Filed under: Robots

We’re not even going to front — we had all but forgotten about Erector’s Spykee. Granted, it didn’t do itself any favors by showing off at CES and then doing nothing for the next seven months, but we digress. If a pre-order page on Amazon is to be believed, the Spykee Spy Robot should be released on October 15th. It’s sporting a hefty $299.99 price tag and a recommended age of 8-years and up, but we’ll need to see some actual shipment notifications later this fall before we really get our hopes up. C’mon Erector, don’t let us, um, down.

[Via I4U News]

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Via [Engadget]

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The Week in iPhone Apps: Sniff Wi-Fi and Gas Up Your Gulfstream, But Not at the Same Time [IPhone Apps]

This week in the App Store, we’ve got some great freebie apps. That’s a good thing. Especially when you’re a beleaguered Gulfstream GIV pilot getting hit hard by the soaring price of jet fuel. This week was also great for pilots in several other ways, but there’s some stuff for the rest of us, too. Come along as we see what’s been hitting millions of Springboards over the past seven days.

Rooms: Until this week, IRC fans had to jailbreak to get chatting, but Rooms developed this week brings the same Colloquy-based engine to the App Store. The interface could use a bit of pretty-ing in future releases, but all of your basic IRC client functions are there, now without jailbreak. $1

WiFinder: This app pings all of the Wi-Fi networks in range and tries to load a sample web page once connected—saving you the task of checking each network individually to see if you can get a working IP. It could use an interface to then connect to the network in question (currently you have to go back to Settings) but this is handy if you often find yourself squatting, especially in major cities where there are tons of networks in any given location. $3

DianHua Chinese Dictionary: Just about all of the dictionaries in the App Store, be they English or other languages, cost money. Hopefully this excellent Chinese character dictionary, which lets you search for words in English, Pinyin, and traditional or simplified characters, starts the trend of these things being free.

Newton’s Cradle: It could use a touch of MotionX’s realistic physics, but Newton’s Cradle is a fun diversion—bringing the ol’ swinging balls rig to your phone. Responds to touch and tilt alike for hypnotizing effects. Wouldn’t be cool if it wasn’t free, so thankfully, it is.

Photohunt: My favorite bar game (aside from, you know, the normal ones like pool and darts) come to the iPhone, in a version that doesn’t look nearly erotic enough, sadly. $5

This Week’s App Coverage on Giz:

• Copy and paste framework OpenClip surfaced using an ingenious backdoor trick to bring system-wide copy and paste to all apps without jailbreaking, but it looks like the 2.1 firmware will close the door on the exploit. Frown.
• iBlessing and ParveOMeter keep you Kosher, make your Grandma in Boca proud of you.
• Palringo, the best App Store IM client, gets push-to-talk functionality.
• Microsoft says any Xbox Live App has to be free, and soon you’ll hopefully be able to add friends via your phone with the best Live app, 1337pwn.
• We saw a preview of the next version of the Facebook app, which goes a long way toward looking like real non-iPhone Facebook.
• Snapture adds multi-touch zoom, instant-delete, color filters and more much needed improvements to the iPhone’s camera. It’s Jailbreak-only at the moment
• iPhone Myst is coming. I can almost smell my old Packard Bell’s CD-ROM drive chewing on those Quicktime movies!

From the novelty/ridiculous bin:

• Two bucks gives you Roshambo, taking the great game us normal people know as Rock Paper Scissors and turning it into two douches shaking their iPhones at each other.
• Tie-a-Tie, your guide to being a man, comes in both Lite ($1) and Deluxe ($2) versions. Sigh.
• Lolcats lets you haz that cheezborger on the go. Free

And this week’s trend: Apps for Pilots

FAA Wait: Unlike a few of the other aviation apps this week, FAA Wait is actually very useful for non-pilots as well. It pings FAA’s live database for air traffic control delays at airports around the country. Great for getting news of your 3-hour wait on the jetway straight from the source. $1

FltPlan Airport Guide: Comes loaded with the full official listing of our country’s airports large and small, and all the relevant info you need like radio frequencies, approach information, and nearby alternates to plan your Cessna jaunt out to them. Free.

Gulfstream Tanker: And on the opposite end of the niche spectrum is this app for owners of Gulfstream GIV or GV jets—rappers and Fortune 500 execs only, basically—which calculates how much money you might save by loading up with fuel for your return trip before you depart, factoring in cruising speed, trip distance, and the price of fuel at your two stops. Hov, your app is finally here. $20

This list is in no way definitive. If you’ve spotted a great app that hit the store this week, give us a heads up or, better yet, your firsthand impressions in the comments. And for even more apps: see what you missed last week and check our original iPhone App Review Marathon. Have a good weekend everybody.

