Filed under: Robots

Well, as has been the case before, it seems that reports of armed robots gone mad have been slightly exaggerated. This latest instance concerns the SWORDS robots made by Foster-Miller and currently deployed in Iraq, which were reportedly pulled from duty after some "control issues" that supposedly involved the bot's gun swinging around when it wasn't supposed to. Now according to Danger Room, however, that is apparently not the case after all, with the very same Army manager quoted in the original Popular Mechanics article telling the site that, "SWORD is still deployed," and that "we continue to learn from it and will continue to expand the use of armed robots." A Foster-Miller spokesperson further adds that, "the whole thing is an urban legend," and that the only instances of uncommanded movements happened prior to the robot's 2006 safety certification, each of which prompted further safety measures that are now in place on the robot.

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Donald Melanson

Coway's new cleaning device uses megasonic soundwaves to clean everything from meat, to produce, to dirty dishes — all with the frequency of a soundwave. The secret behind this gadget is inductive micro cavitation, which shakes dirty particles loose from the surface of the object.

The sanitizer also provides running water to prevent secondary contamination and all comes together in a box that resembles a retro future record player. This thing reminds me of those showers in sci-fi movies and shows where you step into a chamber, get sprayed with smoke for 5 seconds, and a soothing voice informs you that you are now sanitized. Except the megasonic cleaning device might actually appear sooner than later. [Appliancist]

Adrian Covert

Filed under: Cellphones

Sure, the iPhone is cool looking, works out a lot, and is really good at math... but it can't do VoIP, can it? Well, yes it can -- and you can, thanks to a company called Fring and a piece of ingenious software (for jailbreakers only). Using the native app, it's now possible to place and receive calls via your WiFi connection, thus making AT&T CEOs cry like little babies. Besides doing Skype and the like, the app also lets you connect for chats via MSN Messenger, ICQ, GTalk, SIP, Twitter, AIM, and Yahoo!, which should make this an attractive package even if you don't want to harness the raw power of IP telephony. You can get the application for free by loading up Installer with the company's repo. Check the video after the break to see the magic happen.

[Via Zatz Not Funny!]

Continue reading iPhone gets VoIP and chat options thanks to Fring

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Joshua Topolsky

These days homeowners in Afghanistan don’t mess around when it comes to protecting their stuff. Take Hanif Molavizadeh for example. Molavizadeh created his own burglar alarm system that is above and beyond most home protection systems you would find around the States.

Like most burglar alarms, his home protection creation calls him on his cell phone when someone breaks-in to his house. From his cell phone Hanif can try to frighten criminal trespassers with the built-in loudspeaker to scare would-be thieves away. Of course, if that doesn’t do the trick, Molavizadeh can press the pound key on the cell phone and remotely fire the attached AK-47 assault rifle for the ultimate home protection intimidation. I’m sure a few hot blazing rounds gets the message across.

Makes me wonder about the next logical step for protecting valuables in Afghanistan. Would it be a grenade in the car alarm? You won’t need a LoJack to find your ride–just look for the burning wreckage.

Read more at DVICE.

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Jabra, having mastered the art of monogamous cellphone to headset pairing, is moving on to the trickier task of two chicks at once—except instead of chicks, it's any two Bluetooth devices. The M5390 can connect simultaneous to any two endpoints, making it extremely easy to swap back and forth between, say, two cellphones, or a cellphone and a desktop Skype connection. There's also noise cancellation with its DSP, and has a strange range of 70 meters (usually Bluetooth is either Class 1 or 2, which are 100 and 10 meters respectively). No price or availability. [Tech Digest via Crave via Gadgetell]

Jason Chen

Russian scientist Alexander Bolonkin has a way to protect our cities from nuclear attacks: just slap a gigantic dome over it. Of course! As an added bonus, we'll also protect ourselves from inclement weather and the annoying tourists that airplanes bring with them when they land. When can construction start??

So wait a second, how is this crazy thing suppose to work, anyways?

