11
07
2008
Tmsuk demonstrates remotely controlled shopping robot
Posted by: admin in Technology NewsTmsuk demonstrates remotely controlled shopping robot
Filed under: Cellphones, Robots
Tmsuk is back with even more crazy humanoid antics, this time demonstrating a shopping robot that can be controlled from far, far away. The modified TMSUK-4 humanoid showcased in Kitakyushu, Japan was actually being controlled by an elderly lady in her home via an NTT DoCoMo video-capable cellphone. Essentially, the technology enabled her to see through the eyes of the robot and presumably control its movements via the keypad. We are told that she was able to successfully browse the hat section and finally make a purchase, but who knows how many innocent bystanders were unknowingly mauled in the process.
[Via Pink Tentacle]
Whew! There is a little too much iPhone stuff going on out there. It’s getting a bit overwhelming—even for someone who actually owns one. Not to worry though. If you are tired of all the hype or you are a frustrated Apple hater, welcome to the anti-iPhone oasis. Here you can sit back, relax and learn how to block out the fanboy jibba jabba and achieve your iPhone-free Zen.
The Oculas: If you are really, really hardcore, you could drop $45,000 on what is described as “most complete and distinctly personalized lounging oasis in the world.” This private fiberglass “relaxation theater” features a leather interior, massage chair, adjustable lighting levels, surround sound unit, TV, DVD and your choice of a 
Sensory Deprivation Chair: Obviously, $45K is a bit on the expensive side for the average consumer. However, you could build your own chamber like Dutch artist Atelier Van Lieshout did with his Sensory Deprivation Skull Chair. You could also buy one from the art gallery in the link, but my guess is that it won’t come cheap either. [
Sound Relaxer Eye Shades: See no evil and hear no evil with an eye mask that features ocean waves, rainforest, rippling brook and raindrop sounds. You can even pipe in your own music. Available for $24.99. [
Brainwashing Goggles: If plain old sensory deprivation is not silencing the voices inside your head telling you to get an iPhone, a thorough brainwashing might be in order. These brainwashing goggles claim to rewire your brain using flashing images and other hocus pocus. No word on when and if the device will go into production. [
iDontCare available in a range of styles and prices. [
Ban the “i” available in a range of styles and prices. [
uSHeep available for $18. [
Desktop Punching Bag: Maybe it’s time to go to the source of the problem. Damn that Steve Jobs! Just affix the punching bag to your desktop with the suction cup and slide a photo of your nemesis into the pocket on the front of the bag. Available soon. [
Cellphone Jammer: This little guy will shut down any cellphone signal within a 60-foot radius. Nobody can enjoy the iPhone, dammit! Available for $550. [
We’re not sure precisely how widespread the issue may be, but multiple reports on the Macrumors forums are bringing to light that some iPhone 3Gs are suffering from a screen with a yellow tint. While on a standard LCD the issue would probably just warrant a settings readjustment (like from Movie mode to Sports), we can’t tell whether or not this is an issue with the display itself or the firmware driving the display. Is anyone else noticing that their shiny white/black iPhone 3G is looking a bit…yellow? [
There are a total of 552 different apps in the iPhone App Store right now. We’re going to do live impressions of the best ones (and some really, really lousy ones if they’re interesting enough). Post requests in the comments and check back frequently cause we’re updating as we go review more apps.
Twitterific: Works just like the desktop version of Twitterific (it gives you access to Twitter), and also uses the iPhone’s location-aware features to geotag your tweets. What it doesn’t do, like 
PhoneSaber: Lightsaber application similar to the one on Installer.app. Five choices of iPhone colors and slightly better accelerometer detection for better lightsaber sounds. Free.
Midomi: 
iTunes Remote: 
NetNewsWire: Similar to the RSS Reader on the desktop, which we use daily, NNW on the iPhone lets you read RSS feeds. It doesn’t scale images like the web-based Mac RSS reader, so you’re going to have to do a bit of panning and scrolling. Other than that, no real complaints. It even syncs with your NNW online account so you can keep your desktop feeds and iPhone feeds the same (in terms of knowing what you already read). Free.
