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Evan Blass Year:by , posted Sep 21st 2005 at 7:30PM Source Site:engadget
This bizarre trend of teddy bear electronics that started with Ruxpin is taking a new twist now that a bunch of researchers in Japan, who may not have had many toys as children, seem to be making up for their lost youths by building stuffed bears that control on-screen PC activities. Way more useful than the cellular squirrel, this type of input, the Robotic User Interface (RUI), is meant to overcome some of the limitations of current WIMP (windows, icons, menus, pointing device) methods of navigating and controlling a computer. As you might expect, manipulating the bears body parts translates into similar movements by an on-screen avatar, with haptic feedback (ala the rumble pack) mimicking the on-screen activity. For their proof of concept, these Peter Pan-types created a decidedly lo...
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Marc Perton Year:by , posted Sep 21st 2005 at 7:30PM Source Site:engadget
Remember those contests Apple held to mark various iTunes download milestones? In the most recent version, the customer who bought the half-billionth song got 10 iPods, 10,000 free songs and tickets to see Coldplay. So, what did Nokias billionth customer get for buying a Nokia 1100 phone for about $60? Not even a mention by name in the companys press release touting the purchase (hey, at least he got one of the companys cheapest, most basic phones). According to Nokia, the company sold its billionth phone to a customer in Nigeria, one of the 2 billion cellphone users worldwide, we hear. (And no, that doesnt give them a 50% market share.) But Nokia does hope to have as many as 3 billion customers by 2010; maybe by then the company will be ready to throw a bone to the customer who helps t...
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Evan Blass Year:by , posted Sep 21st 2005 at 1:15PM Source Site:engadget
So once again, Big Government is trying to step all over our right to endanger ourselves and others while barreling down the highway. First they forced us to wear uncomfortable seat belts, then our horns turned into tiny steering wheel buttons due to airbag requirements, and now they have the nerve to encroach upon our First Amendment right of free speech with laws limiting in-car cellphone usage. The National Transportation Safety Board, not content with killing our joyriding buzz with their many safety recommendations, has now suggested that federal legislators impose a ban on teenagers (well, all novice drivers really) chatting on their phones while driving. This new anti-teenage legislation is part of NTSBs "Most Wanted Safety Recommendations to States" list, which might as well be ...
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Marc Perton Year:by , posted Sep 21st 2005 at 1:15PM Source Site:engadget
Are there enough ways to blast your iPods music throughout the house? Apparently not, according to DLO. The companys forthcoming HomeDock is a $99 docking station that can connect an iPod to either a home stereo system or TV, allowing full control of all functions via the included remote. This ones definitely designed for simplicity; no wireless options, no configuration. Just connect it to your stereo via the included RCA cable, or to the TV via composite or S-Video and youre in business. And, yes, it supports the iPod nano.
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Marc Perton Year:by , posted Sep 21st 2005 at 1:15PM Source Site:engadget
Weve seen a lot of wireless video streaming devices come and go over the past couple of years, and the latest, from I-O DATA,builds on whats come before with a couple of new features. The AVel Link Player AVLP2/G-2 streams video from a PC to a TV over a home WiFi network, and supports most common video and audioformats, including MPEG-2, DivX, Xvid, WMA, MP3, AAC and OGG. It also supports 720p WMV9 streams and DRM-protected Windows Media files. Japan-only for now, though if youre especially daring, a firmware upgrade adds some of the new features to the internationally available AVLP2/DVDLA networked media/DVD player.
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Ryan Block Year:by , posted Sep 21st 2005 at 1:15PM Source Site:engadget
Living in New York, were not at all above taking unfinished art up off the street and giving it a home on empty wallsif its good, that is. Looks like some Ade Lun Sec and Peter Robinson had an idea about that and decided to see what exactly would happen to a piece of art left in Dolores Park in San Francisco. They called the experiment Art Tracking Module 002, named for the Trimtrac GPS transponder the hid behind the piece, which let them watch the art move all the hell over the city for three days before finally landing at a lumberyard. They then posted fliers all around the lumber yard with an image of the art and a notice letting them know that theyd been a part of a "social experiment." Oh, you crazy artists and your social experiments on us poor, unsuspecting proletariats.
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Ryan Block Year:by , posted Sep 21st 2005 at 1:15PM Source Site:engadget
For those of you not yet familiar with UMA, its the rather perplexing and even somehow paradoxical standard being espoused by handset makers and shockingly enough even some carriers, that allows WiFi-enabled cellphones to move calls off cellular and onto WiFi (and back again) in real time. Well, it looks like thats a bandwagon LG wanted onto, and their new tri-band WiFi-enabled CL400 featuresyou guessed itUMA. No, its most assuredly not coming out here, but every handset maker and every device thats got UMA is another step toward a world where WiFi and cellular calling arent heavily differentiatedone were looking forward to immensely.
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Fabienne Serriere Year:by , posted Sep 21st 2005 at 1:15PM Source Site:engadget
We hit up a Sony Ericsson product rep at this weeks Apple Expo in Paris (yeah, its not just Apple people in attendance), who with a little prodding confirmed for us a couple of rumors about some of their upcoming 3G phones. No (new) pics, but they did reveal that theyre working on a new handset codenamed "Sakura," which will be an update to their swivel-style S700/S710 phone, and that the "Hermione", their much-rumored update of the P910, is most definitely on its way. They were able to confirm that the Hermione will have 3G (were guessing UMTS), as well as a one or two megapixel camera, Bluetooth, and WiFi ("definitely WiFi"). They also mentioned that the keyboard on the Hermione will not flip down like on the P910, but will be on the phone body itself (true to leaked photos), and that...
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Marc Perton Year:by , posted Sep 21st 2005 at 1:15PM Source Site:engadget
While were not entirely convinced the DAVE.TV service represents IPTV nirvana (the company offers such cutting-edge programming as the bbq channel, featuring 1,000 barbecue-related shows), but the idea of integrating IPTV services directly into a media PC, rather than through a set-top box like the Akimbo or DAVEs own XPORT, makes a lot of sense. So, DAVEs partnership with X2 Corp. on the new IPTV Mega PC sounds like a step in the right direction. The Mega PC itself is similar to X2s previously announced Mega 865 Pro(pictured), with abuilt-in tuner, a 3.6GHz Pentium 4, up to 2GB of RAM, a dual-layer burner andbuilt-in WiFi.
The IPTV Mega PCwill start at $999, and while we dont exactly see ourselves rushing out to buy this (though we could use another good rib recipe), we hope its anothe...
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Ryan Block Year:by , posted Sep 21st 2005 at 1:15PM Source Site:engadget
The Robone. Its a fake Robosapienor Fauxbosapien, if you will. And you know how the only thing we at Engadget love more than a good gadget, is a good knockoff of one. And this, friends, is a really, really good knockoff.
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Thomas Ricker Year:by , posted Sep 21st 2005 at 1:15PM Source Site:engadget
So Sanyos officially entered the digital music game with their new HDP-M3000 MP3 player. Theyre not exactly going to set the world ablaze with a feature-set that includes a 6 GB drive, WMA DRM playback, integrated microphone, 12 hour battery, and a diminutive 9 x 5 x 2-centimeter 87-gram package dressed in white (of course). But at ?120 ($217), they might do it with a whisper. Ok, probably not.
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