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ZPower promises to deliver Silver-Zinc laptop batteries in 2009

Filed under: Laptops

ZPower has made a few promises before that haven’t exactly panned out, but that apparently hasn’t stopped it from making another bold claim at IDF this week, with it boasting that its newfangled Silver-Zinc battery will be rolled out in a “major notebook computer” sometime in 2009. According to ZPower, that battery will provide up to 40% more runtime than traditional lithium-ion batteries and, just as importantly, be far more “chemically stable” than its sometimes explosion-prone lithium-ion counterpart. ZPower also looks to be going the extra mile when it comes to recycling the batteries, with 95% of the battery itself apparently recyclable, and the company offering “financial discounts” to folks when they trade in their old Silver-Zinc batteries.

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ASUS launches a slew of new laptops

Filed under: Laptops

ASUS took a break from cranking out an endless series of Eee PCs to revamp some of its traditional laptop lines today, here’s what you need to know:

• B50A business laptop: 15.4-inch screen, Penryn Core 2 Duos on Intel’s GM45 Express chipset with ASUS’s Expressgate SplashTop implementation and integrated X4500 graphics, max 4GB RAM and 320GB drive, spill-resistant keyboard, Bluetooth, WiFi, dual-layer burner, 1.3 megapixel webcam.
• F8 laptops (pictured): 14.1-inch WXGA screen, Penryn Core 2 Duos with 256MB ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3470 graphics with Express Gate, TV tuner with remote control, up to 4GB RAM and a 320GB drive, 1.3 megapixel swivel webcam, five available colors.
• F6 “scented” laptops: 13.3-inch screen, lids feature five available graphics and fragrances (really), Penryn Core 2 Duos with 256MB ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3470 graphics with Express Gate, TV tuner with remote control, up to 4GB RAM and a 320GB drive, fingerprint scanner.
• G71V and G50V “Republic of Gamers” laptops: 17-inch (G71) and 15-inch (G50) gaming laptops with up to Intel Core 2 Quad QX9300 processors and 512MB NVIDIA GeForce 9700M GT graphics, 4GB of RAM, 2x 500GB hard drives, dual-layer burner, 2.0 megapixel swivel webcam, LED lighting effects, gaming hotkeys.

No pricing or ship dates yet, but we’ll get you those as they come in.

Read - B50A
Read - F8
Read - F6
Read - G71V and G50V

[Via i4u, thanks Vinit]

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Spitzer Space Telescope Celebrates 5th Birthday With Portrait of Stellar Nursery [Happy Birthday]

NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope, the last of the space agency’s Great Observatories satellites to launch, celebrated its fifth birthday recently… giving me the opportunity to post this amazing multigenerational picture of star-forming region in the constellation Cassiopeia, 6,500 light-years from Earth. The photo takes in an area equivalent to four full moons and puts on show how one generation of massive stars can give birth to the next.

The $800 million telescope, which was named after the first man to propose putting telescopes in space, Dr. Lyman Spitzer Jr., launched on August 25 2003 from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Its mission will conclude when its onboard helium supply is exhausted—estimates from 2007 put that date at April 2009. So happy birthday, Spitzer Space Telescope! May you continue to provide us with awesome pictures for the last leg of your journey! [Cosmiclog]

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Filed under: Robots

Industrial robots are big, stupid, and dangerous. Walk between an automated welder and the SUV it’s assembling and you’ll find yourself fused to the frame, destined to sit unwanted at the back corner of some dealer’s lot. But, keeping bots and humans separated on an assembly line isn’t always practical. Enter ARoS, a machine that’s not only capable of working safely with people, but being totally condescending while doing it! In a demonstration video it repeatedly tells its hapless helper how incompetent he is, then, after putting on one lousy nut itself, says “I enjoyed your help!” We figure he says that to all the meat-bags, but you can see and decide for yourself after the break.

[Via Digg]

Continue reading Bossy assembly robot says you’re doing it wrong

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Via [Engadget]

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Intel Opens Door for Army of MacBook Air Clones [Intel]

Muffled by the cacophony of like a million netbooks and the wireless power that’ll power our cyborg brains at the Intel Developer Forum was the low-key introduction of Intel’s next-gen 45nm dual core chips for ultra-thin notebooks—i.e., the dwarven chips that made the MacBook Air possible. Now that everybody can snag them, expect a surge of similarly limber notebooks that can suck in their gut to fit into narrow pockets of ugly paper.

Lenovo’s X301 and HP’s 2530p already use the new chips. The SL9400 and SL9300 running at 1.8Ghz and 1.6GHz, respectively, both have a 1066MHz FSB and appear to be the Core 2 Duo Low Voltage (LV) chips with a TDP of 17W, while the SU9400 and SU9300 are the ULV variants, clocked at 1.4GHz and 1.2GHz with a 10W TDP.

While the clock speeds of the LV chips are the same as the MBA’s, the switch to the 45nm process and faster front-side bus should yield both performance gains and power savings. More importantly, their ready availability for all-comers could make the ultra-thin market a lot more interesting, though we’re kind of afraid at this point of what Asus will do with them. [Ars Technica]

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Aiaiai Swirl Earbuds Are The Anti-iPod Headphones [Earbuds]

Multiple colors? Check. Good sound quality? Supposedly. These Aiaiai Swirl headphones aren’t the ubiquitous iPod earbuds worn by every other person on earth (myself included). Aiaiai, the 200-member collective from Copenhagen, designed these in conjunction with Kilo design, offering straightforward headphones, as well as a headset for cellphones.

