Filed under: Robots

It looks like attempts to sneak across the border into Britain could soon become a battle of humans versus the machines, as the country’s border guards have now recruited some robots normally used in warzones to help root out folks trying to smuggle themselves into the country. Developed by BAE Systems, the so-called “Hero” bots are equipped with searchlights and high-resolution video cameras that let it search the inside and undersides of vehicles, and they could potentially be outfitted with heartbeat detectors as well, or even sensors to detect chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear materials being smuggled into the country. While it’s apparently only been tested in one location so far, the Border Agency seems to be all but sold on the bot, and it’s now looking at rolling ‘em out to other locations in the country. No word if they have any plans to employ BAE’s spider bots, though.

[Via Danger Room, image courtesy of BAE Systems]

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Via [Engadget]

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Fujitsu bumps Amilo 3540 to Centrino 2

Filed under: Laptops

Fujitsu-Siemens’s Amilo 3000 laptops have always been decidedly stylish in their two-tone duds, and now the company’s polishing them up a bit with new Centrino 2-based guts. First out the gate is the 15.4-inch Amilo Pi 3540, which features the new platform and NVIDIA GeForce 9300M GS graphics driving a display Fujitsu-Siemens claims is dramatically better than the industry standard. There’s also a spill-proof keyboard, silent mode, and a 15-in-1 card reader. Europe only at the moment, should be out in August starting at £699 ($1,392).

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Garmin’s New Nuvi 500 GPS Does Driving, Walking, Boating Nav in One Unit [GPS]

Garmin has just announced a new member of the Nuvi GPS range, the 500 series. In a first for Nuvi, the rugged, waterproof 500 units are specifically designed to be multipurpose, with maps for driving, walking, cycling and boating built in. For out-doorsy types, there’s a shaded digital elevation map option, and a dedicated compass page and tracklog. Plus the battery is a swappable 8-hour Li-ion type, so you can carry a spare for extended trips away from a power source. The 500 comes with City Navigator, and topographic maps of the US, while the 550 has highway coverage of the US and Canada, but no topographic data. The units are on show at the British International Motor show in London form today, and go on sale soon in the US for $499. Press release below.

SOUTHAMPTON, England, July 22

Garmin the global leader in satellite navigation, today announced its first multi-use nüvi portable navigation device (PND) dedicated to walking, cycling, scootering, driving and boating in one rugged easy-to-use unit. The nüvi 500 series comes equipped with the latest technology from Garmin including NavTeq sophisticated mapping data and the ability to accept different types of mapping including TOPO for outdoor navigation and Blue Chart cartography for marine usage.

Clive Taylor, Garmin’s Director of Product, said, “The nüvi 500 series is a true chameleon in the gadget world, it extends the use of GPS across the range, from walking to cycling to driving to boating. It’s ideal for individuals or families who want to go and explore the great outdoors in every way they can. With the built-in compass and integrated Wherigo(TM) and Geocaching player the sat-nav’s use is extended beyond just navigating: Users can enjoy the fun of the many family treasure hunts and adventures available online.”

The new waterproof nüvi 500 series combines the latest Garmin navigation technology including Hotfix(TM), detailed NavTeq mapping, millions of points of interest (POIs) and traffic avoidance compatibility, for the times when sitting in a traffic jam is not an option. In addition, the nüvi 500 series comes standard with Garmin’s popular “Where am I?” safety feature. At any time, with a single tap of the car icon, drivers can display their exact latitude and longitude coordinates, the nearest address and intersection, and the closest hospitals, police stations, fuel stations and recovery service telephone number. In addition, with Garmin Connect Photos, users can choose from millions of geo-located images provided by Google’s Panoramio to photo-navigate on land or water.

With one touch, the nüvi 500 transitions between walking, biking, driving or boating mode;

Walking and outdoor pursuits

Ready for the great outdoors, the nüvi 500 models display shaded digital elevation mapping on the 3.5″ water-proof touchscreen. This series comes standard with a compass page, track log and a removable, rechargeable battery for extended outdoor use. The integrated Wherigo(TM) and Geocaching player means the nüvi 500 series is ideal for getting the family to enjoy the great outdoors with the many downloadable ‘adventures and treasure hunts’ available online. Optional TOPO mapping will give additional detailed maps.

- Wherigo is a toolset for creating and playing GPS-enabled adventures in the real world. Use GPS technology to guide you to physical locations and interact with virtual objects and characters. http://www.wherigo.com

- Geocaching is an entertaining adventure game where individuals and organizations set up caches all over the world and share the locations of these caches on the internet. GPS users can then use the location coordinates to find the caches. Once found, the visitor may be provided with a wide variety of rewards, all a visitor has to do is ensure that if rewarded, they leave a gift for the next person who finds the cache. http://www.geocaching.com

Cycling/scootering

Where the nüvi 500 series stands out is in its ability to fit comfortably on a scooter or bicycle. Its user interface is easy to control and, with directions via Bluetooth and a scooter mount as standard in select European markets or optional extra everywhere else, it’s a great fit for getting around the busy town centres of Europe. The nüvi 500 series has a rugged design with UVA/B & fuel resistant material and bright clear screen that can be seen even in strong sunlight. If the weather turns and the rain comes down, its waterproof body ensures that the turn-by-turn directions get you to your destination using the most direct route and in the quickest time.

