Meka, UT Austin researchers show off 'sociable' Dreamer robot head

The folks at UT Austin's HCR Laboratory have been working on a Meka humanoid robot for some time now, but they've only just recently added one pretty significant component to it: a head. This so-called "Dreamer" isn't just your ordinary robot head, though -- described by the researchers as a "sociable humanoid head," the head is modeled on anime and comic characters, and promises to establish an "organic link to its biological counterpart, creating feelings of quasi-affinity in response to gestures and synthetic emotions." In other words, it's impressive enough to hold your attention while you interact with it, and it may very well creep you out a little. Head on past the break to check it out in action.

Continue reading Meka, UT Austin researchers show off 'sociable' Dreamer robot head

Meka, UT Austin researchers show off 'sociable' Dreamer robot head originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 29 Nov 2010 14:44:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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JH Audio JH/13 PRO Earphones Review

Last July was an eventful month for this reviewer. I got to see firsthand how custom earphones are made by craftspeople who are experts in what they do. And I got to take delivery of my own pair of custom Jerry Harvey JH/13 PROs.� But before I delve into this review, a little history is [...]

Source: http://the-gadgeteer.com/2010/11/25/jh-audio-jh13-pro-earphones-review/

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What If Your Entire Desk Were a Touchscreen? [Video]

Big touch surfaces are nothing new, but we like the approach taken here. A familiar form factor—the traditional sitting desk—mixed with the (now) ubiquitous tech of touchscreens. Is the BendDesk what your office will look like someday? More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/mSQmiTYO-3E/what-if-your-entire-desk-were-a-touchscreen

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Safretti's back with Double Vision hanging HDTV / fireplace combo

Nothing quite says "the holidays" like warming up to an artificial fire in a spacious, well-appointed apartment while watching a DVD of generic snow-filled landscapes. Unless you're in our family, in which case "the holidays" is more about drunken egg nog brawls and recrimination. Either way, it looks like the kids at Safretti have improved their hanging, portable fireplaces the only way, really, that it could be improved upon: by adding an HD LCD TV to the mix. We're not sure what the Netherlands-based company is charging for this, but seeing as how this purveyor of ultra-expensive home furnishings doesn't even have an office in the states (the closest is in Mexico, and the one in Liechtenstein refuses to answer our emails) we're pretty sure you can't afford it anyways. It comes in two sizes, featuring either a 37-inch or 47-inch TV. Get a closer look after the break.

Continue reading Safretti's back with Double Vision hanging HDTV / fireplace combo

Safretti's back with Double Vision hanging HDTV / fireplace combo originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 29 Nov 2010 08:46:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/11/29/safrettis-back-with-double-vision-hanging-hdtv-fireplace-comb/

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Doctor Who Sonic Screwdriver, Now Screws Screws

Doctor Who’s Sonic Screwdriver is second only to MacGyver’s paperclip and duct-tape in terms of usefulness: There’s almost nothing it can’t do. Almost. Have you ever actually seen the Doctor screwing a screw with his screwdriver? Neither have I.
If everyone’s favorite Time Lord had this screwdriver, though, then he’d even be equal to putting together [...]

Source: http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2010/11/doctor-who-sonic-screwdriver-now-screws-screws/

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Deal of the Day ? BlackFriday Deal On Lenovo IdeaPad Y560 Laptop ? With Exclusive Coupons: Core i3 for $699; Core i5 for $759; Core i7 for $869

The LogicBUY Black Friday Deal today is a 20% coupon code and up to $530 in exclusive stackable codes on select models of the Lenovo IdeaPad Y560 laptop.�� This 15.6? LED-backlit LCD laptop has 1GB ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5730 discrete graphics.� Other standard features include 3 USB 2.0 ports, Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR, 802.11n [...]

Source: http://the-gadgeteer.com/2010/11/27/deal-of-the-day-%e2%80%93-blackfriday-deal-on-lenovo-ideapad-y560-laptop-%e2%80%93-with-exclusive-coupons-core-i3-for-699-core-i5-for-759-core-i7-for-869/

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Morgan Stanley Tech Analyst Mary Meeker Joins Kleiner Perkins As Partner

Longtime technology analyst Mary Meeker is leaving Morgan Stanley for greener pastures at venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. She will join the firm as a partner. Mary Meeker joined Morgan Stanley in 1991 as the Firm?s PC Software/Hardware & New Media analyst. At the investment bank, she served as a Managing Director, and led the Global Technology Research Team that covered Google, Amazon, eBay, Yahoo!, Microsoft and others. Prior to her role at the investment bank, she served as a Technology Research Analyst at Cowen and at Solomon Brothers.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/ZT8dSOAW_0o/

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Nothing Says ?I?m Stuck in the 1990s? Like L�kki?s Motorola StarTAC in Hot Pink

If you were one of those people that watched the iPhone4 v. HTC Evo Xtranormal videos made by Brian Maupin and caught yourself thinking that today's mobile phones are just downright overcomplicated, you're definitely going to like L�kki. The brand new Paris-based startup launched in September is looking to bring back the good old simple portable phones of the 1990s - but in an environmentally friendly and stylish way. Forget Facebook, Foursquare, email and all those other time-consuming applications out there. If you don't want to spend your life on your phone (which also happens to be a clock-camera-calculator-garage door opener-microwave-in-one), L�kki's "Back to Basics" approach offers telephones that make calls and send texts - and do absolutely nothing more.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/Sj-VPskrvGQ/

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Switched On: Acer's Iconic Keyboard

Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology.

