Hasta La Gadget!

Slingshots and unbridled rage might be enough to launch Rovio’s furious fowl across the battlefield, but they’ll need some outside help if they hope to break free of Earth’s atmosphere — it’s time to call the cosmonauts. Two upcoming Russian space launches are scheduled to ferry a pair of iPads and a plush Angry Birds toy to the International Space Station. The twin tablets will fly on an unmanned resupply vehicle early next week, and the irritated avian is playing the part of a jocular gravity indicator in a manned mission next month — part of a russian tradition of hanging a toy by a string to signal when the vessel has escaped the Earth’s gravity. NASA told collectSPACE that the iPads are only slated for recreational purposes, but mentioned that various tablets were being evaluated for future use. The plush bird? It’s coming home; cosmonaut Shkaplerov’s five year old daughter can’t be expected to give up her toys forever, can she?

Filed under: Tablet PCs

Angry Birds to ride Russian rockets into space, follow iPads bound for bored cosmonauts originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 26 Oct 2011 22:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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CubeStormer I was pretty cool, we guess, but that was way back in 2010. Now we’re all about CubeStormer II. Built by Mike Dobson and David Gilday, the puzzle-cracking robot is capable of solving Rubik’s Cubes at blazing fast speeds, shaving precious fractions of seconds off of human world records. The ‘bot was constructed from four Lego Mindstorms NXT kits, with our old pal the Samsung Galaxy S II serving as the its “brain.” CubeStormer will be making a public appearance at ARM TechCon 2011 in California, later this month (and really, the whole thing seems like a bit of an ad for ARM — albeit a really awesome one). In the meantime, check out some video of it in action after the break.

Continue reading CubeStormer II rocks a Samsung Galaxy S II, makes CubeStormer I look downright slothful (video)

CubeStormer II rocks a Samsung Galaxy S II, makes CubeStormer I look downright slothful (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 14 Oct 2011 20:08:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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So many times in my life, I have encountered parents who have said “I barely understand how this works, but my kid is a whiz at it”. Children who are exposed to technology at a young age often fit this profile very nicely. From that exposure, they have a better chance to become more than […]

Dear Internet: These handles do NOT light up, and we never said that they do. Where on earth did you get that idea?

To promote the new Star Wars “The Complete Saga” Blu-ray DVD boxset release that went on sale from Sept 16th in Japan, 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment Japan are running a very cool campaign on Tokyo’s trains. For a period the train’s railings have been transformed into life size lightsabers.

It is the first time that the hand rails have been used in an advertising campaign in Japan, and is a fantastic use of promotional real estate. The effect is very well thought out and was generating a bit of chatter on the train amongst those riding. Whole trains are often taken over for large campaigns where captive audiences can be targeted during their commute, and can cost up to ¥10 million.

It is rumored that George Lucas himself was shown the campaign images and loved the idea…well if it drives sales of his products why wouldn’t he! With so much of advertising going digital and hi-tech these days, it is nice to see new and imaginitive ways where simple design can also generate as much return as those more costly campaigns.

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Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology.

The first thing worth noting about Sifteo Cubes — which recently became available for pre-order at $149 for a starter pack of three that should start shipping this month — is that they are not geometrically true to their name. Their square surfaces sit atop depths that are less than half their side length, so even stacking two Cubes won’t produce three-dimensional symmetry. They are a little smaller than the game pieces from the much more limited and less expensive Scrabble Flash digital letter-arranging game that was a hit last holiday season.

The pieces fit comfortably between two fingers for easy gripping, flipping and rearranging, which you’ll need to do a lot of in their various games. They are also a good size to substitute for many handheld playthings, reminding one of overstuffed Mahjongg tiles but also akin to shrunken toddlers’ alphabet blocks or playing cards. The sides and back are otherwise nondescript except for a set of contacts on their rear used for charging. Sifteo Cubes are charged via their tray, which showcases them through a translucent plastic top with room for three more Cubes at $45 each. Different games derive different levels of benefit from having more than three tiles, but most work fine with the starter set.

Continue reading Switched On: A toy for the smartphone gaming generation

Switched On: A toy for the smartphone gaming generation originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 11 Sep 2011 19:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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