Last we saw Nissan’s crash-avoiding BR23C robot “car,” it was rolling along all by its lonesone, taking cues from the humble bumblebee in order to survive in the wilds of CEATEC Japan. Well, it’s almost time for CEATEC yet again, and it looks like Nissan has seen fit to give our robot buddy a new bag of tricks, and a proper name: Eporo. Perhaps the biggest news, however, is that it now models itself on fish, which not only gives it greater peripheral vision (courtesy of a pair of laser range finders) to avoid obstacles, but lets it travel in packs similar to a school of fish. The idea there being that these could one day carry passengers and stick close together to reduce congestion on city streets and, in turn, cut down on the number of accidents.

Filed under: Robots, Transportation

Nissan’s crash-avoiding robot ‘car’ gets upgrade, fresh new outlook on life originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 02 Oct 2009 00:03:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Dell’s Inspiron Mini Nickelodeon Edition oozing out now for $329

If you’ve ever had a yearning for a slime covered netbook, today’s your lucky day. Dell’s Inspiron Mini Nickelodeon Edition — which is absolutely SpongeBob-approved — is now up for order starting at $329. As for specs, it’s pretty much a standard Mini 10v underneath, with a 10.1-inch (1,024 x 600 resolution) display, Windows XP Home, 1GB of DDR2 RAM, a GMA950 graphics set, WiFi, 3-cell battery, 1.3 megapixel webcam and a totally played 1.6GHz Atom processor. Oh, and a slimed lid and palm rest, which are likely the one two aspects that truly matter here.

[Thanks, Simon]

Filed under: Laptops

Dell’s Inspiron Mini Nickelodeon Edition oozing out now for $329 originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 02 Oct 2009 09:08:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sony Getting Closer to TVs With No Cables Whatsoever [Wireless Power]

This TV has absolutely no cables connected to it. No video cable. No audio cable. And no power cable. How’s this wicked sorcery possible? Thanks to Sony’s new Wireless Power Transfer technology, which can send 60 watts over the air.

Sony’s Wireless Power Transfer can push 60 watts of electrical energy over almost 20 inches (50 centimeters). That’s a pretty decent distance, especially when they say that it can be extended using passive extender units. In fact, they have already achieved 31 inches in other tests.

They claim that their method—which sounds similar to Intel’s—uses some dharmastastic magnetic resonance, in which electromagnetic energy gets transmitted from one device to another, both sharing the same resonant frequencies.

Sony says that this system offers 80% efficiency, which may get reduced to about a minimum of 60% if there is a misalignment in the frequencies, which needs to be corrected.

I don’t know if this is safe for our bodies or not, but I would like to have it. Even if that requires me not wearing my tinfoil hat while watching the sixth season of Lost. [Sony via i4u]

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iPhone Gets Better Image Stabilization from Pro-Camera App [IPhone Apps]

There have been image stabilization iPhone camera apps before, but not until 3.0 have they had adequate access to the hardware to do proper processing. Pro-Camera is one of these.

Pro-Camera’s features include that anti-shake, which uses the accelerometer to detect where the iPhone is moving in space, as well as self-timer and digital zoom. It’s $3, which is not that much if the app really does improve your images dramatically. Though, they should really have some kind of demo that lets you take 10 photos to see if you like it. [iTunes via Wired]

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Apple TV Still A Dud After Price Cut [Apple]

Lower pricing hasn’t made the Apple TV set-top box a smash hit.

Last month, Apple gave its digital living room gadget more bang for the buck, knocking $100 off its 160 GB Apple TV, to $229, and killing off its smaller version.

That has not made it a must-have gadget.

At Amazon, it’s ranked the no. 474 best-selling electronics device. (That’s marginally better than being no. 711, its rank on Aug, 20. But it’s still very low, and below several less-impressive devices.)

And Google Trends shows that search activity for “Apple TV” in the United States hit a small bump after the price cut, but has since settled to where it was before. (See chart below.)

To be sure, these metrics are obviously not the whole picture. Apple retail store sales are an important factor that we don’t have visibility into. Amazon ranks and Google searches have a lot of variables that we also don’t have visibility into.

But we think these two metrics are valid enough to support the argument that it has not become a huge hit thanks to its better value.

We think that there’s a market for a digital gadget that helps consumers watch Web video on their living room TVs. But so far, no one’s perfected it.

