Hasta La Gadget!

The folks at the Georgia Robotics and InTelligent Systems (Grits) Lab at Georgia Tech have been hard at work for some time now researching swarm robots. A portion of said work deals with tasks that require a group of hi-tech gadgets to individually reach a location and a specific time — much like the mobile landing platform that we saw last year. The group is given a “score” and must determine how many of the Khepera robots are needed meet the goal, assigning specific roles and determining the shortest route to hitting their targets. One particular demo that we saw involved the swarm bots playing a projected piano of sorts to perform a short snippet of Beethoven’s “Fur Elise” — internal cameras, special “hats” and cameras mounted around the room lend a hand in carrying out the assigned duties.

Musical performance is just one of the projects underway in the GritsLab. A real-world scenario involves the use of swarm robots for convoy cover. Using Parrot AR.Drones alongside the diminutive machines that we saw in action, researchers are looking at ways in which UAVs can be deployed to investigate and eliminate threats to convoys on the ground. This allows for the convoy to take an alternate route if needed while remaining under the watch of at least one UAV. For a look at the aforementioned classically scored action, jump down past the break to take a gander.

Continue reading Swarm robots perform classical ‘scores’ inside Georgia Tech’s GritsLab (video)

Filed under: Robots

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Best Buy had warned that its fiscal third quarter wouldn’t be great, and the company clearly isn’t putting on any rose-tinted glasses. Its revenue declined year over year from $11.15 billion to $10.75 billion, and it swung from $173 million in profit on continuing operations last season to $13 million in losses this time around. While the company hasn’t drilled into the specifics of what led to the downturn, it’s pointing to trends of the “last three years” as the culprits — we’d say that’s shorthand for shifts towards online sales and away from traditional electronics like TVs. Whatever the specifics, the company doesn’t expect an immediate turnaround and has lowered its guidance for free cash flow in the next fiscal year from a minimum $1.25 billion to $850 million. If there’s a ray of sunshine, it’s that the big-box store chain already knows the belt tightening needs to continue: it recently kicked off a Renew Blue strategy that it hopes will improve our shopping experience and get its own fiscal house in order.

Continue reading Best Buy posts $13 million loss in fiscal Q3 on lowered $10.75 billion in revenue

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The 4TB hard drives that we’ve seen gradually filter into the marketplace have come with a few snags for desktop users; they’re usually either external drives we’d never boot from or pokey internal models not meant for anything speed-intensive. Western Digital doesn’t want us settling. It’s shipping a 4TB version of its WD Black desktop drive that holds nothing back for the sake of the extra storage, spinning at a healthy 7,200RPM while packing 64MB of cache, dual processing and a two-stage actuator that together keep the drive working at full burn. At $339, the SATA 6Gbps drive undoubtedly carries a premium in trying to be the best of all worlds; it may be worth the expense for performance-minded types who’ve been out of options (and capacity) for awhile.

Continue reading Western Digital ships 4TB WD Black hard drive, melds speed with space for $339

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Source: Western Digital

The Nexus 4 first made its appearance clothed in white over at Carphone Warehouse, where it then promptly disappeared. Now it has made its appearance once again, this time at TalkTalk, a UK-based telecommunications company. The device is currently only available for pre-order, but is expected to have stock in on December 13th, which means shipping will probably be early enough to get it in time for Christmas.

The handset is available in three plans. The £30 plan offers 100 mins, 250 texts, and 200MB of data. The “medium” plan is priced at £35 and offers 300 mins, 3000 texts, and 1GB of data. The “Large” plan is priced at £45 per month, and comes with 1000 minutes, 3000 texts, and 4GB of data. All three plans require a two-year contract.

The Nexus 4 has a 4.7-inch display with a resolution of 1280 x 768. Inside you’ll find a 1.5GHz quad-core processor and 16GB of internal memory; there’s no microSD expansion slot, sadly. Around back there’s an 8-megapixel camera, which is about the resolution of high-end smartphones. The handset runs Android Jelly Bean 4.2.

The phone is rated for up to 390 hours of standby time, and up to 15 hours of talk time. Connectivity includes 3G, GPS, and Bluetooth, as well as NFC and quad-band. The Nexus 4 boasts a variety of camera-related features, including image stabilizer, an LED flash, HD recording, panoramic shot, and face detection.

[via Modaco]

Nexus 4 shows up in white at TalkTalk is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

I’ve been a fan of AC/DC since back in the day when I watched Maximum Overdrive repeatedly growing up. I’m certainly not a gigantic fan by any means, I have a bunch of songs the band has made over the years that I like, but I find the bulk of their stuff not that appealing. That means I’ve had to buy multiple CDs just to get a couple of tracks that I like off each one onto my mobile phone.

I’m sure I’m not the only person who likes some of AC/DC’s music that has wished, hope, and prayed that they would take the path The Beatles took and bring the music to iTunes. That happy day has finally come with AC/DC’s complete catalog now available on iTunes. All of the tracks have been Mastered for iTunes and spans from their 1976 debut Hi Voltage to the last of the rocker’s 16 studio albums.

The AC/DC collection on iTunes also includes four live albums and three compilation albums that are all available for the first time on iTunes. Fans can download full albums or purchase individual favorite songs. ITunes is also offering two digital compilations including The Complete Collection, which is an iTunes exclusive AC/DC catalog, and The Collection including all 16 studio albums.

The Collection with all 16 studio albums will cost $99.99. The Complete Collection includes all the studio albums, live albums, and box sets for $149.99. I’m glad to finally see the band allow their music to be sold digitally.

AC/DC’s entire catalog lands on iTunes! is written by Shane McGlaun & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.