Driving

The nüvi 500 series’ intuitive interface greets you with two simple questions: “Where To?” and “View Maps.” Touch the colour screen to easily look up addresses and services and get voice-prompted turn-by-turn directions to your destination. It comes preloaded with City Navigator(R) NT map data European region or individual country. It’s packed with millions of POIs and features digital elevation maps that show you shaded terrain contours at higher zoom levels. With the nüvi 500 series, you can also upload custom POIs such as ‘The Good Pub Guide’ and ‘Falk-Marco Polos Travel Guide’ offering thousands of great places to drink, eat and visit.

Boating

When loaded with optional BlueChart(R) g2 Vision marine cartography, the nüvi 500 series is great on the water, providing detailed chart-specific information, spot soundings, inter tidal zones, wrecks, port plans, restricted areas and more. The nüvi 500 is ideal for the occasional boating enthusiast who wants one navigational device for foot, car, bike or boat.

The nüvi 500 and 550 for Europe come preloaded with either country-specific City Navigator NT Map Data (500) or full European City Navigator NT Map Data (550) with detailed street and topographic mapping.

The nüvi 550 will be available in the UK in September at a RRP of GBP299

See the Garmin nüvi 500 series on Stand N118 - British International Motor Show at ExCel, London - 23 July - 3 August 2008: http://www.britishmotorshow.co.uk

[GPStracklog]

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Sony HQ Shows Off 3D Fish Footage on 200-inch Mystery Display [Sony]

Apparently, the new attraction at Sony’s Tokyo headquarters is a gigantic 200-inch display showing HD underwater footage in 3D. The footage was shot by divers in the Okanawa aquarium with a couple of high-end Sony cameras, but what we’re really interested in is that display. What is it?

There’s not much info that we can find online, but it’s almost definitely not some new 200-inch TV. That sort of thing would have been wheeled out at CES to show Panasonic what’s up. Perhaps it’s a custom job with two panels stitched together? A projection? Maybe it’s just a really fancy aquarium that’s gussied up to look like a display? I’m not sure, but from the photos it looks very big and very nice. Anyone have the goods? Inquiring minds want to know. [New Launches]

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iPhone Dev Team unleashes Pwnage Tool 2.0

Filed under: Cellphones

Sort of. Pwnage Tool 2.0 can’t handle 3G iPhone SIM unlocks just yet, though jailbreaking should work just fine, and we’re also faced with the teensy little problem of the Dev Team’s server being totally destroyed by downloads already — mirror please? — but the friendly little jailbreak app has finally been unleashed upon the earth. We’d never suggest trying out software like this right out of the gate, but, um, let us know how it goes, yeah?

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Update: We’re seeing mixed results so far in the comments, but no bricked phones to speak of. Always a good thing. Oh, and plenty of mirrors to be found in the comments, thanks guys!

Update 2: Looks like 2.0.1 is already out with a few fixes!

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BlackJack III Coming this October? [Blackjack III]

It’s all still rumor for the time being, but word has it that the Samsung BlackJack III (formerly the Samsung i788) will be arriving this October. While slightly thicker than the BlackJack II, it will also run Windows Mobile 6.1 Pro and feature a 320×320 touchscreen, 528MHz processor, 3MP camera, A-GPS, Wi-Fi and HSDPA (AT&T’s 3G tech). Sounds good, though we’re not so sure about this new trend of ever so slightly thicker smartphones. [WMExperts via BGR and PhoneArena]

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Crafty iPhone dock mod supports iPhone 3G, saves $29

Filed under: Cellphones, Peripherals

If you’re an owner of the first generation iPhone then one of the (many) annoyances you’ve discovered with your new curvy and slightly chubbier 3G sib is the fact that it won’t fit your existing dock — be it the dock bundled with the iPhone or with the Bluetooth headset. To make matters worse, Apple chose not to bundle a compatible dock with the iPhone 3G — you have to purchase that separately for $29… you know, assuming you can find it. Fortunately, that old dock can be made into a suitable charging base for your iPhone 3G with just a bit of simple Dremel action and elbow grease. Sounds like a bargain to us.

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Hack Your Point-and-Shoot into a Time Lapse Camera [Digital Cameras]

CamTim is a hack that’ll let you use any digital camera with a remote control for time-lapse photography. It’s not super-easy, but it won’t make you cry (probably). It’s basically a board you program to buzz the camera’s remote button at whatever interval you want. Using a ZigBee module, you can also set it up to run wirelessly, which is pretty handy for long-term spying… on birds. [ZigGrid via MAKE]

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Video: Exoskeleton Helps Paralyzed Man Walk For First Time In Twenty Years [Exoskeletons]

One of the coolest realms of technology currently transitioning from Sci-Fi to practical is that of exoskeletons. Above is an astonishing video of one such device in action, a medical model that helps a quadriplegic man walk for the first time in twenty years. The exoskeletons are still in development, with the one in the video a prototype that’s about to undergo US trials. If this is what an early model can do, can you imagine where we’ll be in ten years with the technology? Here’s hoping the FDA finds a way to speed these through approval. [Medgadget]

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Arn Kim Ran MacRumors While a Full-time Doctor [Apple]

On top of running a bitchin’ keynote liveblog, MacRumors owner Arn Kim was up until recently a full-time medical doctor. He’s a friend who I’ve come to rely on as a sounding board for Apple rumors at 3am or any other obscene time of day, so I’m glad to see him being recognized with a profile in the NYT. [Photo by Jay Paul]

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