Hasta La Gadget!

There comes a time in the life of a company to work with other partners from far away, as it makes perfect sense in this day and age considering how the world is a global village now. Leap Motion has decided to take the plunge in the Japanese market, and in order to do so without floundering around, they have managed to enlist the exclusive help of SoftBank in a partnership. This would mean that the Leap Motion controller will now have retail presence in 15 different countries across the five continents.

Leap Motion figured out that leveraging on SoftBank Group’s multi-channel reach as a leading telecommunications and internet corporation would be a good place to start – after all, why bother reinventing the wheel when existing tools are already in place? Leap Motion’s technology can already enable folks to use finger and hand movements in the air to play, create and explore in more natural and dynamic ways on computers and other devices, and Japan would be a key market for the company. After all, they have received their fair share of interest from Japanese developers and consumers, making it the third largest market for web sales of the Leap Motion Controller. Does this mean that we are in for some very exciting times?

Leap Motion Expands Into Japan Market Via Exclusive SoftBank Partnership original content from Ubergizmo.

We had earlier reported that Apple will be taking part in the traditional “Lucky Bags” sale over in Japan. This is a tradition that takes place all over Japan where retailers offer up bags stuffed with mysterious goods that customers can purchase at discounted prices. Sometimes some customers walk away with something worth a lot more, while sometimes they might walk away with something only a little bit more, but either way they do walk away with a deal. Well turns out that Apple has been pretty generous with their Lucky Bags in 2014 as there have been reports of customers walking about with an 11” MacBook Air!

These Lucky Bags are priced around $340 and the bag that is worth the most contained an 11” MacBook Air, an Apple Magic Mouse, Pill Speaker by Beats, a red MacBook Air jacket, an Apple t-shirt, along with an assortment of smaller items. Pretty damn good deal, don’t you think? Other Lucky Bags contained items such as a WiFi version of the iPad Air, the first-generation iPad min, seventh-generation iPod nanos, along with other accessories such as Smart Covers, Philips Hue start kit, a Nike+ FuelBand SE, speakers, and more.

It’s a pity that Apple does not hold events like these in other parts of the world, but then again we can imagine that by holding events like this all over the world, it could cut into Apple’s profit margin quite a bit. Any of our readers in Japan managed to get their hands on one of Apple’s Lucky Bags this year?

Apple’s Lucky Bag Contents Revealed original content from Ubergizmo.

DARPA’s Robotic Challenge Trials wrapped up earlier today, and the robot that reigned supreme is SCHAFT. The squat 209 pound, 4.85 foot-tall robot smoked the competition, scoring 27 points, besting its next closest competitor by 35% in overall points.

The challenge is focused on demonstrating advancements in robotics which could improve disaster response efforts. For the competition, the bipedal humanoid robots had to perform each of the following tasks:

1. Drive a utility vehicle at the site.
2. Travel dismounted across rubble.
3. Remove debris blocking an entryway.
4. Open a door and enter a building.
5. Climb an industrial ladder and traverse an industrial walkway.
6. Use a tool to break through a concrete panel.
7. Locate and close a valve near a leaking pipe.
8. Connect a fire hose to a standpipe and turn on a valve.

In the end, SCHAFT beat out numerous teams from DARPA’s home nation, taking the top spot in the terrain, ladder, debris, and fire hose tasks.

Here’s  Team SCHAFT explaining a bit about what makes their robot special:

The time-compressed footage shown below is SCHAFT practicing its tasks prior to this weekend’s event.

Florida Institute for Human & Machine Cognition’s (IMHC Robotics) robot did quite well, coming in second place, taking first place in the door and wall challenges.

While it’s the end of the line for some of the robots, the top eight teams will get funded to move on to the final rounds in 2014.

[via LiveScience]

Kirobo, a robot that has been sent to space in August this year, has carried out a mission that will sit well with curious onlookers and observers. Footage has been released that depicted the first humanoid robot ever in space actually carrying out a conversation with the commander of the International Space Centre, Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata. All right, perhaps conversation might be a wee bit too weighty in this case, but small talk would be better suited. (more…)

Kirobo Robot Carries Out First Space Chat Ever original content from Ubergizmo.

Hundreds of pounds of freshly caught fish are express-mailed to a building in the small town of Onjuku, Japan, everyday. There, a team quickly slices and dices the fish into fillets. But this is no kitchen, and the fresh fish are definitely not for consumption.

Read more…