As we said last month:

Apple needs to make major changes to the Apple TV’s software and platform. That could include some or all of these options:

* Opening Apple TV up to all Web video content, whether Apple controls it or not. (Rival Roku is heading in this direction with its $99 box.)
* Making iTunes a better video service; perhaps offering more subscription options than simply whole seasons of individual shows.
* Adding a Blu-ray player to Apple TV so it could replace an existing port on peoples’ TVs, not take up a new one.
* Establishing an App Store for Apple TV, so that companies could offer video services, games, other apps, hardware accessories, etc., the way they do on the iPhone.

These ideas aren’t new — we’ve discussed many in detail here and here.

But Apple hasn’t made any substantive changes to the platform in more than a year and a half. Eventually, it will have to do something. Even at $229, the Apple TV remains an expensive device with a very limited feature set. That’s why it’s been unpopular with consumers and why Apple has to excuse it as a “hobby” on earnings calls.

Here’s that Google Trends chart:

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Last we saw Nissan’s crash-avoiding BR23C robot “car,” it was rolling along all by its lonesone, taking cues from the humble bumblebee in order to survive in the wilds of CEATEC Japan. Well, it’s almost time for CEATEC yet again, and it looks like Nissan has seen fit to give our robot buddy a new bag of tricks, and a proper name: Eporo. Perhaps the biggest news, however, is that it now models itself on fish, which not only gives it greater peripheral vision (courtesy of a pair of laser range finders) to avoid obstacles, but lets it travel in packs similar to a school of fish. The idea there being that these could one day carry passengers and stick close together to reduce congestion on city streets and, in turn, cut down on the number of accidents.

Filed under: Robots, Transportation

Nissan’s crash-avoiding robot ‘car’ gets upgrade, fresh new outlook on life originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 02 Oct 2009 00:03:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Via [Engadget]

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Palm Pixi Could Hit Sprint, Best Buy on October 20 [Rumor]

Boy Genius has word from an anonymous source that the Palm Pixi should be hitting all Sprint and Best Buy locations on October 20. Few other details are offered up on Palm’s second WebOS phone, but if it’s going to come out before the end of the year, the date seems logical. [BGR]

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Video: BumpTop 1.2 with multitouch support available now

BumpTop 1.2 is now available, adding multitouch support to the already impressive list of features available for the 3D desktop. Check out the free download and you’ll soon be introduced to a host of new gestures, including the scrunch (where you can grab a handful of items and pull ‘em into a pile), wall focus and rotate, and some quick and easy photo editing. As always, you can download the free version to get started, but if you want to take advantage of stuff like un-watermarked image previews and unlimited sticky notes, you’ll have to shell out $29 for the pro version. Sorry, Mac and Linux users — this is still a Windows-only affair. But we do have a video for you! You know where to find it — after the break, of course.

Continue reading Video: BumpTop 1.2 with multitouch support available now

Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

Video: BumpTop 1.2 with multitouch support available now originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 01 Oct 2009 14:44:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Knitted Lego Minifig Will Replace My Teddy Bear [Lego]

Oh Lego Minifig, you were perfect in your plastic symmetry and Mona Lisa smile before. But now that you’ve been knitted, I just want to hug you. Unfortunately, you can’t buy this right away. You’ll have to do it yourself:

Some Assembly Required is a pattern that will enable you to make an adorable toy that can be taken apart and put together again. The head, torso, and legs are independent pieces, so you could make multiple pieces in different colors and they would be interchangeable.

I’ve included a tutorial on boxes and edges so you can make nice crisp corners. The tutorial isn’t necessary to make the toy, but it may be helpful.

OK, people from Etsy, I’m too lazy. Go knit! [Fight Knitting Club—thanks Kimberly]

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Bill Gates Lost $7 Billion Last Year, Is Still Richer Than God [Money]

Pity poor Bill Gates! In this terrible economy, he lost $7 billion last year, bringing his net worth down to… $50 Billion.

Don’t worry! He’s still the richest man on the planet, but he’s less richer than everybody else than last year. Other losers on this year’s Forbes 400 include Paul Allen, who lost $4.5 billion, Michael Dell, who lost $2.8 billion, and Steve Ballmer, who lost $1.7 billion.

Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, unlike all the other tech mavens on the list who lost money, actually made $100 million this year, bringing his value up to $8.8 billion. Good for him! I’m sure that made a fucking difference. [Forbes via Fortune]

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