Oh! Gizmo

By Chris Scott Barr

Remember that interesting BlackBerry watch that I told you about last week? Details were a bit sparse, but Allerta, the gadget’s creator, has finally released some of the more important details. The watch features a 1.3-inch full color OLED display, Bluetooth 2.0, glass lens, vibrating motor (for alerts) and a microUSB port for recharging. Firmware updates will actually be done over-the-air. Battery life is expected to be around four days.

As for which phones will work, it seems that any running BlackBerryOS 4.3 or higher will be able to install the necessary application. The device will ship in February 2010 and can be pre-ordered now for $149.

[ Allerta ] VIA [ GearLog ]

By Chris Scott Barr

Ever since Dick Tracy, people have been wanting phones on their wrist. We’ve seen various, albeit poor implementations of this very thing, but nothing that feels right. One of the biggest hurdles in crafting the perfect wrist-mounted phone is that it’s tough to cram everything you need in a tiny watch. So what if you had your regular phone, and the watch merely complemented it, and gave you easy access to core functions? That seems to be the idea behind this inPulse.

The inPulse is said to be a Bluetooth accessory for your BlackBerry. It doesn’t appear to give you control of your BlackBerry per se, but it does do something rather useful. When a new message (or perhaps phone call?) comes in, it will appear on the screen of your watch. This lets you check the message with just a quick glance to your wrist. If it’s nothing important, you can go about your business. Otherwise, you’ll pull out your phone and take the necessary actions. Honestly, if this thing could let you make phone calls, I’d say it’s the perfect accessory.

VIA [ Crackberry ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Today Kempler & Strauss launched their W PhoneWatch which they claim is the world’s smallest full-function quad-band GSM cellphone watch, and given how small the market is at the moment, it’s not that difficult a claim to make. The W PhoneWatch features a 1.5-inch touchscreen interface that can be operated with your fingers, eliminating the need for a stylus, as well as an impressive set of features for a watch-sized phone including a digital camera (640×480 stills or 128×104 videos) and a microSD card slot.

The W PhoneWatch also has Bluetooth of course, allowing it to connect to existing BT devices, or to the included Kempler & Strauss Communicator headset. As for battery life, the watch and headset are rated for up to 150 minutes of talk time, 150 minutes of MP3 playback and up to 100 hours of standby. And it’s got a price tag of just $199, which appears to be unsubsidized.

[ PR - Kempler & Strauss Launches World's Smallest Full-Function GSM Quad-Band Cell Phone Watch ] VIA [ Gearlog ]

By Andrew Liszewski

LG showed off their ‘wearable’ GD910 watchphone at CES earlier this year, but given the choice I would most definitely opt for the thinner S9110 watchphone that Samsung just announced. Now it’s easy to boast that you have the world’s thinnest watchphone when there are really just 2 contenders on the market, but the S9110 looks even more svelte than the Casio Databanks I used to wear as a kid.

The watch features a 1.76-inch touchscreen (176×220 pixel resolution) covered with scratch-resistant glass as well as Bluetooth 2.1, a speakerphone, voice recognition (all rather vital to a watchphone) as well as email with Outlook sync support. It will set you back a whopping $638, though hopefully that will be reduced with carrier subsidies.

[ Samsung Hub - Samsung unveils world’s thinnest watchphone – S9110 ] VIA [ MobileCrunch ]

By Evan Ackerman

Last week on BotJunkie, we got cuddly and drunk with a dancing hexapod ferret octopus beer robot thing, watched some snake robots wiggle in all kinds of different ways, rocked and rolled with a round steerable mass robot made with LEGOs, reached the limit on our cute meters with Penbo the robotic pengin for girls, got depressed over how robots are doing in the current economy, watched an Albert Einsten robot learn how to make facial expressions, learned why you don’t talk to robots, responded to some simulations of needy behavior by Willow Garage’s PR2, celebrated our 1,000th post (W00T!!!), announced a contest to name a group of robots, and finished out the week with a press release informing us that a robot fueled by biomass doesn’t actually eat dead people.

So far this week, we’ve posted about a giant gundam statue in Japan, photographic proof that Arnold Schwarzenegger is actually a Russian Terminator robot from WWII, the most annoying robot toy ever, more vids of CMU snakebots, and a robot controlled by a zombie moth head.

We’ve also got last weeks Bot With Stuff for you, right after the jump. (more…)

By Evan Ackerman

Last week on BotJunkie, we revved things up with a video of a transforming motorcycle robot with an attitude, had just a little bit of trouble telling the difference between a robot and a human, hungered for customized ramen noodle soup made by a robot, could barely see the world’s smallest wheeled robot with a gripper, met Sega’s new Dream Cat Venus robotic feline replacement, learned how Willow Garage’s PR2 robot managed to plug itself in to an electrical outlet, saw a prototype robot bat, fantasized about what we’d do with a 15 ton robot grapple arm controlled with a Wiimote, cashed in our 401ks to buy 196 robot shirts, saw some robot soccer videos from RoboCup 2009, got a little bit choked up over a robot tribute to Michael Jackson, watched a team of soccer robots score a goal against a team of humans, found out about a robot that’s deigned to clean up water pollution, watched a home built UAV launching rockets, desperately wanted our own fighting robot space cock, and of course, finished off the week with a Bot With Stuff, which you can catch right after the jump.

So far this week, we’ve posted about a thirsty hexaferretpod, snake robots from Carnegie Mellon, a rolling orbital Bluetooth operated thing made with LEGO, and Penbo, a robot penguin for girls.

Enjoy the Bot With Stuff, and then come check us out. (more…)

By Chris Scott Barr

Remember back when TVs were just boxes that were just used for watching movies, cable and playing video games? I guess that wasn’t all that long ago, since the TV I just bought a few months ago still needs another device in order to really do anything. However, soon you’ll be able to go and get yourself a Vizio HDTV that comes with all sorts of cool applications built-in.

I’ve got a small PC that sits in my entertainment center which gives me access to streaming video, audio and of course the web. With the new line of Vizio XVT HDTVs, I could almost get rid of it. Owners will have access to free streaming content from Revision3, Showtime and Pandora while also being able to subscribe to services such as Vudu, Netflix, Blockbuster OnDemand, Amazon Video On Demand and Rhapsody. The icing on the cake is access to Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and Yahoo Widgets.

(more…)

By Shane McGlaun

I’ve never felt the need to spend thousands of dollars on a car stereo. Some folks can’t imagine having a stock audio system in their car and for these types of people there are a huge amount of aftermarket systems available to choose from.

Pioneer has announced a new high-end in-dash navigation system called the AVIC-Z110BT. The system allows users to control an iPod, iPhone, and Bluetooth enabled phones with voice commands. The unit has a 7-inch motorized touch panel screen and supports CD and DVD playback.

(more…)

By Andrew Liszewski

Tired of digging your cellphone out of your pocket only to find it’s a call from someone you didn’t want to talk to? The Citizen AIBATO M is another bluetooth watch that can connect to a select number of cellphones and provide information about who’s calling, emails and even news tickers right on the watch’s display. The LCD will glow when there’s an incoming call or email, and if that’s not enough to get your attention the watch can also be set to vibrate so you won’t miss a call ever again. Unless you’re not wearing the watch of course. Furthermore, when used with various phones from Sharp or Softbank the AIBATO M can even remotely trigger the camera’s shutter which actually seems a bit more creepy than useful to me.

There’s no pricing info on the AIBATO M at this point, even though it’s set for a July 1 release in Japan.

[ PR - Citizen AIBATO M ] VIA [ SlashGear ]