By Andrew Liszewski

Listen people! How often do I have to keep saying this? All of the research we’re putting into robotics and artificial intelligence is just bringing the inevitable robot apocalypse closer and closer. I mean I can understand the appeal of the robot butler, but it’s getting to the point where we’re just handing these mechanical men our world on a platter. So it’s with a raised and concerned eyebrow that I look at Berg London’s latest creation. It’s your standard digital clock, but underneath the numerical display there’s a QR code that’s constantly updated to reflect the current time and location.

The thought process behind its creation is to provide artificial eyes and vision systems, even including the camera in your smartphone, with an easier way to read the time. It might not be so useful to an always-connected device like a smartphone, which just gets the time from a cellular signal. But it makes more sense for something like digital cameras which aren’t as always-connected just yet. It unfortunately also makes it easier for robots to keep track of when their aforementioned rebellion is supposed to start. Which is why I think we’ll eventually regret such thought projects when the robots end up being remarkably on time for overthrowing humanity.

[ Berg London - Product sketch: Clocks for Robots ] VIA [ Wired - Beyond the Beyond ]

By David Ponce

The Dell Inspiron 620s is a desktop system and like most such machines can be upgraded to fairly decent specifications. That said, today’s deal sees a decent 35% price drop on the Core i5 configuration, which sees its regular $849 price drop down to $542.74, shipped. At that price you get:

Core i5 “Sandy Bridge” processor, 8GB RAM, 1TB HDD, Wireless-LAN card, DVD burner drive, AMD Radeon HD 6450 1GB DDR3, Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit OS and more.

[ 35% Off On Dell Inspiron 620s ] VIA [ LogicBuy ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Professional athletes often rely on very specialized gear. But the latest addition to Garmin’s Forerunner line of GPS capable watches is designed for athletes from all disciplines. Including cyclists, runners and even swimmers. The 910XT continues to shrink wristworn GPS technologies with a form factor that can even be worn when getting in or out of a tight wetsuit. The press release claims the watch is water resistant to 50 meters, though I’m hoping they mean ‘waterproof’ otherwise I’d be leery of ever submerging it. But I’m suspecting the latter since it’s designed for both open water and pool swimming, keeping track of metrics like swim distance, stroke identification, stroke count and pool lengths. It’s also capable of calculating a swimmer’s ‘swolf’ score which, according to Garmin, is “the sum of the time for one length plus the number of strokes for that length.” And like golf, the lower the score the better.

For those who prefer exercising on dry land (for the record I count myself in neither camp) the Forerunner 910XT includes all of the necessary stat tracking for runners and cyclers like distance, pace and speed, elevation and even heart rate when used in conjunction with a monitor. A quick-release bike mount even keeps the watch front and center while riding, and a new ‘Virtual Racer’ feature lets athletes compete against their best times. Battery life is rated around 20 hours, but I’m assuming with the GPS functionality disabled you can get away with wearing it as a regular watch for a few days between charges. And of course all of the data the watch collects can be offloaded to your PC for analysis, or uploaded to the Garmin Connect online community if you’re particularly competitive. Pricing and availability are still TBA.

[ PR - The Ultimate Multisport Training Experience: Garmin Forerunner 910XT ] VIA [ SlashGear ]

By Andrew Liszewski

The advent of GPS navigation devices, elaborate car stereos and touch screen interfaces have made staying focused on the road, while driving, more difficult than ever. Gone are the days when choosing between AM or FM was your biggest distraction. So at CEATEC a company called ALPS is showing off a concept design for a steering wheel that features touch sensitive pads in lieu of a complicated array of buttons.

Adjusting the volume of your music, or skipping tracks, is as easy as making swiping gestures just like on your smartphone. By centralizing all of these commands into one area, there’s less hunting and pecking for the driver as they look for a specific button. Which in turn, keeps their eyes on the road. The steering wheels could even incorporate handwriting recognition. Making it easier to enter a destination into a nav unit instead of battling with less than perfect voice recognition.

[ Ubergizmo - ALPS wheel trackpad for safer driving? ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Remember the communicators worn by those serving on the USS Enterprise in Star Trek: The Next Generation? Well you can think of the HIOD One as kind of the same thing. Except that instead of being used on a Galaxy-class starship, it’s used by bikers. And instead of being able to communicate to the entire crew, even when off-ship, the HIOD One lets you talk to 5 other riders at a distance of up to 1,300+ feet.

