Hasta La Gadget!

We just got a chance to meet iRobot’s AVA and talk to iRobot’s CEO Colin Angle about his plans for this intriguing new bot. What we’re looking at right now is basically a developer platform, or a “concept car” as Colin put it, showing off ideas for a consumer-facing bot with a lot more smarts than a Roomba, with hopes to attract developers who can extend its functionality. What wasn’t clear to us before is that the tablet perched atop the bot can be any iPad or Android tablet — not some first-party model by iRobot — and the point of that is to let existing iPad and Android devs to develop apps using their regular tools that can control the bot through an API iRobot will give them access to. That means, unlike some robotic SDKs out there, developers won’t have to learn the ins and outs of robots before they build an app for the AVA, they just have to pass simple instructions to the bot which can be interpreted by iRobot’s already impressive software. For instance, the robot can already drive itself around a building and map it entirely, so then a software dev would just have to pick a point on a map and send AVA on its way — no complicated navigation work on the app dev’s part. iRobot also sees potential for game devs, which is particularly interesting because they could combine two of the “hot” areas of current game development: Kinect-style motion controls and touch controls. It’s all very exciting, we assure you, so we suggest you follow after the break and watch this video — before we sic AVA on your ass.

iRobot AVA chills with us at CES, will turn Android and iPad app developers into roboticists (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 07 Jan 2011 16:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Bad news, folks, Polaroid’s GL20 camera glasses aren’t wearable yet. The Haus of Gaga-designed Grey Label product is indeed coming out, but the prototype at the company’s CES booth lacked the ability for the wearer to see anything out of it — then again, it’s not clear we’re ever supposed to, even after its release later this year. The GL30 digital camera was also non-functional, so all we can say right now is it’s a design great for making a big, conspicuous statement. On the other hand, the GL10 printer does work, but it’s a printer — eh, nothing else we can say. Curse us for succumbing to a Lady Gaga pun in the eleventh hour and check the pictures below.

Lady Gaga’s Polaroid digital camera, printer, and glasses hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 07 Jan 2011 16:50:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Just two days ago, we brought you word of a Texas Instruments powered pico projector by ViewSonic. We found the 0.9-pounder and snapped some pics of an (unfortunately) non-functioning unit. It features a 4-in-1 card reader, mini USB cable, and adapter for an included dongle that supports VGA and composite cables. With a 1280 x 800 WXGA resolution, the 200 lumen bulb is LED-based and has a lamp life of 20 to 30 thousand hours. The scrolling wheel, that you can peek at in the gallery below the fold, rests atop the projector and focuses the image. As for size limitation, the rep said up to 300 inches. The company said it’ll retail at $479 when it ships in April.

ViewSonic PLED-W200 DLP pico projector hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 07 Jan 2011 16:43:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Wishing you could get a little closer to that next-generation Audi MMI Touch interface we saw yesterday, the one we’re expecting to debut on the A3? Well, you can’t — unless you’re at CES, anyway, in which case you can find it chilling out in the NVIDIA booth waiting for you to go play with it. We did, getting a feel for all the lovely things that Audi is doing with the power of its Tegra chipset. It has decidedly limited functionality at this point, but it’s certainly enough to give you an idea of what dashboards in 2012 are going to look like, which is way closer to Gran Turismo 5 than we’d have imagined, like a fly-around tire pressure display with a real-time 3D view of the car. Check out the video below and see for yourself.

Continue reading Next-generation Audi MMI Touch dashboard with NVIDIA Tegra-power hands-on (video)

Next-generation Audi MMI Touch dashboard with NVIDIA Tegra-power hands-on (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 07 Jan 2011 15:58:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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You may remember Viliv from last year’s CES, but it’s back again this year with a smattering new of tablets. The X70 Slate is powered by Intel’s upcoming 1.5 GHz Oak Trail processor, and has a 7-inch 1024 x 600-resolution capacitive multitouch display. That new silicon is supposed to simultaneously speed up Windows 7 performance (both Starter and Home Premium are available), and improve battery life (they claim 6.5 hours, which is better than the Galaxy Tab). A custom split keyboard was added by Viliv, which eases thumb typing so you don’t have to awkwardly reach across the screen to hunt and peck for keys. It’s got a 3 megapixel shooter around back as well as a 1.3 megapixel shooter up front in addition to an optical trackpad. This thing should be hitting retailers like Best Buy and Amazon in April for an unspecified price, but you can check out our hands-on photos while you patiently wait to find out.

Update: Video after the break!

Continue reading Viliv X70 Windows 7 slate with Oak Trail hands-on (updated with video)

Viliv X70 Windows 7 slate with Oak Trail hands-on (updated with video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 07 Jan 2011 14:55:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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