Jan 25

New Kraft Vending Machines Read Your Face, Tell You What to Eat

Posted in: science, Today's Chili

Kraft Brands

If you thought all of the high-tech action ended earlier this month at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, you were wrong. Right now, the National Retail Federation is having their annual trade show, and among the gadgetry at the event is the new Kraft Store Kiosk, developed through a partnership between Kraft Foods and Intel – yes, that Intel. 
The Kraft Store Kiosk has cameras built into the front, and uses what Intel calls “Anonymous Video Analytics” to scan your face to instantly determine your age, gender, and uses that information to suggest something for you to eat that the kiosk can provide. The goal is to use the demographic information that Kraft is already collecting about its customers to help make it easier for you to choose what to eat for dinner, since the machine will know all about you (the “royal” you, that is) and be able to suggest something you’d like. 
Whether the kiosk is designed to read your weight or anything wasn’t explicitly, but since the Kiosk dispenses Kraft foods, we should expect lots of macaroni and cheese, Wheat Thins, Philadelphia cream cheese, and Oreos. Who knew the future would be so bad for your arteries. 
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Jan 24

Kinect Hack Allows Minecraft Fan to Build Giant Animated Cats

Posted in: Games, kinect, Tech Toys, Today's Chili, video games, videos
There are a lot of people doing really exciting things with Microsoft Kinect – there was a video a few weeks back where some enterprising researchers used Kinect to give you full-body control of your character in World of Warcraft. Nathan Viniconis, however, decided to see if he could use Kinect to play his favorite game: Minecraft. 
It’s not immediately a game you would think could take to motion control: after all, Minecraft is all about mining for blocks and diamonds, punching trees to get wood, and building massive structures to keep yourself safe from the zombies that come out when the sun goes down. Viniconis took the idea a step further though, and used Kinect to control objects in the game, and to make massive animated statues like the ones in the video above. 
Viniconis says on the project’s Web site that he’s still working on it, but he’s not talking about what the next phase of development entails. He’s managed to import data from Kinect and make that data useful to Minecraft, he’s managed to animate the data Kinect sends in the game, and he’s managed to mercilessly tease his cat with a laser pointer. Where could he possibly go from here?
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Jan 20

The Turnstyle Concept Turntable Defines Minimalism

Posted in: concept, Miscellaneous Tech, prototype, Today's Chili

Turnstyle Turntable

Turntables have something of a definitive look, but designer R.D. Silva’s Turnstyle Turntable is built to remove all of the bulk and extra material from a turntable and reduce it to its most essential components: essentially a motor that a record can be mounted to, a needle and cartridge on a movable arm, power and volume controls, and a weight in the back to keep the needle on the record and the player in one place. 
Ironically, the Turnstyle has a built-in speaker, which most people wouldn’t consider essential on a record player.  The Turnstyle is just a prototype, and it’s not clear if it will ever be a product anyone could actually order, but it’s definitely an interesting design.
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Jan 18

FastMac U-Socket Shipping Now, Charges Everything

Posted in: Miscellaneous Tech, Today's Chili

FastMac U-Socket

If you’re tired of having to go find a charging brick for your smartphone and just wish you could plug your USB charging cable into something other than your computer to keep your phone juiced up, the FastMac U-Socket may be the next upgrade for your home. 
The device was unveiled as a concept a while ago, and promised to offer a pair of powered USB ports next to the power outlets on the socket plate so you could charge your gadgets over USB without taking up a valuable power socket. 
FastMac has announced that the U-Socket is finally shipping and is available now to purchase for $19.95 each, which sounds like a lot for a power socket plate, but could be well worth the money if you have your computer plugged in to one socket, your monitor plugged in to another, and you’re stuck with your phone or music player at half-battery and nowhere to charge it.
 
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Jan 13

IBM Supercomputer Beats Humans in Jeopardy Practice Round

Posted in: Today's Chili

watson31.jpgIt’s man vs. the machine.Yes, we’ve been talking about this since June, but the time is nigh. Computers are going to take over the world Jeopardy. As we mentioned again in December, IBM’s supercomputer, named Watson, will take on other real human contestants in everyone’s favorite game-show, “Jeopardy.” The show is set to air in February, and the tapings will begin tomorrow.

 Watson will be competing with trivia-masters Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter. IBM and Jeopardy gave us a sneak peak today of the three contestants whipping through three categories in no time at all. Every question was answered correctly, but guess who came out on top at the end of the round? That’s right, it was Watson.

According to Wired,

“The system is powered by 10 racks of IBM POWER 750 servers running Linux, and uses 15 terabytes of RAM, 2,880 processor cores and can operate at 80 teraflops. Watson scans the 2 million pages of content in its ‘brain’ in less than three seconds. The system is not connected to the internet, but totally self-contained. The machine is the size of 10 refrigerators.”

