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ICYMI: Robotank and carbon emissions made into rock
try{document.getElementById("aol-cms-player-1").style.display="none";}catch(e){}Today on In Case You Missed It: Israel Aerospace Industries has built a combat robot vehicle that is made of modular bits that can be switched out, while environmental scientists created rock out of carbon emissions from a power plant in Iceland, by first pumping the pollutant underground. Be sure to read up on the flying car competition reportedly happening under Larry Page, and watch this video purely because it's the strangest cat video we've seen in months. As always, please share any great tech or science videos you find by using the #ICYMI hashtag on Twitter for @mskerryd.
ICYMI: Plant-powered, self-moving robot and safer spacecraft
try{document.getElementById("aol-cms-player-1").style.display="none";}catch(e){}Today on In Case You Missed It: The Hortum Machina B is made of plants that send electrochemical stimulus to the autonomous robotic machine that houses them, so they can direct where to move. UC Santa Barbara researchers developed materials that can better handle the thermal loads carried inside modern rocket engines, because in some cases, the components are close to completely melting (bad news for the astronauts onboard). Take a spin through this Norwegian cruise ship's slide and if you want to watch our new favorite VR freakout video, it's here. As always, please share any great tech or science videos you find by using the #ICYMI hashtag on Twitter for @mskerryd.
ICYMI: HoloLens gaming, walking talking robot phone and more
#fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-619364{display:none;} .cke_show_borders #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-619364, #postcontentcontainer #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-619364{width:570px;display:block;} try{document.getElementById("fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-619364").style.display="none";}catch(e){}Today on In Case You Missed It: The RoBoHon is a 7-inch tall smartphone robot that can also dance, walk and talk and basically simultaneously creep out and amaze all your family and friends. Microsoft is busy dreaming up the next HoloLens game that we really want to play: Code-named Project X-Ray, it sends robots to do battle with you, right in your living room. And a virtual reality headset app wants to help train surgeons in a way that doesn't endanger any real people.
How would you change Sony's Xperia SP?
You know the deal, we trawl our reviews archive, and then ask you what you think would have improved the product. This week it's Sony's Xperia SP, and in the hands of Jamie Rigg, it was deemed to be imperfect, but charming nevertheless. It was full of bloatware, had terrible WiFi reception and had a bland design, but the capable camera, snappy performance and long battery life more than made up for it. But what about you lot? Would you care to weigh in on what made this phone a delight or otherwise? Head on over to the forum.
The Weekly Roundup for 05.13.2013
You might say the week is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workweek, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Weekly Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past seven days -- all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.
Newbie tips to surviving the DUST 514 experience
It's DUST 514's launch day, and if you've hit dirt with your face more than your combat boots, then you might need a helping hand with CCP's MMO shooter. PlayStation Universe has posted a pair of guides to help new players get off to a strong start, and since Massively cares about each and every one of you, we wanted to pass them along so that you don't end up a shallow grave on an alien world. The first guide is a hodge-podge of beginner's tips, and the second has to do with earning much-needed skill points. "In the early days, we think it's wise to hoard ISK and SP until a time when you're ready to decide on your specialization," the author writes. "Until then, the Militia Gear is good enough." Good luck, soldiers! If you have any DUST 514 tips or tricks that you'd like to pass along to other Massively readers, please do so in the comments.
AAPL declines again, S&P and Nasdaq see an impact
When it comes to stocks, Apple is an influencer and any changes in its stock price will affect US stock indexes. That's what happened on Monday when the Dow Jones Industrial Average surged and the NASDAQ and S&P fell because of Apple, says a report in Forbes. The NASDAQ and S&P both include Apple, and the company's five day decline is dragging the two indexes down. Apple's stock is now sitting at US$580.13, a 4.2 percent decline from its previous high of $610.28.
Heart-rate monitoring belt marks Bluetooth 4.0 milestone, stops to rest for Bluetooth 4.0 phones
Some firsts represent truly monumental achievements. Others, like the world's first production-ready Bluetooth Low Energy heart-rate chest belt, are just a mouthful. This little black belt claims to be the very first of its kind, and promises to "spur the development of a whole new range of... health and fitness apps," by harnessing the power of Bluetooth Low Energy to pump heart rate stats to your mobile phone. Of course, that deluge of new fitness apps will have to wait until a Bluetooth 4.0-compatible phone hits the market. In the meantime, we wouldn't expect the black chest strap to pioneer any new fashion trends.
HP's ProBook 6x45b line handles a spill with aplomb (on video!)
While we don't normally find ourselves terribly jealous of laptops designed for massive rollouts at medium and large businesses, the new ProBook and 6545b (15.6-inch) and 6445b (14-inch) almost have us ready to reassess that assumption. They're pretty boring AMD-powered workhorses on the surface, but HP has reworked the keyboard tray so that it automatically drains spills through the laptop and out through the bottom -- without running past any of the vitals. It's not foolproof, but it's a great first stab at making us all a little safer from accidents -- and hopefully finds its way into consumer lines sooner rather than later. We're similarly jealous of the new energy management software that HP has packed on here, which has a configuration panel that provides battery-squeezing estimates based on various settings, letting a user pick a goal for battery life and set the specs to match. The corporate end of that is an IT app that lets a business actually set its own power consumption goals and constrain user laptops to match -- we don't know how well that would play out in practice, but the delicious string-pulling it entails is enticing. Prices start at $799, and there are naturally configurations as far as the eye can see. Check out a video of the spill-proof-ness in action after the break. %Gallery-75372% %Gallery-75373%
Advertise the Game Boy to yourself every day
While the prospect of advertising the Game Boy to ourselves every day sounds pretty good, we're going to have to pass on this auction for one of the sweetest things you could put on your wall. As has always been our luck, we're sadly stuck in the unfortunate position of having no monies to spend on anything right now, so it's not like our opinion regarding this lenticular display matters. Oh well ...What do you all think? Would you find hanging this sign up on your wall is as badass as we imagine it to be, or could you care less?See also: Donkey Kong GBA SP is the rarest member of the DK crew[Via Gamesniped]
Japanese hardware sale chart - Sept. 4 - 10, the war in percentages
Well, look how the mighty have fallen. The Nintendo DS Lite, which is the PSP's biggest competitor, saw a 50-percent decline in hardware sales last week. Never mind sales numbers ... who cares about those anyway? It's all about percentages, baby.The PSP surged on with a six-percent jump in sales that can most likely be attributed to Tales of Phantasia Full Voice Edition's total domination in the software sales chart.- DS Lite: 113,831 115,108 (50.28%)- PSP: 29,141 1,642 (5.97%)- PS2: 19,882 2,821 (12.43%)- GBA SP: 2,104 647 (23.52%)- Game Boy Micro: 1,801 10 (0.56%)- Xbox 360: 1,094 156 (12.48%)- DS Phat: 1,058 738 (230.63%)- Gamecube: 696 159 (18.60%)- GBA: 13 9 (40.91%)- Xbox: 5 5 (infinite%)- Wii: 0 0 (0%)The PSP needs to keep looking in its rear-view mirror, however, because the DS Phat also saw a big spike in its percentages with a whopping 230-percent increase. But, I expect this to be short lived due to its "teh suck."Also, look at how crappy the Wii is selling. Hah hah, it's being outsold by the original Xbox and hasn't even sold a single unit! Those percentages look pretty bad.(Via Joystiq)