Google Mobile: Location aware searching with auto-suggest, contacts searching as well as local business search (typing in pizza gives you an option to search for pizza near you). Unfortunately, as 
Yelp: Pretty much exactly the same features as the online yelp.com portal, but in a readable format for your iPhone. Search for pizza places, coffee shops, bars or gas stations and you’ll be able to check out its hours, the location, the phone number and read reviews. You can drill down from the home screen to Restaurants, Bars, Coffee & Tea, Banks, Gas & Service Stations or Drugstores, or just type in whatever you want. Everyone should download it just to have. Free.
Facebook: Just like the iPhone-customized Facebook webpage, except crashier (crashed when I tried to view the friends list the first time). You can search your friends, do Facebook chat (nice), view your messages and do everything else you could do on the web-based portal. It just crashed when I tried to view my profile too. Free.
Pandora: Your standard internet radio—you pick an artist you like, it recommends similar songs which you then rate to hone its selections. Like always it’s better for well-known artists, but its explanation for why certain tracks were picked (”intricate melodic phrasing, a clear focus on recoding studio production, heartbreaking lyrics”) are priceless. Pandora claims CD-quality but several tracks sounded compressed. A plus is that streaming works well with very little lag even over EDGE. Album art comes in with that nice page effect; good thing, because that’s all you’ll be seeing since the app can’t play in the background. Free. – John Mahoney
IGN Reviews: Easily get IGN game reviews on the go, either by searching for the game title or browsing a list of recent reviews. If you don’t trust IGN for reviews, it’s not a huge help, but it does give you a decent idea of what’s good and what’s not if you’re at the game section of Best Buy looking for something to take home. Free.
Save Benjis: Think Pricegrabber or Google Products for the iPhone. Search for a particular product you want and it will throw up a list of prices from various retailers. Useful for going shopping and not knowing whether the TV you’re buying will be cheaper online (it usually will be).
Mixmeister: Allows users to perform scratches over the music in their playlist using one of ten available vinyl scratch sounds. I’m not a DJ, but it was easy to pick up and get a decent scratch going right away. Bottom line: it’s fun. Free. – Sean Fallon
Weight Track A weight log of how much you weigh every day that syncs w/ the website, but also gives you a history of your weight loss. Pretty much just a fancy alternative for a pen and pencil, but not bad if you’re trying to lose some weight. Comes with sluggish graphics and animations. Free.
AIM: It’s as solid as you’d expect, supporting away statuses, marking contacts as favorites so you can easily find them, groups, away messages and saved messages while you’re away from the app. Because background IM notifications won’t be here until September, you’ll have to go into the app to check whether or not you have new messages. Still, it’s good that you don’t lose any. Oh, and that really annoying traditional AIM sound is still here and is still super freaking annoying. Don’t see a way to turn that off. But there is a system option to sign off when you exit. Free.
MySpace Mobile: I have never used MySpace Mobile on another platform, but I can say that the version for the iPhone is very solid. It ran smooth and provided easy access to every option you could find on the regular site. It sure as hell won’t make me want to use MySpace again, but addicts who have an iPhone will undoubtedly be thrilled. Free. – Sean Fallon
Whrrl: Think Yelp, but more-map based and social networking-like. Go to your current location and you can see markers signifying places of restaurants or stores. Click on them to see reviews, write reviews, or place markers saying that you’ve been there, wanted to go there or that you’re there now. This could be cool if you have enough friends using it, but otherwise you’re playing around with strangers. Free.