The film has thickness 0.05 - 0.3 mm. One is located at high altitude (5 - 20 km). The film is supported at this altitude by a small additional air pressure produced by ground ventilators. That is connected to Earth's ground by managed cables 3. The film may have a controlled transparency option. The system can have the second lower film 6 with controlled reflectivity, a further option.The small additional pressure creats a signufically (sic) lift force. OK, this all sounds well and good, but what if a terrorist manages to carry in a biological weapon and sets it off inside the dome? Wouldn't that make the problem worse? And isn't rain an important part of any ecosystem? And what of airports? And hey, aren't you just stealing this idea from The Simpsons Movie?

Sadly, I don't think we'll be living in a domed city anytime soon. But hey, an insane Russian scientist can dream, can't he? [Danger Room]

Adam Frucci

The folks at fring have announced that a new version of their app made specifically for iPhone is out. The application does everything that you would expect, including letting you bring Skype, MSN, Google Talk, ICQ, Twitter, Yahoo!, and AIM all with you on your iPhone. Along with that ability you can now make free calls over WiFi with a super slick interface. The only requirement is that you need to have a Jailbroken iPhone, since this is not a browser-based application.

I followed the instructions at the fringcubator and was up and running in minutes. I then logged into Skype and Google Talk and was off and running. The only issues I found so far is that Twitter, Yahoo and AIM are “chat only”, so you can’t IM with all your buds just yet. It does include built-in sounds and notifiers, though, and I was on my iPhone’s homescreen and heard a tone then saw a number increment on the Fring icon, so the sweet touches are already in place. Great job, especially for a pre-release!

Read more about it at fring.com.

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Ignoring previous "iPhone VoIP" apps like Jah Jah, which are only VoIP after you connect to their analog to VoIP bridge, this Fring app seems to be the first real VoIP solution for the iPhone/iPod Touch. To get in on this action you need a jailbroken iPhone, Wi-FI access, and you'll be able to call regular phones using either SkypeOut or SIP (your prices will be determined on which SIP provider you use and how much SkypeOut charges for your particular call). Best of all Fring has built-in IM capabilities for Skype, Google, ICQ, MSN, Twitter, AIM, and Yahoo contacts. The download and install are free. [Fring Install Instructions]

Jason Chen

Filed under: Digital Cameras, HDTV

RED is really going all out at NAB this year. In addition to that Scarlet 3K "pocket" camera, the RED ONE is getting seriously one-upped by the new top-of-the-line RED EPIC. This 5K camera has a full-frame S35mm Mysterium X sensor, and pretty much matches 35mm film resolution -- RED ONE topped out at 4K. FPS is limited to 100, which is to be expected with all those pixels to handle, but other features match that of other RED cams. Of course, the promise of the RED ONE "rendering obsolescence obsolete" has been slightly trampled by EPIC, but the good news is that RED will allow ONE customers to trade in their cameras for a full $17,500 credit towards the EPIC when it ships in 2009. Price? About $30,000.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Paul Miller

Red's pocket-sized professional camera, Scarlet has made its promised debut at NAB, and it is the tiny hotness. It shoots in heady 3k resolution with Red's new 2/3-inch Mysterium X sensor, shooting from 1-120fps (180fps burst) and up to 100MB/sec REDCODE RAW HD, recording to dual Compact Flash cards. It's got Wi-Fi control (sweet), and all the necessary ports: HDMI, HD-SDI, Firewire 800 and USB2. The 4.8-inch LCD should be more than adequate on this compact HD shooter. Besides coming with an 8X T2.8 Red zoom lens, it's compatible with most Red One accessories. Price? We're hearing under $3000, set for early '09, no pre-orders. But the note that specs and delivery dates could change is a bit ominous, since the Red One saw some delays. [Red, Brochure]

matt buchanan

Filed under: Cellphones

Verizon Wireless has been slow to catch up with the smartphone data access plans offered by competing carriers, with premium prices and some confusing options, but things are taking a real turn for the better. The new "E-mail and Web for Smartphone" plan goes for a mere $30 a month when paired with a qualifying voice plan, and is available with the SMT5800, XV6800 and the MOTO Q9m, with other devices to hop on board in the coming months. Verizon's press release is very careful to tout unlimited email and web browsing, not data, and we have a feeling Verizon will be clamping down pretty hard on anybody trying to tether with this plan.

