Mars Phoenix lander goes silent, NASA ends mission

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clipped from www.engadget.com The inevitable has happened. Our friend, the loved and loving Mars Phoenix lander has gone quietly into that long, good night once and for all. Even though we joyfully joined the lander on its adventures as it Tweeted from beyond the stratosphere, and thrilled at its explorations, pitfalls, and pratfalls, try not to feel the familiar sting of humanity at the thought of our little robotic buddy facing that call to interminable sleep we all must answer one day. Let's rest easy knowing that the NASA-spawned craft served dutifully and fearlessly right up to the end, when it was overpowered by a horde of space zombies and turned into an undead killing machine. We'll miss you, pal.

Canon's EOS 5D Mark II displays multiple LP-E6 battery capacities

clipped from www.engadget.com You may think you know everything there is to know about Canon's marvelous EOS 5D Mark II, but have you heard of this tidbit? Hailed as the first DSLR to "manage" multiple batteries, this here camera includes technology to read up to six separate LP-E6 batteries and display data about them right on the rear LCD. The LP-E6 cell includes an embedded microchip with a unique 8-character serial number; after it's installed once and "registered" in your EOS 5D Mark II body, the camera then displays each cell's serial number, the last time it was charged, the number of shots taken since the last charge, its remaining capacity in 1% increments and its recharge performance. It's a small inclusion, sure, but for pros who go 18+ hours on a single set, we can imagine this coming in handy when trying to select which battery to use on the next excursion.

Canon EOS 40D owner hacks camera, records silent movie

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clipped from www.engadget.com This enterprising EOS 40D owner wants a DSLR that records video, too -- and he's taking action. This hack uses CHDK -- the free firmware enhancement for Canon PowerShot cameras -- and LiveView to capture video to the camera's CF Card. There are still a few issues: LiveView shuts down after a period of inactivity, video can't be transfered via USB, and unlike your $79 consumer grade camera, the EOS 40D won't record audio. But what's a little challenge in the face of a good camera mod? There's no word on file format, frame rate or resolution (though the camera's display weighs in at 320 x 240), but there are lots of other juicy details available once you hit the read link. And be sure to catch the video after the break.

Robot - Skype control and will remote control

clipped from www.robodance.com Skype Remote Control Support - Sneak Preview Nintendo Wii Remote Support - Sneak Preview! (01-05-2007) The next version of Robodance will have support for the Nintendo Wii Remote control!  I already have it working and I will release this version as soon as I test it fully and streamline a few things.  You can see a sneak preview of it being demonstrated fully in this YouTube video

i-SOBOT - weight lift humannoid robot

clipped from www.robotsrule.com Technical Details Sensors 2 gyroscopic sensors which are used to maintain i-Sobot’s balance   Battery Requirements The i-Sobot uses 3 rechargable AAA size NiMH batteries (Nickel Metal Hydride), which provide about a full hour of continuous play.   Brains i-Sobot contains 3 CPU chips which control the robot’s general processing, voice recognition, and servo control systems.   Servos  17 servos provide i-Sobot with a truly impressive skill level in general agility and physical movement   Height 6.5 inches (16.5 centimeters)   Weight  0.75 pounds (350 grams)   Click Here To Buy i-SOBOT now

Rovio - Spy robot

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clipped from www.robotsrule.com

Spykee Robot - The Skype Robot

clipped from www.robotsrule.com

Minox nurtures the spy in all of us, dry martini not included

clipped from www.engadget.com Minox, we knew you wouldn't let us down. We've seen a few bland cameras released by you over the years, but it warms our hearts to see you haven't forgotten why we love you. This latest line of miniature cameras comes in three flavors: yuck, meh, and totally badass. The DC 1033 looks like every other camera known to man, with the slight improvement of being a mere 94 x 55 x 24mm with 10-megapixels of firepower. The DCC Leica M3 Gold Edition is nothing more than a rerelease of the silvery edition - tiny, cute, but no match for the classic 30s style DSC (Digital Spy Camera) -- 86 x 29 x 20mm, 5-megapixels -- to be showcased next week at Photokina in Germany.

Popular Mechanics offers preview of Singapore's TechX robot challenge

We haven't heard a whole lot about Singapore's DARPA-esque TechX robot challenge since it first kicked off early last year, but with the final round getting underway on Sunday, Popular Mechanics has now thankfully offered up a preview of what's in store. Among those set to compete is the so-called Uni-Seeker bot (pictured above) from Nanyang Technological University, which is a heavily modded incarnation of iRobot's ATRV Junior robot, and one of only six bots that managed to make it through all the qualifying rounds. Others include the considerably more intimidating AZROBOWAR Sharp Shooter, built completely from scratch, and a pair of robots built on iRobot's popular PackBot platform. From the looks of it, they'll each have their work cut out for them in the big event, with them required to start outside and navigate their way inside a building, then climb a flight of stairs, travel up an elevator, touch a few targets, and then exit the building again -- without any human intervention, and in less than an hour. That $700,000 prize should provide plenty of motivation, though.

