Moron Smashes His iPhone Because of His Palm Pre [Fanboys]

A guy named John has changed his first generation iPhone for a new Palm Pre. Nothing bad or weird about that. Until he took a steel hammer:

Then—for some unknown reason—he smashed his iPhone with it.

Why anyone would do this stupidity, instead of selling or giving the old iPhone to someone who may need it, is beyond me. [PreThinking]

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Robots won’t be able to wrest control of the planet from us silly humans until they learn how to collaborate. Sure, they can mow the lawn or mix a drink, but only when you give ‘em explicit instructions. Luckily for our future robot overlords, The EU’s JAST project is studying the ways that humans work together, in the hope that it can someday teach robots to anticipate the actions and intentions of a human partner. “In our experiments the robot is not observing to learn a task,” explains Wolfram Erlhagen from the University of Minho. “The JAST robots already know the task, but they observe behavior, map it against the task, and quickly learn to anticipate [partner actions] or spot errors when the partner does not follow the correct or expected procedure.” This bad boy has a neural architecture that mimics what happens when two people interact, and the video below shows the rather melancholy automaton trying to convince his human partner to pick up the right pieces to complete a simple task. Watch it in action after the break.

Continue reading Researchers develop a robot that reads your intentions, says you’re ‘thick’

Filed under: Robots

Researchers develop a robot that reads your intentions, says you’re ‘thick’ originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 06 Jun 2009 07:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Via [Engadget]

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Convertible Asus Eee PC T91 Netbook Gets Multitouch, Windows 7 (Eventually) [NetBooks]

The Asus Eee PC T91, which we fondled fondly at CES, has a few new tricks up its sleeve in the multitouch and Windows 7 department, but sadly these features won’t make it in time for launch this month.

Previously, we knew about the netbook’s touchscreen and hefty £449 ($670) price tag (for an Atom-based netbook, anyway), but the multitouch screen and Windows 7, both demoed in the video, were kind of a revelation.

Dude totally has to work on his MS Paint skills though. You guys and gals can do much better. [JKKMobile via Engadget]

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How To: Install Windows Mobile 6.5 Right Now [How To]

The bad news: Windows Mobile 6.5 won’t be coming out for a while, and you’ll be expected to buy a whole new phone to get it. The good: You can actually install it today, on your HTC phone. Here’s how.

Why should you upgrade to Windows Mobile 6.5? Disregarding the mixed coverage the OS has gotten—which tends to compare it to more modern software like iPhone OS and Android—6.5 is much, much better less terrible than 6.1, especially for touchscreen phones You’ve probably heard about the new graphical start menu and fantastic Titanium home screen; they’re great, but there’s a lot more to appreciate. IE has been updated; all menus are now finger-friendly; the whole system has inertial scrolling; there’s been a system-wide cosmetic refresh. That’s not to mention the upcoming Windows Mobile Marketplace, Microsoft take on the App Store. On top of that, at least in my experience, it’s pretty snappy.

Dozens of Windows Mobile 6.5 Beta ROMs are floating around the tubes, collected, tweaked and prepared for your use by the kindly souls over at XDA Developers, from whom I’ve adapted this How To. Despite their unofficial-ness, they’re really quite good—the fancy new interface elements are buttery smooth, and as a whole, and enough bugs have been stamped out to make 6.5 solid enough to use as your day-to-day OS.

This How To is based around my experience with a GSM HTC Touch Diamond. The process is largely the same between the few handsets that can run 6.5, but for the sake of brevity, I’m sticking to one handset, and its QWERTYed brother, the Touch Pro. For further guidance on other phones, head over to the XDA forums (CDMA Touch and Pro, Touch HD, Sony Xperia, Samsung Omnia)

Also, the necessary disclaimer: this tutorial reaches deep into your phone’s software, which means there’s a risk that you’ll brick your phone, should anything go wrong. If you’re worried, read up on the risks here. Otherwise, follow closely and you—and your phone—should be just fine.

What You’ll Need:

• An HTC Touch Diamond or Touch Pro (GSM only. Folks with CDMA handsets—that’s you, Sprint and Verizon—go here or here.)
• A (free) account at XDA Developers
• A Windows Mobile 6.5 ROM (Lotsa choices here: Diamond, Pro)
• A Windows PC, set up to sync with your handset
• A device flashing utility (Both)
• A bootloader (Diamond, Pro)
• A device radio (Diamond, Pro—Make sure to download from the “Original” list, not the “Repacked” one.)

Before you get started, you’ll probably want to back up your contacts and personal info. I’d recommend PIM Backup, which I’ve used for years. Or you could try Microsoft’s new, free online service called My Phone. This How To will replace all your device’s software, so if you have anything worth keeping, you’ll need to back it up.

