Hasta La Gadget!

Imagine a world where Disney’s most-beloved princesses actually existed; a world where they would have access to the Internet and maintained a presence of various social media networks. Like Instagram, for example.

That’s one thing the folks from B for Bel were musing about, which prompted them to come up with this fun gallery of Instagram posts from the Disney princesses.

From home-cooked food to gowns and gowns to selfies and photos of palaces, this gallery has it all. These images are essentially grabbed from the movies these princesses starred in, but the captions make all the difference. Check out the full series in the gallery below.

[via io9 via Nerd Approved]

Bloomberg Businessweek has a neat little video about the moon photo digitization efforts over at NASA’s Ames Research Center. Oddly enough, this project is currently taking place in an abandoned McDonald’s. McMoon’s, if you will.

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Samsung is readying its fabled Galaxy Gear device for a September 4 introduction alongside the Galaxy Note 3 phablet-sized smartphone, according to Bloomberg, and the Gear smartwatch won’t be a full standalone smartphone, says The Verge in a separate report. Both of these devices will be shipping soon, with the Note 3 arriving in September and the Gear arriving in October, per one final report from SamMobile.

The confluence of rumors around new Galaxy devices from Samsung likely isn’t a coincidence; Apple is readying new products for a September 10 introduction, which includes a new iPhone and iPad, according to Bloomberg’s latest information today. Samsung is looking to steal a little bit of thunder ahead of that launch with the unveiling of its newest gadgets, the reports suggest, and a smartwatch, launched ahead of Apple’s own rumored iWatch, would definitely grab a lot of attention from media and consumers, if only because of novelty value.

Bloomberg previously reported that the Galaxy Gear was a smartphone that you wear like a wristwatch. But a new report today from the Verge contends that it’s not a phone, as it lacks its own SIM and cellular radio, and instead links up with a dedicated smartphone to perform call functions. That makes a lot more sense, given all the challenges that would come with making wearable tech truly convenient to use (i.e. building something you don’t have to charge every few hours) and the additional cost that would likely come with a full-fledged, wrist-borne smartphone.

Other details that leaked today include the fact that the Galaxy Note 3 won’t be available in a 16GB variant (makes sense, given space demands of increasingly powerful mobile operating systems and decreasing cost of flash memory components), along with the fact that we’ll probably see a new Sony smartphone introduced September 4, too. This is also reasonable given that that’s just ahead of the iFA Berlin international consumer electronics show, when new devices often make their debut.

In other words, it’s going to be a busy fall, with lots of new products introduced, including the gold iPhone from Apple, apparently (just backed up by AllThingsD). Which circus animal will get the most eyeballs is the biggest question that remains now.

We did talk about the RoboThespian earlier in 2012, where it was meant to be an ambassador for human-robot interaction, and it seems that the RoboThespian has been taken to the next level, having been designed by Engineered Arts of Cornwall in the UK, where it managed to conjure a few jokes which were surprisingly well received over at a recent performance at the Barbican Center in London.

This particular performance by RoboThespian happened to be the brainchild of Pat Healey, a professor of human interaction and head of the school’s Cognitive Science Group, as well as Kleomenis Katevas, doctoral candidate, where both of them happen to hail from Queen Mary University of London. This particular robot is capable of cracking a few wise cracks, with its cameras tracking facial expressions, gaze and head movements. Sounds like an extremely interesting idea, but it is still a long, long way off from being a real comedian in the league of Russell Peters and others. Also, the kind of jokes shared is as good as the person who programmed the RoboThespian, unless someone manages to successfully write an algorithm that is capable of thinking up new, random jokes which a human – and not a machine, is capable of understanding and have his or her funny bone tickled.

RoboThespian A Decent Comedian On The Circuit original content from Ubergizmo.

As you age and your friends start to push up daisies, you would find yourself surrounded by folk younger than yourself (some by a long mile) more often than not. It can get lonely at times however, when all the young whippersnappers have their own lives to run and be busy with, which is why robots might step in to take the place of human companionship. The MOBISERV project is one of those ideas that could help out the lonely older folk out there, where it comes in the form of a mobile wheeled semi-humanoid figure that boasts a bevy of sensors, cameras, audio and touchscreen interface, functioning as a cyber-nanny of sorts to boot since the MOBISERV project is able to remind users to take their medicine, suggest a favorite drink or ask them to take a stroll in the park.

Not only that, this robot is capable of working in tandem with smart clothing on the patient, helping him or her monitor their vital signs, health and safety, as well as alert the relevant medical personnel and emergency services as and when required. Taking more than 33 months to develop among an alliance between research institutes, universities and technology companies across Finland, France, Greece, Italy, Holland, Switzerland and the UK, we do hope to see the MOBISERV project end up as an affordable robot companion to the aged in due time.

MOBISERV Robot Companion original content from Ubergizmo.