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Paul Miller

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

Ah, it doesn't get much better than a smattering of spheres rolling about with absolutely no human intervention, now does it? Said scenario is exactly what members of the Swarm project are attempting to create, and while it managed to make an early appearance at Yuri's Night, the big show won't be unveiled until Burning Man commences. When all's said and done, a number of orbs will "flock, flirt, dance and interact" based solely on instructions beamed out by the directing orb, or mother node. Just be sure not to put yourself in the path of an oncoming ball of fury should you show up for the fireworks -- after all, it's not like a fellow human is directing the act.

 

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Darren Murph

As the amount of bandwidth we devour has skyrocketed, so has ISPs' need to police our appetites, even as they offer more bandwidth to whet it. We talked to the biggest ISPs around to get their official positions on traffic management and content filtering to see what's in store for your pipes. Here's where you find out which ISPs may screw you, and which ones swear to Giz they won't.

The scariest scenario is invasive "packet filtering," where companies look at what you're downloading and punish you for perceived misconduct. Comcast was the poster child for BitTorrent throttling before getting cozy with it to avoid an FCC smackdown, and AT&T infamously broached the idea of filtering its entire network for copyrighted content. Beyond packet filtering, there are two potentially more widespread ways big ISPs can try to bring down the Torrent mad: "Caps," already used by local ISPs such as BendBroadband and Sunflower, are set amounts you can download each month. Anything over that, like cellphone plans, means overage penalties. "Throttling" is the ability of the ISP to, any given moment, put the brakes on your connection when you're being too much of a resource hog. Here's where the ISPs stand on the tactics above and your pipes.

AT&T

We have said consistently that AT&T will not allow itself to become a policeman or enforcement agent on the Internet. We have also made clear that there is nothing inherently wrong with P2P applications like BitTorrent, which are advanced, and legal, technologies that are used and welcomed on our network... We do not block or degrade any P2P application to manage network congestion. At the same time, we feel that any company involved with the Internet should be concerned about illegal activity, whether it is identity theft or intellectual property theft, and should be prepared to cooperate in legal means of addressing such problems while protecting fully the privacy of our customers. Content filtering somewhat touchy, but there are indications they're backing off the idea after the huge outcry. When we pressed AT&T on the issue of throttling down overzealous pipe users, the company declined to comment. Hopefully that just means it is still deliberating the issue.

Update: AT&T wrote in with an additional statement: "We can't give you details on our specific network management techniques to handle times of high-volume" citing similar reasons as Time Warner, "but those techniques don't include degrading or blocking traffic."

Comcast:
Here's the statement we got pre-BT chumminess, though we now know that Comcast is moving to a more management style that'll temporarly slow all traffic, whether it's cracked copies of Final Cut Pro from your favorite P2P or YouTube, to a drip during congestion:

We have a responsibility to provide all of our customers with a good Internet experience and we use the latest technologies to manage our network so that they can continue to enjoy these applications. During periods of heavy peer-to-peer congestion, which can degrade the experience for all customers, we use several network management technologies that, when necessary, enable us to delay—not block—some peer-to-peer traffic. When we pressed about filtering, we got: Comcast is not currently using or testing any filtering technologies. We agree that copyright owners have a right to protect their content. We work well with them under existing law and will continue to work with content owners to find solutions to help support their efforts around piracy. We cannot speculate on what AT&T is doing or how its technology works.
Time Warner
We talked to Alex Dudley, Time Warner's PR VP. In addition to referring to us to TWC's acceptable use policy, he told us that "we both reserve the right to manage our network and try and explain to our customers and others that it's important that we manage the network." As to how the system works, he says, "We haven't been pro-active in talking about what we may or may not be doing because it's proprietary" and to stave off "another ISP go[ing] in and market[ing] against that." Content filtering "is not something we've discussed in detail here" but Time Warner "supports AT&T's right ot manage their network anyway they see fit."