Installing the bootloader:

Many of you have probably updated, or “flashed” your devices before, but this will have been with an official, signed utility from either your carrier or handset manufacturer. What we’re doing today is installing unofficial software, something which your handset isn’t currently set up to do. Our first order of business, then, is to install a new bootloader, called HardSPL, on the device, which will allow your handset to load software from third parties, i.e., your sweet, sweet Windows Mobile ROM. Let’s go:

1. Connect your phone to your PC, and establish an ActiveSync (on XP) or Sync Center (on Vista, or Windows 7) connection to your device. You don’t need to set up any sync rules—just makes sure the connection is active. You can check this by looking for a bi-directional arrow in your phone’s taskbar.

2. Extract the bootloader you’ve downloaded, and note the location (see “What You’ll Need” for links)

3. Find your extracted files, and run the executable file (usually called “ROMUpdateUtility.exe” or something like that.

4. Follow the instructions, carefully. The software performs lots of checks to make sure you don’t goof this up, but make sure you a.) have at least 50% battery left in your phone b.) the correct bootloader c.) a host computer that won’t shut off, go to sleep or otherwise interrupt the process. Heed! Or else there may be bricking.

5. Wait! You’ll see paired progress bars on your phone and computer screen. This part of the process doesn’t take that long, since you’re only updating a small piece of software.

6. Restart your phone. The small text in the corner of your Windows Mobile splash screen will have changed to something unfamiliar, but don’t worry about verifying your new bootloader. If you ran the utility to completion and the device restarted on its own, it’s more or less a sure thing that you’re upgraded.

Installing a new device radio:

This is the most esoteric part of the process, so I’ll try not to get too deep into the nuts and bolts. Basically, your device has firmware that manages its various antennae, letting you connect to cellular networks, GPS, etc. Installing a fresh Radio onto your device usually won’t make much of a change in how your phone works. it just lets us—or rather, your soon-to-be mobile OS, manage your phone’s communication capabilities freely. Some radios can improve reception on certain networks, or even connect to entirely new mobile bands. For more info on that, I’l refer you again to XDA.

You’ll probably notice that this process is seems an awfully lot like the last stage: that’s because it is. Since we’re “flashing” different parts of your phone’s software in each step, the core utility, and general technique, is quite similar. Anyway!

7. Pair your phone with your PC, like you did in step 1.

8. Extract your downloaded radio files and note their location

9. If the radio came with its own bootloader, skip to step 12.

10. Extract your downloaded bootloader, noting location.

11. Copy the extracted radio file—it should have an .NBH extension—to the directory where you’ve put your bootloader.

12. Run the bootloader, as in step 3.

13. Follow the instructions, as in steps 4 and 5.

14. Let the phone restart. Nothing much will have changed, but you may need to perform some minor network setup. Don’t worry too much about that now, since you’re about to wipe your whole device.

Flashing the ROM, i.e. Installing Windows Mobile 6.5

This is when we get down to actually installing our new OS. This is the step that’ll take the longest, and it’s the biggest leap of faith, since you’re replacing your device’s main software. Luckily, if you’ve come this far, it’ll be a snap. Same process, different .NBH file. Onward!

15. Pair your phone to your PC (this is the last time! promise!)

16. Extract your downloaded bootloader, again, to a different location. (Or you can use the same copy you used to flash your radio; just make sure you delete the radio file from the directory)

17. Extract your Windows Mobile 6.5 ROM, which should be an .NBH file of about 80-100MB, to the same directory that your bootloader is in.

18. Run the bootloader, and follow the instructions. Same warnings as before—don’t let your PC or phone sever the connection at any point.

19. Sit and wait. This time it’ll take a bit longer, but shouldn’t top 15-20 minutes.

20. Your phone will reset, and you should see a fresh Windows Mobile 6.5 splash screen. It might look hacked or unprofessional—don’t be alarmed! The guys who so graciously put together these ROMs, which often take a good deal of tweaking, leave their marks on the software in various ways. Anyhoo, you’ll have to let your phone run through a set of initialization routines for a little while. Just follow along.

21. WinMo should automatically guess your carrier and apply the appropriate connections settings. If not, you can do it from the device’s Settings page, found in the top level of the new start menu. As for the settings parameters, Google is your friend.

Conclusion:
Congratulations! You are now the proud, semi-legal owner of a Windows Mobile 6.5 smartphone! It’s hard to imagine wanting to switch back, but if you do, just repeat the above process with a different ROM. There are plenty of 6.1 installs, including the official carrier versions, available from the same place you found your 6.5 download.

Resources:

• XDA Developers
• ModMyDiamond

So that’s about it! Please add in your experiences in the comments-your feedback is a huge benefit to our Saturday guides. Good luck with your flashing (firmware only, please), and have a great weekend!

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Is This Really the iPhone 3G 2009? [Analysis]

Most of the rumors and speculation say that there wasn’t going to be video-conferencing in the new iPhone 3G 2009. However, a last-minute batch of images point to the contrary. Or do they?