Tiny Violin: A virtual “world’s smallest violin” to play to whiners. It plays two tunes which get old fast. Much like the idea itself. $1. – Brian Lam
Bejeweled 2:If you’re a fan of the Bejeweled game, you will love this iPhone version. There are two different game modes, Classic and Action. The only difference in between the two is Action mode has a time limit. Game play works as it should, you touch a jewel you want to move then touch the surrounding spot you want it to move to. There’s a Hint feature that will advise you to the best jewel to move. The game uses full use of the iPhone’s accelerometer, allowing play at any angle. The graphics and sound FX are great, and overall gameplay is smooth without any problems. $10. -Chris Mascari
Box Office: Very simple, incredibly useful—gives you a full list of movie showtimes sorted by name, your location (manual zipcode entry or GPS/celltower reading) or Rotten Tomato rating and kicks you to Fandango to buy tickets. So much better than hitting Google for showtimes in Safari. Free. -John Mahoney
Dial 0: A directory of service 800 numbers with instructions on how to reach a real person for each one, all of them I tried being some variation on “press 0 over and over again.” Kind of handy to have all the numbers you might need in one place, but not fantastic. Free. -John Mahoney
Band: Holy Crap this app is fun. There are five different instruments that all play in landscape mode: Rock Kit, Funky Drummer, Bassist, Grand Piano, and 12 Bar Blues. It’s able to record every instrument one track at a time, and each time a new instrument is recorded it replays what’s already been recorded. Basically you can make a complete musical masterpiece one instrument at a time. There’s even audience sounds for added ambiance. While it has the ability to save all your recordings, sadly there is no way to get those recordings off the iPhone. $10. -Chris Mascari
World 9: Start the app and put it in your pocket. As you run and jump it makes Super Mario brothers noises. Free and awesome. -Brian Lam
Shazam: Will also identify songs through the iPhone’s mic—doesn’t handle humming and singing as well as 
AOL Radio: Features over 200 stations spanning more than 25 genres of music and over 150 local radio stations from across the US. You can bookmark favorite stations, artists and even link up to iTunes or AOL music when you find a song you like. All-in-all it works well. The sound quality is good, its easy to navigate and you can control the volume right in the app. It also stops playing when you remove your headphones. You can’t run it in the background, however. Free. -Sean Fallon
Sketches: The best drawing and photo mockery tool for the iPhone. You can choose different photo or solid or map backgrounds and drop various icons or draw on images and export them out. No text tool. A little slow but worth $8.-Brian Lam>
Comic Touch: Overlay text bubbles on images, and warp faces. Unlike the Sketches app, it has a text tool, but that’s it. $5.-Brian Lam>
Crazy Eye: Yeah, this is a program with 10 animations of different eyeballs (dragon, pirate, etc) that switch and move around. You’re supposed to hold it up to your face and it’s supposed to make you look like a monster or something. It gets old in about 1 minute and costs a buck. -Brian Lam
AP Mobile News Network: A great way to browse the wires for news, photos and videos (really reminds me in a way of the presentation on the Wii, sans the spinning globe sadly). Videos kick you to YouTube. But am I the only one that still remembers 
Mosquito: This is an audio/motion game, where you listen to a mosquito buzzing and when it gets close, you swat it by swinging your iPhone. Clever, but for $2, there isn’t enough pay off. -Brian Lam
Urbanspoon: If you’re hungry but don’t know where you want to eat, Urbanspoon makes finding a restaurant pretty fun. It’s like a slot machine, listing neighborhoods, cuisines and price ranges in the three columns. When you shake the iPhone, it spins the wheels, delivering a random restaurant to you. You can lock on any or all three of the columns to get something more specific if you want, and clicking the restaurant name brings you to more info about it. Could be fun if you aren’t the pre-planning type. Free. -Adam Frucci
Etch-a-Sketch: The Etch-a-Sketch game is essentially a doodling app, allowing you to draw free-form with your fingers on the touchscreen, changing the colors and other such things using the controls at the bottom. If you’re a purist, you can use the knobs, but that’s just as annoying as it is when you’re using the real thing. As you can see by my masterpiece above, doing it freehand lets you use separate lines and you can really make great stuff that you can then send to your friends/boss. Just like with a real Etch-a-Sketch, you erase simply by shaking. $4.99. -Adam Frucci
NY Times Viewer: Basically the same as the AP viewer—but seems a little more clunkily implemented (it’s slow, images don’t always load, crashed a few times during test). Not as much video. But still a nice way to grab news for reading offline. Free. -John Mahoney