Verizon
This was most the straight up: "We don't manage our network by throttling, slowing or curbing service, either on DSL or FiOS." In reference to content filtering, we weren't given a new statement, but referred to earlier remarks by public affairs VP Tom Tauke that it is "reluctant to get into the business of examining content that flows across our networks," the most pro-active stance against content filtering. However, it's still no fan of the government stepping in: "These are decisions best made by network engineers and operators—not policymakers."

The Takeaway
Since BitTorrent became a rallying point for net neutrality advocates (and caught the attention of the FCC) ISPs have made a show of stepping back from P2P hampering to shield themselves from both nerd backlash and FCC Chairman Kevin Martin's steely gaze. Verizon and AT&T, for instance, both pointed me toward their corporation-friendly "P4P" file-sharing development initiatives for more effective downloading (at an unknown cost), and Comcast has touted its R&D with BitTorrent.

All of that's a pretty effective smokescreen for moving to more hardcore capping and throttling, allowing them to cry "We treat all traffic equally, neutrally even!" while nuking all of your traffic without prejudice. Most people downloading the hugest amounts are probably not paying for all that content. And note that everyone except Verizon left themselves plenty of hedge space on the issue. Time Warner says it doesn't talk about it because it's afraid others will use it in marketing; well, Verizon is kinda sorta using their total lack of filtering as an underground marketing thing already, which is especially effective when coupled with FiOS's insane speeds.

Even with ever-higher speeds, bandwidth will remain an issue for ISPs as they try to cram more and more HD content down pipes you're using to download movies, swap music and other increasingly bandwidth-intensive applications. So more management is going to go hand and hand with more bandwidth, make no mistake.

But it doesn't have to be a bad thing, if they're smart about it. They make a genuine movement to smarter protocols and management techniques that don't hose anyone's broadband (like that P4P stuff, if it's really open), but instead help everyone squeeze every last bit out of it as efficiently as possible. We can only hope.

matt buchanan

At last! The latest beta version of Apple's iPhone 1.2.0 firmware gives you the possibility of saving pictures straight from Safari and into the Photo Album. We tried and it works: just hold your finger against an image for a longer time than usual and the popup dialog will appear. The applications are many, like saving friends' Facebook images, save loads of NSFW pics in Flickr, set iPhone backgrounds using those (or snatch our exclusive iPhone backgrounds), and perhaps the most obvious one: online porn collecting for offline porn watching. [Thanks anonymous tipsters]

Jesus Diaz

The tech blogs are abuzz this morning with news about the OpenMac, a $399 computer system that will be able to run Apple’s OS X. Built by Psystar, the OpenMac is an unlicensed product that will use off-the-shelf parts in order to put out a product that is cheaper than Apple’s most affordable system, the Mac mini.

The OpenMac, if it ever sees the light of day, will feature a 2.2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 2GB of DDR2 RAM, Intel GMA 950 graphics, a 250GB 7200RPM disk, and a DVD burner. For $155 (or $110 according to Ars) the upgrade can be made to discrete graphics with an Nvidia GeForce 8600GT (512MB).

Psystar says the system would be Leopard compatible, though some patches are required, as is an EFI emulator in order to get things started. This system could be an easier alternative to Mac hacks like the OSx86 project. From the site:

The Psystar OpenMac is a low-cost high-performance computing platform with a hardware configuration that is fully compatible with the OSX86Project. Originally named the Psystar Alternative, the name was changed to OpenMac to express the opening of a hardware platform closed to public access and the reinventing of a great line of computers. Currently we have the basic OpenMac which is a quick 2.2GHz or 2.4GHz Intel Core2Duo with a minimum of 2GB of DDR2 memory. The machines excel in all tasks and several of the Psystar machines are OpenMacs with which we not only test new (and faster) hardware but perform day-to-day business on as a testament to the stability of this affordable and feature-packed hardware platform.

