Gadgets Base

If you have money to burn, you might be interested in purchasing this project, which is sure to excite and whelm all who behold it size and/or shadow (as Mel Brooks used to say). The larger-than-life Gundam robot is expected to stand 60 feet tall and the unbelievable price tag doesn’t even include the cost of labor or the necessary infrastructure!

You can forget about flying this technological wonder or even taking it for a ride. The most you can hope for is a simple promenade with your new 43-ton robot.  And even that could present problems, as a simple walk is sure to result in the destruction of the ground surface beneath its enormous and very heavy feet. (Look on the bright side. It’s one way to excavate, one can suppose.)

The cost breakdown has been estimated by the Science Portal website run by the Japan Science and Technology Agency. The Gundam’s computer system, which is an IBM Blue Gene supercomputer, comprises only a fraction of the total cost ($1.5 million). The robot’s movements would be driven by 30 giant 400KW motors; 12 in the legs, 2 in the torso, 14 in the arms and 2 in the neck. The motors would cost $7.8 million. Other costs include: a cockpit for $450,000, sensors for $910,000 and gas turbine engines which are a steal at $364,000,000!

According to the folks at Pinktentacle:

“But perhaps the greatest challenge of all would be to find the funding for an enormous walking machine with no apparent practical or military application.”

Simply a robot for the love of robots.

Read: [New Launches]

Last year, all the rage was due to a pink taser presented during the CES. Well, in this year’s CES, Taser has presented three new addition to their Taser C2 line. I blame it all on Charlie’s Angels.

Fasion Pink, Leopard print and Red hot are Taser C2’s new colors, which I’m sure would cause a stir, although perhaps, not as much as the first pink taser did. Women nowadays won’t only match clothes with shoes and bags but also with their Tasers. The company is even developing 1GB MP3 player holsters to go with these tasers. The taser alone costs USD$380 and the music-playing holster — an additional USD$73.

Tasers are a great tool for protection, granted they don’t fall into the wrong hands *insert creepy music here.* Ladies, don’t forget tasers are still weapons — use them wisely and if possible, sparingly.

via Yahoo Tech

For those who haven’t gotten rid of their landlines just yet, here’s something you could use — a device which can lend the illusion of mobility to a traditional telephone.

In CES 2008, while others try to outdo one another on whose cell phone peripherals are best, the company Clipcomm from Korea has showcased their bluetooth headset for the TELEPHONE. That’s right, this telephone adapter called BS-H100 was designed with the landline in mind. With this on your system, you can use your bluetooth headset with your home or office telephone! Now, that’s cool. Problem is, with cordless phones available, market for this product might be limited. But then again, we’ll never know until we see how it performs.

via Aving

You guys might not know this about me, but I’m a huge Rock Band fanatic. I’ve met a lot of the gang at Harmonix and even rocked out in their Star Chamber. Trust me when I say you won’t find a place that’s more fun to hang out than there. Needless to say, my friends and I spend a lot of time rocking out. I’ve bought a mic stand, a drum throne and my own pair of drumsticks, but that’s really the extent of my extra hardware purchases for the game. Since you can’t currently buy standalone instruments, there aren’t a lot of extras to buy (aside from more songs). That’s going to change in the future, as GameStop has let slip a new kit that will add some effects to your show.

Specifically, this Rock Band Stage Kit will add lights and a fog machine to your performances. Supposedly the lights are going to be synced up with the music you’re playing. I’m a little torn on this one. My dad is a musician, so I can appreciate a good set of lights, but you don’t want to overdo it. In my opinion, a fog machine is overdoing it. That aside, I can’t really picture myself rocking out in my living room with something like this going. I think that it would be cool if you were having a tournament somewhere public, or you wanted to shoot a cool video. If this sort of thing would rock your world, you’ll be able to pick it up (allegedly) on 6/23/2008 for $99.99.

Source: Technabob

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Posted Jan 13th 2008 11:53AM by Darren Murph
Filed under: HouseholdIt’s not like we haven’t heard of a higher power invading one’s home before, but apparently, a proposal set to be considered at month’s end could allow the state of California to “require that residents install remotely monitored temperature controls in their homes next year.” The Programmable Communication Thermostat (PCT) would feature a “non-removable” FM receiver which could be controlled by Big Brother in “times of emergency” to drop load in order for “utilities to meet their supplies [when] the integrity of the grid is being jeopardized.” Of course, we are hearing that adjustments would only be made ±4 degrees, but we aren’t so keen on one thing leading to another, if you catch our drift.

