TEROOS robotic avatar gives your long-distance girlfriend a tiny, googly-eyed face (video)
March 26, 2011 No Comment
Do you pine for animatronic eyes and robots that whisper sweet nothings in your ear? Well, geeks with distant girlfriends rejoice, because TEROOS, the shoulder-mounted, remotely-controlled telepresence avatar has arrived. Created by researchers from Keio University in Japan, the little bot has a camera and mic so far away friends can see and hear what you do, while a directional speaker keeps your conversations private. Communication’s courtesy of Skype , while some custom code lets users control the device’s six-axis articulating head. It’s not an independent system, however, as it relies upon a smartphone to relay commands from a PC to the avatar through Bluetooth. Users can also change the bot’s facial expressions thanks to a couple of googly eyes and mechanical eyelids, though it doesn’t have quite the emotional range of other androids from the land of the rising sun. Intrigued? Check the vid after the break. Continue reading TEROOS robotic avatar gives your long-distance girlfriend a tiny, googly-eyed face (video) TEROOS robotic avatar gives your long-distance girlfriend a tiny, googly-eyed face (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 25 Mar 2011 12:26:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …London Underground to get 120 WiFi hotspots in advance of the 2012 Olympics
March 26, 2011 No Comment
A big announcement arrived today if you live in or around London: to prepare to the onslaught of data-hungry visitors for the 2012 Olympic games that the city is hosting, 120 WiFi hotspots are being added to various locations along the Underground subway system’s stations and platforms, in addition to other measures being taken to beef up tech . No WiFi will be in the actual tunnels, mind you, but it should definitely come in handy for all those tourists trying to find their way around the city. British Telecom has already tolled out a trial run at the Charing Cross station, with further installations expected in the lead up to the games. London Underground to get 120 WiFi hotspots in advance of the 2012 Olympics originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 26 Mar 2011 09:12:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …London Underground to get 120 WiFi hotspots in advance of the 2012 Olympics
March 26, 2011 No CommentA big announcement arrived today if you live in or around London: to prepare to the onslaught of data-hungry visitors for the 2012 Olympic games that the city is hosting, 120 WiFi hotspots are being added to various locations along the Underground subway system’s stations and platforms, in addition to other measures being taken to beef up tech . No WiFi will be in the actual tunnels, mind you, but it should definitely come in handy for all those tourists trying to find their way around the city. British Telecom has already tolled out a trial run at the Charing Cross station, with further installations expected in the lead up to the games. London Underground to get 120 WiFi hotspots in advance of the 2012 Olympics originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 26 Mar 2011 09:12:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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There’s still no official word on pricing for the eventual US release , but Acer has now finally confirmed the UK pricing for its new Iconia Tab series of tablets. The WiFi-only versions of both the Windows 7-based Iconia Tab W500 and Android-based A500 will demand
Continue reading …Film recreation of Soviet cosmonaut Gagarin’s historic spaceflight to be shown off next month
March 26, 2011 No Comment
If you know anything about the history of spaceflight , you’re probably already familiar with the historic journey of USSR cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, who flew around the Earth in 1961, making him the first person to ever travel beyond our planet’s atmosphere. While audio recordings of Gagarin’s observations exist, there are no video recordings except for those recently shot at the ISS following a similar plot of his trip, directed by Italian astronaut Paolo Nespoli, who currently lives on the space station. This video has now been matched up with Gagarin’s audio, and made into a film to commemorate the 50th anniversary of his flight, which is on April 12th. The movie will be made available on that date for free download on YouTube . Film recreation of Soviet cosmonaut Gagarin’s historic spaceflight to be shown off next month originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 26 Mar 2011 07:08:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …Apple looking to ‘radically improve’ iOS Maps experience, may look to you for help
March 26, 2011 No Comment
