Hasta La Gadget!

The company that became known for its humble robots for cleaning homes will soon be selling a fancy robot for offices. Coming in 2014, iRobot’s Ava 500 will let you work both remotely and on site. It has a 21.5″ HD screen, a webcam, a microphone and its predecessor’s ability to find its way around on its own. Depending on your office dynamics, the Ava 500 will either be a hilarious or a creepy sight.

According to iRobot, the Ava 500 can explore and map its assigned area on its own. The idea is for its user to direct it remotely using an iPad app. You just have to pick the robot’s destination and it will figure out how to get there on its own. So no, you won’t be able to “drive’ it and yes, it’s still pretty impressive.

Aside from the iPad app, iRobot says it will provide users with Cisco TelePresence EX60 monitors. The Ava 500 can also adjust its body’s height so that its monitor will be at the appropriate level at all times. When you’re done using the Ava 500, it will return to its charging station on its own. It’ll probably chat with the other ‘bots about that cute copier and how annoying that security cam dude is.

I wonder how many takes that meeting scene took. If I was there I wouldn’t be able to stop laughing when the robot rolls in the room. He looks constipated. And can you imagine a future where the only “employees” in the office are all Ava 500s? The Ava 500s will be so busy they’ll have to use other Ava 500s to do their job.

[iRobot via The Boston Globe]

If you can’t remember your passwords no matter how hard you try, then you might find the concept of Biostamps interesting. It’s Motorola’s idea of an alternative to the traditional password or pin code by doing away with them completely.

Biostamps can be described as a tattoo of sorts that contains flexible electronic circuits.

These circuits will send a signal to your phone to unlock it or give you access, eliminating the need to enter any codes or passwords. The phone will only work if it’s within range of the tattoo, ensuring that no one else but its rightful owner can use it or access the data stored in it.

The tattoos are being developed by Massachusetts engineering firm MC10.

[via The Telegraph via Dvice]

Now this is a real low-rider. If you have ever wished you could drive your own street legal bumper car down the road, your dreams could come true. This beauty that you see here is for sale.

Just keep in mind that while it is legal to drive this on the road, it is not legal to ram the other cars. This 1984 Dodge Colt does a great impression of a bumper car. It’s on eBay right now for $1,980(USD) with the reserve not yet met. What are you waiting for?

It doesn’t appear that it would function as a bumper car, but hey, you can’t have it all.

[via Jalopnik]

Have you heard of fiverr.com? It’s a site that provides interested users with “graphics, marketing, fun and more online services for $5.” All sorts of bizarre services are being offered on the site, from people offering to write messages for you using Indian spices to making soda tab bracelets that they’ll be happy to mail to your home.

In the mix is user givingpraise, who promises to pray for your request for five bucks.

Before you get irate at the fact that someone’s trying to make a few quick bucks off of someone’s faith, the listing adds that the money raised will be used to help others. How, we’re not sure, but we’re hoping they’ll donate it to charity or fund some local programs that’ll help people in need.

I find nothing wrong with wanting to raise money to help others, but it just seems like a roundabout way to pray and ask others to pray for you, doesn’t it? A trip to your local ministry would’ve sufficed – and it would definitely be more meaningful.

[via Bruce Cat]

These unusual ice cream flavors were unveiled by at the Small Bird Expo in Osaka, Japan by Torimi Cafe: sparrow, parakeet, and cockateil. Sounds exotic, doesn’t it?

Before you wrinkle your nose in disgust, note that the ice cream wasn’t made with these actual birds as the ingredients. Instead, the ice cream is actually made using the type of food that the birds eat. The sparrow-flavored ice cream is flavored with grains and marshmallow; the parakeet ice cream has honey and apple thrown into the mix; while the cockatiel ice cream contains pumpkin and sunflower seeds mixed in.

As for the taste, Torimi Cafe describes the sparrow ice cream as giving you “the feeling of pressing the breast of a java sparrow into your mouth.” Parakeet apparently feels like “eating some vanilla ice cream in one hand and then taking a whiff of a parakeet in your other hand,” while cockatiel is like when “you’re sleeping with your mouth open and your cockatiel runs over your face and gets its leg in your mouth.”

I don’t think those descriptions sound particularly appetizing, although they are quite fun to read.

[via Incredible Things]