(Credit:
Daniel Abendroth)

As I’m writing this post, I’m desperately trying to find a way to warm up my feet and hands. I suppose ditching the ice-cold soda would be a good place to start, but I need some caffeine on this post-Super Bowl Monday. If only I had Hagent, the heat-spewing robot, by my side.

Hagent is a portable heating concept by German designers Andreas Meinhardt and Daniel Abendroth. Though it looks like a simple black box on the outside, the mobile bot is capable of searching out heat, absorbing it, and then re-releasing the heat in cold places.

Heat sensors incorporated into the black box allow Hagent to identify large sources of heat, while something called phase change material (PCM) can absorb, store, and release the heat in places where it’s needed. So, for example, Hagent can gather heat coming from your burning fireplace and then move over to a part of your house that’s chilly and warm it up by releasing the stored energy. It’s not immediately clear, however, if Hagent automatically detects cold spots or if you must instruct it to go to a certain room.

Hagent is still just a prototype at this point, but if it ever came to market, it could go a long way in cutting down heating and electricity bills during the winter months. You can check out Daniel Abendroth’s Web site for more videos and infor… [Read more]

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Hardly portable, but classy: Michael Greensmith’s iPhonograph

(Credit:
Instructables)

Remember kicking back in the 1890s? There was nothing better than relaxing with the latest Sherlock Holmes adventure in The Strand magazine and a Gilbert and Sullivan cylinder on the phonograph.

Now you can relive those glory days with your iPad and this classy steampunk audio system by Michael Greensmith.

We’ve seen plenty of passive speaker systems for the iPhone, including the organic iBamboo and the funky Horn Bike. The iPhonograph is a powered, steampunk-style audio system for the iPad that Greensmith put together with a little elbow grease and several odd parts from recycling shops.

As detailed on Instructables.com, it includes a reproduction brass horn made in India, an antique cutlery box, potentiometer knobs, a mini stereo amp kit, and a bunch of felt.

With an iPad added to the completed stand and speaker combo, the iPhonograph is easy to operate and seems to sound way too good for its form factor, if the vid below is anyth… [Read more]

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(Credit:
Sony)

Surfers, snowboaders, skaters, and action sports enthusiasts everywhere, there’s finally a smartphone just for you.

Sony has partnered up with action sportswear company Billabong to release a special edition model of the Xperia Active. The Billabong Edition features a special back cover and comes preloaded with exclusive screensavers, videos, and a Billabong Live app, which offers live streaming, as well as photos and news, of the company’s surf contests. In addition, you get a copy of the Billabong Surf Trip game.

Like the regular Xperia Active, the Billabong Edition has a dust-proof and water-resistant design with a 3-inch, 320×480-pixel touch screen that works even if your fingers are wet. Other fitness goodies include built-in ANT+ wireless technology for connecting to compatible heart-rate monitor and an included armband. Don’t expect extreme power though, as the Xperia Active ships running Android 2.3 Gingerbread and has a 1GHz processor and a 5-megapixel camera.

The Xperia Active Billabong Edition is available now in select markets, but pricing information was not available at the time of this writing.

(Via Unwired View)

[Read more]

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(Credit:
Buhel)

There’s nothing like hitting the ski lodge for a warm beverage after a few hours on the slopes, but trying to round up the troops can be a pain when you have to dig through your winter layers to find your cell phone and then shout instructions over all the swooshing and ambient noise around you.

If you’re sick of dealing with this first-world problem, let us introduce you to the Buhel SpeakGoggle G33. These high-tech goggles connect to your cell phone or smartphone via Bluetooth and feature a bone conduction mic integrated into the frame that translates speech using the vibrations from your nose. The advantage of bone conduction technology is that it blocks outside noise, so you can have a clearer conversation with your friend.

A pair of earphones is included with the SpeakGoggle G33, and they connect right into the goggles so you don’t have to deal with long wires running from your phone to your ears. In addition to making phone calls, you can listen to music from your phone or Bluetooth-enabled MP3 player, as well as connect up to six other SpeakGoggle systems within 1,640 feet of you.

Large buttons on the exterior of the goggles allow for easy control, and voice dialing is supported as long as it’s a feature of your mobile phone. Buhel says the SpeakGoggle’s battery offers 10 hours of music playback and 12 hours of… [Read more]

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Behind on Crave because you’ve been busy building a bunker to prepare for the oncoming swarm of flying robots? Well, don’t worry, the self-guided bullets will get them, so get comfy on your couch and catch up on the week’s top stories here.

• Watch SpaceX test-fire its new engine! Umm…on the ground in Texas.

Rodrigo Alonso's N+ew chairs are created using e-waste and epoxy resin.

(Credit:
Rodrigo Alonso)

• Valentine’s Day is coming up, and this female Android needs some love.

• We wants it, we needs it! Must have the precious “Lord of the Rings” Lego collection.

• Don’t throw away your old tech. Turn it into geeky furniture instead…. [Read more]

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Will the iPhone 5 resemble its predecessor, the iPhone 4?

(Credit:
Josh Miller/CNET)

Editors’ note: This roundup was originally published June 24, 2011, and is updated regularly.

After unveiling a marginally improved iPhone 4S in 2011 instead of a radically different iPhone 5, Apple has returned to its development labs to cook up (no pun intended) the next iteration of its popular phone. In 2012, we’re fairly certain that the real iPhone 5 will roll out of Apple’s gates and that the device should be a bigger leap forward than the 4S was.

