Filed under: Robots

Yeah, as in, it actually wants a “psychologically inspired object recognition system.” What’s that, you ask? It’s giving robots and mechanical creatures the ability to see objects the way humans do and make reasonable judgments based on those sights. Essentially, the military would love to see bots have something similar to spatial memory, which would enable ‘em to “mentally rotate objects in order to match the object to different representations.” When looking at the main objective of this here endeavor, however, we can’t help but have mixed feelings. We’re kosher with increasing “robotic control,” but creating “exponential expansion of robotic capabilities and intelligence” might not be the smartest thing to do in the long run.

[Via Wired, image courtesy of ACM]

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Via [Engadget]

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Tip: iPhone Remote Is a Wi-Fi Keyboard for Apple TV, Prevents Aneurysms [IPhone Apps]

Apple TV’s onscreen keyboard is an exercise in stress management, especially with its morsel of a remote. Not pimped by Apple is that the iPhone’s Remote app solves this by presenting the iPhone’s keyboard anytime you need to type and would otherwise pop a blood vessel, like when you’re searching for “Jay and Seth Vs. the Apocalypse” on YouTube or plumbing through iTunes. Handy for the weekend, no? [Daring Fireball via Mac Rumors]

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Band Geek Hero Shirts Proclaim You King of the Keytar [Shirts]

Guitarists may get all the chicks, but some of us loudly and proudly played less popular instruments and heck, we ought to get a chance to be a hero too! While I plead with Harmonix to include the noble Euphonium in their next music game, you other band geeks can show solidarity with your instrument of choice by wearing it on your shirt. Torsopants has a crazy collection of Guitar Hero parodies for almost every musical player out there. Banjo Hero? Kazoo Hero? Didgeridoo Hero? All yours for $19 plus shipping. [Torsopants via Boingboing]

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Gadgets Blamed For Dozens of Deadly Lightning Strikes in Russia [The Gods Hate Gadgets]

It appears that the Gods hate gadgets, which is why they have been striking down citizens in the new, westernized Russia left and right with lightning. The fact that many of these individuals were outside using gadgets at the time has lead people to believe that the devices themselves are to blame. These incidents include a woman found dead with a melted cellphone in her hand, a 10- year-old boy on a bike and an elderly farmer tending her potato plants with what I assume was some sort of metal tool.

The vast majority of scientists will agree that the electromagnetic fields given off by small gadgets are far too weak to attract lightning strikes. Plus, there has been a marked increase amount of thunderstorms experienced across Russia this year—so there is definitely a reason to chalk this up to coincidence more than anything else. That is, until you see this. [CNN]

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Intel turns 40

Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

Happy 40th birthday, Intel! Now that you’re over the hill, we’d suggest buying a Porsche, building completely custom one-off chips for Apple, or in some other way jeopardizing your financial well being in order to actualize pent-up childhood dreams, but we’d say AMD’s recent struggles are just about the best present you could’ve asked for. Sure, the EU is trying its best to put a damper on things, but don’t let that get you down, your best years are still to come. Maybe.

[Thanks, Kevin]

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NSFW: Hands-on With iRoticNet.com’s All You Can Eat iPhone Porn [Iphone Porn]

Of all the talk of the iPhone 3G being THE new porn delivery device for on-the-go businessmen, there’s been very little evidence of that actually being the case. Until now. A new site called iRoticNET.com offers a $9.95 subscription for absolutely unlimited porn direct from their site, featuring over 200 titles at launch next week on July 22. Our hands-on verdict? It’s wankalicious.

Even over 3G and not Wi-Fi, the video quality was remarkably good for something you’re watching streamed live. You can seek to any part of the movie using the default iPhone movie playback controls—just like the kind you see in any embedded Quicktime movie. Audio quality was good and the 200 movies gives you a fairly ample selection that will only grow as the site matures. For $9.95, it’s a pretty damn good deal if you’re a frequent traveler or if you need to hide your habit from your wife. “Favorites” support even helps you get to your preferred scenes as quickly as humanly possible.