So, will Watson reign supreme in the real showdown? Tune in to find out.

[Photo Credit: Wired]

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Jan 11

SPOT Connect Makes Your Smartphone a Satellite Communicator

Posted in: safety, Today's Chili, Travel

SPOT Connect

A long time ago we looked at the SPOT Satellite Messenger, a product designed to help people stay safe and in-touch with friends and loved ones if they were camping, off-roading, or traveling somewhere cellular signal or wireless Internet access weren’t necessarily available. 
The SPOT Messenger allowed you to “check in” at a GPS location via the SPOT satellite network, and have your location and a short message posted to the service or sent directly to friends and family so they knew you were okay.
At CES this year, SPOT unveiled the SPOT Connect, a smartphone peripheral that pairs with your phone and gives you the same ability, even if you have no cellular signal. You simply download the SPOT app, pair the phone with the SPOT Connect device, and you can send short e-mail, SMS messages, even Twitter and Facebook updates via SPOT’s satellite network. 
If there’s an emergency and you need to call for help, just press the SOS button and police and medical authorities in your vicinity will be notified, complete with your GPS coordinates so they can find you quickly. The SPOT Connect will be available later this year, although no specific release date was announced. It’ll set you back $169.99 retail, plus the cost of a SPOT subscription.
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Jan 06

Speakal Unveils Phone/Computer Hybrid Devices at CES

Posted in: Miscellaneous Tech, phone, Today's Chili, windows 7

Speakal BTS8

Speakal is more commonly known for their iPhone and iPod Docks, including the iPig and the Cool iPig, but they had a surprise in store for CES this year: the BTS8 Phone/Personal Computer Hybrid. The BTS8 is essentially a standard office phone with a 5-inch display (which can be connected to an external monitor) that runs Windows 7 and, according to Speakal, “doubles as a personal computer.” 
The BTS8 comes with Windows 7 pre-installed, has an on-board Webcam and can do videoconferencing using Skype, and can even receive faxes, SMS messages, and play music or movies and let you surf the Web when you’re not busy taking calls. 
Admittedly businesses aren’t likely to start replacing their laptops with phone/PC hybrids just yet, and I can only imagine how difficult it would be to deal with making sure your phone doesn’t get hacked, but Speakal hopes businesses will bite. Pricing and availability were not announced.
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Dec 27

Samsung to Show Off Galaxy Player at CES 2011

Posted in: ipod touch, Miscellaneous Tech, MP3 Digital Audio, samsung, Today's Chili

Samsung Galaxy Player

A number of people have noticed the uncanny similarities between the Samsung Galaxy S phones and the iPhone and iPod Touch, both in the hardware design and the way Samsung has skinned Android to look a lot like iOS. 
Now, Samsung is taking on the iPod Touch with the Galaxy Player, which the company has announced will be showcased next month at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. 
The Galaxy Player will run Android 2.2, have a 1GHz processor under the hood, and feature an 800×480 pixel resolution LCD display. The player will support Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and feature a front and rear-facing camera, just like the iPod Touch. Pricing and availability haven’t been announced, but it’s likely there’ll be more details next week at CES. 
[via SlashGear]
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Dec 27

2010’s Weirdest Tech Stories: Part Two

Posted in: Miscellaneous Tech, Robots Robotics, Today's Chili, video games

Thumbnail image for jason chen and iphone.jpg

As we let on in the first part of this roundup, 2010 has been a banner year for weird tech news. When I sent out a note to our staff, asking for the top odd news of the year, I got far more responses than we could fit in a single story.

After the jump, we’ve got a look back at the weird year that was, including lost iPhones, sex robots, time-traveling wireless customers, and exploding cell phones.

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Dec 27

IBM Talks Up Holographic Star Wars Phones

Posted in: Star Wars, Today's Chili

obi_wan_holo.jpeg

Those wacky kids in the Star Wars universe had it figured out a long, long time ago. If IBM’s recent predictions are any indication, we may finally be catching up.

The company this week issued its yearly “Five in Five” list, which outlines bold technology predictions for the next five years. At the top of the list: holographic phones.

The phones will beam holographic, 3D images of, one assumes, the person calling you. Also on the list, batteries that breathe air and cities that are powered by the heat of their own servers.

“All this demonstrates a real culture of innovation at IBM and willingness to devote itself to solving some of the world’s biggest problems,” IBM VP Josephine Chang told Bloomberg in an interview. Bold, sure, but a company that spent $5.8 billion (about 6.1 percent of its revenue) on research and development is allowed to dream big, right?

To put things into perspective a bit, it’s worth noting that the company was a bit off with its 2006 predictions (though it does have a year to go, I suppose), predicting such things as instantaneous speech translation ala Star Trek.

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