Hasta La Gadget!

Mobile payment systems may be gaining only gradual steam in the US, but over on the other side of the pond, Vodafone UK has launched a broad new campaign to integrate smartphone technology where Londoners may need it most — in the back of taxis. As of today, many cab passengers will be able to charge their smartphones in transit, thanks to a wide range of chargers that the mobile carrier has installed in more than 500 of London’s iconic black vehicles. Vodafone is also rolling out a new payment scheme today, whereby cash-strapped travelers can text their cab’s license number to a specific code, allowing any owed fares to be charged directly to their phone bills. The system certainly doesn’t sound as elegant as some of the NFC-based operations we’ve heard about, but it still beats having to navigate your cab driver to the nearest ATM, with the meter tick-tocking away.

Vodafone lets Londoners pay for taxis via text message, charge their phones in transit originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 03 May 2011 06:14:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Until now, one field has been safe from robotic interference: collecting money on the street. Not for long. A space already overcrowded with guitar playing hippies, dogs in bandanas, and children carrying bright orange UNICEF boxes has a new force to reckon with. It’s Don-8r (pronounced “donator,” for those who don’t speak robot), programmed expressly to collect change and be adorable. University of Dundee student Tim Pryde created the coin-fueled robot to help raise money for charity. It’s taken a few spins around the school’s campus and has already mastered the three Ps of money collection: politeness, persistence, and performance — the latter accomplished via color changing lights in its orb-like head. Video of Don-8r doing its thing after the break.

Continue reading Don-8r the panhandling robot set to make the homeless obsolete (video)

Don-8r the panhandling robot set to make the homeless obsolete (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 26 Apr 2011 07:34:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Samsung Infuse 4G has yet to make its way to market, but when it does, you might be able to find it at Walmart. Rumor has it that the retail giant has been sending around circulars indicating that the Infuse and its 4.5-inch Super AMOLED Plus display will hit shelves sometime next month. The notices also mention that the device will be sold for $178.88, which would likely be bundled with a two-year AT&T contract. There hasn’t been any confirmation from Samsung, which unveiled the ultra-thin smartphone way back in January, but we’ll let you know as soon as we get word.

[Thanks, John]

Walmart to Sell Samsung Infuse 4G in May for $178.88? originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 22 Apr 2011 08:48:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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NASA has given its seal of approval (and a lot of money) to SpaceX and three other private companies, as part of its Commercial Crew Development (CCDev2) initiative — a program designed to spur the development of U.S. commercial spaceflight. The agency awarded a total of $270 million to the four lucky winners, with Boeing receiving $92.3 million to help develop its CST-100 capsule design, and the Sierra Nevada Corporation garnering $80 million, which will go toward its shuttle-like Dream Chaser craft. The smallest prize ($22 million) went to Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin, which is reportedly looking to create a cone-shaped craft capable of carrying crew members into the abyss. And then, of course, there’s SpaceX, the proud recipient of a cool $75 million in NASA funds. The California-based company has already successfully launched its Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon capsule, and is currently working on the Falcon Heavy — a 22-story craft heralded as the “world’s most powerful rocket.” NASA’s extra dough should give a little boost to SpaceX’s projects, but the funds are contingent upon improvements in Dragon’s crew-carrying capacities, to be carried out over the next year. If all goes well, we may see one of these companies launch an intergalactic ‘taxi’ service by the middle of the decade. Saddle up!

NASA awards $270 million to SpaceX and other commercial spaceflight ventures originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 19 Apr 2011 16:54:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Want some numerical context to last night’s revelation that Apple is suing Samsung Electronics for copying the iPhone and iPad? How does $5.7 billion sound? That’s how much Apple spent on buying up parts from Samsung last year, according to the AFP, which cites the Cupertino company as Samsung’s second-biggest client after Sony. Given the breadth of Samsung’s component manufacturing, these expenditures can and probably do span everything from flash storage and RAM to processing chips to displays. What’s fascinating here — and illustrative of the psychopathic nature of corporations — is that in spite of this massive interdependency, Apple’s lodged a broadly worded patent assault on a major prong of Samsung’s business (smartphones and tablets) and now Samsung’s been quoted as saying it has “no choice but [to] respond strongly.” A company official has apparently expressed the belief that Apple may be infringing on some of Samsung’s wireless patents, which means we can probably look forward to another fat batch of papers being submitted to the Northern District of California court. Lovely.

Apple spent nearly $5.7b on Samsung parts in 2010, faces ‘strong’ response to its patent suit originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 19 Apr 2011 04:06:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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