In the image above, the iPhone on the left—published by a french blog—looks like it still has its factory plastic cover. You can see that the speaker grill has been moved up, and that there’s a spot that may be the front-facing camera. Updated

The one on the right could be the new iPhone 3G 2009’s bezel according to a Chinese original parts wholesaler. It has the speaker in the same location, but there are significant differences on the size of that opening. Indeed, there seems to be a good match in size. The opening on the left seems to be a little irregular, but it could be an effect of the lighting and the picture’s bad quality.

Of course, both images could be false but assuming one may be the real thing, there seems to be a mismatch. but they seem to match.

Here you have the two pictures that appeared in a second post in the same french site. There is clearly a difference between the two of them: The green lights—which indicate that the front-facing camera is working—are clearly on different places.

But that is not all. There are a lot more inconsistencies in these images than that. When you pass both through the Shadows and Lighting filter in Photoshop CS4, you can see that other things seem to be wrong: First, the iPhone on the left seems to have a chrome rim. On the right, the iPhone’s rim looks like the rim of the iPod touch. On the first one, the videoconferencing itself can be easily faked by loading a picture and adding the green light later. On the second one, it doesn’t make much sense to allow to record video from the front-facing camera when there’s no clear way in the interface to select the camera you want to use.

In any case, the bottom line here is that there seems to be a lot of inconsistencies in these images. To the point that all of them may be fake. Whatever they are, however, we will discover the truth in our WWDC 2009 liveblog this monday.

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Robots won’t be able to wrest control of the planet from us silly humans until they learn how to collaborate. Sure, they can mow the lawn or mix a drink, but only when you give ‘em explicit instructions. Luckily for our future robot overlords, The EU’s JAST project is studying the ways that humans work together, in the hope that it can someday teach robots to anticipate the actions and intentions of a human partner. “In our experiments the robot is not observing to learn a task,” explains Wolfram Erlhagen from the University of Minho. “The JAST robots already know the task, but they observe behavior, map it against the task, and quickly learn to anticipate [partner actions] or spot errors when the partner does not follow the correct or expected procedure.” This bad boy has a neural architecture that mimics what happens when two people interact, and the video below shows the rather melancholy automaton trying to convince his human partner to pick up the right pieces to complete a simple task. Watch it in action after the break.

Continue reading Researchers develop a robot that reads your intentions, says you’re ‘thick’

Filed under: Robots

Researchers develop a robot that reads your intentions, says you’re ‘thick’ originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 06 Jun 2009 07:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Via [Engadget]

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Palm Pre Only Available at Physical Sprint Stores on June 6 [Pre]

Sprint’s just made a silent change to their Palm Pre press release to take out the fact that the phone would be available on Sprint.com. Because it won’t. Here’s what the release used to say:

Palm Pre will be available nationwide on June 6 in Sprint stores, Best Buy, Radio Shack, select Wal-Mart stores and online at Sprint.com for $199.99 with a two-year service agreement and after a $100 mail-in rebate.

Here’s what it says now:

Palm Pre will be available nationwide on June 6 in Sprint stores, Best Buy, Radio Shack, and select Wal-Mart stores** for $199.99 with a two-year service agreement and after a $100 mail-in rebate.

That’s fine—Sprint’s allowed to make whatever change and sell their phones wherever they want—but people who were planning on staying home and ordering online will be pretty surprised when they discover that they need to put some clothes on and run to Best Buy. [palmpre.org]

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Microsoft reportedly bans netbooks with hybrid storage systems, MSI’s Wind U115 caught in the middle

We’ve never been fans of Microsoft’s ability to put hard limits on netbooks with Windows XP; it’s this fact alone that has kept the entire sector from moving forward in terms of specification advancement. Though, we’d probably wager that MSI is even more livid, as bit-tech has reportedly learned that the company’s Wind U115 will soon be yanked from store shelves. The reason? The machine’s hybrid storage system, which puts Windows XP on an SSD and allows other applications and media to be loaded on the HDD. Oddly, the netbook is still for sale on MSI’s webstore, and just a few days ago we saw NEC unveil a hybrid netbook over in Japan. Please Microsoft, reconsider — do it for love, do it for justice.

Read - MSI Wind U115 on sale
Read - bit-tech report

Filed under: Laptops, Storage

Microsoft reportedly bans netbooks with hybrid storage systems, MSI’s Wind U115 caught in the middle originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 06 Jun 2009 17:41:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Another Possible iPhone 3G 2009 Shot [Rumor]

These shots of a matte black iPhone from Nowhereelse.fr match up to the rumors we’ve heard so far about a future iPhone, but who knows if it’s real.

What we do see is a round hole that could be a front-facing camera, which is one thing that would get us REALLY excited at WWDC on Monday. [Nowherelese via Engadget]

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