Hasta La Gadget!

Festo may’ve already stirred up plenty of attention with its mesmerizing AirPenguin blimp, but let’s not forget its other weapon — fluidic muscles (elastomer tubes that contract when filled with fluid). At The Gadget Show Live in the UK, this German company was also showing off its AirMotion Ride car-racing simulator — essentially a driver’s seat suspended from just six fluidic muscles for the six degrees of freedom, while sound and vision are handled by its 5.1 surround sound speakers and a projector. The company claims that each of these lightweight muscles can generate forces of up to 1,600N, and since there are no mechanical parts inside, they make an ideal replacement for conventional hydraulic plungers as used on Force Dynamics’ and Motion-Sim’s simulators. You can see Festo’s machine in action after the break, but promise us that you won’t judge our driving ability.

Continue reading Engadget test-drives Festo AirMotion Ride, humiliates self (video)

Engadget test-drives Festo AirMotion Ride, humiliates self (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 09 Apr 2010 13:37:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple might think it’s going to change the world tomorrow with some sort of crazy tablet, but we’re here to tell you that the world has already changed. American humans will soon be able to buy a product called “Puppy Tweets,” a product actually designed, tested, and released by the Mattel corporation. First, you need a dog with a Twitter account. (Who doesn’t have one of those?) Then, you need to use $30 of your actual money to buy Puppy Tweets, a plastic sound-and-motion sensor that clips onto your dog’s collar and sends out several pre-written tweets that have extreme amounts of dignity, like “YAHOOOOOOO! Somedays you just gotta get your bark on.” Then you have to weep gently for the future of our society.

Puppy Tweets lets your puppy… tweet originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 26 Jan 2010 23:03:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’ve dealt with a number of confused and outright foolish school administrators in our time, but it seems like Arizona’s Higley Unified School District might be run by the most bonkers of the bunch: they’ve fired IT director Brad Niesluchowski for running SETI@Home on some 5,000 of the district’s machines. Why? According to confidently-underinformed superintendent Denise Birdwell, Higley Unified “certainly would have supported cancer research,” but does “not support the search for E.T.” Well, that’s just peachy — except that her flippant dismissal of SETI belies a complete ignorance of one of the oldest and most respected distributed-computing projects in the world, and what it’s actually looking for. Oh, but it gets worse: Birdwell thinks SETI@home — which primarily runs as a screensaver — was somehow slowing down “educational programs in every classroom,” and magically estimates that it’s cost her district “$1 million in added utility fees and replacement parts,” with a further huge cost required to remove the software. Completing her transformation into the worst-possible stereotype of a school district superintendent, Birdwell’s even got the local cops on the case. Yeah, it’s idiotic, but it could be worse — we can only imagine the hell that would have broken loose had Higley’s machines been a part of the renegade Engadget Folding@home team.

Update: So there’s apparently more going on here as well, including allegations of stolen equipment and — inevitably — downloaded porn, but none of that explains why Superintendent Birdwell is giving press conferences where she slams SETI. Check the more coverage links for the full story, and make sure to hit the source link for the video.

Confused school district fires sysadmin for running SETI@home: ‘As an educational institution we do not support the search for E.T.’ originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 02 Dec 2009 15:24:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Michael Jackson may never take the stage again, but that doesn’t mean you can’t commemorate him in your pocket, right? This special, “limited edition” mobile phone appears to have been dipped in gold and diamonds, and, if we’re not mistaken… it’s basically a Vertu KIRF that’s dressed like a headless MJ? We’re pretty light on specs and pricing information here, but rest assured that unless you live in China, you’ll probably never be able to get your be-gloved hand on one of these. Nothing like cashing in on the dead.

[Via Shanzhai]

Filed under: Cellphones

Blinged out Michael Jackson phone is fashionably late originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 06 Nov 2009 12:25:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We know what you’re thinking: what could be more impressive to your “friends” than an incredibly super sweet landline telephone about 9 years after most people stopped having them? That’s right, a landline. Bang & Olufsen‘s BeoCom 5 is destined to take things to the next level with hot functions like “hold” and the ability to store up to 400 contacts. The BeoCom 5 also boasts a rad looking speaker phone if you want to get a whole group convo going like we did back in junior high. Other good news here is that this baby can handle two separate lines — in case one is simply not enough. No word on when the newest BeoCom will be unleashed, or how much it will cost, but we’re going to guess it won’t be cheap.

[Via Acquire Mag]

Filed under: Household

Bang & Olufsen BeoCom 5 landline: all the cool kids have one originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 21 Oct 2009 01:42:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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