Fuel Cell Vacuum: Eco-Friendly Cleaning That Your Chiropractor Will Love [22nd Century Clean]

Obviously, a fuel cell powered vacuum is not anything we will have in our homes in the near future—but that doesn’t mean designers are not thinking about the possibilities. This BacVac concept trades in the noisy electric motor and annoying cables for eco-friendly, cable-free, fuel cell, dirt-sucking power. Why they chose to sling the device over the user’s shoulder is unclear, but one thing is for certain—if you tend to generate a lot of filth, it won’t be long before you are reduced to some sort of suburban Quasimodo. [Continuum via Trends Now via DVICE]

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Fedora 9 Sulphur makes its way into the world

Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

The OS updates are coming fast and furious these days, and the latest off the block is Fedora 9 Sulphur. Improvements include better KDE Desktop 4.0.3, betterBluetooth support, a revised Anaconda system installer, support for persistent Live USB key installations, and lots more. Should be all over the torrents now — get downloading and let us know how it goes!

[Via Digg]

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Filed under: Robots

Why is this child so happy? It’s because he’s taking RINGBO the riding robot by the horns! See his glee as he cruises around for an entire hour at a blazing 2MPH? Hey, it only took six hours to charge up. RINGBO is controlled by those horn-like joysticks, and we can only hope that front panel contains an IR receiver — one that might give parents hours of pleasure as they override their kids’ intended direction. RINGBO will be shown by Airrobot at this week’s Koreannovation Trade Show in NYC, so we’ll be sure to bring our offspring, as it’s meant for children aged 2-3 and up to 66lbs. We just want to know two things: how much, and can we cheat the 66lb weight limit? Maybe just a little? C’mon. Want to have your mind totally blown? Please watch the video after the break. Please.

[Via OhGizmo!]

Continue reading RINGBO the riding robot is for kids, the song is for everyone

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Via [Engadget]

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SK Telecom says talk of Virgin Mobile takeover of Helio is “groundless”

Filed under: Cellphones

Well, it looks like the struggling Helio may not be falling under the Virgin Mobile umbrella quite just yet, with the MVNO’s parent company, SK Telecom, now calling such speculation “”groundless.” An SK Telecom spokesperson further added that it was not in “any sort of talks” with Virgin and that it remains “committed” to Helio, although the company did seemingly leave the door open somewhat by saying it is “actively seeking opportunities” to expand its service in the U.S. Muddling the situation a bit further, Reuters reported on Friday that the two companies were in fact in “early talks” about a deal, although the source behind that story was apparently unable to confirm whether the deal was actually a merger or a purchase, or one of a number of “other possibilities.”

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Olympus E-520 Announced, Brings Better Sensor and Face Detection [Digital Cameras]

Olympus is set to follow up their excellent E-510 prosumer DSLR with the E-520, which offers a better sensor, face detection, on-the-fly shadow adjustments and a larger LCD screen. The E-520 is getting the same upgrade treatment as the E-420, where most of the upgrades are incremental, but things like sensor upgrades and bigger screens are always welcome. No release date has been given, and it’s not up for pre-order on Amazon, but expect the body to sell for $600 alone, and $700 with a 14-42mm four-thirds lens. [Photography Review]

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New Nikon Patent Brings In-Viewfinder Display To DSLRs [DSLRs]

A newly published patent application from Nikon has revealed plans for a new viewfinder technology involving a small display screen that can be viewed within the optical viewfinder. The photographer could switch between the optical image and digital display for a number of reasons, the most notable being the ability to enable a wide viewing angle when zoomed in on a subject.

As you can see from the image at the top of the post, the digital display shows a wide angle image while a centered frame illustrates the viewing area provided by the lens. The patent also illustrates that this wide preview mode would be accessed via a button placed near the lens mount and that it will most likely show up on DSLRs—whether that means high end models only remains to be seen. However, as with all patent applications, there is no guarantee it will ever see the light of day. [Photography Bay]

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Virtual Pinball Game “Moving Parts” Addictive Even In Cooperation Mode [Itp 2008]

Today, when we visited NYU’s Interactive Telecommunications Program spring 2008 show, we were immediately drawn to “Moving Parts,” a crazy pinball game that’s the brainchild and thesis of physical-interaction designer Daniel Soltis. It’s made of real wood, with wooden buttons and plungers, but the board itself is empty, and stays that way. The game you see is merely a projection from above, but man does it feel real.

The experience is so immersive you forget that it’s not real—no wonder real pinball is on the endangered-species list. The virtual kind gives you different types of play, four in fact:
• Cooperative, where you have two paddles on your side and one on your partner’s side, and you both share a score
• Synchronized, where both sides tap the buttons simultaneously to make the paddles swing fully, so you lose if your partner doesn’t help
• Competitive, straight-up pinballin’
• Multiball! You’ll see this one at the end of the video, a total clusterfuck with balls flying everywhere

I give Daniel bonus points for cool virtual realism: The actual wooden playing board peaks in the middle, sloping downward. The virtual balls react to this, slowing as they roll uphill to the middle, then speeding up as they roll towards either end.

It was so much fun I almost forgot to ask what the point was. Daniel says that in the age of Wii, it’s important to study interaction of players who are not necessarily competitors. Also, he likes to observe how mechanics affect gameplay. We couldn’t get Daniel to admit he was merely trying to come up with a great game to sell to bars, but hell if he didn’t invent that too. [Moving Parts; ITP]

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How’s Windows XP SP3 treating you?

Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

Well, Microsoft finally got SP3 out the door for you stubborn Vista-resistant XP users, and we’re dying to know how you like it. That’s right, you. See, our resident guinea pig intern hasn’t felt any performance improvement, we’ve received tips from people who have seen a speed bump, and problems have cropped up as well — we’ve heard reports of sporadic reboots and crashes, some of them AMD-related. But hey, forget all of them… how has SP3 changed your life?

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Could NBC and Apple be Preparing to Kiss and Make Up? [ITunes]

Could NBC’s absence from the iTunes Store be coming to a close? It has already, at least in the UK, where NBC Universal shows such as Heroes, House and Eureka were added back to the store’s offerings last week.

Interestingly enough, these new shows are priced at £1.89 while older shows such as Hercules: The Legendary Journeys (oh boy!) are priced at £1.19. NBC’s desire for variable pricing for their shows and Apple’s refusal to allow it is what drove the network away from the store in the first place last year. Does this mean Apple is giving in? Will we finally be able to watch Battlestar Galactica episodes via iTunes again? Time will tell. [PC World]

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Apple finally setting its legal sights on the HiPhone?

Filed under: Cellphones

Oh, there are plenty of bad Chinese iPhone knockoffs out there, but the HiPhone may be the reigning champion these days — so it kind of seemed like a matter of time before Apple loosed the hounds on distributors of the device. We don’t have confirmation or proper human translation of the above legal notice, but it would appear Apple’s European counsel Bird & Bird has delivered at least one notice to an unnamed distributor threatening €25,000 in damages (and €15,000 in legal fees) for HiPhone sales. Hardly the case of the century, but we’ll let you know if we hear anything.

[Thanks, Ricardo]

Update: Reader Ben W hooked us up with a translation of the letter; we can’t vouch for its veracity, but it’s posted after the break if you want to check it out. Thanks, Ben!

Continue reading Apple finally setting its legal sights on the HiPhone?

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