The Most Realistic Unboxing of All Time [Clips]

Product unboxings are generally sterile affairs, boiled down to Hollywoodesque over-simplicity, ignoring blister packs and steel-impervious plastic for magically opened, perfectly photographed gadgets. Well, here’s a real unboxing made for the rest of us. And to the average male Giz reader, the clip evokes the same vicarious pain of watching a guy get kicked in the stones. [via TUAW]

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Filed under: Misc. Gadgets, Robots

Indoor flying toys aren’t hard to come by these days, but WowWee’s hoping you’ll still be willing to drop a little bit of coin on indoor aerial supremacy. First introduced at CES, the $50 FlyTech Bladestar has helicopter-like blades for hovering, and built-in infrared sensors to avoid obstacles. You can control the Bladestar with the included remote, or stick it in autopilot mode to watch it avoid obstacles and even “push” it yourself by walking up to it. If it’s war you’re after, you can put the toy in “dogfight” mode to use the infrared signal as a weapon against an unfriendly Bladestar: three hits and you’ll be testing WowWee’s claims of crash-resistance. The Bladestar is available now. Cheesy Saturday-morning advertisement is after the break.

Continue reading WowWee’s FlyTech Bladestar can govern your home autonomously

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Via [Engadget]

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Official Verizon BlackBerry Storm Video Leaked, Actually Looks Kinda Pantsworthy [Blackberry Storm]

As teased, Verizon made its official internal announcement of the touchscreen BlackBerry Storm today, and CrackBerry has gotten ahold of the clip. If you look past the video’s asstastic quality, you can see the Storm is way more polished than the various leaks lead us to believe. It really looks like a flagship phone now, actually worthy of gadget lust. And here’s Verizon’s talking points, confirming some of the specs as well as the clicky touchscreen:

[Crackberry, Howard Forums]

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New MacBooks already shipping, hitting stores September 23rd?

Filed under: Laptops

If we’re to believe a report out today from Citigroup analyst Richard Gardner, Steve Jobs may be taking his “one more thing” to its logical — and lengthy — conclusion. According to Gardner (via Barron’s) “field checks” on Apple’s movements have “confirmed shipments” of “new MacBooks.” Gardner goes on to detail stand-out features of the new laptops, saying the currently-en-route devices boast a “very thin aluminum casing, an LED backlit display and an aggressive entry-level price point.” Sure, this crazy talk does happen to fall somewhat in line with recent tips we’ve received suggesting that a new MacBook Pro will be headed onto store shelves come September 23rd, but that doesn’t change the fact that all of this information is being reported by lone sources (Citigroup affiliation notwithstanding) with absolutely no evidence to back up their claims. We won’t argue that it would be great to see a much-needed update to MacBooks and / or Pros in the very near future, but we don’t recommend placing any bets… not until we see some more of those juicy Apple leaks.

[Via Electronista]

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AMD VP says netbooks only good “around the house”

Filed under: Laptops

AMD’s Ultra Value Client line might be set to go head to head with Intel’s Atom in the netbook market, but it sounds like the company isn’t particularly confident that users will accept the design compromises involved in building cheap, small laptops. According to Pat Moorhead, AMD’s VP of advanced marketing, the choice between a $499 netbook and a $499 full-sized laptop with 15.4-inch screen and a dual-core processor is clear to him — a netbook might be fine for “around the house,” but the shorter battery life and lack of features means that “it’s a big tradeoff.” Those are some fair points, even if they have a hint of sour grapes to them, but it certainly seems like consumers don’t care — Intel can’t make enough Atom chips, and machines like HP’s Mini-Note are selling like crazy. So, we put it to you: if this was your $499, would you rather get a netbook (say, the Eee 901) or a full-featured 15.4-inch laptop like this AMD-powered Acer Extensa? Video after the break.

[Via Eee PC News]

Continue reading AMD VP says netbooks only good “around the house”

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UAV Courier Pigeons Deliver Medical Supplies, Sans Awkward Number Two’s [Robo Pigeons]

Here’s a great example of a robot originally developed for war being reused to help those in need. These tiny UAVs were once spy planes, but today they could deliver medical samples from isolated South African villages to labs for testing, or deliver emergency medicines and antidotes to those same locations. “The implications of these delays are huge for the individual and for the community,” says Barry Mendelow, a project leader with the South African National Health Laboratory Service. “The patient is waiting for treatment, and in the meantime they could be passing on a very contagious disease.”

And, Barry, when these things get cheap enough for the mass market, give me a ring. There’s this remote on my coffee table that’s just out of reach. [New Scientist]

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Tech-laden Storm Chasers Fly Headlong Into Hurricane Ike with a Smurf on Their Wing [Hurricane Smurf]

First off, I hope everyone who stayed behind in the path of Hurricane Ike is OK this morning. Second, we know what we knew about Ike due in part to the guys, gals and tech shown in these storm chaser photographs. The photo above shows a “Smurf,” or the Stepped-Frequency Microwave Radiometer, which has adorned the wings of hurricane hunting WC-130J aircraft since 2007. The device, and the 24/7 missions run by the 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron, have helped increase the National Hurricane Center’s accuracy rate by 30%.

The Smurf works by measuring wind speed at the surface of the ocean, and then combines that information with rainfall rates from within the storm system (in case you didn’t know, these guys fly into the hurricanes we flee from). As the incredible 100+ mph winds whip around the outside of the plane, they create foam, which the Smurf sniffs for microwave radiation. From that radiation, the storm chasers can calculate wind speed. It sure beats the hell out of the Loftus Method, which involves a wet finger, an open window, and a steady wind. Accuracy rate? Slightly less than the Smurf. Slightly. [CNET]

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Modified New Zealand Wool Resists Blowtorches, Dog Bites, Sharp Knives [Flameproof]

Call it cliche (or just inevitable), but those sheep-herders down not-quite under have created the ultimate fabric by weaving a synthetic textile fiber called Vectran with ordinary sheep’s wool. It’s so amazing, its said to withstand blowtorches, dog bites and even knife attacks.

“We have tested it…putting the fabric over a cushion. With a screwdriver or something, using two hands and all your force, it won’t go through,” Dr. Peter Ingham, a scientist at New Zealand’s AgResearch government lab, told reporters. “A very sharp knife with the fabric horizontally on a benchtop, using two hands and all your force—it will go through. It will penetrate a little bit,” he said, adding. “This is, if you like, stab resistant,” he said.

Now that’s a turtleneck sweater I can get behind. [SBS World News Australia]

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Filed under: Robots, Transportation

Those pesky spyplanes, always catching you in the act. Denel Dynamics built these two GPS-guided robot snoopers for the military, but it turns out they’re well-suited to the world of rural medicine. They’re being prepped for use by clinics in South Africa as carrier pigeons of sorts, taking medical samples from remote areas to labs for testing, or ferrying antivenom to snake bite victims. The mini-UAVs can carry a 500-gram payload through a stiff wind, and can land at a predetermined spot on auto-pilot or manually. We want one. You know… for, um, to do other good things for humanity. Video is after the break.

[Via Gearlog]

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Via [Engadget]

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