Hardware Laptop

Robots to perform menial tasks by 2025, write for Engadget quite a bit sooner

admin — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 03:12:58 +0000

While robots have certainly been around for a long enough time doing things like sweeping your floors and even conducting symphonies, up to now they haven’t been “human enough” to replace actual people. However, according to a new report from the National Intelligence Council, they should be able to by 2025. The report goes as far as saying that an influx of robo-workers could even “disrupt unskilled labor markets” and occupy jobs currently performed by migrant workers and hapless high school students. Additionally, the report asserts that new technologies could be used to augment human abilities as well as to perform other tasks such as caring for the elderly. Unfortunately, the report had no word on the progress of accompanying synthetic saliva glands for the inevitable robo-waiters, so no need to fret — yet.
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Give One Laptop per Child, get an XO for your child–or yourself

admin — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 01:12:14 +0000

Feeling depressing apropos the speak of the environment ? You may deem there isn’t all the more you receptacle accomplish in re the enduring messes we’re newest. Nevertheless here’s something that could replace things, truly convert things. Bring forth the XO, this cute-as-a-bug adolescent laptop, to a minor fashionable the doing well environment. Added there’s a awesome sweetener: the compromise includes a in the second place XO en route for the babe of your preference, yet in case the youngster is you.

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Video: Adobe dabbles in video-object manipulation

admin — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 01:12:02 +0000

Hey you, hot-shot movie cutter! Now that we’ve got your attention, have a look at this. Adobe’s research laboratory has been toiling away with a sophisticated interactive video-object manipulation system, which gives video editors all sorts of creative windows with next to no rendering lag. An After Effects demonstration shows an editor selecting the outside of a cab and typing “taxi” — once the text is imprinted on the vehicle, it stays on the car as it moves up and down the street. We know, you’re totally scratching your head trying to envision what we just said, so why not just head past the break and give it a look?

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BlackBerry Storm update leaks to the masses

admin — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 00:12:04 +0000

Okay, remember that bit about waiting for a wide release? Yeah, screw that noise. Firmware 4.7.0.75 for the BlackBerry Storm has drizzled out onto the interwebs, and initial reports from intrepid updaters seem to be generally positive. We can’t verify the authenticity of this sucker, but if you were counting down the minutes until RIM got around to patching up issues and killing some lag, 75 might be a good start. Good luck, friends.

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SanDisk slashes some prices for the weekend, heading into world’s worst-named Monday

admin — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 07:11:16 +0000

“Cyber Monday.” You probably couldn’t pick a worse name for a day of conspicuous, retailer-defined consumerism, but you’re welcome to try. SanDisk decided to forgo the Black Friday insanity and instead run with three days of Cyber Monday sales, with up to 60% off those boring, ever-necessary flash memory products it’s so well known for — and Sansa players aplenty.

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Medion launches 5-inch GoPal P5430 GPS in Europe

admin — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 06:11:16 +0000

It’s been a nice little while since we’ve seen any new navigators from Medion, but the outfit’s hitting back with its relatively forgettable GoPal P5430. The European PND sports a 5-inch touchscreen display, integrated TMC antenna, fingerprint sensor, text-to-speech functionality, an inbuilt FM transmitter and pre-installed NAVTEQ maps of Western and Eastern Europe. Like we said, forgettable — but you should know it’s priced at

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Motorola cancels RAZR3 / Ruby, era comes closer to an end

admin — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 06:11:14 +0000

Earlier this month, the almighty RAZR fell from the top spot as America’s best selling handset. Now, we’re finding that the RAZR3 / Ruby has been canned. Granted, the move isn’t all that surprising — after all, Moto’s known for awhile now that it simply can’t keep tweaking the RAZR instead of, you know, innovating. But honestly, if this signals that the company is serious about moving forward and possibly adopting Android on the double, we won’t shed a tear. Okay, maybe one, but only after all the lights are out.

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Earth Trek offers up VGA webcam with 2-port USB hub

admin — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 06:11:08 +0000

It’s not often that you find a webcam that’s multifaceted, but Earth Trek’s webcam is just that. Dubbed the “hottest webcam” this world has ever seen (um, no), this unit packs a 1.3-megapixel camera, VGA capture abilities, auto focus / auto brightness and the real kicker, a 2-port USB hub. Probably still a ripoff at $45, but if you need those extra peripheral ports bad enough, who knows what you’d be willing to do.

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Intel VP says netbooks are “fine for an hour”

admin — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 06:11:01 +0000

Intel’s never made a secret of the fact that it developed the now-ubiquitous Atom chipset primarily for mobile devices and low-powered netbooks for at emerging markets, so it’s not totally surprising to hear Intel sales VP Stu Pann say the company doesn’t see netbooks as potentially cannibalizing sales of its existing processors — but we are a bit intrigued by his seeming dismissal of netbooks as everyday machines. According to Stu, a netbook with a 10-inch screen is “fine for an hour. It’s not something you’re going to use day in and day out.” That’s probably true, of course, but it’s harsher language than we’ve heard from Intel in the past — and it’s more or less in line with AMD’s recent decision to ignore netbooks entirely in favor of more capable machines “above that form factor.” Of course, Intel execs can pretty much say whatever they want as long as the company is basically the only player in the netbook game, but we think a lot of people actually are willing to use a netbook as their primary machine, especially in this economy. Could you handle a netbook as your daily driver? The comment box awaits.
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Man hacks GameCube controller for the Wii with tremendous effort

admin — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 05:11:50 +0000

Admit it. You’ve got an old GameCube from yesteryear laying around, and the slow economy (and fear for your life) is holding you back from running to your nearest brick-and-mortar to pick up a Classic Controller for your Wii. You know you want to play Super Mario 64 to work off that turkey, but you can’t justify laying out the cash. Fret not; YouTube user marcan42 has you covered, courtesy of a PIC18F4520 microcontroller and makeshift GameCube connector, along with a chopped off Nunchuk extension cord. Of course, you could just pick up a different model, but that would be way too easy. We didn’t say it was pretty, but if you’re still intrigued, check the full vid after the break.

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