[Via Digg, image courtesy of Drexel, thanks yoshi]

Posted Jan 13th 2008 2:20PM by Evan Blass
Filed under: Gaming, Peripherals As if playing Rock Band wasn’t one of the greatest group gaming experiences to come around in years, it appears that a new accessory is set to amp up the fun even more by bringing an “interactive light and smoke stage show” to your already thrashing performances. Apparently you can already pre-order this so-called Rock Band Stage Kit from GameStop for 100 bucks, although they’ve since pulled the box image from the product page, so you’ll have to rely on the screencap above to see what you’re paying all that money for. Ships on June 23rd, according to the retailer’s site, giving us plenty of time to install a proper stage and stadium seating in our game room.

[Via Technabob]

Look’s like I’m having a bit of a session on bikes at the moment and the coolest I’ve found so far has to be the operational concept chopper produced in collaboration between Intel and Orange County Choppers with just a little help from Black Diamond. The concept was to produce a product capable of operating under some pretty tough conditions and to show the potential of the current embedded technology. The result was the SwitchBack PC, a product which was already in development stages by Black Diamond. They just needed to make it dirt, weather, shock and vibration proof (easy peasy) and ensure it was also ultra-mobile. And what better way to demonstrate all of this by putting it into a motorcycle.

The finished bike has fingerprint recognition ignition system, digital dashboard with a complete infotainment system including web access and other processor based operations. Another neat feature are the rear mounted cameras to see what’s behind you, thus eliminating the need for rear view mirrors. Capable of wireless connectivity, including Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and GPS and with plenty of other oh so cool features (I want one and I can’t even ride a bike!)

Guideline prices for the SwitchBack PC are from $6,000 to $10,000 (plus the cost of whichever bike you want to install it onto). Somehow I don’t think a little 125cc will do it full justice but I think that may be all I can get to start with.

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Posted Jan 13th 2008 8:36AM by Darren Murph
Filed under: Wearables
On the real, spy glasses are old hat, but building a set on your own for under $40 is most definitely notable. An engineering fellow has managed to do just that by snagging a micro camera from eBay for around $18 and wiring it up to a $20 pair of Solar Shield shades. From there, he connected the camera to a pocket-friendly MiniDV camcorder — which we’re sure could be done wirelessly for those with extra time — and continued on to snag quite a few questionable reels of footage from a day at the beach. Of course, you won’t find us recommending that you let your inner voyeur loose or anything, but feel free to tag the read link for all the instructions you need (and a video to boot).

Posted Jan 13th 2008 9:11AM by Ryan Block
Filed under: CES, Misc. Gadgets
Oh dear lord, we aren’t even through this year’s CES / Macworld one-two punch and we just happened upon some distressing news for the 200,000+ tech trade show-goers and media that attend both: they’re overlapping in 2009. AGAIN. Granted, things appear to be a little different this time around — Steve and the Cupertino crew will be firing the first shots on Tuesday, January 6th, with Macworld continuing through Friday the 9th, while CES opens up on Thursday, the 8th, and wraps up Sunday, the 11th. But didn’t Jobs and Shapiro say this thing would never happen again? Actually, come to think of it, no — they merely “agreed it would be nice if they didn’t overlap.” Yeah, it would really would be nice, guys, you should try making it happen more than once every couple of years.

I’ve been a Mac user for a very long time. Well, I guess I can’t say that I am anymore, as I haven’t bought a new one in several years, and most of my work is done on a PC. I’m still a loyal Apple fan at heart, so I tend to follow the news waiting for that one announcement that’s going to make me finally take the plunge and buy a new one. While I’m not sure that this is the one, I’m very excited about the possibilities that the upcoming Macworld Expo have to offer. The biggest one is the Air.

There are a lot of rumors going around, but we do know that the banners hanging up for the show say “There is something in the air.”To me this cries out WiMAX, but others seem to think that it could be a new MacBook, named the Air. It would be an ultrathin 13.3-inch notebook that would have an external optical drive and possibly feature a completely wireless setup that would take advantage of a Power-by induction patent that Apple filed for a year ago.

Whatever it is, it’s going to have to be big to top the iPhone announcement from last year. I’d really like to think that it’s going to be a new smaller notebook, but we’ll just have to wait and see.

Source: 9 to 5 Mac

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