Rollin’ Justin robot plays catch, makes coffee, aims to replace your dad (video)

With an 80 percent success rate, there’s a pretty good chance that Justin here is better at playing catch than you are. This old German Aerospace Agency-designed robot, which we first saw in 2009, learned a new trick — he can track thrown objects as they approach, calculate their flight path, and snap his cold, soulless hands around them before they hit the ground. Better yet, he can catch two objects at the same time. For his encore, Rollin’ Justin uses his tactile finger sensors to prepare you a cup of coffee, just so you know there’s no hard feelings once’s he’s done schooling you at three flies up. The ‘bot can be controlled via iPad and acts totally grateful when you get him a tie for Christmas, even though it’s not what he really wanted. Video after the break.

Update: Johannes sent us another video of him catching two balls with one hand! It’s after the break.

Continue reading Rollin’ Justin robot plays catch, makes coffee, aims to replace your dad (video)

Rollin’ Justin robot plays catch, makes coffee, aims to replace your dad (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 29 Apr 2011 02:54:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Plastic Pals  |  sourceGerman Aerospace Center  | Email this | Comments

Android 3.1 gets namechecked by Adobe Flash Player 10.2, will be required to enjoy accelerated 720p video

Remember how Adobe said Flash 10.2 wasn’t living up to its full hardware-accelerated potential on Honeycomb thus far? Well, it seems the company’s found a solution by the name of Android 3.1. We’ve been inundated with tips (and have confirmed with Adobe) that there’s a sticky-sweet new build of Android on the way for the recent crop of slates that OEMs and carriers are rolling out, and that — just like last time — you’ll need that software to take advantage of all the hardware rendering and compositing that your Tegra 2 silicon can afford. With any luck, 720p playback won’t burn our eyeballs this time around. By the way, the Android Market item above was updated this morning to read “requires an upcoming release of Android 3” rather than “Android 3.1,” but it’s unclear whether the original number was inaccurate or whether Adobe got in trouble.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Android 3.1 gets namechecked by Adobe Flash Player 10.2, will be required to enjoy accelerated 720p video originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 28 Apr 2011 19:48:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Video Chat on Your Android Phone

Sometimes, the expressions on a person’s face can mean much more than what they say. To help you stay in touch with your friends and family, we’re launching Google Talk with video and voice chat for Android phones.

You can now video or voice chat with your friends, family and colleagues right from your Android phone, whether they’re on their compatible Android tablet or phone, or using Gmail with Google Talk on their computer. You can make calls over a 3G or 4G data network (if your carrier supports it) or over Wi-Fi.

  

In your Google Talk friends list, a video or voice chat button will appear next to your contacts and you can simply touch the button to connect with them. Any text chats from the person you’re talking with will be overlaid on your phone’s screen so you can read them without having to leave the video. And, if you need to check something else, the video pauses automatically so you can go back to your phone’s home screen or another app. The audio will keep going even though the video has paused. Check out how this works:

Google Talk with video and voice chat will gradually roll out to Nexus S devices in the next few weeks as part of the Android 2.3.4 over-the-air update and will launch on other Android 2.3+ devices in the future. To learn more about using video and voice chat, check out our Help Center.

Post content Posted by Colin Gibbs, Product Manager and Wei Huang, Tech Lead

Microsoft announces record Q3 earnings: $16.43 billion revenue, $5.23 billion net income

Well, it looks like the record quarters from tech companies just keep on coming — this time it's Microsoft, which just reported $16.43 billion in revenue in its third-quarter results, a jump of 13 percent from the previous year, and well ahead of analysts' expectations. Net income clocked in at $5.23 billion, a whopping 31 percent increase from the previous year, with Microsoft citing strong sales of Office 2010, Xbox and Kinect as key driving factors. The company also reiterated that it's sold a staggering 350 million Windows 7 licenses so far, and said that its Entertainment & Devices Division has grown a full 60 percent year-over-year — again, largely fueled by those record-setting sales of Kinect and continued strong sales of Xbox 360 consoles and Xbox Live.

As for Windows Phone, Microsoft unfortunately isn’t providing much in the way of specifics — on its earnings call, it only went as far as to say that “product reviews are good” and “customer satisfaction is high,” and that developer interest has increased following its announcement of the Nokia partnership. It was unsurprisingly a bit more eager to divulge specifics for its gaming business, though, and revealed that it sold 2.4 million Kinect sensors in Q3, along with 2.7 million Xbox 360 consoles — the latter of which is a new third quarter record for the company.

Continue reading Microsoft announces record Q3 earnings: $16.43 billion revenue, $5.23 billion net income

Microsoft announces record Q3 earnings: $16.43 billion revenue, $5.23 billion net income originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 28 Apr 2011 16:25:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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SaskTel to release the HTC WildFire S in June

Ready for some Android goodness? Regional carrier SaskTel will be releasing the HTC Wildfire S. According to the internal doc we received it shows this Android 2.3 powered device will be available sometime this June. No word yet on the price but it will certainly be affordable. Specs of this little beast have it loaded […]

Related posts:

  1. SaskTel to release the HTC Incredible S
  2. SaskTel to release the Incredible S “sometime in April”, along with the Samsung Galaxy 550
  3. SaskTel investing $52 million this year to continue building out their “4G” network

Chrome OS machines leaked in bug reports: Acer netbook and touch-friendly Seaboard

Acer Chrome OS NetbookPlowing through bug reports is a reliable way to dig up juicy morsels of info, and thanks to that timeless tactic we’ve got some specs on a pair of unannounced Chrome OS devices. First up is a netbook from Acer codenamed ZGB which, according to a recently filed report, will have a 1366 x 768 panel, presumably in the 10 to 12 inch range. We also know that you can hook up an external display to it via an HDMI port powered by an encoder chip from Chrontel. Since AMD’s Fusion netbook platform supports HDMI natively, we can also safely assume that the ZGB will be running the web-only OS on an Atom processor. That’s where the details end for now but, hey, it’s better than nothing.