That’s why after taking some time off at the end of last year, we’ve resurrected CNET’s iPhone 5 rumor roundup to cover the new tidbits from 2012. So join us again in watching the rumor mill churn. We’ll add to it until we get the real thing, and please let us know if we’ve left any gossip out.

February 3, 2012
It’s still going to be expensive
Citigroup analysts who met with Apple CEO Tim Cook and Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer reported that Apple did not feel the need to make cheaper phones. During the meeting, Oppenheimer sugg… [Read more]

Related Links:

Will the iPhone 5 resemble its predecessor, the iPhone 4?

(Credit:
Josh Miller/CNET)

Editors’ note: This roundup was originally published June 24, 2011, and is updated regularly.

After unveiling a marginally improved iPhone 4S in 2011 instead of a radically different iPhone 5, Apple has returned to its development labs to cook up (no pun intended) the next iteration of its popular phone. In 2012, we’re fairly certain that the real iPhone 5 will roll out of Apple’s gates and that the device should be a bigger leap forward than the 4S was.

That’s why after taking some time off at the end of last year, we’ve resurrected CNET’s iPhone 5 rumor roundup to cover the new tidbits from 2012. So join us again in watching the rumor mill churn. We’ll add to it until we get the real thing, and please let us know if we’ve left any gossip out.

February 3, 2012
It’s still going to be expensive
Citigroup analysts who met with Apple CEO Tim Cook and Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer reported that Apple did not feel the need to make cheaper phones. During the meeting, Oppenheimer sugg… [Read more]

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They say you can find inspiration anywhere, so why not a crab dinner?

Inspired by our crustacean friends, researchers in Singapore have created a mini robot that can be used to remove early-stage stomach cancer in a far less invasive way than other procedures. The robot has the ability to crawl down a patient’s throat and features a pincer and hook that can remove cancerous tissue.

The idea first came up in 2004 when Lawrence Ho, an enterologist at Singapore’s National University Hospital, and Louis Phee, an associate professor at Nanyang Technological Institute’s School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, had dinner with Hong Kong surgeon Sydney Chung, who is well-known for his fight against SARS.

While dining on Singapore’s signature chili crab dish, Chung suggested the two use the crab as a prototype, making note of the strength of a crab’s pincers and its ability to pick up sand.

Taking his advice, Ho and Phee created their crab-like robot by attaching a pincer and hook to an endoscope, along with a small camera to provide visual feedback. The bot enters through the patient’s mouth, and once inside the stomach area, the surgeon can maneuver the pincer to grab the cancerous tissue and then use the hook to slice it off.

Ho said the robot allows for more precision on the surgeon’s part. “Our movements are very huge and if you want to make very fine movements, your hands will tremble… But robots c… [Read more]

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(Credit:
ADZero)

There are times when the tech world can be so, so cruel, teasing us with amazing concepts that will probably never see the light of day (at least, not in our lifetime). Fortunately, this isn’t one of those kinds of tales.

A company called ADzero is set to release a bamboo smartphone based on a concept devised by Middlesex University student Kieron-Scott Woodhouse. Woodhouse, who is in his final year studying product design at the university, originally created the phone after becoming frustrated with the lack of variety in handset designs.

After posting the concept online, Woodhouse was contacted a technology entrepreneur interested in making the phone a reality, and thus ADzero was born.

ADzero bamboo phone, green and beautiful (photos)

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  ]]> http://www.e-anchor.biz/2012/02/02/adzero-brings-students-bamboo-phone-concept-to-life/feed/ 0 http://www.e-anchor.biz/2012/02/02/tokyo-stores-female-android-looking-for-love/ http://www.e-anchor.biz/2012/02/02/tokyo-stores-female-android-looking-for-love/#comments Thu, 02 Feb 2012 20:52:34 +0000 Tim Hornyak http://www.e-anchor.biz/?guid=b9ba80e9a1ebb597309fe8842d157e92

  Pretty Geminoid is waiting for a beau–carbon-based or otherwise.

  (Credit:
  Courtesy Kokoro )

  Ah, Valentine’s Day. It’s just around the corner, so have you thought about how you’ll express your love for your favorite inanimate object? Humans are so passe.

  Japanese retailers have a suggestion. They’re setting geek hearts aflutter with a pretty, ageless female android who’s looking for love.

  Clutching a bag and cell phone, she seems to be waiting for a suitor.

  “Android falls in love? She is waiting for you” reads the writing on her glass box at Takashimaya Department Store in Tokyo’s Shinjuku district.

  The special Valentine’s display features Geminoid F, the photogenic robot developed by Osaka University professor Hiroshi Ishiguro and colleagues.

  Geminoid is modeled on a woman in her twenties.

  (Credit:
  Courtesy Hiroshi Ishiguro)

  The mechanical lady was modeled on a real woman in her twenties. She sits in her glass room at Takashimaya and greets shoppers.

  Based on data from an embedded sensor array around her, the android reacts to people in the vicinity. She moves her shoulders and neck, and changes her facial expression, smiling or yawning, depen… [Read more]
  
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  ]]> http://www.e-anchor.biz/2012/02/02/tokyo-stores-female-android-looking-for-love/feed/ 0