The OpenMac is a cease and desist order waiting to happen, so as soon as Apple’s legal team gets into the office this morning this news will probably go from “breaking” to “broken” or at least put off indefinitely. The OpenMac violate’s OS X’s EULA so Psystar does not have much of a case if they insist on preinstalling the OS.

Product Page (Google cache) or read more at Mac Rumors

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Super Genintari is the latest mega-console mod by Richard DaLuz, a perfect cocktail of Atari 2600, Nintendo Entertainment System, Genesis and Super NES enclosed in a retro-'80s bronze acrylic case, "formed and shaped on a homemade stript heater." It connects to a TV using a single cable, running four games simultaneously, and probably cooks bread with the generated heat—like the video shows after the jump. We talked with Richard about his superconsole mod:

Jesús Díaz: Great mix and cool retro look. Are these regular motherboards you are using?
Richard DaLuz: The systems inside the Super Genintari aren't anything you have to special-order. They're all the same old systems myself and many others grew up with through the '80s/'90s and regularly find floating around at garage sales to this day.

I used the beloved old gray and white "toaster" NES board, a model 3 Sega Genesis, the smaller redesigned SNES and an Atari Flashback 2 for the 2600 portion, since it's much smaller and easier to work with than retrofitting the original board from the '70s. It's still official reworked Atari hardware and completely compatible as far as I know, so all is well. The basic rule was that if any of the systems couldn't play ANY game I threw at it, it was out. I tend to avoid the much smaller "pirate/clone" systems for this reason.

JD: You didn't have to do any modifications to the boards to make them fit?
RD: The only board I really had to do any "major" modification to was the NES, and that was just a simple A/V amplifier mod using parts that can easily be found at any Radioshack for pennies. Other than that, just a lot of tedious rewiring and soldering to relocate the cartridge connectors.

JD: You have any background in electronics?
RD: Believe it or not, very little! I took one class way back in high school that basically just taught me how to operate a soldering iron without burning myself and/or others. (I still can't even tell you what the hell Ohm's Law is without Googling it.) Other than that I have no official training. Just a lot of dinking around by myself, finding out what works and what doesn't. It's an area that I've been curious about since I was a kid and still have yet to pursue professionally. This should be inspiring news to anyone else that's interested in this kind of stuff.

JD: What was the final bill for this wonderconsole?
RD: Mmm. You'd have to shell out whatever the going rate is for the four different consoles, plus about $50 or so for the casing materials, adhesives, machine screws and whatnot. Easily a couple hundred bucks if you're starting with nothing. But that's assuming you already have access to the necessary tools you'd need. (Soldering/desoldering irons, screw drivers, clamps, wiring, etc.) I ended up spending much more than that considering how many changes I made along the way though and that's something you have to consider when you're doing this kind of work. Nothing ever goes according to plan and the ole' wallet ends up taking the hit.

JD: And for how long have you been working on it?
RD: As far as what it's cost me in time... my God, I don't even know where to begin. I've been working on this damn thing on and off since early 2002! Granted I've taken many "sanity breaks" for several months at a time during the process and changed many things along the way, but that's still a long freakin' time. It's hard to come up with a figure for the time I've put into this thing, but know this... I wouldn't allow myself to part with it for less that a few thousand. I'm pretty sure this thing literally has my blood in it somewhere!

According to Richard, the system is very easy to hook up. Just one A/V cable is needed and you don't have to depend on any external transformer: he put all the necessary power in the case itself. Playing with it is as easy as the video shows: just plug in, put the cartridges in, turn the Super Genintari on, and enjoy.

[Stupidfinger —thanks Jenn and Richard]

Jesus Diaz

Don’t like the standard Windows Mobile that ships with your HTC Touch Dual? Give this post over at Coolsmartphone a look. It features two videos of a Touch Dual running a ROM put out by XDA-Developers. It’s a bit buggy and crashes during the video a couple of times but you get an early taste of what the world will soon see. I love seeing operating systems running on machines that they weren’t designed for. I can only hope that Gears spends a bit more time playing around with it so that we can get a full-blown video of it running, instead of crashing.

