Hasta La Gadget!

This amazing Lego mecha is, according to the authoritative Brothers Brick, the first walking Lego mecha that “also boosts aesthetics”. We take that to mean that it actually walks by picking up its feet rather than shuffling along like a burned-out meth-addict.

Either way, the IR-remote controlled bot, named Element Commune, is a fantastic build by Flickr user Legohaulic. Here it is in herky-jerky action:

V2.0 will actually be steerable (this one just stops and starts, “walking” in a straight line), and we particularly like the tiny t-rex arms at the front. We wouldn’t want to climb inside the full-sized versions, though. As Brothers Brothers commenter Kunert says, “That thing would go down like ED-209 in a stairwell.”

Element Commune: LP-11 [FLickr]

Legohaulic’s walking biped revolutionizes mecha building [Brothers Brick]

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While the verdict is still out with regard to consumer appetites for a 3rd portable computing device, PC makers are betting the farm on consumer interest in tablets that fill the gap between small-screened smartphones and bulky (by comparison) netbooks/laptops. We’ve already seen an uptick in tablet devices on display at the big CES and CeBIT trade shows, now tablet and MID device vendors look ready to blow out Computex when it kicks off on June 1st in Taipei. According to Roy Chen, ARM’s ODM manager for worldwide mobile computing, more than 50 ARM-based tablet PCs will launch in 2010 starting in Q2 with “a lot more” landing in the third quarter — a date that just happens to line-up with the most optimistic Chrome OS launch schedule. ARM’s seeing so much interest that it had to rent additional floor space to show off the devices. Chen said that many of the tablets are slated for China although all of the world’s top 10 carriers have signed up as well. ARM was showing off two Android based tablets at the press event, including the 7-inch Compal device (pictured above) we gave a whirl at CES. Let’s just hope that tablet makers have plans for some compelling content and service hook-ups with a focus on the user experience — 50 near-identical slabs of touchscreen computing won’t generate much enthusiasm around here.

Over 50 ARM-based tablets launching this year originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 10 Mar 2010 05:38:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Tired of the limited legroom, bad food, and worse movies you have to put up with during a flight? Well, it’s time to bust out your company credit card and get yourself a Martin Jetpack, which has just become the first commercially available jetpack. Driven by a pair of washing machine-sized fans strapped to your back, this personal transporter will give you a pretty cool 30 minutes of flight time and comes with a bunch of redundancy systems to ensure any mistakes don’t turn fatal. The rotors are built out of a carbon / Kevlar composite and are powered by a two-liter V4 two-stroke engine capable of delivering 200hp (or 150kW). Good old gasoline is the fuel of choice here and private individuals are expected to be offered the chance to fulfill every geek and geekette’s dream later this year. Just make sure you have $86,000 lying around to fund it.

Martin Jetpack priced at $86,000, mere mortals will soon be able to buy one too originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 10 Mar 2010 04:24:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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This article was written on June 05, 2007 by CyberNet.

The end of mechanical drives might soon be in sight as computer manufacturers begin incorporating the solid state drives (SSD) into laptops. We’ve already seen it happen with Dell when they added a 32GB SSD for $450 to a few Latitude laptops. Since then hard drive manufacture’s, such as Samsung, have debuted larger drives going up to 64GB. Of course, there is always the unreasonable drives such as one PQI who announced a 256GB model that is made for laptops. At 8-times the size of the 32GB drive, this is sure to bust the bank.

As I’ve pointed out, the benefits of using a solid state drive outweigh the downfalls. Now it is a matter of which manufacturer will be able to produce the first "reasonably" priced SSD first. A 64GB drive would be the perfect size for my laptop, and I would say that I would go upwards of $200 to get such an upgrade. From the looks of it that is still a little ways away since PNY’s 32GB is available to OEM’s for $350, and that is only for companies looking to purchase a lot.

If you’re having a hard time waiting, you can always pickup a 32GB SSD, but it will cost ya. Dell sells it separately for $549, and it won’t ship for a few weeks. That may sound like a lot of money, but it sure beats the 8GB SSD that Newegg is selling for $180 (which is even out-of-stock).

Maybe soon we’ll see companies selling these solid state drives, and they’ll be giving away a free laptop with them.

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