus requires 4 AA rechargeable batteries (not included) and will be available for all aspiring DJs in late October at an MSRP of $239.
Read More | iKey Product Page
Alright y’all, we have another free magazine subscription to hook you up with, should you be interested. PC Magazine is America’s #1 technology magazine, delivering authoritative, lab-based comparative reviews of technology products and services to more than 6.6 million professionals every issue. If you are interested in getting this one, head on over to the subscription link.
Read More | Free PC Magazine
Cut out your cable bill and bring your laptop closer to the window. Avid Technology announces the release of Pinnacle’s PCTV HD Pro Stick for use with Windows XP Media Center Edition. The USB 2.0 powered antenna plugs into your PC for both analog (NTSC) and digital (ATSC) reception. The Pro Stick will automatically record programs direct-to-DVD and/or in the destination file format of your choice and is available online now at Pinnacle for $129.99. The package includes DVR software and remote control.
Read More | Pinnacle Press Release
Open Source Processor Development from AMD
Posted by Brian Viele Categories: Corporate News, Design, Misc. Tech, PC / Laptop,
An AMD press release today details AMD’s plans to put its Torrenza initiative into the public domain. The idea is to create an industry standard CPU socket architecture with all necessary specifications available to the public. This will allow third party companies, and even interested hobbyists to develop their own processors that can be used in the “Torrenza Innovation Socket.” This idea has been met with great support by AMD’s corporate partners including Dell, Cray, Fujitsu Siemens, IBM, Sun and HP.
“This next phase in the Torrenza initiative would not be possible without the enthusiasm and desire of our partners to enable open innovation and greater collaboration across the computing ecosystem. Together, we recognize that the impact of Torrenza can be far-reaching across the industry in reducing complexity for customers while increasing the pace of innovation both in silicon and platforms. Datacenter managers will immediately recognize the impact of the Torrenza open environment, and benefit from the enhanced cooperation at the platform level, with new levels of platform stability, upgradeability, flexibility, and capabilities for their server infrastructure.”
—Marty Seyer, senior vice president, Commercial Segment, AMD
The new architecture will allow for customization of multi-processor systems for specific needs, rather than forcing conformity to the AMD64/X86 architectures. Tech companies could create custom processors, or even just co-processors connected over AMD’s high speed HyperTransport for specific server applications, games, multimedia enhancement, etc. It is no surprise that IBM is on board with this initiative as it somewhat lends itself toward the versatile Cell architecture. I myself am amazed at what open source has done for software, let’s hope it can do the same for the hardware side as well.
Read More | AMD
