Filed under: Household, Robots

This is Robot Partner 2.0 by Slovenian artist Stefan Doepner. Recently exhibited at the 2008 ARS Electronica Festival, Robot Partner is billed as a robotic “living table installation.” The table can clumsily shuffle objects around itself using an undisclosed technology (magnets, perhaps?) and is intended to showcase the “absurdity” of “service-automation.” We’re not entirely sure what that means, but you can see for yourself after the break.

[Via Make]

Continue reading Robot Partner 2.0 shuffles objects around the table so you don’t have to

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Via [Engadget]

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Advent 4123 netbook boasts built-in SIM card slot, can’t escape UK

Filed under: Laptops

PC World (the store) already netted itself an MSI Wind rebadge for its Advent brand, and it’s now plundered the netbook depths yet again for another model, with its new Advent 4123 adding a built-in SIM card slot to the mix. While it’s getting increasingly tough to distinguish the rebadges from the rip-offs, this one appears to be based on ECS’ G10IL netbook, with it boasting all the same design cues (minus the LED-adorned trackpad button) and identical specs, including a 10.2-inch display, a 1.6GHz Atom processor, 1GB of RAM, a 160GB hard drive, and Window XP as standard. You’ll also apparently be able to get this one in both black and silver versions, but only in the UK, it seems, where it’ll set you back a hefty £349 (or just over $600 if you’re thinking about trying to import one).

[Via Pocket-lint]

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OS X 10.5.5 update available for download

Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

The latest updated — 10.5.5 — is now up and dancing in Apple’s software update. It includes the latest batch of security updates, Address Book, Spotlight, and iPhone sync enhancements, and iCal, eMail, MobileMe and Time Machine performance tweaks. In other words, it’s a biggie. Full release notes just beyond that read link.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

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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. Update: Crackberry just put out some fresh flamebait for you, Verizon’s table comparing the Storm to the iPhone 3G. Check it out:

[Crackberry, Howard Forums]

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