Archive for May 23rd, 2008
Intel To Bundle SSDs With Centrino 2? [Unconfirmed]
 So far, Intel has been lackadaisical in supporting solid state drives, just toying with the market a bit. But according to DigiTimes, Intel will soon be introducing new SSD drives with the Centrino 2 platform as a standard—2.5-inch and 1.8-inch SATA drives with 80GB of storage. In 2009, Intel plans on expanding capacities all the way up to 250GB. That’s still a hefty amount of space for standard laptop drives. No word on pricing at the moment, but we’re guessing they’ll be the most expensive “Centrinos” ever. To see Intel’s pitch on SSD, hit the jump.
 
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Posted by: admin in Gaming
HTC Advantage X7510 won’t be sold in US
Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds
Even though we’ve seen a couple of US e-tailers offering HTC’s latest Advantage, the X7510, up for pre-order, it seems that the handheld won’t actually be sold here for at least awhile. According to jkOnTheRun, the X7510 possesses one of those hotly-debated Qualcomm chipsets that cannot be sold on American soil — presumably due to all those legal issues the firm is currently wading through. Of course, folks that just can’t fathom living another quarter without one can cough up the requisite dough to snag one from an importer, but otherwise, it looks like you USers are clean out of luck (at least for the moment).
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Posted by: admin in Gaming
Guitar Hero 4 Guitar to Have More Buttons? [Guitar Hero 4]
 If you look at the guitar pictured in the Guitar Hero promo page you will notice what looks like new buttons on the base of the fretboard. Knowing about the expanded new drums, this could mean that they are going to increase the complexity of the guitars too, requiring even more dexterity than previous versions. Note to Guitar Hero people: no matter how complex you make it, it still won’t be a real guitar. [Guitar Hero—thanks Alex]
 
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Posted by: admin in Gaming
NY Times Reader for Mac Beta: Free for Now [Software]
 Not so hot on the heels of its Microsoft-built Windows-based counterpart, the Times Reader beta has been made available for all members of NYTimes.com. Although a Silverlight install is required, it’s relatively painless and a small price to pay for Reader’s efficient news presentation and old-timey typefaces. There are no subscription fees for now, but Mac users can expect to join the $14.95-a-month party when the software goes final. [NY Times via TUAW] –by John Herrman
 
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Posted by: admin in Gaming
Skooba and Targus bags to get your laptop through security, leave room for nothing else
Filed under: Laptops, Transportation
 Responding to travelers’ woes about the laptop-out-of-the-bag shuffle at airport security stations, the TSA solicited bag manufacturers for “checkpoint-friendly” designs. Skooba and Targus are responding with their own line of bags to meet those requirements. What requirements, you ask? In order for a bag to be TSA-friendly, it must be small, have no straps or zippers, and leave no room for chargers, pens, or other detritus that could interfere with the X-ray image. Is it just us, or does that mean we’ll be carrying another bag with us anyway? Nonetheless, the Skooba Skreener pictured here — which doesn’t seem to meet those requirements — is available now for $119.95.
Update: Good looking out, readers — the pictured bag isn’t the forthcoming TSA-friendly bag from Skooba!
[Via Gearlog]
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Haptic Bunny Makes Your Heart go Hippity-Hop [Robots]
 Robticist Steve Yohanan thinks there’s something missing from the design of many robots: the human touch. By omitting the touch sensation from robotic design, Steve thinks that scientists and engineers are missing out on an important machine-human interaction, capable of communicating emotions. So he’s designed and built Haptic Creature, a furry robotic research bunny with touch feedback as its only way of communicating.
“I had a cat for many years, and what I miss most about interacting with her is touch,” says Steve. So he designed the furry rabbit robot to be laced with pressure sensors so it can sense where and how it’s being touched or stroked. It then responds by making breathing-like motions, purring vibrations, or ear wiggles.
And though it sounds like a whacky bit of science, apparently a research study at the University of British Columbia showed that people who stroked the bunny had an emotional response even to this limited feedback, and could identify the bunny’s “emotions” across a range of negative to positive.
Does this mean that next-gen Asimo’s will go all soft, and like to be cuddled? Probably not, but I can only guess that Steve’s research will wend its way into future robo-pets that connect to their owners even more than the lovable Pleo seems to. [New Scientist]
 
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Filed under: Robots
Walking robots never cease to amaze, but “Flame” from TU Delft PhD student Daan Hobbelen is what we like to call a mega breakthrough. By mimicking the way that humans actually fall forward when walking, this robot comes insanely close to the real thing. Usually, walking robots are energy-hungry propositions, but this is the first that’s both efficient and stable. Inside Flame are seven motors and a balance “organ” loaded with stability algorithms. By measuring each step, the robot adjusts stance width, speed, and gait on the go. In the end, kids, we’re looking at the world’s most advanced and efficient walking robot. If you want to see this thing in action, head on over the read link where you can download a .wmv.
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 Via [Engadget]
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Refurbed MacBook Air, $1549 [Dealzmodo]
 Even refurbed, the MacBook Air retains most of its not-so-thin price. At $1549 for the non-SSD model, that’s less than a 14 percent price cut (13.89 percent, actually). We’ll take what we can get, but is there a sweet spot price you’d like to see? [Apple via thegadgetsite]
 
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Filed under: Robots
Walking robots never cease to amaze, but “Flame” from TU Delft PhD student Daan Hobbelen is what we like to call a mega breakthrough. By mimicking the way that humans actually fall forward when walking, this robot comes insanely close to the real thing. Usually, walking robots are energy-hungry propositions, but this is the first that’s both efficient and stable. Inside Flame are seven motors and a balance “organ” loaded with stability algorithms. By measuring each step, the robot adjusts stance width, speed, and gait on the go. In the end, kids, we’re looking at the world’s most advanced and efficient walking robot. If you want to see this thing in action, head on over the read link where you can download a .wmv.
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Via [Engadget]
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How to “format” an iPhone to clear your data completely
Filed under: Cellphones
We briefly mentioned using junk data to overwrite the iPhone’s flash as a last-ditch method of securely clearing off your user data yesterday, and although we were half-joking, that’s more or less your only option until Apple provides a proper secure erase feature. Security researcher Rich Mogull has helpfully laid out the steps for you, and they’re basically what you’d expect: restore your iPhone, don’t sync any personal data to it, and then manually transfer three different playlists large enough to fill the flash. Essentially you’re doing a manual three-pass overwrite, which is pretty much exactly the long and tedious process it sounds like — but we wouldn’t dream of selling or giving away our iPhones (or any other phone with personal data on it) without struggling through it.
[Via Hack A Day]
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