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Everyone complains about not having flying cars yet, but where are our robotic pals? Films like Short Circuit, Big Hero 6 and Wall-E certainly make them seem appealing, though our ever-constant anxiety around Terminator-like robot uprisings is likely holding them back. Musio, the first hardware product from the AI software company AKAStudy, hopes to change the way we view robot companions. Using the company's machine learning and natural language technology, it can have back and forth conversations and even learn from your chats, making it seem more like an attentive friend than a dumb machine. AKA's hoping to raise $50,000 on Indiegogo to get Musio produced -- so far, even without promotion, it's got $16,000 from backers. Musio could be like a smarter physical take on Apple's Siri: It can alert you of emails and events on your calendar, but it can also interact with connected gadgets in your home. Also, if you can look past its cold, dead eyes (which animate to show emotion) it's sort of cute.

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ARM's been championing the Internet of Things for several years now, and for good reason: it's poised to win big as more devices tap its low-power chips. Last year it unveiled an Internet of Things platform, now at Computex it's targeting device makers and its chip building partners by announcing an IoT subsystem for its Cortex-M processors. Basically, that means it'll be easier for semiconductor companies to take ARM's designs and build chips that are ideal for connected devices, while also integrating ARM's mbed IoT platform. The company also announced its new "Cordio" low-power radio, which runs at just 1 watt and packs in Bluetooth 4.2. Dipesh Patel, ARM's EVP of technical operations, noted that Cordio will be ideal for extremely low-power connected devices like beacons. All of this may seem a tad dull, but if ARM wants the whole Internet of Things ecosystem to take off, it's essential for ARM to make it as easy as possible to build for it.

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An original Apple I computer from 1976

You're about to get a textbook lesson in why you should always, always check vintage gadgets before you toss them out. A woman discarding her late husband's electronics inadvertently gave a Milpitas recycling firm an ultra-rare Apple I computer that ultimately sold for $200,000. While the recycler's policy is to share half the revenue from these sales, the woman refused to offer her name or get a receipt -- she's missing out on a $100,000 check for trading in a piece of computing history. The company would recognize her on sight, but its only chance of rewarding the mystery donor right now is to get the word out and hope she returns.

[Image credit: Emmanuel Dunand /AFP/Getty Images]

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Enrique Iglesias hides his bloody hand after grabbing a drone

Does the notion of flying a drone around a crowded, hectic concert sound a tad too risky to you? We're sure Enrique Iglesias is having second thoughts. The singer sliced his hand at a Tijuana performance this weekend after he tried to grab a camera drone and give fans a "point of view" shot -- while that stunt worked in the past, the musician clearly caught the wrong end this time around. It's not certain how badly Iglesias was hurt, although it wasn't bad enough to prevent the bleeding artist from soldiering on for another half-hour (see above if you need proof). Here's hoping he recovers quickly. In the meantime, we suspect that regulators might want to spend more time looking at the indoor hazards from drones, not just what could happen outside.

[Image credit: Francis Ramsden via AP]

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Who needs a $650 video card? Pretty much anyone who wants to play games in 4K at decent frame rates. That's the basic pitch for NVIDIA's new $650 GTX 980 Ti, its latest high-end video card which, naturally, packs in even more power than last year's GTX 980. The new card sports 2,816 parallel processing CUDA cores and 176 texture units, around 38 percent more than the GTX 980, as well as 2 additional gigabytes of RAM giving it 6GB. It's also based on NVIDIA's new GM200 GPU, which is at the heart of the company's absurdly expensive $1,000 Titan X card. Basically, that means in the instances where its former heavyweight card slows down in 4K -- for example, by running Grand Theft Auto V -- the 980 Ti should shine. NVIDIA says the new card gets around 60 FPS in GTA V, while many benchmarks of that game with the 980 see between 35 and 45 FPS. The 980 Ti is also good news for anyone waiting for a good deal on the 980, since NVIDIA is also dropping the retail price of that card from $550 to $500.

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Sure, you drive a Volvo and not an Aston Martin, but that doesn't mean you can't pretend to be a charming spy who controls his car with a high-tech watch. Volvo will soon release its On Call app for Android Wear devices and the Apple Watch, after all, and it comes with all the features its predecessors for tablets and smartphones have. That means you can poke around your arm candy to remotely lock or unlock the car's doors, switch on the heater or air conditioner and check fuel and mileage. You can also ask it for help if your Volvo's lost in a sea of cars in a parking lot. And just like the older apps, it quickly connects you to an operator, who then tracks your location through GPS, if your airbags get deployed. Volvo wrapped the smartwatch apps in a new design based on the Sensus connected interface, but you'll have to wait until the end of June before you can give them a spin.

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A Japanese variant of the F-15 Eagle

The US knows that it's not enough to protect its own networks against cyberattacks -- its allies have to be safe, too. Appropriately, it's agreeing to shield Japan from digital assaults against its military and critical systems. The move gives the island nation a big security boost (its online defense unit has a mere 90 people) and hopefully reduces the chances that less-than-sympathetic neighbors China and North Korea will compromise a strategically vital country. While it's doubtful that the pact will deter many hacking attempts, it could make any local cyberwarfare campaigns that much tougher.

[Image credit: AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko]

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Tesla Model S in Texas

If you want to buy a Model S in Texas, you're going to have to jump through some hoops for at least the next couple of years. Bills that would let Tesla sell cars directly to customers aren't going to get a vote before the state's legislative session wraps up on June 1st, leaving the electric vehicle maker high and dry until the next session kicks off in 2017. This doesn't mean that you're completely out of luck if you want Tesla-made transportation in Austin (see above for proof), but you can't simply pick one up.

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Apparently, after all these years, Spotify still doesn't really get me. I've used the service since 2010. Technically I was a subscriber since before it hit US shores. And yet, Spotify clearly has no idea what kind of music I like. I say this because I recently traded in my carefully curated running playlist for Spotify's dynamically generated ones and, not to spoil the rest of the story, it really failed. But let's start at the beginning.

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Each week our friends at Inhabitat recap the week's most interesting green developments and clean tech news for us -- it's the Week in Green.

Inhabitat's Week in Green

California is giving away free solar panels to its poorest residents. Between now and 2016, the state will donate 1,600 free photovoltaic systems -- and each array will save a household $22,800 in energy costs over 30 years. Meanwhile in Southern California, director James Cameron gifted his wife a field of solar sunflowers to power her sustainable school. In other energy news, Tesla's battery-producing Gigafactory is starting to take shape in Nevada -- and this week we took a first look at the gigantic building thanks to an aerial drone.

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