The TeleSound is a Kickstarter project which aims at extending your smartphone with sounds. Pairing with your phone or tablet using Bluetooth, it will allow you to send sound requests to the integrated speaker, for the amusement of your cat or kids.
The desktop computer market is pretty much stagnant as more and more consumers move to notebooks, tablets, and smartphones as their primary devices. One of the bright spots in the desktop computer market continues to be the all-in-one computer or AIO. Most people are probably familiar with this sort machine that packs all the computer hardware in the same case as the display.
Dell has announced a new all-in-one computer that will be shipping on April 16 called the XPS 18. Dell claims the computer is their thinnest, lightest, and most versatile all-in-one ever offered. The computer will run Windows 8 and has an 18.4-inch capacitive touchscreen. That means users will be able to take advantage of all of the fancy touch-interaction that Windows 8 offers. It’s also designed to be portable – weighing in under 5 pounds – so you can lug it around your house and run it off of battery power if you’d like.
That 18.4-inch screen supports full 1080p HD resolution, and the machine will use Intel Core processors – of an as yet unspecified flavor. Dell says that the XPS 18 will be available in the US and select countries in Europe starting at $899.99(USD). It’s too bad the computer maker doesn’t say exactly what processor you get, how much RAM, and how much storage the base model offers. Those are rather key details, but we can assume will learn more closer to the launch date.
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Earlier this month, Toyota unveiled a new electric vehicle concept called the i-Road. It is an electric vehicle concept known as a Personal Mobility Vehicle. From the looks of it, the i-Road has more in common with a motorcycle than a traditional car.
The odd little three-wheeled vehicle is very narrow, but still carries two people. The two passengers sit tandem as you would on a motorcycle. The i-Road also leans into the corners just like a motorcycle would, though its reverse-tricycle design makes it much less likely to tip over. The little vehicle has a nearly silent electrical powertrain that produces no emissions.
Since it doesn’t have to carry much weight, the i-Road can travel for about 30 miles after charging for only three hours, making it ideal for short urban rides.
Toyota says that it will be putting compact electric vehicles based on the i-Road to work as part of an experimental project intending to evaluate the market response to the little vehicle. The project will kick off at the end of 2014 in France.
Hitachi has unveiled its Ropits single passenger robot car, which looks like a Fisher Price Cozy Coupe for adults and does the driving all on its own. The name and style prompt one to think of a science fiction contraption, but it’s the vehicle’s autonomic functionality that truly brings the idea of “futuristic” to the forefront.
Ropits stands for Robot for Personal Intelligent Transport System, and was designed to aid those who find walking difficult. The idea is that Ropits vehicles could be outfitted in a city, for example, and hailed via a computer or kiosk of some sort positioned in various places around town. The robotic car will retrieve the passenger and whisk him or her away to their destination.
The tiny car achieves its autonomic functionality via a variety of navigation tools, including GPS, a gyro sensor, and laser sensors. The gyro will help the car remain stable on uneven roads, while the laser sensors will be used to judge distance from items. The GPS, obviously, will allow the passenger to tell Ropits where to go.
A quick glance at the vehicle could prompt concerns that it may be unstable with such a small base, but those concerns have been addressed by Hitachi, which designed the Ropits so that each wheel is controlled via what it calls active suspension, helping to keep things both stable and comfortable. What do you think of this little car? Let us know in the comments!
[via Japan Daily Press]
Hitachi introduces Ropits, a robotic single passenger car is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
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I’m sure that this is just a small taste of what we can expect from future robot competitions, just with less killing of humans. This competition is designed to attract more young students to the field of robotics and for today at least, it looks pretty fun. Let’s all enjoy it while we’re still alive.
The annual First Robotics Competition is being held at San Diego’s Valley View Casino Center aka Sports Arena. The seventh annual competition will have 60 teams. They will compete using 100+ pound robots in a game where they score points by throwing frisbees into a slot in the wall and then climb metal pyramids.
The match starts with a 15-second period where robots operate independently. Each frisbee scored is worth additional points. For the remainder of the two-minute match, drivers control the robots remotely and try to score as many points as possible. Then they try to climb a pyramid. The higher up they get, the more points they get.
The championship will be held in St. Louis on April 24 to 27 and there are $16 million(USD) in scholarships for competitors to win.
[via kpbs]
Japanese researchers from the RIKEN Center for Developmental Biology recently announced that they have cloned one mouse a total of 581 times. They did this by making clones, then making clones out of its clones and so on for 25 generations. The Nutcracker is screwed.
Original images by Karl Palutke and CJ Isherwood; resulting masterpiece by Lambert Varias
The researchers, who began their experiment back in 2005, used a technique called somatic cell nuclear transfer. That in itself is nothing new; in fact it’s the same technique that was used to clone the legendaryDolly the sheep. However, according to Live Science and the researchers themselves, repeated cloning was usually highly improbable, if not outright impossible, probably because successive clones had genetic defects in them. Interestingly enough, Dolly lived for only 6 years, even though domestic sheep live 10 to 12 years on average.
To counteract the defects, the Japanese used trichostatin, a histone deacetylase inhibitor or HDI. HDIs are compounds that stop certain genes from being expressed. As a result, not only is my nose bleeding because of all these advanced biology terms, the 581 mice clones (seen above) “were all fertile, they gave birth to healthy pups and lived a normal lifespan of about two years, similar to normally conceived mice.”
The leader of the research team Dr. Teruhiko Wakayama said that they hope their breakthrough could be used to make “superior quality animals” for conservation and agricultural purposes. All I know is that it is imperative that these people not get their hands on Jango Fett, or we’re all doomed.
[via RIKEN, Cell Stem Cell & Live Science via Popular Science]
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If you’re the type of person who’s constantly dropping their phone on the ground, or just like to participate in lots of outdoor activities, you might want to check out this new rugged Android phone, that’s designed to take a licking and keep on talking.
The Chinese-made Runbo X3 definitely looks like something you’d keep in your hiking pack or toolbox – owing more of its aesthetics to a walkie talkie than smartphone design. It’s wrapped in a waterproof case that’s rated at IP67, which should protect it from water up to 3-feet-deep, as well as keep pretty much all dust out of its innards.
Speaking of walkie talkies, the Runbo X3 sports a walkie talkie mode, for easy communication with others who have the same phone, at distances up to 6 miles away from each other. It’s also got a built in laser pointer, which might come in handy if you’re planning a rave or blinding airplane pilots while out in the jungle.
In terms of phone specs, we’re not looking at anything too fancy. It’s got a 1GHz dual-core CPU, running Android 4.0, along with 3G quad-band networking. Wi-Fi supports 802.11 b/g/n, and it’s also got Bluetooth and GPS aboard. One thing that looks nice about this phone is that it’s got a massive 3800 mAH battery pack – which should give you up to 25 hours of usage on a charge – something that’s nice to know when you’re lost in the woods or dangling from a cliff somewhere. The dual SIM slots and wireless hotspot capabilities don’t hurt either. I also like that it’s got a physical keyboard.
Its rear camera offers an 8MP resolution, while the front-facing one is just 0.3MP. And its 4.3″ screen offers just 800×480 resolution, which isn’t much to write home about by today’s standards. That all said, you’re buying this phone for its durability, not because of its top-of-the-line tech.
You can find the Runbo X3 rugged phone over at Chinavasion for about $350(USD). While that’s expensive compared to some smartphones, you have to remember this one is totally unlocked, so you can use it with any network of your choice.
Belkin’s NetCam is home when you’re away, giving you access to your home via your smartphone.
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