Filed under: Robots

Need some irony with your angst-battered diet this morning? Swell, try some of this. Disney and Pixar are set to release their latest animated blockbuster, WALL-E, this summer. The premise of the film finds WALL-E (Waste Allocation Load Lifter - Earth-Class) cleaning up the Earth’s trash after rampant, unchecked consumerism made the planet uninhabitable. So how do they promote the film? You got it, they launch a new line of plastic WALL-E robots developed in partnership with Thinkway Toys which no child could possibly live without. Ultimate WALL-E will list for $190 when launched sometime this summer and feature 10 motors, a remote control, and plenty of sensors to avoid obstacles, respond to touch, and feel the mocking satire of its own existence. The bot will be joined by a $25 iDance WALL-E (think i-Species) and a $40 WowWee FlyTech Tinker Bell when they make their May 29th debut in San Mateo at the Maker Faire.

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Via [Engadget]

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Alienware’s Area-51 m17x gaming laptop now on sale

Filed under: Laptops

For most, Alienware’s AlienNetwork debut was somewhat of a letdown. Nevertheless, at least one good thing did come out of the whole event, and that’s the availability of the m17x gaming monster. This 17-inch beast of a laptop finally has its own dedicated page, and yes, you can get your order in starting today. Packed within, you’ll find your choice of Intel Core 2 Duo processor, twin GPUs for that sweet SLI action, a WUXGA (1,920 x 1,200) display, up to 4GB of DDR2 RAM, oodles of hard drive space, a dual-layer DVD writer (or optional Blu-ray burner), enough ports for you and your cousin and a 12-cell battery that’ll likely last an hour on a good day. Sadly, this Crysis destroyer starts at $2,949 (and breaks the $5k mark with ease), and it looks as if units won’t start arriving until late May at best.

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Filed under: Robots

We’ve seen a couple armed defense bots make the scene now — the US military even has a couple deployed in Iraq — but the promo video for the $600,000 Guardium bots recently commissioned by Israel isn’t exactly a fearsome demonstration of next-gen force. Not only do the rendered old-school CRT displays offer warnings like INTRUDER NONCOMPLIANT, all the bot seems to be able to do is sneeze out of a cloud of white smoke. Terrifying. Maybe these things play better at defense contractor conventions, but something tells us that an actual angry dog might be a little more effective. Check the whole video below.

[Via Danger Room]

Continue reading Israel’s Guardium warbots probably not as lame as their promo video

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Via [Engadget]

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Inkjet Ink Test: Manufacturer Brand vs. Cheapo Store Ink [Printer Test]

Trusted Reviews has a big investigation on inkjet printers and inkjet ink, and their year-long study comparing fading between more expensive manufacturer brand vs. the cheaper crappy brand shows that you get what you pay for. Over three months, the differences between the two were negligible, with pages only fading slightly (but noticeably) in quality.

When you got to twelve months, you got somewhere between considerable fade and severe fade, which makes the page no longer usable. The lesson here is that if you’re printing out movie tickets for tonight, cheap ink is fine. If you’re printing out photos from your trip to Japan, go for quality. [Trusted Reviews via Crunchgear]

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BlackBerry 9000’s official spec sheet leaked

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

A fistful of RIM documentation on Waterloo’s upcoming BlackBerry 9000 has found its way onto the interwebs courtesy of the good folks at Boy Genius Report, and while there’s nothing groundbreaking here, BlackBerry fanatics are sure to be drooling by the time they get to the last slide in this page-turner. The spec sheet promises a tweaked web browsing experience — and we’ll take anything we can get there, considering the device’s support for HSDPA. We also see mentions of an improved picture library, automatic music playlists, and inline video streaming in the browser (!!!), all accompanied by a handful of screen shots of the device’s delicious new theme. Seeing how we’ll probably be waiting a few months yet for this thing to get into our hands, go ahead and satisfy your impatience (for a few minutes, anyhow) by clicking through to the full novella.

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BlackBerry 9000’s official spec sheet leaked

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

A fistful of RIM documentation on Waterloo’s upcoming BlackBerry 9000 has found its way onto the interwebs courtesy of the good folks at Boy Genius Report, and while there’s nothing groundbreaking here, BlackBerry fanatics are sure to be drooling by the time they get to the last slide in this page-turner. The spec sheet promises a tweaked web browsing experience — and we’ll take anything we can get there, considering the device’s support for HSDPA. We also see mentions of an improved picture library, automatic music playlists, and inline video streaming in the browser (!!!), all accompanied by a handful of screen shots of the device’s delicious new theme. Seeing how we’ll probably be waiting a few months yet for this thing to get into our hands, go ahead and satisfy your impatience (for a few minutes, anyhow) by clicking through to the full novella.

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Japanese Nose Mask Pit Saves You From Allergies, Talking Normally [Japan]

Are your allergies so severe that a Claritin has no effect? The Japanese have a solution, and it involves shoving round pieces of plastic up your nose to block out allergens. It may seem unorthodox, but as the lady at the clinic keeps telling me, prevention is much more effective than cures. We’ll stick to pills, thanks. [Impress via DVICE]

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SlingPlayer Mobile Gets Updated For Windows Mobile and Symbian [Software]

Sling’s just rolled out new versions of their SlingPlayer Mobile for Windows Mobile (both versions) and Symbian S60. It’s a free upgrade for current users and adds support for new handsets (Nokia N95, Samsung i760, Treo 500v, etc.) and improves streaming quality (Sprint Mogul) on others. We went to a car wash this weekend and had 10 minutes of downtime. TEN MINUTES! This should ensure that never happens again. [Sling]

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Jumplay: Double Dutch for the New Millennium [Design]

We have all seen those gadgets that display the time or a message using a rapidly oscillating wand fixed with tiny LEDs. However, only designer Jacky Wu was clever enough to apply this technology to a jump rope. After all, it makes perfect sense—as you jump, the device records each revolution then displays that figure (along with time and calories burned) using LEDs embedded on the rope.

The result is an illusion that makes it seem as if the counter is hovering in mid air. The only problem is that my gigantic feet would keep my jump count embarrassingly low. Not the kind of thing you want to advertise. Good thing for me that the Jumplay is only a concept at this point. [Yanko Design]

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MacBook Air hacked with internal EV-DO — finally lives up to its name

Filed under: Laptops

One of the most surprising things about the launch of an ultra-portable laptop dubbed “Air” by Apple wasn’t its thinness but the lack of an embedded WWAN radio. No more, at least if you’re not intimidated by smoldering solder and warranty violations. Jordan Bunnell has posted a step-by-step of his success at integrating a Verizon USB727 Aircard into the MacBook Air chassis thanks to the MBA’s previously unused USB controllers discovered on the system board. While the EVDO signal (and speed) has appreciably degraded from its externally attached origins, Jordan is still pulling 1,400 to 1,700kbps downloads and 380kbps uploads — something which might be improved with antenna tweaks. Regardless, those speeds are significantly faster than the 0kbps stock MBA owners experience.

[Thanks, Tom]

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