FROM GAMERTELL - To promote the toys and collectibles tied into the upcoming aniamted Star Wars: The Clone Wars movie, Toys R Us is opening its doors at the earliest second as well as giving away fiive-feet tall action figures…
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by Darren Murph, posted Jul 22nd 2008 at 11:57PM
Only John Koller knows how serious John Koller, Sony’s senior marketing manager for PSP, was when mentioning that GPS-enabled games could eventually hit the PSP, but he definitely threw it out there. Speaking about the forthcoming GPS add-on for the playstation Portable, Koller stated that said module “changes the dynamics of GPS but also changes the way developers think about games on PSP, because you can start integrating GPS into it.” He continued on by mentioning that Sony’s own first-party studios were “already looking at a number of things [involving GPS in games],” and concluded by asserting that a GPS game could land on the system as early as next year. Considering just how long we’ve been waiting for the add-on, we’re not holding our breath on the titles.
[Via PSP Fanboy]
Filed under: Gaming, GPS
Here’s something I’ve been meaning to write about for a couple of weeks: om-tastic websiteYoga-Abode has been around for a while, but recently had a fantastic re-launch. The site now has a cool clean look, a blog and a shop plus articles on yoga, teacher profiles, recommended poses and an online discussion forum.
Lucia Cockcroft, the site’s editor, says:
“Our new eco-friendly products shop brings a hand-picked selection of premium mats and props together, taking the legwork out of sourcing yoga accessories that don’t cost the earth. We hope that yoga fans can also have fun and make friends using our new social networking area.”
If you’re into yoga, or you’d like to be, I recommend checking out the site asap.
by Donald Melanson, posted Jul 22nd 2008 at 2:26PM
General Motors has already gotten a bit of cash from the US Department of Energy to further the development of plug-in hybrids, and it now looks like it’s taking things one step further on another initiative, with it teaming up with the Electric Power Research Institute and 30 utilities in 37 states to produce a charging infrastructure for electric cars. Among other things, they’ll be working to develop an affordable, reliable electricity source that’s weather-proof and child-proof, which they say could be installed in places like public garages, curbside meters, or workplace parking lots. The utility companies, in particular, will also apparently be working to ensure that the grid doesn’t get overwhelmed during peak hours. All that, GM says, will be done by 2010, which just happens to coincide with the launch of its much-touted Volt hybrid.
Filed under: Transportation
by Donald Melanson, posted Jul 22nd 2008 at 4:28PM
It looks like attempts to sneak across the border into Britain could soon become a battle of humans versus the machines, as the country’s border guards have now recruited some robots normally used in warzones to help root out folks trying to smuggle themselves into the country. Developed by BAE Systems, the so-called “Hero” bots are equipped with searchlights and high-resolution video cameras that let it search the inside and undersides of vehicles, and they could potentially be outfitted with heartbeat detectors as well, or even sensors to detect chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear materials being smuggled into the country. While it’s apparently only been tested in one location so far, the Border Agency seems to be all but sold on the bot, and it’s now looking at rolling ‘em out to other locations in the country. No word if they have any plans to employ BAE’s spider bots, though.
[Via Danger Room, image courtesy of BAE Systems]
Filed under: Robots
by Darren Murph, posted Jul 22nd 2008 at 11:51AM
Check it, nerds. A team over at the Universidade Nova de Lisboa has reportedly figured out a way to use paper (yes, paper) as an interstrate component of a Field Effect Transistor (FET). In testing, the group “fabricated the devices on both sides of the paper sheet,” thus causing the paper to act as the “electric insulator and as the substrate” simultaneously. Remarkably, results showed that performance actually rivaled that of best-in-class oxide thin film transistors, giving revived hope for the realm of disposable devices like paper displays, labels, intelligent packaging, tracking tags, etc. The findings are scheduled to be published this September, after which we’re sure any firms interested in taking this stuff commercial will be putting their best foot forward.
[Via Scientific Blogging]
Filed under: Misc. gadgets
by Darren Murph, posted Jul 22nd 2008 at 8:59AM
SSDs have been quite the hot topic of late, with conflicting power usage reports and free-falling (almost) prices being the two angles most commonly yapped about. Now, however, we have a completely different reason to mention ‘em in passing, as SanDisk’s dutiful CEO let loose some questionable comments during its Q2 2008 earnings call. Noting that Windows Vista would present unique challenges for SSD manufacturers, he stated that “as soon as you get into Vista applications, you start running into very demanding applications because Vista is not optimized for flash memory solid state disk.” Furthermore, he proclaimed that the “next generation controllers need to basically compensate for Vista shortfalls,” and finished things up by asserting that “SSD performance in the Vista environment falls short of what the market really needs.” It seems all those statements were just used to deflect blame for it being behind schedule, but we’re a bit curious about how it intends on defending said statements with real-world numbers. Hmm?
Filed under: Storage
The pizza is set out on the table, your buddies are all pumped for a long-night of poker, and you have to go and ruin it by spilling a bottle of soda all over the cards and the food. You and your clumsy hands never fail to drop the soda bottle. And up until this point you’ve been able to hide the reason why you always wait for someone else to pour for you.
This 2-Liter Bottle Pour Thing makes sure that you never have a nasty liquid spill again. To pour your drink without causing a mess, just place the bottle in the Thing and use two fingers to pour the soda. We imagine this can save some nasty spills from kids and small girly-handed men alike.
While your kids probably shouldn’t have access to soda whenever they want, all of that sugar can have some nasty consequences, at least you won’t have to worry about wasting all of your paper towels for spilled soda. And if the soda does spill, you have a nice inanimate object to blame it on.
One of the most embarrassing everyday events is minor liquid spills. There is just no telling what sort of treasure or electronic you might ruin if you spill soda in the wrong place. Hopefully, this gadget will help prevent most of those spills. You can get your own 2-Liter Pour Thing from Solutions for $19.95.
Product Page via 7Gadgets