The other device, Seaboard, has been floating around the Chrome OS flaw depot for some time, but reports are finally starting to reveal some tantalizing details. We now know that it is powered by a Tegra 2 and sports a touchscreen — the perfect place to test out those finger-friendly tweaks we’ve heard so much about. There are also mentions of a “lid switch” and a physical keyboard, indicating it may be a convertible or something in the vein of the Eee Pad Slider rather than a pure slate. The hybrid form factor would make perfect sense since it will house a pair of USB ports and an HDMI jack, which could make for a rather chunky tablet. Obviously, neither of these devices are confirmed yet (and Seaboard is most likely being used for internal testing only) but at least we’ve got a better idea of what to expect when the browser-based OS comes to consumers later this year.

Chrome OS machines leaked in bug reports: Acer netbook and touch-friendly Seaboard originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 28 Apr 2011 13:48:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink CrunchGear  |  sourceMacles, Chrome Story  | Email this | Comments

Shazam for Android Is Better than Shazam for iPhone [Apps]

Shazam is one of those already taken for granted lifechanger apps—never be ignorant of a song's identity, ever again. It's great, but it just got greater—on Android. The new app not only streams full songs your friends have tagged, but will let you ID unlimited songs on your own, free until 2012. You'll have to do with some eBay advertisement, but hey—free Shazaam for the rest of the year. [Android Market via Phandroid] More »







Spider attack!

Watch as a spider quickly subdues an ant in its web…and then something unexpected happens.

This is the Sixth Sense of spider nature videos.

Tags: video

Hulu Plus on Xbox 360 launches tomorrow, all members get a free week thanks to beef jerky

It’s true, per Major Nelson Hulu Plus will launch on Xbox 360 tomorrow amid a slew of promotions, the first of which will provide free access to the service for all US-based Xbox Live members (free or paid) through May 6th courtesy of Jack Link’s Beef Jerky. We should be able to get some hands on time with the app in a few. Until then you can imagine what it will be like to watch 24 The Confession in HD or every episode of Spaced through your console in between rounds of messin’ with Sasquatch (explanation after the break).

Update: Now with screens plus details on the giveaways and a demo of Hulu Plus w/ Kinect after the break!

Continue reading Hulu Plus on Xbox 360 launches tomorrow, all members get a free week thanks to beef jerky

Hulu Plus on Xbox 360 launches tomorrow, all members get a free week thanks to beef jerky originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 28 Apr 2011 12:39:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Upload images in Google Spreadsheets

(Cross-posted to the Google Enterprise Blog)

We’re excited to announce that you can now upload images to Google spreadsheets. From the Insert menu, select Image… Then, choose an image file to upload into your spreadsheet.


With this feature, you can upload an image already stored on your computer, search for an image online, or add personal photos directly from one of your Picasa Web Albums.


Let us know what you think in the Google spreadsheets forum!

Posted by: Nick Santos, Staff Software Engineer

All The Rage: Ridiculous ‘Monkeytail’ Beards

monkeytail-1.jpg

There’s a new fad sweeping the nation, and, sadly, it’s not women going topless. Nope — it’s monkeytail beards. Monkeytail beards (NOT BEARS) start at one ear and then wrap around your chin and mouth to make it look like you just finished picking the ticks off a monkey’s nuts with your teeth. Personally, I’m more of a sloth man. “HEEEEEY YOOOOOOU GUYS!” Not him, he still gives me nightmares. You don’t actually have to stripe your beard like this Dapper Dan did to achieve a monkeytail, it just scores some extra ‘girls talking to you at the bar’ points if you do. Unfortunately, any girl who does talk to you will NOT being accompanying you home at the end of the night. “Why not?!” And the answer to that, my friend, lies in the mirror.

“Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who’s the handsomest of them all?”
“You must be out of your f***ing mind! Just break me already.”

Hit the jump for a pictorial field-guide, including one guy trying to candidly include his gramma in the picture, another doing his best Bushicmi eyes, and another taken on the can. Classy bunch.

Windows 8 cloud synchronization confirmed in screenshot

Microsoft is on fire with Windows 8, and the leaks are pouring out all over the place. We’ve seen new features surface, and even found registry keys referencing Windows 8 cloud features, as well as a “roaming profile” interface, but are yet to see them in action.

Now, for the…

NASA collects proposals for space fueling stations

Sometimes rocket science is actually, you know, rocket science. Getting to the moon was tough enough, but deep space exploration poses all manner of additional concerns — like getting back home alive, for one thing. And then there’s the issue of fuel, something long distance trips require a lot of — but stocking up on here on Earth means potential weight problems at launch. One proposal offered up in the past is space-based fueling stations conveniently located in key spots on the way to a distant destinations like the Moon, Mars, and asteroids. NASA is collecting proposals that can demonstrate the validity of such a plan, including the ability to store liquid oxygen and hydrogen, transfer it, and have a ship approach for fueling. If you think you’ve got your bases covered — and can keep it under $200 million — you’ve got until May 31st at 11:59 PM EST to hand over a proposal.

NASA collects proposals for space fueling stations originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 28 Apr 2011 09:05:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Network World  |  sourceNASA [PDF]  | Email this | Comments