Archive for May 10th, 2009

You may be familiar with the modular line of Kondo robots sold in Japan — but are you aware that a “Kondo Battle” exists where the bots duke it out to the death (or until they fall over)? Well, now you know… which is half the battle. You can pretty much see where this is headed — life-size (or larger) Gundams going totally crazy on cityscapes across the globe. A picture says a thousand words, and video says billions and billions, so feast your eyes on the IDG News clip after the break, and to sweeten the deal, we’ve included a few videos of the actual fights as well.

Continue reading Kondo bot battles rage in Japan, vision of humanity’s imminent destruction crystallize

Filed under: Robots

Kondo bot battles rage in Japan, vision of humanity’s imminent destruction crystallize originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 10 May 2009 16:16:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Do you like your Star Trek movies riddled with Beastie Boys songs and Nokia product placements? Yeah, neither do we. Still, if you’ve been to see the reboot of the franchise, then you probably noticed the outrageous spot for the Finnish phone-maker. Said ad comes in the form of a futuristic “Nokia ring” coupled with a large, touchscreen device placed in the dash of the totally tubular Corvette a young James T. Kirk is about to smash up but good. Seriously. Do yourself a favor and check it out in the soon-to-be-pulled-by-the-studio clip after the break.

Continue reading Nokia, cheesiness featured in new Star Trek movie

Filed under: Cellphones

Nokia, cheesiness featured in new Star Trek movie originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 10 May 2009 14:14:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Hey, remember the Nuvifone? Sure you do — it’s Garmin’s entry into the wide world of smartphones. You know, the company’s Linux-based, proprietary OS phone that’s heavy on GPS integration? Well according to a recent report, plans to launch the device in the first half of 2009 have stalled, with the company stating that it will be pushing the window back towards something closer to Q3. President and COO Cliff Pemble expounded on the difficulties of building a smartphone from scratch during a conference call with analysts, noting “Smartphones are complicated and bringing one to market that’s built totally from the ground up on a custom Linux platform is not an easy task.” If you’ll recall, the original announcement of the Nuvifone was way back in January of 2008, with a planned release in Q3 of that year — placing this new launch a full 12 months out from the intended street date. We’re all for competitors in this market, but it seems like maybe the folks at Garmin jumped the gun with all these dates they’ve been dropping on us — missed launches don’t exactly promote confidence.

[Via PMP Today]

Filed under: Cellphones

Garmin delays Nuvifone G60 yet again, Q3 launch now planned originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 10 May 2009 12:09:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sure, we’ve seen some wild Roomba mods, but overall it’s pretty much a low-to-the-ground affair — unless you get the cats involved, of course. That’s apparently changing, though — check out this robotic grasping system, which can pick up foreign objects and deliver them to you at about waist height. The system was 95 percent effective in picking up objects of all sizes and shapes during trials, and it was apparently quite simple to build and code. Nice for a Roomba, sure, but we’d rather be partying with SOBEaR. Video after the break.

[Thanks, Travis]

Continue reading Roomba mod allows it to pick things up, hand them to you

Filed under: Robots

Roomba mod allows it to pick things up, hand them to you originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 10 May 2009 10:16:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Boeing’s Airborne Laser project might be on shaky ground as the Pentagon reassess its budget, but that isn’t stopping the company from pushing the flying-death market forward — its latest project is the fighter jet-sized Phantom Ray UAV. The unmanned combat plane is being built using tech from the X-45 experimental UAV (pictured above) developed for the DARPA-funded Joint-Unmanned Combat Air System, and it should be taking the first of 10 scheduled test flights relatively soon — the first is penciled in for December 2010, just a few months before Skynet becomes self-aware and destroys humanity as we know it.

[Via Giz Mag]

Filed under: Robots

Boeing developing Phantom Ray fighter-sized combat UAV originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 10 May 2009 08:36:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Looks familiar eh? If you’re a fan of leaks and pre-release innuendo then you’re already acquainted with Best Buy’s internal inventory system. According to igmac, forum jockey and self-proclaimed Best Buy employee over at SprintUser, the first Palm Pre accessories have just been entered into the system. The list includes 5 cases (3 acrylic, 1 leather, 1 labeled “Palm Pre case”) and the Touchstone charging kit which lists for a whopping $69.99 — the same price already rumored. Really Palm, $70? We’ve been inductive charging our SoniCare toothbrush for years already — the tech just isn’t that amazing anymore, magnet or not. You’ll note that the “in stock date” is listed as May 10th so with any luck we’ll soon be hearing from Mr. BlurryCam with some shots from the warehouse.

[Via PreThinking]

Filed under: Cellphones, Misc. Gadgets

Palm’s $70 Touchstone dock, other Pre accessories appear in Best Buy system originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 10 May 2009 03:43:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Times are pretty tough for OQO fans — the struggling company appears to be on the brink of collapse, the Model 2+ is unlikely to be produced, and now we’re hearing that main board failures on Model 2s that have shipped are distressingly common. That’s at least the word according to the OQOtalk forum, whose members are currently gathering data on the situation — and the early trends sadly reveal that the 1.6GHz model is extremely prone to failure. Of course, it’s not exactly the most scientific poll in the world, but you wouldn’t expect such harsh results from users on a fansite unless something was up. Given OQO’s current travails, we don’t know if this will ever get resolved, but let’s hope so.

[Via Gadget Mix]

Filed under: Handhelds

OQO Model 2s suffering from failing main boards? originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 10 May 2009 03:17:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’ve already spent some time ogling over the MSI X-Slim X320 in person, but the ultrathin laptop is starting to ship out in Europe, and these are the first unboxing photos we’ve come across. Sadly it looks like retail units will be festooned with an nasty array of stickers across the palm rest, but overall it looks like MSI’s pulled off a nice little riff on the MacBook Air theme. Full set of pics at the read link.

[Thanks, Jens]

Filed under: Laptops

MSI X320 ultralight escapes its box originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 10 May 2009 02:22:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Dell finally started offering the Mini 10 with a six-cell battery just a couple weeks ago, and it looks like the first batch of orders has started to arrive. As expected, it’s a big honking six-cell battery hanging off the edge of an otherwise sleek netbook, but it should provide hours of Atom-powered XP fun. Sadly, current Mini 10 owners can’t pick one up separately yet, but we’re guessing that’ll change soon enough.

[Thanks, Peter]

Filed under: Laptops

Dell Mini 10 6-cell battery gets pictured originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 09 May 2009 23:49:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sure, the hot buzz right now is centered on Verizon and Apple teaming up to release a unicorn-built iPhone tablet that runs on marshmallows and cuddles, but Boy Genius Report says that Big Red’s actually-real partnership with HP is about to bear fruit — the long-rumored subsidized Mini 1000 is apparently due to launch on May 17th. The specific model will be the Mini 1151NR, and if that leaked product-comparison sheet we saw earlier holds water, we’re looking at a pretty standard Atom / XP configuration with a 3G modem built in. Pricing hasn’t been locked down, but according to BGR, it’ll be just as ridiculous as every other subsidized netbook: $299 after rebate with a mandatory two-year data contract. That’s more or less $200 off standard MSRP, a discount we’re sure you’ll pay back twice over the course of the contract. Seriously, we’d much rather fiddle with a USB stick that we can use on multiple machines than spend around a grand on data fees just for a netbook — what about you?

Filed under: Laptops

Verizon’s HP Mini 1000 due to launch May 17th? originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 09 May 2009 21:32:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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