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Sanyo's Mirai Sanzo robot brings the extra emotion your household craves
First we had the spherical drone and now we have the spherical butler. Sanyo's Mirai Sanzo robot won't do housework unfortunately, but it will interpret your voice commands and relay them to your home automation system, just in case you happen to live in the type of wondrous abode depicted after the break. To fulfill its mission as a "communication robot," the WiFi-connected 22cm helper comes with a touchscreen, touch sensors (for switching on and off) and voice recognition -- all powered by an undisclosed version of Android. It can also show seven different emotions by glowing in various colors, making it about three times more expressive than some humans. Mirai Sanzo will be out in Japan any time now, and while we're not sure of the price, we have tried to translate the name. We arrived at "Future Bob", but we're open to other suggestions.
PS3 'jailbreak code' retweeted by Sony's Kevin Butler, no punchline needed
Oh, honey. Sony PlayStation's (entirely fictional) Kevin Butler holds many (also fictional) positions within the company, but apparently none of them require him to keep up with (very real) news events. Travis La Marr (aka @exiva) tweeted the now-infamous PS3 METLDR root key towards Butler with the challenge to "Come at me." What's a spokesperson to do but confuse it for a Battleship reference and retweet the entire code? Obviously someone let him in on the joke, as the tweet's since been removed (original URL can be found as More Coverage below). At least Sony won't have to subpoena for his info here. Geohot, we hope you're laughing. Update: As Digital Foundry points out, this sequence actually refers to the USB dongle ID generator key, also used for PS3 security circumvention. [Thanks, Scott M]
Apptivate 2.0 adds keystroke sequence shortcuts
There are a plethora of "launcher" apps out there. I've used LaunchBar ($35) since it was released for NeXTStep; other folks seem fond of Alfred (free, with additional powerpack for £12, or about US$20), Butler ($20), Keyboard Maestro ($36) or Google Quick Search Box (free). The venerable but now mostly-dead QuickSilver (cue moment of silence followed by someone yelling out "I'm not dead yet") is being kept alive by a band of merry coders who hope to revive it. Heck, even FastScripts and OS X's own Spotlight can serve as launchers. I come not to replace your favorite launcher, but to supplement it, with an incredibly handy $3 app called Apptivate. Read on for details
Intel shows off 'HERB' the robotic butler, the future is unimpressed
So, you're glamping out on Mars, and of course you need someone to buttle you as you relax within your well appointed, synthetic diamond-reinforced space tent; who better than a robotic butler? Good thing we've come a long way in the last 100 years or so, can you believe that early 21st century humans had to get by with this bot built by Intel named "HERB," who could barely manage to drop an empty into the recycling bin? Sure, he wasn't totally worthless, he could sort dishes and put them in the dishwasher (edible flatware wasn't the norm back then), and managed a vague approximation of speech synthesis (this was before Google blew the lid off the whole artificial voice problem in the 2030s), but it's hard to call any of these capabilities truly useful to any modern family. Check out the video after the break, and there's no need to don your 4D glasses: this holovid is flat and scentless.
TUAW Podcast #26: File Launchers
We talk up the file launcher and manipulator Quicksilver quite a bit here at TUAW, but there is a solid batch of similar productivity-enhancing utilities that offer different things for different users. Whether you're looking for a simple utility that lets you launch your applications faster than Spotlight can find them, or you're prepared to step up to vast amounts of power and flexibility with what you find and how you use it, chances are I covered an app in this screencast that will fit the bill for you. From the power of Butler to the simplicity of Namely, I wanted to give you at least some of the basics and a visual on how 5 different launchers work, as well as their pros and cons and how they differ from each other. However, since I am a Quicksilver lover at heart, it is very likely that I missed a key feature or two in these apps, so feel free to highlight your favorite features and what you think new users can truly benefit from in the comments. Also, for anyone interested in what I'm using to create these screencasts, I include a very short blurb at the beginning which highlights a few of the tools I use to record the screencast and create some of the effects I use.This time around I've decided to try something different, and I've created two versions of the screencast. In our podcast feed is an iPod-friendly version of the podcast that's 640 x 400, 17 minute and 40 MB - that's the one you can get by subscribing to our iTunes Store podcast feed or our direct TUAW podcast feed. I've also created an HD version for those who want something with a little more detail (sorry, we don't have an RSS feed for HD podcasts yet; this is a new thing so we'll see how it goes). That one will look better on larger displays and should play mighty fine on the Apple TV.To make sure we're all on the same page and that you can run out and grab demos of these launchers, here is a list of links to all the apps I mention in the screencast, including the ones I use to create and record it:Launchers Quicksilver - donationware LaunchBar - commercial: $19.95 Butler - donationware Overflow - commercial: $14.95 Namely - donationware Screencast recording Desktopple Pro - hiding the desktop icons, custom wallpaper and more (which we've mentioned before) Mouseposé - spotlight effects, keystroke overlays (which I didn't use in this specific screencast) and other presentation highlighting tools (mentioned here) iShowU - excellent and customizable app for recording screencasts (mentioned a couple times here) I hope you enjoy the screencast, and please feel free to leave feedback to let me know how I'm doing with producing these. If you prefer HD podcasts that look better on screen and can play on an Apple TV (instead of 640 px wide podcasts which are the max an iPod can handle), definitely let me know that too.
