A team of researchers at the University of California, Berkley Campus, have developed a gel that may be able to be used to make a robot with a soft body. The gel, which is made of a heat producing chemical and a elastic protine, may be the future of soft bots, but for now there are no prototypes in production.
Each week, our friends at gdgt go through the latest gadgets and score them to help you decide which ones to buy. Here are some of their most recent picks. Want more? Visit gdgt anytime to catch up on the latest, and subscribe to gdgt’s newsletter to get a weekly roundup in your inbox.
When I was a little kid I used to wish I was a boy. Now that I’m a grown-up, I can honestly say there are only a couple of benefits that I feel I’m missing out on. When I was younger I got paid less, but that worked itself out. Now I’m left with the idea that men seem to get away with being older, heavier and less attractive much more than woman do (that’s not fair)… and then theres that whole being able to pee standing up thing.
Well, I may not be able to pull off the distinguished older gentleman routine, but now I can write my name in the snow, thanks to GoGirl, a nifty, and hygienic feminine urination device that let’s you go anywhere a man can, without baring your butt, or tinkling on the back of your pants. (hey, don’t say thats never happened) No more squatting over dirty toilets or disgusting port-o-potties, simply place the soft, silicone, funnel-like device up against your body and do what you gotta do.
GoGirl is totally portable, reusable, and dishwasher safe. Yeah, I know, leave it at that. The folks that make the GoGirl suggest you practice in order to get the feel of standing up while you go, and in order to avoid the unfortunate consequences of a learning curve, that you do so in the shower. Practice makes perfect. I have to say that there has been more that one occasion that I would have been ecstatic to have one of these in my purse and if you’d like to see yourself hangin’ with the boys, grab yourself a GoGirl, only 15 bucks for a two pack at amazon.com.
[ GoGirl – Let’s you Stand Up for Yourself copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]
Though the original black version of the Google Nexus 4 has been available from T-Mobile for a number of weeks, the white version will be hitting the carrier soon. This machine will be bringing with it the same innards and features as the original Nexus 4, but here carries with it a bit more hard plastic a rim – in white – and a white back as well. This color will join the black version, not replace it, at T-Mobile locations nationwide. UPDATE: Per T-Mobile: The White Nexus 4 will be available online only, and will also be available only for a limited time – keep that in mind!
The folks at T-Mobile have been adamant about letting the world know that they’re offering this and other devices with a different – though not always less expensive – method of payment. T-Mobile’s “Simple Choice Plan” allows users to see how much they’re paying for their device each month and does away with the 2-year contracts that are common amongst other carriers throughout the USA. Instead of a subsidized price, users will be paying $19.99 down then $17 USD per month for 24 months after that.
This is the same pricing scale the LG Nexus 4 is already offered at, again, making this update only based on color. Having held the device in our hands just this week, we can say with great confidence: it’s the same phone, it just looks a little different – and feels ever-so-slightly different as well.
This White T-Mobile Google Nexus 4 has been made available today, the 31st of May, and will be online immediately if not soon. Have a peek at SlashGear’s hands-on with the White Nexus 4 and see it looks up close and personal. Our T-Mobile Nexus 4 review also reveals how this iteration of the device is, indeed, marked for T-Mobile specifically, but retains just as much pure-Google Vanilla Android in it as the version sold straight from Google Play.
White Nexus 4 heads to T-Mobile officially is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
The Mundo 500 was found with the thief's lock in place.
(Credit: Rock the Bike)
San Francisco bike workshop Rock the Bike had a bike stolen a few weeks ago. It wasn’t just any bike; it was a serious electric cargo bike called the Mundo 500. That means the heavy bike, locked to itself, posed quite a challenge for the determined thieves, who couldn’t have just pedaled off with it. Nonetheless, they managed to take it.
So began a search aimed at recovering the valuable bike. Paul Freedman, Rock the Bike’s founder, started asking around under freeway overpasses and spread the word through friends and on Facebook. Three weeks later, it was sighted, locked to a signpost. The blue bike’s custom modifications led to a confirmed match, and a unique recovery operation was under way.
Rock the Bike is a big proponent of bike power, using the energy generated by cyclists’ legs to power all sort of things. A crew arrived at the stolen cycle with an angle grinder and two bikes hooked up to a Pedal Power Utility Box, a device that converts the power from bike generators into usable power for anything that plugs into a standard outlet.
Related Links:
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The 404 1,278: Where we take a ride to Margaritaville (podcast)
Animated display lets cyclists trip the light fantastic
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It’s been quite the journey for Mega founder Kim Dotcom, but it seems like things are slowly coming to a conclusion. The High Court of New Zealand has ordered the FBI to return confiscated hard drives that were taken from Dotcom’s home when it was initially raided last year. They have also ordered the US government to destroy all copies that they might have archived.
Essentially, the FBI messed up pretty badly, and so did New Zealand authorities when they raided Dotcom’s mansion. It’s said that they seized all sorts of stuff that actually had nothing to do with the reason that Dotcom’s house was being raided, which is illegal, but the New Zealand police cloned the hard drives anyways and gave them to the FBI.
New Zealand authorities are now required to go through all of the illegally-seized evidence and determine what is actually relevant to the ongoing trial and return any evidence that isn’t pertinent to Dotcom. However, we’re not sure how all of that will be enforced, so as far as we know, there’s no way to tell if all irrelevant evidence will be returned.
This is another win for Kim Dotcom and his legal team, and essentially a mark in the loss column for the New Zealand government. Dotcom is best known for launching Megaupload, which is a file-sharing site that was eventually shut down by the government because it hosted copyrighted content.
After the shutdown of Megaupload, Dotcom launched a similar service called Mega, but claimed it was completely legal this time around, thinking that he wouldn’t have to deal with anymore legal scrutiny. However, his new file-sharing service is receiving criticism and anti-piracy advocates are wanting to shut down Mega for hosting copyrighted material yet again.
SOURCE: TorrentFreak
FBI ordered to return confiscated hard drives to Kim Dotcom is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
The beta version of Syntellia’s Fleksy keypad for Android phones and tablets has arrived on Google Play, months after it first became available on the company’s website in January. However, there’s a catch: You can only download it if you join its Google+ community as a beta tester. To do so, simply log in with your Google account, click Join then navigate your way to Download Fleksy Beta at the sidebar. Note that when you activate the keyboard via Settings, you’ll be warned that it can access everything you type — even your credit card details — except your passwords. It takes practice to get used to Fleksy’s predictive text engine (as you can see above, it forcibly replaced “Hi, Engadget” with “Hi, Schaefer”), but if you’re searching for the elusive touch keypad of your dreams, it’s worth giving the erstwhile iOS exclusive a whirl.
Filed under: Cellphones, Misc, Mobile
Via: Droid Life
Source: Fleksy Beta on Google+
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