It’s tough to read too much into this, but when Apple publishes a couple of job applications hoping to bring on folks who can “radically improve how people interact with maps and location-based services,” we can’t help but take note. The outfit’s currently seeking a pair of full-timers to be labeled as iOS Maps Application Developers, and it’s honing in on applicants with “excellent skills in object-oriented software design and programming.” We’ve felt for awhile that Apple’s built-in Maps application wasn’t even comparable to Google Maps Navigation, but it could be time for that to change. Even now, iOS users need to fork out cash on a legitimate turn-by-turn app if they’re hoping to navigate with the iPod touch or iPhone, but we can only hope that these applications are hinting at a more full-fledged internal program for the software’s next major iteration.’Course, we’re sure TomTom would beg to disagree … Apple looking to ‘radically improve’ iOS Maps experience, may look to you for help originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 26 Mar 2011 04:56:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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The one detail we couldn’t wrangle out of Vizio about its upcoming 3DTV line at CES was the price, but now a few midrange models have popped up on the company’s website early with full information. The 47-, 42- and 32-inch E3D models sport $899, $729 and $549 pricetags and a date of “coming soon,” following the precedent of the 65-inch model released last fall. If that’s not cheap enough, one of our readers has provided information that Walmart expects to have the E3D320VX and E3D420VX available for $498 and $698, respectively, starting in April. All of these TVs are 1080p ( at least in 2D ), have WiFi and Vizio Internet Apps built in (with a new IR remote – Update : pictured after the break — instead of the old Bluetooth QWERTY one) and come with two pairs of passive 3D glasses. We’ve seen 3DTVs debut at under $1,000 before and more than a few of last year’s models have dipped to $800~ by now, but with a starting price this low and cheap accessories, we wouldn’t be surprised if Vizio is celebrating sales wins again next year. [Thanks, xxontheedgexx] Continue reading Vizio’s first 2011 Theater 3D TVs revealed, could ship for less than $500 Vizio’s first 2011 Theater 3D TVs revealed, could ship for less than $500 originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 25 Mar 2011 14:12:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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Some things, they never change. Boys will be boys, free never really is, and iPads will have WiFi issues. If you’ll recall, the original Apple slate also had such troubling issues with maintaining a wireless connection that the folks in Cupertino actually made a promise to fix things in time. Eventually, that patch was indeed rolled out, but then we heard that iOS 4.2 was being pushed a bit due to — you guessed it — more WiFi issues. Now that the iPad 2 has made its way out into the adoring public’s hands, we’re starting to see a growing cadre of customers raising similar gripes. Our in-house iPad 2 hasn’t shown any WiFi connection issues as of yet, but there’s a 10+ page thread over in Apple’s forums that have us wondering if we’re amongst the lucky few. Have you noticed any internet quirks with your new iPad? Or are all of these people simply using the world’s worst router? Let us know in comments below. [Thanks, Brian] Is your iPad 2 experiencing intermittent WiFi connection issues? originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 25 Mar 2011 14:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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There’s a ton of gadgetry that goes into speakers , but the notable thing here is that the Pioneer folks have begun using HVT, or Horizontal-Vertical Transforming technology — but more on that in sec. This beauty is engineered to reduce unwanted vibration and preserve bass caliber while outputting 100W of sound. Featuring a double diaphragm packaged close together, the Sound Wing gives off omnidirectional sound — that’s 360 degrees of noise. And thanks to HVT, the coils within the speaker have been rearranged to reduce the wasted space in traditional speakers — though for some reason this particular unit still measures a portly 109mm thick. Seeing that the tech Pioneer has implemented here is novel, we’re interested to see how this thing will sound in the real world. You’ll find the Sound Wing in Japan for
Continue reading …Slide launches Disco: Google’s group texting app comes to iPhone, not Android
March 25, 2011 No Comment
When Google acquired Slide way back in August of 2010, when it was warm and sunny and phones only had single-core processors, the plan was to “build a more social web.” Now we know a little more about that plan… sort of. A new app from Slide has just hit the app store and an accompanying site has just hit the internets. It’s called Disco, a group texting service that has an app and a web interface. When you sign up you’re assigned a new phone number (ours was a 302 — hello Deleware) and you’re invited to send texts to a number of people, any people, regardless of whether they’re Disco users themselves. Those people can then reply and things get bounced around all crazy like, so make sure those you add have opted for unlimited texting. Intriguingly at this point the app is only available for iPhone, and that’s certainly the platform that takes front and center on the main Disco site. Given the Google parentage here we have to assume that there’s an Android flavor coming here, but crazier things have happened at the club. [Disco Stu could not be reached for comment, but has in the past indicated an affinity for group texting.] Slide launches Disco: Google’s group texting app comes to iPhone, not Android originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 26 Mar 2011 00:24:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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