When we first saw the ASUS O!Play Air set-top box the latter part of last year, we were interested — when looking for a networked media player, it’s definitely good to have options. Now that the kids at Bit-Tech have got their hands on a review unit, however, are enthusiasm has dampened quite a bit. Sure, it looks good in print: HDMI 1.3, composite video and audio output (for lovers of antiques), eSATA and USB ports, CF, SD+MMC, MS+MS Duo card readers, and 802.11n — none too shabby, eh? Once you got past the “greasy plastic outer surface,” however, things were not so awesome. The interface felt “sluggish” as the reviewer “repeatedly watching the timer… waiting for menus to load,” and the device itself eschews support for Dolby TrueHD and DTS MasterHD in lieu of multichannel HD LPCM audio over HDMI — a tongue twister for sure, but also a deal-breaker for some. On the other hand, the kids did find the UI intuitive, and an automatic media preview especially helpful for wonky filenames. The question remains — is it worth it for $130?
Social news aggregator Digg.com has released its free iPhone app in the App Store. Packed with a slick, feature-rich interface, the app is a strong start for the popular website, though there’s plenty of room for it to grow.
Launching the app, you’ll be able to immediately browse popular stories on Digg. You can also view popular stories by topic (e.g., technology, business, science, etc.) or upcoming articles that are about to go popular. You can search through stories by typing a keyword in a search field.
The best part of the app is it makes it really easy to Digg or bury a submission. Tapping a link launches the story inside an in-app browser, and a bar below contains thumbs up and thumbs down buttons to cast your vote. There’s also a button to save a story for reading later. The entire interface is snappy; from my testing on an iPhone 3GS, stories loaded quickly inside Digg’s browser.
With that said, there are some features missing that I’d like to see in version 2. One major minus is you can’t comment on stories like you would on Digg.com. You can view comments, but you can’t actually write any. According to Tap Tap Tap, which developed the app with Digg, the public Digg API doesn’t support adding comments yet. So hopefully we can expect this feature in a later version.
Also, there’s limited interaction between the Digg app and other apps. For example, if you’re browsing your Twitter feed in Tweetie and you tap a Digg link, it doesn’t launch the Digg app. Instead, you’re stuck with viewing the Digg link in the Safari browser. To be fair, you can hit a button to share Digg links through Twitter, Facebook or e-mail, but the inability to use the app to view others’ shared Digg links is stifling.
Verizon Wireless says it will launch its own app store on March 29 to supplement other app stores, but is that one too many? pOriginally posted at a href=”http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-12261_7-20001167-10356022.html” class=”origPostedBlog”CTIA 2010/a/p
Digital picture frames have long since moved passed being simple photo frames, and it looks like an increasing number are now pushing photos all the way to end of their list of features. One such device is this so-called Mojito WiFi display from Blue Lounge, which will handle photos and videos just fine, but is primarily designed to pull content from Facebook, Twitter and other social media (in addition to news and weather). That’s then displayed in your “LifeStream,” which can apparently be customized to your liking, and browsed with the included remote if you don’t feel like letting everything cycle through (no touchscreen here). Still no firm word on availability, but the 7-inch display will supposedly demand $299 whenever it rolls out.
All-terrain robots can cost thousands of dollars but Dino Segovis, a DIY enthusiast, transformed a busted Roomba into a robot called the Urban Roverbot that can crawl on rocks as well as it does on polished floors.
“Lots of people build bots that they can drive on flat surfaces,” says Segovis.”I wanted to drive one on rocks and was inspired by the Mars Rovers.”
The Urban Roverbot is about 12 inches long, weighs less than 8 lbs and took just about eight hours to build from parts that were harvested from the Roomba.
iRobot introduced the Roomba in 2002 as an automated vacuum cleaner. But the Roomba has also become a hit in the do-it-yourself community. eBay is teeming with used and busted Roomba that are available with or without batteries.
The main reason Roombas are discarded are drained batteries, dirty wheel sensors that don’t allow the device to move around easily, problems with the cleaning brush motor and an occasional broken drive belt. Most of these aren’t of concern to hardware hackers, says Segovis
Instead the Roomba’s innards such as the sensors, motors and hardware can be valuable and used to build other roving robots, he says.
Segovis who calls himself a “tinkerer with a very, very curious mind” got a few broken down Roombas from a friend and dissected them on his workbench. It was the first time he had seen a Roomba up close. “I thought the motors in it are very versatile and it got me thinking about what I could do with it.”
