What’s even better than a Wall-E robot toy made by WowWee? A Wall-E robot toy made by the animatronic people at Disney. This Wall-E robot is supposed to roam around Disneyland/Disney World entertaining patrons, but got spotted on the streets of LA panhandling and glad-handing for cash. You know who else can say their name? Timmy from South Park. Wall-E! [Slashfilm]
As much as we would loath typing on that touch-sensitive, rigid keyboard, we’re definitely geek-smitten by this ultra-thin, AMOLED laptop concept from Samsung SDI — Sammy’s display division. 12.1-inches and 1,280 x 768 resolution with infinite contrast? We’ll take two… just as soon as someone can explain the extra panel around back. With Samsung projecting 14- to 15.4-inch OLED laptops in 2009, this might come sooner than you think.
Digitimes is reporting that the Atom-based Asus Eee PC 901 that we got a peek at the other day is set to ship on June 3. And it looks like the cosmetic enhancements (like the metal accents) aren’t the only bit of newness on board: Apparently, it’s got Bluetooth, and the Linux version will come with some new software. Otherwise, the guts are supposedly the same as the 900, and it’ll go for somewhere under $650. Hopefully way under that. [Digitimes]
For artist Alex Metcalf, the inner workings of trees has been a lifelong obsession. So, after he graduated from design school he utilized his artistic skills to create the “Tree Listening Installation”—a project designed to educate the public about what happens inside a tree. The system he created allows visitors to listen to a live performance of a tree sucking up nutrients using either a simple metal cone that looks like an old-timey hearing aid, or a set of headphones linked to a specially designed solar powered sensor placed on the tree.
Using these devices, visitors are treated to a clicking sound indicating water being pulled up from the roots to the leaves through the xylem tube. If this sounds like some weird hippie crap to you, I definitely hear that. However, I can appreciate Metcalf’s unique artistic approach. Plus, it does represent an interesting way to fuse nature and technology. The Tree Listening Installation is currently on exhibit at the Royal Botanical Gardens just outside of London. [Alex Metcalf via Oddinstrument via Coolbuzz]
Rest assured, this won’t be the firstorlast time you hear of insects and mammals being used as inspiration for robotic creatures. Nevertheless, a recent MIT mechanical engineering course saw students craft bots that could handle “beaver-like tasks” such as “knocking down trees and gathering food in the form of street hockey balls” while fending off competitors in 45-second rounds. Separately, the EU-funded SPARK endeavor is seeking to “develop a new robot control architecture for roving robots inspired by the principles governing the behavior of living systems and based on the concept of self-organization.” There’s plenty more material to make your skin crawl in the read links below, just don’t feed the mechs, okay?
Ah — we’d know that backside anywhere. If you were super-duper stoked about the forthcoming HTC Touch Diamond, you might want to sit down. Apparently, High Tech Computer Corp. has already sent this beauty over to the FCC, where a room is currently filled with men in white coats meticulously judging the above label placement. Regardless, this might bode well for a US release of the company’s latest and greatest… don’t you think? While you ponder that brainteaser, feel free to truck over to the FCC’s site and get all the information you could possibly want about the Diamond’s RF exposure.
Hey, do you guys want to hear our AT&T impression? It’s pretty awesome. Okay, okay, here it goes: “Great news, we’re offering free WiFi to iPhone users! Wait, no we’re not. Yes we are! Oh, no, wait, cancel that.” Pretty spot-on, right? Sadly, it looks like we might need something else to rag on shortly, since an AT&T spokesman started clearing the air with the New York Times late last week. The bottom line — for the moment, anyway — is that AT&T has “long planned” to offer up its WiFi hotspots as a free value-add for the iPhone and all of the other WiFi-equipped devices in its arsenal, but that the brief enabling of the feature thus far and the mention on AT&T’s site were results of human error, and the company isn’t prepared at this point to commit to an actual launch date or details on how the service will work. Hey, at least we know we’re not just suffering from some brutal hallucinations now.
It was just yesterday that the official announcement of the Atom-based MSI Wind’s pricing prompted us to wonder where ASUS’s promised Atom Eee 900 was, and would you look at that — here’s the Eee 901, looking radiant in white. Of course, the major changes are internal, so the exterior looks pretty much the same — apart from some extra buttons and the relocation of the power jack — but it’s good to know this thing is inching closer to release. Now if we could just get some benchmarks and pricing info, we’d be all set. Check the read link for tons more pics.
Obviously, a fuel cell powered vacuum is not anything we will have in our homes in the near future—but that doesn’t mean designers are not thinking about the possibilities. This BacVac concept trades in the noisy electric motor and annoying cables for eco-friendly, cable-free, fuel cell, dirt-sucking power. Why they chose to sling the device over the user’s shoulder is unclear, but one thing is for certain—if you tend to generate a lot of filth, it won’t be long before you are reduced to some sort of suburban Quasimodo. [Continuum via Trends Now via DVICE]
Remember that scene in Aliens with Bishop and the knife? ITP student Aram Chang made a nerve-racking game out of it. In Simon Stabs, you and your opponent take turns sticking a “knife” between your fingers, making a pattern that must be mimicked by the other guy, who then adds to it. You only have a few seconds to stab; one false move and you lose—hopefully just the game and not any fingers. I tested it out, and as you can see from the video, I’m no android. And I didn’t even have the added pressure of Bill Paxton screaming like a sissy. In case you forgot how the pros do it, Bishop’s clip is below. [Aram Chang; ITP 2008]
Digitimes is reporting that the Atom-based Asus Eee PC 901 that we got a 
For artist Alex Metcalf, the inner workings of trees has been a lifelong obsession. So, after he graduated from design school he utilized his artistic skills to create the “Tree Listening Installation”—a project designed to educate the public about what happens inside a tree. The system he created allows visitors to listen to a live performance of a tree sucking up nutrients using either a simple metal cone that looks like an old-timey hearing aid, or a set of headphones linked to a specially designed solar powered sensor placed on the tree.
Rest assured, this won’t be the 
Obviously, a fuel cell powered vacuum is not anything we will have in our homes in the near future—but that doesn’t mean designers are not thinking about the possibilities. This BacVac concept trades in the noisy electric motor and annoying cables for eco-friendly, cable-free, fuel cell, dirt-sucking power. Why they chose to sling the device over the user’s shoulder is unclear, but one thing is for certain—if you tend to generate a lot of filth, it won’t be long before you are reduced to some sort of suburban Quasimodo. [
Remember that scene in Aliens with Bishop and the knife? 
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