Gadgets Mobile

by Donald Melanson, posted Aug 7th 2008 at 4:04PM
Don’t you hate it how simply moving a robotic arm in a microgravity environment can produce enough negative reaction forces to alter a spacecraft’s orientation? Well, a group of researchers from Cornell University have now devised a new type of robot arm that they say could make that pesky problem a thing of the past. To do that, they’ve employed a device known as a control-moment gyroscope (or CMG) instead of a motor to control the arm’s joints, which not only reduces the amount energy requied to move the arm, but lets it move faster as well. As you can see above, they’ve already tested the arm on board NASA’s famous Vomit Comet, but there’s no indication just yet as to when or if the arm will actually see action in space.

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Filed under: Robots

by Darren Murph, posted Aug 7th 2008 at 8:43PM
Nissan has a knack for pumping out novel safety advancements every few months, and the latest two are in the same vein as a few previous efforts. Two new technologies, Side Collision Prevention and Back-up Collision Prevention, fit into the auto maker’s Safety Shield concept to “help protect the vehicle and its occupants from potential risks coming from multiple directions.” As for the first, the tech utilizes side-mounted sensors to activate a warning if an approaching vehicle is detected in the drivers intended lane; from there, a yaw mechanism is “activated through brake control of individual wheels to help prevent a potential collision.” For the second, an array of sensors detect potential obstacles and triggers an alarm / puts on the brakes if a collision is about to happen. Per usual, there’s no mention of when these brilliant ideas will be implemented into production vehicles, but our insurance bills are pleading for “soon.”

[Via Gizmag]

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Filed under: Transportation

The cat is out of the bag, and the high end Asus S101 netbook will retail for $899 no thanks to the 64GB SSD that lies deep within its slim belly. Asus has also released additional information regarding the ‘Eee’ status of the S101 - apparently, the Eee PC brand will be dropped as the S101 is priced way out of the original Eee PC’s range, making it a premium netbook line that’s totally different altogether. It will still be powered by Intel’s Atom processor while coming with a LED backlit 10.2″ LCD display, and you can opt for the 32GB SSD option by forking out $200 less. Measuring a mere 16mm to 25mm thick (in various parts), I wonder whether it will crack easily when there is stress stacked upon it.

Digg released a toolbar add-on for Firefox 3. It lets you Digg and submit stories and provides notifications of Digg events in near-realtime. If you visit a page that has been dugg, the toolbar shows how many diggs the page has received and how many comments are attached to the item on Digg.

For more information, read the Digg announcement or watch Digg’s Kevin Rose walk you through the add-on.

Nikon has announced yet another point and shoot camera, this time the Coolpix S60.  The S60 sports a massive 3.5-inch touchscreen, which controls almost the entire camera’s functionality; save for the power and shutter, both of which are controlled by dedicated buttons.  The interface is optimized for easy use - a minimal amount of large icons on the screen, and so on.  The 5X zoom is also controlled by onscreen buttons.  The device is outfitted with numerous settings, like portrait zooming or auto scene selection, which all can be activated with one press to the screen, making the touchscreen truly easy to use.

On the hardware side of things, the camera sports a 10 megapixel CCD, an aforementioned 5X zoom, up to 3200 ISO and image stabilization. Expect this to drop in September for $350, in a few pretty colors.

Read [Nikon]

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Talk about a really wacky USB flash drive design - this one comes in the form of a drill core, with the drive’s casing being made up of hard rubber. I suppose this means there is a certain degree of shock proof with each purchase, although I wouldn’t recommend you drop this from great heights on purpose. Despite the $47 price tag, it comes with just 1GB of internal memory which is a blatant ripoff IMHO.

You know it’s true, how many times did Jr. drop that pacifier and pop it right back into his mouth before you can catch him?  By nature, kids are just gross.  It’s best that we don’t know exactly where that pacifier has been, especially when they attempt to shove it into your mouth.  Well for those moments of horror when you actually find out where it has been, Pipila will be there to save the day.  It takes UV rays and will kill 99.9% of the germs on the pacifier.

It’s also nice because it is about the size of a grapefruit, so it will fit into the diaper bag along with everything else in the world.  It will take a full six minutes to do its job, which will seem like an eternity if you have a screaming child on your hands.  This gadget will likely appeal to mostly first time parents, who haven’t yet realized that no matter how hard you try kids are still gross.  This probably would also be more realistic for just doing on occasion instead of after every single time the pacifier hits the floor.  You can pick one up for $40 through their site.

Source: DaddyTypes

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Let’s put a smile on that face. And don’t blink. Sony’s new digital cameras won’t photograph you otherwise.

Sony’s latest Cyber-shot point-and-shoot cameras, the DSC-T700 and DSC-T77, introduce an anti-blink function and improved Smile Shutter technology. In anti-blink mode, the camera snaps two photos of a subject, scans them for closed eyes and only stores the one with eyes open. The Smile Shutter technology, which was introduced 2007, automatically snaps a photo once your subject cracks a grin. The camera doesn’t say "Say cheese" for you though. That’d be pretty creepy.

Both cameras’ resolutions are 10 megapixels; they also both feature touch-panel LCD screens. The main distinction between the DSC-T700 and DSC-T77 is the former features 4GB of internal memory, so you don’t even need to go out of your way to buy a Memory Stick card if you don’t want to.

Pretty smart camera. You know what else would be cool? Automatic break-up detection, so it’ll delete all your photos of your ex-girlfriend a week or two after you break up. That’d be useful.

2008 Sony Cybershot [Press Release]

It has been a long time coming, but Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning has finally been given a firm release date.

Developer Mythic Entertainment, who took on development of the title 3 years ago, has said we can expect to see the game on September 18th across North America, Europe and Oceania.

On top of the retail price, which will likely be around US$50, you can expect to pay a US$14.99 monthly subscription. Paying for 3 months will cost US$41.97 and 6 months US$77.94. 30 and 60 day collectible prepaid cards will also be available, but pricing was not announced for them.

Mark Jacobs, founder and general manager of Mythic said:

The countdown has officially begun. Mark your calendars! September 18th is the Day of Reckoning … For the last three years, the entire team at Mythic has poured their hearts into making Warhammer Online the next great MMORPG. We are so excited to open up this world and share it with the fans that will live in it, quest in it, go to war in it and make it come alive.

If you pre-order the game there are also a number of bonuses, including:

• Access to the open beta test after August 15th
• Access to the final game before the official release on September 18th
• Two bonus in-game items for your characters
• A collectible card game called Universal Fighting System Battle Deck

The full list of participating pre-order retailers, as well as more details on the bonuses can be found on the Warhammer Online pre-order web page.

I’m glad to finally see this game getting a release and it will be interesting to see how well it does. The main competition clearly comes from World of Warcraft, but Age of Conan is also doing well in its first few months and Lord of the Rings has a healthy user base.

You’d think the Warhammer name would assure the game a lot of players and success, but you would have said a similar thing about any MMO carrying the Star Wars name and look what happened there. Mythic is an expericned MMO developer though, so I expect them to have crafted a solid experience.

Read more at Mythic Entertainment, found via 1UP.com

We have green everything today, from gadgets to re-usable shopping bags, but organic lingerie? Eco-Chick (”Because Mother Earth is a Women”) turned us on to this French company, g=9.8, which makes the first underwire bra that’s made from recycled pine fibers.

Starre, who runs Eco-Chick and is just as glamorous as the name implies, swears it’s comfortable.

Check out the lovely French site, buy some pretty under things and feel good about sustainable development. That’s what we call a Win/Win.