Hasta La Gadget!

Step aside, Wall-E: Buzz Lightyear, courtesy of Thinkway Toys, has arrived to claim his rightful place at the top of the robot-based-on-Disney-character heap. Maybe that’s a bit of a stretch, but Buzz’s facial animation, sexy moves and trademark catch-phrases have all been wrapped up into a nice little bow here to rake in the cash when Toy Story and Toy Story 2 hit theaters this October as a 3D glasses double feature. Buzz responds to a few voice commands, can play a laser tag with the included remote, has a “Puppeteering Programming” mode to pose him for your own animations, and can even suffer an identity crisis when you tell him that he’s just a toy. He’ll be available this fall for $130-ish, check out a video after the break.

Continue reading Ultimate Buzz Lightyear robot to the rescue, on video

Filed under: Robots

Ultimate Buzz Lightyear robot to the rescue, on video originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 26 Jun 2009 09:42:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We love us a good multitouch wall experience, sizing up and rotating irrelevant bits of media like the Tom Cruise wannabes we are, but this new multitouch wall unveiled by Schematic at the Cannes Lions advertising festival almost brings the tech into the realm of relevance. The main innovation is the identification of specific users through the swipe of an RFID badge, allowing multiple users to operate the display simultaneously with personalized data and “social” functionality. Schematic’s dream really is a Minority Report-style world of advertising, but until that chilling future is fully realized, we suppose we can handle a few gimmicky multitouch walls and half-developed socializing functionality in the near term. Hit up the read link for video.

Filed under: Displays

Schematic’s Cannes touchwall identifies users via RFID, almost escapes gimmick status originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 26 Jun 2009 08:51:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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In an already overpopulated compact camera market, the Cyber-shot T90 solicits attention with a 16:9 touch-screen LCD and a sliding lens shield. The lads over at PC Mag grabbed one of these Sony shooters for an in-depth prodding and poking session to determine whether the external appeal of the camera is backed up by solid technology under the hood. Praise was meted out for image sharpness and 720p video recording, though battery life was found disappointing. For their full impressions, test results and an exhaustive spec sheet, hit the read link.

Filed under: Digital Cameras

Sony T90 point-and-shoot gets reviewed, liked originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 26 Jun 2009 07:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Yes, folks, that day you’ve been so eagerly awaiting is nearly here. Soon you won’t have to suffer the agony of pixel envy on your cellphones thanks to Samsung’s M8910 Pixon12 and its whopping 12 megapixel sensor, capturing light through a 28mm wide-angle lens like that in the Nokia N86 (which has a miserly eight megapixels on tap). Sammy’s handset has been put through its paces ahead of release, stacked up against the likes of a Canon A620 and a 350D SLR. The phone does quite well, producing images as good or better than its compact competition, but we’re not quite sure we agree with the assessment that it “can reach the detail resolved by a true DSLR” — at least, not in this batch of images. We want to believe, though, we really do; those SLRs are heavy, and we’re not a particularly strong bunch.

Filed under: Cellphones, Digital Cameras

Samsung’s 12 megapixel M8910 Pixon12 cellphone tries to make your camera obsolete originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 26 Jun 2009 06:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Steorn, you may remember, is the Dublin based company which provided us with a good weeks worth of entertainment back in July 2007. The company’s perpetual motion machine, the Orbo, promised to usher in a new world of clean, free energy. Sadly, before the demonstration could take place, the precision engineered, 25-year life bearings in all three machines mysteriously broke due to “hot lights”.

Now, Steorn is back, and this time it has a real, shipping product. The trouble is that the company so slathered itself in snake-oil two years ago that the stink will likely never wear off. The product is a USB Hall sensor, a conductor which is used to detect fluctuations in magnetic fields. If you have used one of those cheap boxes which detect electric wires behind walls, you’ll know how it works.

The USB Hall Probe comes with Windows software to give you all the readouts and graphs you might want. Is there a catch? Of course there is. The probe costs €290, or around $400. This seems to directly contradict a claim from the company:

Low cost – No need for expensive gaussmeter/teslameter/voltmeter hardware to measure fields.

Now, I took a quick look at the internet and found that an expensive gaussmeter can be had for anywhere from $13 up to over $1000. The pricier options are calibrated and can store data over time, just like the Steorn version, only they are whole boxes, not just a probe.

And there, we think, lies the problem. The Steorn meter is a simple probe and sensor which just measures, and your PC does the processing. These “expensive gaussmeters” do a whole lot more.

Or maybe we’re just cynical based on past events. I’m certainly no Hall Meter expert, but I do come equipped with a pretty good BS detector.

Product page [Steorn]

See Also:

• The Perpetual Energy Machine: Art Project?
• Surprise! Perpetual Machine Demo Cancelled
• Perpetual Machine to be Demonstrated Today
• Snake Oil Update: Orbo Demo Cancelled, CEO Explains
• Snake Oil Update: Orbo Demo Cancelled, CEO Explains
• 10 Great Snake-Oil Gadgets