51-Foot-Long Dragon Is the World’s Largest Walking Robot

The world’s largest walking robot is crazy. It’s a 51-foot-long fire-breathing dragon named Tradinno. Surprisingly, this is not a Japanese creation, but a German one. It was made for a play called Der Drachenstich by industrial robotics company Zollner Elektronik AG.
dragon robot
This beast weighs in at 11 tons, and despite that massive weight it can still move and flap its 40-foot-wide wings. The size is impressive of course, but also impressive is the detail. The movement is a bit unrealistic, but who cares? This thing is badass! It breaths fire and squirts buckets of stage blood! And while it can walk short distances on its own, they need to move it on the back of a trailer for anything longer than a jaunt around the stage.

Check it out in action right here in the video. It looks like it was quite an undertaking to create this epic monster.

And if there’s any doubt that it’s the world’s largest walking robot, check the Guinness World Records.

[via C|Net]

Vodafone hacker accesses banking data of two million customers in Germany

Vodafone hacker steals 2 million customers affected

Vodafone has confirmed that hackers have accessed its servers in Germany, gaining access to personal information and bank details of approximately two million customers. The operator says the breach was a “highly sophisticated and illegal intrusion” that it believes was masterminded by an insider — and indeed a suspect has already been identified and handed over to police. It’s not often you hear about a successful raid on a mobile operator, which is why Vodafone believes it could only have been conducted by someone with an “inside knowledge of [its] most secure internal systems.” Vodafone customers outside of Germany aren’t affected, and those inside the country should already have been contacted. The company says credit card information, mobile phone numbers, passwords and PIN numbers were not accessed in the attack, although Vodafone is warning customers to be especially vigilant about potential phishing attacks in the future.

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Via: Bloomberg

This Kindergarten is a Giant Cat

Kindergarten is all about having fun while learning things like your ABCs and numbers. And what could be more fun than going to school inside of a giant cat?
kindergarten cat
Die Katze in Wolfartsweier near Karlsruhe, Germany is just such a children’s school. The building is designed to look like a giant, white cat. It was designed by artist Tomi Ungerer and architect Ayla-Suzan Yöndel. The building looks like it is ready to pounce at any moment.
kindergarten cat1
The circular windows at the front are the eyes and the tail in the back is actually a slide, for recess time. What kid wouldn’t love to go to school here? Inside this school has all of the usual amenities like classrooms, coatrooms, a kitchen, dining room, and a main hall.

kindergarten cat2

This is definitely one way to make kids want to go to school.

[via Like Cool]

PSA: New Nexus 7 launches today in UK and Europe, O2 to sell LTE model starting September 12th

Now that you’ve picked up a freshly discounted Nexus 4, how about a seven-inch Android tablet to go with it? Well, the next-generation Nexus 7 goes on sale today in UK, Germany, France, Spain, and, er, Japan. British readers will need to digitally transfer £200 to Google Play for the 16GB entry-level model, while the 32GB version rings in £240. Want LTE? Well, O2 UK promises that its 4G-ready version will go on sale September 12th, for £320 — no details on data plan pricing though. Pre-orders for that start tomorrow and if you do, you’ll get a free “premium case” for your enthusiasm.

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Via: Phandroid

Source: Google Play, O2

Report: Google to develop automated driving system with Continental and IBM

Both Google and German auto supplier Continental made Nevada their high-tech vehicle testing grounds in 2012, but who’d have thought the companies might end up collaborating? According to German newspaper Daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, the tech giant is very close to inking a deal not only with Continental but also with IBM. The paper’s sources didn’t go into specifics, only that the trio will collectively cook up an automated driving system for cars. It’s worth noting that what Continental tested in Nevada was a driver assist technology that makes it easier to navigate traffic. Whether Google is bringing the firm onboard to fine-tune its own self-driving car system or whether the companies will work on something new remains to be seen. However, if the deal does go through, we’ll know at least some of the juicy details in September, as Continental plans to officially debut the collaboration at the Frankfurt Car Show.

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Via: Autoblog

Source: Reuters

Germany recognizes Bitcoin as private money, makes it tax-free for personal use

Bitcoin

So far, governments have had polarized reactions to Bitcoin: they either recognize it as a fully regulated currency or ban it outright. Germany, however, has just taken a more nuanced position. The country now recognizes Bitcoin as private money that stays tax-free for personal uses, such as non-commercial internet auctions. You’ll only have to pay taxes on business transactions. While the decision doesn’t give Bitcoin as much weight as the euro, it should reassure Germans who want to stay on the right side of the law.

[Image credit: Zach Copley, Flickr]

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Via: RT News

Source: Die Welt (translated)

MyTaxi starts one-hour delivery in Germany, may reach US cities next year

DNP Mytaxi makes trials onehour package delivery, battles limited patience abroad

Don’t let the name fool you, Mytaxi wants to drop off more than just people. The app-based service that began as a German take on Uber has now started using its fleet of drivers to offer one-hour courier deliveries in its home country. The Next Web reports that, once this initial trial is over at the end of the year, the 60-minute service could be expanded to cover US cities including Washington, D.C. (where Mytaxi already operates cabs), Denver, Miami and Seattle, at prices similar to existing shipping options. There’s a touch of irony in waiting around for the ambiguous domestic start date but, in the meantime, Google and eBay have you covered.

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Source: The Next Web

German publishers opt to remain in Google News, still expect to get paid

AP: German publishers opt for continued inclusion in Google News

Google said last month it would require German publishers to opt-in if they wanted to continue to be featured on Google News. The AP is now reporting that several have decided to remain on the service, including Spiegel Online, Zeit Online and Springer AG. Publishers have long been pushing for the government to change the law so news aggregators would have to pay for the content they scrape. A new copyright law does come into effect today limiting how much info aggregators are allowed to borrow for their feeds, and to avoid any legal scuffles, Google decided an opt-in policy was safest. This may not be the end of the company’s troubles with publishers in the country, however, as Springer AG has said “it still expects to receive money from Google eventually.”

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Source: AP

e-David Painting Robot: Etsy Automated

Robots are slowly but surely taking all of our jobs. Even jobs that we thought were safe – like being an artist. e-David is a robotic painter developed by the University of Konstanz in Germany. It takes photographs, then uses its software to develop a unique set of brush strokes to make a one-of-a-kind painting of the subject. There’s another job gone.

edavid

It creates using five different brushes and a palette of 24 paint colors. It can also change its painting style on the fly, making adjustments to future brush strokes by observing the results of those it has already made. e-David even signs its work with a reverse-written signature, which is a nice artistic touch.

The team built the robot painter to learn more about the techniques human artists use. They want to boil painting techniques down to their basics by creating algorithms that can mimic them.

Sure, e-David paints a great painting, but can it cut it’s own ear off like Van Gogh? Nope. No passion. No crazy. No heart. How is that art again?

[via Geekosystem]

Watch This German UAV Crash into a Plane on an Afghan Runway

This is why we can’t have nice things. Recently declassified video footage from Northern Afghanistan shows that piloting a drone isn’t nearly as easy as it seems, even when it’s still on the ground.

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