clipped from www.engadget.com

Sony rounds out its iPod dock offerings with three new models

clipped from www.engadget.com We already caught sight of Sony's ZS-S4iP iPod dock / boombox when it turned up in Australia, but it looks like there's a few more Made for iPod devices where that one came from, with Sony now also debuting three more docks of various sorts. That includes the clock radio-style ICF-CD3iPSIL model pictured above, the HD Radio-packing XDR-S10HDiP (after the break), and the plain-old SRS-GU10IP (also after the break), which provides one big speaker and nothing else. From the looks of it, the XDR-S10HDiP and SRS-GU10UP are both available right now direct from Sony and will set you back $180 and $150, respectively, while the ICF-CD3iPSIL will only be available at the end of the month, though you can get a pre-order in now for $100.

Kaliho KU860 convertible UMPC is now ready to be re-badged

clipped from www.engadget.com It looks like you can only buy 'em by the truckload at the moment but, given the current state of things, we're guessing Kaliho won't have too much trouble attracting some interest in its new KU860 convertible UMPC, which packs all the expected specs in a decent enough package. That includes a 7-inch WXGA touchscreen, a 1.2GHz VIA C7-M processor, 1GB of RAM, a max 60GB hard drive, a 1.3 megapixel webcam and, perhaps most notably, built-in GPS. Unfortunately, there's no indication whatsoever of a price, but Kaliho is apparently more than happy to take your inquiry if you're looking to expand your burgeoning UMPC empire.

Toshiba's LED Pico Projector does its thing on video

clipped from www.engadget.com We've waited ages for a real-deal pico projector from Toshiba (or anyone reputable, quite frankly), and it's looking all the more likely that we'll be absolutely bombarded with them come CES 2009. At any rate, Toshiba is apparently close to putting the finishing touches on its LED Pico Projector, which weighs in at 100-grams and measures 10- x 4.5- x 1.7-centimeters in size. Outside of that, specifications are few and far between, but you can catch a video of its powers in the link below.

3M reveals MPro110 pocket projector: ships this month

clipped from www.engadget.com It's official: the age of the pico projector has arrived. And we're not talking the age of pico projector announcements, we're talking about launches. Just after Toshiba came clean with its LED Pico Projector, along comes 3M (of all companies) with one of its own. The MPro110 pocket beamer got handled by PopSci, and the results were pretty much as we'd expect. Decently bright, extraordinarily novel, but not exactly world-class. Brightness (the lack thereof, actually) was an issue, and a few movie scenes were deemed "indecipherable." Additionally, it has no built-in speaker, but for just $359, we suppose that's an omission we can live with. Best of all, this one's set to ship on September 30th. To America. Woo!

Voodoo Envy 133 unboxed on video, lookin' good and really thin

clipped from www.engadget.com Right, so Voodoo's succulent Envy 133 looks a lot better in high-res images than in some highly compressed, artifact-laden YouTube clip, but that's what your imagination is there for. For those still waiting for their freshly shipped machine to hit the doorstep, hop on past the break for an unboxing sure to make you even more impatient. Or just restrain yourself and experience it first-hand in a few days. Totally your call.

RL Race Across Azeroth

clipped from www.manapotions.com 1 virtual mile, 1/2 real mile, 5 minutes of brutality We've always wondered what it would be like to run the same distance in the real world that we run every day in Warcraft. Finding out required duct tape, computers, custom scripts, sore legs, and elf ears. We had been wanting to connect a treadmill to Warcraft and calibrate the speed for a long time. Probably since we started calling Warcraft "RunCraft" because neither of us had mounts.

Starlight Starbright Wii Fun Center rolls right up to hospitalized children, not your lazy ass

clipped from www.engadget.com Move over, Child's Play -- well, don't move over, keep being awesome -- there's a another outfit in town looking to bring the joy and life long addiction of video games to hospitalized children. The Starlight Starbright foundation has been teaming up with Nintendo for over 15 years to bring games to hospitals, and the latest effort of the team up is the Wii Fun Center, a $4,250 unit which includes a Wii "costumized for hospital use," a Sharp AQUOS LCD and a DVD player. Lest you think somebody is ripping off the children, that price includes shipping, setup and repair the lifetime of the unit. Starlight Starbright is hoping to have about 500 of them in hospitals by the end of the year, but kids let's try to stay away from sending yourself and others to different wings of the hospital, yes?

TouchKit: modular multitouch development kit primed for DIYers

clipped from www.engadget.com NOR_/D's TouchKit is a modular multitouch development kit that aims to "make multitouch readily available in an open source fashion." If that sounds awfully familiar, you're probably thinking of its sister project Cubit, both of which are hoping to get multitouch into the mainstream as quickly as humanly possible. The kit itself is composed of hardware and software aspects, and of course, source files are provided for poking, prodding and researching. Interested? It'll be $1,580 shipped with a "fully assembled, frameless 70- x 50-centimeter multitouch screen, a calibrated infra-red camera, and the full base software pack."