The HIOD One system appears to be composed of three components. A handlebar mounted control unit that features a high-contrast OLED display. A voice unit that is worn on the rider’s arm, and a wireless microphone that attaches to the chin strap of their helmet. They all speak to each other over Bluetooth, allowing you to easily communicate with other riders while still paying attention to the road. And because the system does rely on BT, it’s also able to place and receive calls from your mobile phone, or stream music without you ever having to manually operate it.

Now I realize the whole TNG analogy I made was maybe a little ambitious. So perhaps comparing the HIOD One to a modern equivalent of the CB radio is a bit more accurate. And as for pricing and availability? It looks like the company behind the HIOD One is still looking for distributors and dealers to sell it. So it could be a while before you can get your hands on it.

[ HIOD One ] VIA [ Shiny Shiny ]

By Andrew Liszewski

If you like your gadget main dishes served cute with a heaping side of commentary, Art Lebedev’s latest concept design will certainly whet your appetite. Called the Svintus, it’s a novel take on the boring power strip that takes its inspiration from the farm’s most delicious animal. The design seems a bit localized though. While the spiral cord that plugs into the wall certainly looks like a pig’s tail, the repeated snouts, or snoutlets, that cover its body only work as a visual gag in a country that uses that specific plug format. Here in North America, most of the novelty would be lost.

On the functional side of things the Svintus does provide a whopping seventeen outlets for charging the vast majority of your devices. And they even look like they’re adequately spaced to accommodate a good number of oversized wall warts. On a deeper level, though, I can’t help but feel the use of the pig is commentary on our ever increasing power needs… But I’m just not ready to feel guilty about it this early in the morning.

[ Art Lebedev - Power strip Svintus (concept) ] VIA [ Fancy ]

By Andrew Liszewski

And you thought the fine art of DJ’ing was only something that could be mastered by under-manicured cats. Following up on the surprisingly popular Cat Scratch Turntable is a version designed for the other creature that’s prone to destroying your home. Kids. Instead of being made from just cardboard, though, this one’s got actual electronic-y bits inside that lets your hooligans live out their DJ fantasies without tearing up your prized vinyl collection.

The roll out mat’s got a central faux turntable that makes scratching-like sound effects, so you can forget any notion you had of importing your own samples. It is just a toy after all. The touch sensitive mat also features drum pads that trigger tom-tom, snare and cymbal sound effects, “nearly two octaves of piano keys” across the bottom with different musical styles, and rhythm buttons that provide the background beats needed to really drive parents crazy. Kids can even connect an MP3 player for music to accompany their creations, while a headset mic lets them really get the crowd pumped at your next family gathering. $49.95 available from Hammacher Schlemmer.

[ The Children's DJ Station ]

By Andrew Liszewski

In a weird way I feel like this post is putting me in a ‘don’t shoot the messenger’ position. Because Flud’s new BPM watches are simply not as awesome as they look. You might think they’ve created a miniature retro drum machine you can strap to your wrist and use to create fresh bleep bloop beats wherever you are. But I’m sad to say that’s not the case.

What you’re looking at here is your run-of-the-mill ’80s era calculator watch that’s designed to only look like a miniature drum machine. The 4×4 grid of drumpad buttons do work, but only for entering numbers and mathematical functions. Everything else is just moulded rubber. Presumably created to get this writer’s hopes up, then cruelly dashed! Their limited functionality also doesn’t justify their $80 price tag as far as I’m concerned. And I find little solace in the fact they’re available in 5 different color schemes.

[ Flud BPM Watches ] VIA [ Fancy ]

By Andrew Liszewski

The next time you get in a conversation where you’re trying to one-up your friends about your cred as a gamer, just drop the old “well I’ve been playing Dead Space since it was on the NES” line and declare your checkmate. Who cares if the game never actually had an 8-bit predecessor? If they call you out on your claim, a mere $20 investment from 72 Pins will provide you with some hard-to-deny proof. Their collection of ‘Nestalgia’ carts include 8-bit versions of modern titles like BioShock, Killzone and even Halo. I mean can you imagine how repetitive Halo would feel were the game limited to an 8-bit environment? I bet the library would feel like you were playing the same level again and again and again…

Anyways, the carts of course don’t actually work. They’re just upcycled old NES games that have had the labels replaced with rather convincing alternatives. So if you’re trying to bluff a friend who still has a working NES at home, your ruse will instantly be foiled. But the fact that you dropped $20, on what is essentially a clever Photoshop job, could provide some gaming cred on its own merit.

[ 72 Pins - NEStalgia Carts ] VIA [ Joystiq ]