Aiaiai wanted to focus on sound quality as much as design, offering a sound isolation and full spectrum sound engineered by C4 Studios. Topped off with multiple colorways and slick packaging, the Swirl earbuds look like winners. The headphones are available for $65 at Digitalflix and the headset cost $81 at Aiaiai. [Aiaiai via CoolHunter]

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Drawings of Early Microscopes Show Artistry in the Pursuit of Science [Retromodo]

Ah, where would science be if not for the contributions of the humble microscope? Did you know that the development of the world’s first microscope began in 11th century Iraq, when scientist and polymath Ibn al-Haytham recorded all sorts of data about lenses, binocular vision, mirrors and observable properties of light his The Book of Optics? That would make this pioneering technology more than a thousand years old. BibliOdyssey has amassed a great collection of drawings of pre-20th century microscopes and some of them look more like art pieces than instruments of science. Check out my favorites: [Bibliodyssey via MAKE]

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Pioneer Sneaks Out $2200 Elite BDP-09FD; First Blu-ray Player That Crushes the PS3 [Home Theater]

Last May Pioneer told us that autumn would bring a “super duper” Blu-ray player—the most powerful Blu-ray player ever built. It makes up for the current crop, which are lower in price but are missing key features like BD-Live for internet-based content. Well, not a leaf has fallen off a tree, yet here it is already, the $2,200 Elite BDP-09FD. Feature-wise, the best Blu-ray player on the market has been the PS3—turns out, an extra $1,700 will buy you something that kills Sony’s game console as far as Blu-ray and other media are concerned.

As you probably guessed, Pioneer finally accepts the need for 2.0. This will come with Ethernet and be fully capable of BD-Live playback, no firmware updates needed at the get-go. Unlike other BD-Live players, which require SD cards, this one comes with 4GB of internal memory for downloads.

The thing is a Mack truck, 45 or 50 lbs. of steel and aluminum with everything mounted carefully to eliminate vibration. The bottom layer of the aluminum-housed chassis is a quarter-inch plate of solid steel, and it’s even got feet from a Japanese company called TAOC, supposedly the most vibration-free platform you can get. There are no wires inside either; all connections are physically mounted from the circuit board to the walls to reduce noise.

Pioneer says all of the engineering is so that this can be a single box that replaces some home theater snob’s high-end CD player, DVD player and previous-gen Blu-ray player, blowing each in turn out of the water.

In the audio department, Pioneer recommends using this for decoding all music and movie soundtrack, and going analog out with those gold-plated 7.1 RCA jacks. It’s decodes all known codecs from DTS and Dolby using a separate digital-to-analog converter for each channel. This is a little like having a separate motor for each wheel of your car. Combining this with some crazy audio engineering, they created a way for “completely perfect noise-free signal” to come through RCA jacks instead of the costlier old-school XLR jacks. “It’s far better than what you find in most receivers,” says Pioneer’s Chris Walker. In fact, everything, including speaker preferences and other receiver-like tweaks, are adjustable from inside the player.

It’s also got that crazy CD-playback technique first seen on Pioneer’s summer models: When used with certain Pioneer receivers, it produces jitter-free disc playback.

In terms of video, it has 1080p/24 for Blu-ray and DVD content too, as you might expect, with a best-on-the-market image processor also found in Meridian’s crazy 10-megapixel projector.

The 09’s next-level achievement is that it upconverts color information to 16 bits, previously unheard of because nobody had a system that could handle 16-bit color data. (Pioneer had to build their own for this mission.) That means that each picture can have up to “2,800 trillion” (um, 2.8 quadrillion??) colors, which the processor interpolates by looking at each frame of the Blu-ray’s 8-bit color movie. Though most TVs only process 10-bit, Walker says that it’s better to send over a richer signal that the TV has to tone down, than letting the TV upgrade the Blu-ray data itself. When TVs hit 16-bit, this sucka will be ready.

Cooler to me are the two HDMI jacks on the back. It’s a first for a Blu-ray player (or PS3), and it means you can hook up the same player to both your projector and your flat-panel display without a splitter or some on-the-fly rewiring. You can even split it up so that HDMI 1 only does audio, while HDMI 2 does video, freeing up more video bandwidth, especially in those pesky longer cables that might get a bit choked. The HDMI can detect the source, and automatically determine what audio and video to send over.

Obviously, some people are going to be content with their PS3s for the time being (after all, they are only $500, a small price by comparison). And Walker acknowledges that speed is always going to be the saving grace of the game console. (”If we were to build a Blu-ray player around an Intel or Cell processor, we’d have those kinds of speeds too.”) But as far as picture and audio output, nothing quite resembles this “super duper” machine. And on top of all that, we can stop bitching about Pioneer ignoring BD-Live, and getting on with the future. Now, seriously, why would ANYONE buy Pioneer’s last batch? Save your money, home-theater snobs. This badass will be out soon. [Pioneer]

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