Not that we haven’t seen robotic Guitar Hero mastersbefore, but Cyth Systems’ egotistically named Cythbot is just a full cut above the rest. Boasting some of the most advanced, high-dollar equipment known to mankind (okay, so maybe that’s a stretch, but just barely), the creation uses a highly sophisticated viewing method to determine which notes to hit, and it can even decide whether slamming the whammy bar is a good idea or not. Too bad you’ll be entirely too distracted by the introverted hosts to even notice how awesome this thing is, but the video’s in the read link if you care to try.
Not that we haven’t seen robotic Guitar Hero mastersbefore, but Cyth Systems’ egotistically named Cythbot is just a full cut above the rest. Boasting some of the most advanced, high-dollar equipment known to mankind (okay, so maybe that’s a stretch, but just barely), the creation uses a highly sophisticated viewing method to determine which notes to hit, and it can even decide whether slamming the whammy bar is a good idea or not. Too bad you’ll be entirely too distracted by the introverted hosts to even notice how awesome this thing is, but the video’s in the read link if you care to try.
Apparently the temptation to crank out low-margin, impossibletodifferentiate Atom netbooks is even greater than we thought — here’s Toshiba’s new entry, the NB105. You might remember that back in July Tosh was showing off a nifty touchscreen UMPC and talking about how the “six or seven” netbook market segments it had identified meant that it wasn’t going to compete directly with the Eee PC, but hey, it was summer, you know? We all say things we don’t mean and then spit out the same 8.9-inch machine with a 1.6GHz Atom, 1GB of RAM and Windows XP as everyone else. No pricing details yet, but the NB105 should be out in Mexico in November.
MC Hammer was out of commission for a while there but he appears to be back in big way. First we saw him in a full-on parody for Monday Night Football, and now he has been spotted enjoying the Microsoft Surface at the TechCrunch 50 conference. If I were the one wearing Hammer Pants in the ’80s, I would try to avoid public scenarios that invite obvious jokes—but he seems to have come to terms with his past. [JacobMullins TwitPic via Microsoft Surface Blog]
Our last peek at the BlackBerry Javelin—the Boldish phone that’ll replace the Curve—was kind of assy, but we’ve got some fresh and crispy shots that really show off just how cheap and ugly it makes the Curve look. (It’s the one on the left, BTW.)
We already caught a brief glimpse of Samsung’s first netbook offering, but it looks like the company is now fully on board the bandwagon du jour, with it releasing some official photos and a few more specs of the still-unnamed netbook ahead of the promised October launch. This one is apparently a 10.2-inch model, and will pack the usual Atom N270 processor, along with a standard hard drive of unspecified size (no word on an SSD option), a 6-cell battery, and Windows XP for an OS, among other standard features. No official word on a price just yet, but Samsung tells What Laptop that it’ll be in keeping with other similar offerings on the market, and that it’ll be available in your choice of white, black or blue.
Update: Looks like those remaining specs aren’t much of a mystery any more. According to Pocketables, you can expect to get 1GB of RAM as standard, along with your choice of 80, 120, or 160GB hard drives, a 1.3 megapixel webcam, and a 3-in-1 card reader, all in a 2.9-pound package. Still no official word on a price just yet, but it looks like it’ll sell for the local equivalent of $550 in Korea.
Apple may have absorbed the super-neato Magnetosphere visualizer into iTunes, but they did make some tweaks in their Borging process. Just like those Picard-obsessed skinjobs, the iTunes version is obsessed with planets and launching millions of photon torpedoes into them. The original, seen here, has more sparklies and lines, which is quite a bit of a different feel than the one you already have. Unfortunately Magnetosphere download links have been taken down everywhere, but we managed to find one linked to on the official site. If those go down, we’ve got a Mac Mirror and Windows Mirror too. Enjoy.
Instructions: To install it on Mac, put it in /Users/username/Library/iTunes/iTunes Plug-ins
Graphene is getting a lot of publicity these days. It is being hailed as the future of the electronics industry—the material that will eventually replace silicon. It has also recently been confirmed as the world’s strongest known material. Now, researchers at the Berkeley Lab have thrust graphene into the spotlight once again thanks to the TEAM 0.5: the world’s most powerful transmission electron microscope. It has produced the first “stunning” images of graphene’s individual carbon atoms.
Now, I’m no scientist, but apparently this sort of image gives even the most seasoned electron microscopist a raging science boner. But it is not so much about the graphene as it is about the potential of the TEAM 0.5. One researcher noted that it “allows for the detection of every single atom from the Periodic Table provided that the sample under investigation can stand the radiation damage.” Basically, it can study individual atoms in real time and produce high-resolution images of its subject. That will allow researchers to fully realize the potential of graphene by understanding how defects in the crystal structure can effect its properties. And they claim this is only the tip of the iceberg. Noooow I feel a science boner coming on. [Nanowerk and Science Daily]
Japanese toy maker Taiyo Corp has unveiled an R/C mini-chopper fitted with a proximity sensor that forces the device to descend when it hovers too close to the ceiling. A feature like that makes sense for novice users, and it appears to have 3-channel control, but beginners probably have more to worry about than just the ceiling when flying indoors. Plus, 30-60 minutes of charge time is going to earn you 5 minutes of use, so it may be difficult to justify spending $92 on it. [Taiyo via CrunchGear via DVICE]
Despite repeated assurances by experts that the Large Hadron Collider would not bring about the end of the world, it appears that one 16-year-old girl in central India decided to commit suicide by drinking pesticide rather than face that remote possibility. Her father noted that several Indian programs aired doomsday predictions in the days leading up to the test run, which left her inconsolable. As tragic as this is, I can’t help but wonder why someone would rather go out by drinking pesticide than being painlessly vaporized. [news.com.au via Uberreview]
MC Hammer was out of commission for a while there but he appears to be back in big way. First we saw him in a full-on parody for Monday Night Football, and now he has been spotted enjoying the 
Our last peek at the 
If you like what you see, you’ve got almost 
Graphene is getting a lot of publicity these days. It is being hailed as the 
Despite 
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