Check out the videos at Coolsmartphone.com.

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Google has joined forces with charities, conservationists and non-governmental organizations to help raise awareness of endangered species around the world.

The new initiative is part of the Google Earth Outreach program, which aims to help non-profit and public benefit organizations to get the word out about what they do and make the public more aware. In this instance, Google Earth will have a new layer added that will offer users written, video and audio information on endangered species in different parts of the world.

The new layer has been made possible through the use of information already available through the ARKive project. The not-for-profit organization Wildscreen started the ARKive initiative, which aims to bring together the scattered knowledge of our endangered species. Now the ARKive layer will be available through Google Earth and Maps, hopefully opening the information up to more people than ever before.

Sir David Attenborough, well-known British wildlife broadcaster for the BBC, attended the Google headquarters in London to launch the ARKive layer late last week. He said:

Google has come together with Wildscreen, who have this unique distillation of images of the natural world, so that any one of us can go to a particular area on the globe and see what lives there … Google can take you to parts of the world where you can actually see a flock of flamingos and know whether they are there, or whether they are on the way out. For me this is an extraordinary day, I’m thrilled to be here at this particular moment - when Google, Wildscreen, and its ARKive project, come together to put a weapon of unparalleled value into the hands of all of us who care about the natural world.

Read more at Telegraph.co.uk and the ARKive press release

Matthew’s Opinion

Google Earth is a great application that provides a wealth of information to viewers. That information pool keeps growing and helping everyone to understand the world a little better. When it first came out everyone just used it to look up where they lived and other places they knew of. Now you can use it like an encyclopaedia, looking up interesting destinations and being provided with detailed information on a range of topics.

Adding information on endangered species to Google Earth will hopefully make everyone more aware of just what is disappearing from the planet. It should also lead to more work being done, and more aid being made available to save what might otherwise be lost.

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Using his self-designed AI program, Philip M. Parker has "authored" 200,000 books without ever lifting his pen. While his work features some self-explanatory medical texts like The Official Patient's Sourcebook on Acne Rosacea, most of Parker's publications are 100-300 page industry analysis pieces like DAGENHAM MOTORS GROUP PLC: Labor Productivity Benchmarks and International Gap Analysis. Parker uses his automated software to do basic market research (scouring the internet to pull various facts and figures), and then to completely assemble the book (with charts, a full table of contents and plenty of text). Each can take anywhere from 13 minutes to 3 hours. Here's a clip in which Parker shows off the process:

While the bulk manufacture of micro niche topic publications is Parker's current approach, the clip above shows that Parker is very much interested in expanding his system to create things like turn-key game shows in alternate languages—still exploiting niche markets—but this time from the perspective of the entertainment sector, not business/industry.

We wish Parker the best of luck, and appreciate his computer's continued support as it continues to churn out the posts here at Giz. [NYTimes via BoingBoing]

Mark Wilson

As you may have heard, though many people don’t seem to be giving it much attention, this year marks the 25th anniversary of Michael Jackson’s Thriller album. Now, thanks to a partnership between Michael Jackson, Epic/Legacy Records, Big Stage, and YouTube you will be able to star in your very own Thriller video. You heard me correctly–thanks to technology you can replace Michael Jackson with a 3D version of yourself.

To put yourself into your own Thriller video you need the latest version of Flash and three-close up photos of yourself taking with a digital camera. The video starring you is automatically created after you have uploaded the pictures. You can access the special “My Thriller Video” by going to the Michael Jackson website and registering for a free account.

For those children of the 80’s or those who simply remember how popular Thriller was this will be a nice nostalgic journey. I must admit I would have loved to have switched places with Michael Jackson back in the 80’s, but not so much now. Now, putting myself in a Thriller video is probably as close as I want to get to becoming like Michael Jackson.

Read more from the joint press release.

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