Aldebaran Robotics' Nao humanoid robot in action
As if WowWee didn't give us all enough robotic video action during last week's CES, now we've got a more domesticated rendition showing off in front of the camera as Aldebaran Robotics' Nao flashes its lights and waves to the crowd before emerging onto the market. Right on schedule, the company's previously elusive humanoid bot is finally making some appearances, and while we're still not sure how it'll look entirely, the firm's site has been recently updated to showcase bits and pieces, and to presumably prove the whole thing wasn't a shenanigan. Nevertheless, the Nao prototype is indeed looking mighty fit, and while we've no way of proving his waving video was actually triggered via a WiFi controller programmed with Linux, that's precisely what we're led to believe. So go on, hit the read link for a few sneak peeks at the robot itself, as well as the crew behind the creation, and hopefully we'll get a finalized product here before too long.[Via LinuxDevices]
NEC's domesticated R100 robot welcomes you home, flips channels
NEC has a new home-roaming robot on the loose, which doesn't deviate too terribly much from its PaPeRo sibling visually, but sports a much more domesticated allure in its feature set. Weighing about 17.5 pounds, the R100 sports two CCD cameras as "eyes," three built-in microphones to hear commands from any direction, a bevy of sensors which detects your "tap, stroke, or press" to prevent it from cruising into tables or chairs (or children), and even environmental sensors to measure temperature and ambient light. It motors around at a blistering 1.34 miles per hour, and boasts a moveable head, a pair of integrated speakers, and facially-implanted LEDs for flashing communications. The bot is notorious for sparking conversation with its family, greets users by name, asks what it can do to help out, and even reads your email to you via its built-in WiFi capability. Moreover, it can beam commands to switch television channels, dim your lights, or activate a variety of appliances around the house. While there's no set release date for the prototype, we certainly wouldn't mind pairing this fellow up with our own robotic butler for the ultimate life of luxury, and you catch a more in-depth glimpse by sneaking a peek of the R100 in action.[Via Ubergizmo]
Search Gmail from LaunchBar, Butler, others
A MacOSXHints reader submitted a simple trick to allow app launcher utilities like LaunchBar, Butler and others to search Gmail. All you have to do is add a new search template to your launcher of choice with a specific URL and you're off to submitting Gmail search queries from [insert launcher name here]. The query URL to use is: http://mail.google.com/mail/?search=query&view=tl&start=0&init=1&fs=1&q=* But check the MacOSXHints post for instructions on how to tweak that line depending on which launcher you're using. For Quicksilver users, a comment on their post revealed the line you have to use (I think you have to have the Web Search Module plugin in order to be able to add this search to your catalog): http://mail.google.com/mail/?search=query&view=tl&start=0&init=1&fs=1&q=*** Enjoy.
Single player gaming doomed, say execs [UPDATE 1]
At the Churchill Club in California yesterday, Peter Moore wasn't the only one gazing into his crystal ball. Raph Koster of Sony Online Entertainment and Lars Butler, formerly of EA, were cheerfully predicting the downfall of single-player gaming, with Koster going so far as to say that the last 21 years of gaming history are an aberration.Drawing from the fundamental principle that "people play games together", Koster and Butler predict a huge shift in the games industry as the impact of online gaming starts to really hit home. Butler's claim that "linear entertainment in single-player is to media what masturbation is to sex" is eerily similar to David Jaffe's comparison between games and porn. Experiences are enriched by the presence of other people, and perhaps the depth of multiplayer gaming and the online social interaction embodied in these games can provide the emotional content that Jaffe finds so lacking.[Via Raph's Weblog][Update: Raph has written a much more detailed explanation behind his statement.]