When Acer announced a slate of new devices at a New York press conference last week, the overarching message was simple -- keyboards are as done as a Thanksgiving turkey. The company introduced an array of tablets, most of which were running Android, with sizes ranging from five- to ten-inches each. That's almost as broad a lineup as Archos, which has dipped down to what most would consider digital audio player turf with a three-inch tablet (tablette?) and a precursor to what is sure to be a merciless barrage of tablets on the slate for CES. The single manifestation of a physical QWERTY text entry device was a keyboard dock designed for a 10-inch tablet running Windows.

But as much as Acer's tablet lineup seems poised to flounder in the coming sea of similarity, its Iconia laptop stood out, eschewing a keyboard for a second 14-inch touchscreen to match the main display. Unlike the dual 14-inch hinged Kno device discussed in columns prior, this one is clearly designed to be used in a landscape orientation, and unlike the 7-inch Toshiba Libretto, the Iconia is not being positioned as some kind of limited-edition experiment. If anything, Acer signaled that it would be the first in a series of products that would unfold over the next several years.

Continue reading Switched On: Acer's Iconic Keyboard

Switched On: Acer's Iconic Keyboard originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 28 Nov 2010 21:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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NSFW: Another Junk Peripheral [Culture Smash]

Not "junk" as in "trash", but "junk" as in "tickle pickles", "flesh bananas" or "knobgoblins". You know, dicks! More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/4SmU3JCThUA/nsfw-another-junk-peripheral

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Peter Jackson nabs thirty RED EPIC cameras to film The Hobbit, tempt you to blow your savings

We're still slightly bummed that Peter Jackson never made Halo, but this should patch things up a tad -- the Lord of the Rings director will film The Hobbit in 3D entirely on thirty hand-machined RED EPIC cameras, starting early next year. That's the news straight from RED founder Jim Jannard, but that's not all, as a limited number of pre-production EPIC packages will be available to early adopters as well. $58,000 buys your deep-pocketed budding director a machined EPIC-M body, titanium PL mount, Bomb EVF and 5-inch touchscreen LCD, a REDmote, a four-pack of batteries, a charger and a solid state storage module with a four-pack of 128GB SSDs. Jannard expects to hand-assemble that first batch of 5K imagers in December or January, start the real assembly lines a month after that, and hopefully have widespread availability by NAB in April, though he's not making any promises there. That's how RED rolls. PR after the break.

[Thanks, Patrick]

Continue reading Peter Jackson nabs thirty RED EPIC cameras to film The Hobbit, tempt you to blow your savings

Peter Jackson nabs thirty RED EPIC cameras to film The Hobbit, tempt you to blow your savings originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 28 Nov 2010 11:55:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/11/28/peter-jackson-nabs-thirty-red-epic-cameras-to-film-the-hobbit-t/

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Symbian Sputters Towards Open-Source Irrelevancy

Remember two years ago when Nokia open-sourced the Symbian mobile operating system? The thinking was that cell phone manufacturers who depended on the Symbian OS could help keep it going. But it was already too late. The iPhone's iOS and Android started to take over. Even die-hard Symbian supporters abandoned ship. As the fanboy blogger Symbian Guru explained last summer when he decided to give up on Symbian:

I also can?t continue to support a mobile operating system platform that continually buries itself into oblivion by focusing on ?openness? while keeping a blind eye towards the obvious improvements that other open platforms have had for several iterations.

Now Symbian is delivering itself another blow?this time self-inflicted. The Symbian Foundation, which hosts all the open-source code, big fixes, and documentation for the OS, is shutting down its websites on December 17. The Symbian OS will still technically be open-source, it will just be impractical for many developers to look at it or improve it.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/4ljRR0LXASI/

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Modified radar gun identifies suicide bombers up to ten meters away

William Fox of the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey and John Vesecky, his colleague at UC Santa Cruz, are working on a modified radar gun that can identify suicide bombs worn under the clothing. To do this, they cataloged the most common arrangements of looped wires used to construct "suicide vests," and developed software that can identify the radar cross-section of each. So far, results have been pretty good: according to New Scientist, "telltale factors in the polarisation of the reflected signals" allowed them to correctly identify volunteers dressed as bombers up to ten meters away, roughly eighty-five percent of the time. Of course, even with a success rate this high, such a system would be prone to kicking up false positives. In order to minimize this, the devices would have to combined with other technologies, such as smart surveillance camera systems and infrared imaging.

Modified radar gun identifies suicide bombers up to ten meters away originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 27 Nov 2010 07:12:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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