Telegram: This is the only app I didn’t buy before writing a review. The $10 app promises to send voice messages between people on your friend list or email. I call it expensive visual email. -Brian Lam
iZen Garden: Ok, I lied, I didn’t review this either. Here’s a Zen rock garden game for $8. Last time I checked rocks and dirt were free, so fake rocks and dirt should also be free. -Brian Lam
Graffitio: This is supposedly a location aware app that allows you to leave virtual message boards according to your location. You can go to a restaurant and say, “the eggs are great!” and the next user. It’s free but I wasn’t impressed yet. -Brian Lam
South Park Imaginationland: Help Butters through Imaginationland by making him jump on mushrooms, collect rainbows, and fly. It’s even worse than it sounds; the controls suck and by the time I figured out how to play, I was already bored. Still, the sound effects are great and I love South Park, so let me know when there’s a Fingerbang game. $10. -Benny Goldman
Battle of Waterloo: This is a choose your own adventure text game. About the battle of Waterloo. “Join the Infantry!” or “Lie Down and Take Cover!” Either way, “Save Your $4 Bucks!” $4 -John Mahoney
Routsey San Francisco: Basically a Next Muni app for your iPhone. You select the SF Muni line you are interested in, and based off your location it will show you the closest stop with arrival times. For some reason the app displays the schedule for the closest stop only. So there is no way to check info for a stop you are not near. $3. -Chris Mascari
LifeGame: Based on 
MPG: MPG lets you keep track of how often you fill up your tank and how much you’re spending on gas, just in case you somehow forgot. It’s slow as hell on the phone we’re testing it on, even though it’s a pretty simple, but that might just be because we’ve overloaded this poor iPhone with apps. When it does work, it lets you keep track of your MPG from tank to tank. If you’re working on hypermiling, you can find out just how efficient you’ve been since the last fillup and see how much you’ve cut back on your driving. $0.99 -Adam Frucci
Zen Pinball: Rollercoaster is a pretty straightforward pinball game. The graphics are nice, and it’s pretty smooth. Essentially, you tap the right side of the screen for the right bumper, the left side for the left bumper, and flick on the ball release to fire another ball. You can nudge the table by shaking the phone as well. It’s fun enough, but you’d be hard pressed to find this exciting for more than a few minutes. $4.99 -Adam Frucci
Bomberman Touch: The Legend of Mystic Bomb: The developers who totally nail traditional d-pad-plus-two-buttons controls for iPhone games will do everyone a favor—sadly, Bomberman hasn’t. Your thumb blocks your Bomberman more than it should. Plus after the first level anyway, gameplay is too slow—not nearly frantic enough to rival the classics. $8. -John Mahoney
Aqua Forest: This water moving game uses both the touchscreen and accelerometer of the iPhone for controls. With five different categories, Tilting, Touch, Drawing, Warm/Cold, and All Functions there are 50 different puzzles that require either tilting, touching or both. There is even a Free mode, where you can create your own little atmosphere of stuff like water, fire and ice, and then by tilting/shaking the iPhone you can mix it all up. -Chris Mascari
Mobile Flickr: Full-featured Flickr app, you can browse your photos by sets, tags, and more. Photo browsing is comparable to the iPhone’s built in browser, and you can even assign a picture to a contact. It was slow to take pics and save them, but uploading to Flickr over Wi-Fi was fast. The only problem? The picture was upside down on Flickr! $3. -Benny Goldman
Exposure: This app is just designed for looking at Flickr pics, and has no upload feature. It shows recent pictures taken by others near your location which is cool, but browsing was slow and it only shows one picture per line. Skip this app, it’s worth shelling out the $3 for Mobile Flickr, especially when Exposure Premium costs $10 and only removes an ad banner. Free. -Benny Goldman
CityTransit: The undisputed king of the NYC subway map apps. It’s the only one with the officially licensed maps, it’ll plot your nearest subway stations on a Google Map for easier navigation, includes service advisories, includes LIRR and Metro North as well as an antique map, looks beautiful—does it all. And at $2.99 it’s the cheapest—don’t touch the other two, especially the $15 one. $3. -John Mahoney
Alarm Free: Alarm Free is a pretty simple, and pretty stupid, app. Basically, it’s a picture of an alarm. If you shake your phone, the alarm goes off and makes an annoying noise. Touch the screen to make it stop. Apparently,
I’ve thought for awhile that the key to selling the super cheap yet very underpowered sub-notebooks that are exploding all over the place would be carrier subsidization, and now a carrier in Japan is taking the the idea and running with it, selling the 
Though it’s not among the 
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