In our opinion, it’s probably the easiest way to get porn on your iPhone without loading it up in iTunes beforehand. [iRoticNET]

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AMD says it’ll detail its Atom-challenging plans in November

Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

AMD has been hinting at its plans to take on Intel’s processor du jour, the Atom, for some time now, but brand new CEO Dirk Meyer is now getting slightly more official about it than the company has been previously, and he’s promising that AMD will reveal all come November. As the folks at Register Hardware point out, all indications point to that Atom-challenging processor being the “Bobcat,” which has been talked about for nearly a full year now. If that past information is correct, it looks like we can expect the chip to debut with a 1GHz clock speed, along with 128KB of L1 cache, 256KB of L2 cache an 800MHz HyperTransport link, support for 400MHz DDR 2 RAM, and a power consumption 8W. No word on how AMD plans to compete with Intel in terms of price just yet, but that’ll no doubt be revealed in November, if not sooner.

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RGBy Lamp is LED Color-Changing Toy for Color Scheme Fanatics [Lighting]

We showed you the impressive RGBy tabletop last year, but designers Makoto Hirahara and Shinya Matsuyama have gone and commercialized a new chameleon color-change lamp. The RBGy lamp is a simple battery-powered gizmo that changes color to match whatever object you’ve got it sitting on. You simply press to capture, and it copies the color by varying its LED illumination. It’s hard to think of a purpose for it, other than impressing your date by matching the moodlighting to her dress… but there are cheaper ways to impress, given that each 2.75-inch steel and plastic lamp costs $199. [7Gadgets]

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How would you change the Samsung Instinct?

Filed under: Cellphones

Samsung sure managed to move a lot of these Instincts, but the real question is: how many are on their way back tomorrow? With the 30-day trial period quickly closing in on the earliest of adopters, we’ve seen a myriad complaints about Sprint’s iPhone slayer (its words, not ours), and the first official software update isn’t rumored to occur for at least another week or so. For those folks who plan on sticking with it (or those who’ve already said their final goodbyes), what would you have Sprint include in the next firmware? Better still, what would you change about the design? Are you sick and tired of the inexplicable reception fluctuations? Are you fed up with holding down a button to unlock the display? Aggravated with lockups twice a day, everyday? Enraged by the omission of a “force roam” option? And really, could Sprint have made the battery door any more impossible to remove? Rant on, ranters!

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iPhone 3G and firmware 2.0: one week later

Filed under: Cellphones

We know it’s been a whirlwind week of either: a) patiently sitting outside your local Apple store, b) losing touch with family, friends, and significant others while buried knee-deep in your new phone / firmware, or c) desperately trying to ignore the iPhone. But it’s time to come up for air and take stock. We’re all aware that things didn’t go quite as planned with Apple’s trifecta (iPhone 3G, firmware 2.0, MobileMe) launch last week, and we’re just starting to see the fallout from last Friday’s debacle.

The most prevalent complaint we’ve been hearing from users concerns ongoing issues with the phone’s new firmware, which has delivered on a lot of its promises, yet is also exhibiting frustrating bugs that make us think this one needed a little more time in the oven. In particular, we’ve experienced — and have been assailed with reports about — painful lag times when typing, as well as choppy, clunky behavior while scrolling through or searching contacts, calls which can’t be answered, and even outright crashes while receiving a call. Some owners have encountered repeated forced quits while trying to use the App Store, while a group of our editors vented about an SMS issue which not only grinds the phone’s performance to a halt, but makes the keyboard inaccessible altogether.

When you toss in problems other users are having with email, MobileMe syncing, and assorted minor kinks (trouble rotating Safari anyone?), it seems obvious that there’s cruft beneath this firmware creating hiccups in usability. Coupled with 3G reception concerns, the company’s continuing struggle to get MobileMe working as advertised, and rumors that 2.0.1 is already in the works, you get the impression that everyone is looking for a little relief here… Apple and its customers alike.

So, how’s your first week been?

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