For the Roverbot, Sergovis says he opted for the Rocker-Bogie suspension arrangement that’s been used in the Mars Rovers. The arrangement has no axles or springs yet it allows the robot to climb over small obstacles and not topple over.
“The way the suspension works is that each side is independent, while a link that goes across the middle,” he says. “This allows the weight of the robot to be distributed over both sides of the vehicle and all the wheels always stay in contact with the ground.”
A Ping ultrasonic sensor to measure distance is at the front of the chassis for navigation. An Arduino micro controller helped Segovis complete the framework for his robot. He used four of the Roomba’s motor assemblies on the suspension arms.
And so far tests show the Roverbot is good to go on rocky surfaces. Here’s a video of the Roverbot in action:
Segovis says he’s fine-tuning the Urban Roverbot and hopes to have it ready in time for Maker Faire in May. The Roverbot will get a new chassis and suspension assembly made of aluminum, he says. Better wheels and the integration of edge sensors are also on the project plan.
“My long term goal is to build a bigger robot with larger wheels,” he says.
Check out the photos for a closer look at how the Roverbot was built
The connections from the Arduino microcontroller to the Roomba
Wii owners have been waiting for this day to come since early January (or before, arguably), and at long last it looks as if the rental superstar has come through. Customers around the US are receiving email notifications today stating that their Watch Instantly disc (required for Netflix playback on the Wii) has shipped, and it should be waiting in their mailbox before this weekend begins. We’ll be interested to see how the streaming service performs on the weakest of the three major consoles, but given that no 1080p content is available, we doubt they’ll be any major snags. Let us know when your disc arrives and how the experience is down in comments, won’tcha?
If you don’t feel like paying extra for a 3G-capable iPad, don’t worry: You can get mobile Internet access by leveraging a little third-party gear. pOriginally posted at a href=”http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-19512_7-10470656-233.html” class=”origPostedBlog”iPhone Atlas/a/p
Last night at Madison Square Garden in New York City, the first live 3D and HD sporting event in the U.S. was broadcast on Cablevision. And the NHL’s New York Rangers destroyed the New York Islanders in a 5-to-0 rout. While I was less than impressed with the hockey game, I was amazed by the broadcast.
After I got an invitation to see the broadcast, I assumed that it would be shown on one of the new consumer 3D TVs using “active shutter” glasses. But MSG actually showed the game in a giant theater, Avatar-style, using a Real 3D projector and passive glasses. So it wasn’t the home-viewer experience I was hoping for, in advance of the 3D sports bonanza coming our summer, when the World Cup will be broadcast in 3D. That said, what I saw blew me away.
iFixit’s side-by-side breakdown of the internals of these two phones makes a compelling case for the Nexus One. pOriginally posted at a href=”http://news.cnet.com/8301-13924_3-10470594-64.html” class=”origPostedBlog”Nanotech – The Circuits Blog/a/p
404-listener Blake Stevenson heard us fanning out on The Sandlot during yesterday’s episode, so he whipped up a 404ified poster for today’s blog image. Thanks Blake!
It’s almost the end of the work week, so Natali Del Conte is on the show and she’s bringing the dirty starting with the queen of filthy pop, Lady Gaga. According to video analytics company Visible Measures, the diva has just become the first artist ever to achieve one billion online video views thanks to her three hit singles: Poker Face, Just Dance, and Bad Romance. If you’re new to Gaga fandom, you have a lot of homework to do, because the one billion doesn’t even count her live performances, video diaries, and popular interviews–not to mention her upcoming 3D concert DVD. Speaking of which, anyone have extra tickets to the sold-out MSG show in July?
On a completely unrelated note, law enforcement can now expose and track pedophiles by their typing habits. Apparently the typing speed and rhythms of these predators are unique and researching are currently investigating ways to identify the typist’s age, sex, and culture within TEN KEYSTROKES! We’re fully backing any new methods that put these idiots behind bars, but with no explanation of exactly how pedophiles type, we can’t help but be skeptical with their findings. How about casting a smaller net and focusing on the dude asking for a WEP password at Chuck E. Cheese?
Be sure to stick around to hear Natali and the guys debunk 5 myths about the male body, starting with this foolish rumor about shoe size. The days of being too ashamed to ask a shoe salesperson for your size 7 loafers are over!
All this and more stories guaranteed to leave a bitter taste in your mouth, plus a new “E-mails From the Public” segment that forces us to question our potty-mouth promos. Talk to you tomorrow!
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
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