Eric
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ICYMI: Sea drones, pigeon pollution patrol and more
#fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-599630{display:none;} .cke_show_borders #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-599630, #postcontentcontainer #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-599630{width:570px;display:block;} try{document.getElementById("fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-599630").style.display="none";}catch(e){} Today on In Case You Missed It: A more affordable ocean-going drone is about to hit the market for about $3,000. We doubt it can reach the amazing things continually being sighted along the Mariana Trench, but it's fun to dream. People at the Science Museum in London are trying to rebuild the first British robot. And this happened a month ago but we just discovered it and can't stop talking about it: Pigeons in London were sent on test flights to collect pollution stats in their tiny air quality smart vests. Please take in the splendor of this image and share with every animal freak you know. If you're into art, you might appreciate these modern pop-up books. As always, please share any great tech or science videos you find by using the #ICYMI hashtag on Twitter for @mskerryd.
London Science Museum wants to rebuild the UK's first robot
The Science Museum in London is on a mission to rebuild the UK's first humanoid robot. "Eric" was invented by William Richards and Albert Herbert Reffell, two veterans of the First World War, in 1928. He was a large, burly machine covered in aluminium, and was able to stand up, move his arms and change the position of his head. Eric's movements could be controlled remotely over a wireless connection, or directly using voice commands, much to the amusement of the public. He was built initially to open an Exhibition of the Society of Model Engineers in London, but later travelled the world, meeting politicians and celebrities.
Live from Eric Schmidt's MWC 2011 keynote
Ballmer and Elop were quite the pair during the Microsoft keynote yesterday, so let's say the bar's been set pretty high for Eric Schmidt. But that's fine, the now-former CEO of Google has a knack for lively (if not downright controversial at times) speeches. This is the first time we've seen him talk since he stepped away from Babysitter (his words) to Executive Chairman, and the Android of today is a few flavors improved from the 2.1 Eclair that had launched a little before his MWC 2010 keynote -- so needless to say, we're excited for what he has to say today. We'll be reporting live from Fira, so stay tuned -- the fun should start around 11:45AM ET!
Google's Schmidt boasts 200K Android devices sold daily, waxes intellectual on society and technology
Google CEO Eric Schmidt is quite the quotable man -- we hear he's pretty chatty at coffee shops, too -- and at the Techonomy conference, he hasn't failed to disappoint. First, some cold hard data: according to Schmidt, about 200,000 new Android devices are being sold each day, which he claims is up from 100,000 daily sales about two months ago (and up from the 60,000 daily activations from April). That number is just one drip from a stream of good news for the platform this week, including 866 percent year-over-year growth and the top spot in NPD's sales rankings. We're fairly confident there's a team of top mathematicians, statisticians, and engineers in Mountain View right now tasked with finding new and innovative ways to boast about Android's success. Speaking of Techonomy, Schmidt used some of his on-stage time to discuss the new concerns technology has engendered. "The technology of course is neutral but society is not fundamentally ready," he said, claiming AI today could very likely use location-based services and predict where a person was going next, among other nightmares for privacy advocates. Schmidt opines that it's up to the society on how the collected information is regulated while computers do what they do best -- gather and recall information. We like think adorable kitten pictures falls nicely into that latter category, and that's all we care about anyway.
LG releasing Windows Mobile 7 phone in September and Android 2.1 in April?
First LG flat-out says on public record that Windows Mobile 7 is bound for 2010, and now we've gotten apparent word that the company has narrowed said release window to September of this year -- at least as far as its own devices are concerned. That comes via high-profile French tech blogger Eric of Presse Citron, who while attending a LG Design Lab tweeted (both in French and immediately after in English) that LG Mobile will release a Windows Mobile 7 device in September and an Android 2.1 device in April, first in the US and then Europe just after. The tweets are now gone, but WMPoweruser managed to catch both via Google cache, while we have corroborated just the French one by similar means. So, misheard claims from the company or accidental slip-up of NDA'd secrets? MWC is starting to look more and more interesting.
One Shots: From the front lines
We don't often get to look in on The Chronicles of Spellborn, so it's great to get a report back from a Spellborn player for One Shots. Today's beautiful-yet-almost-psychadelic screenshot comes in to us from Eric who writes in: Looking down at the docks as I venture, for the first time, to The Vaults. The first thing that drew me into the The Chronicles of Spellborn was the atmospheric scenery. The area I'm traveling to is used to further the lore of the game, and the long trek up to the top of the mountain really gave me a perspective much like a pilgrim. Really well done! If your MMO travels have taken you to a world we don't often see, why not send in some screenshots and share your journeys! Email them to oneshots AT massively DOT com along with your name, the name of the game, and a brief description. We'll post them here and give you the credit. %Gallery-9798%
WoW Moviewatch: It's a Hard Gnome Life
Wowcrendor put It's a Hard Gnome Life up over at WarcraftMovies. To sum up, it's a comedy piece about the long, trouble-filled life of a gnome named Gnomeosaurus. The protagonist is the child of Mamagnome and Papagnome, and later goes on to himself parent Gnomejr. Your mileage on this video is going to vary widely. This is not a movie for dazzling special effects or high end sountracks. All of the graphics are fairly straightforward gameplay footage, including a view of the user's mouse zipping about the screen. But you know what? That's cool for this. Nothing about this movie is intended as anything except an exceedingly tongue-in-cheek joke. The whole thing is obviously not meant for anything but sarcastic fun. C'mon. It's about a character named Gnomeosaurus. The best joke in it, in my opinion, is the gag about Devilsaur-shaped cookies with a gnome head on top. The MS-Paint jokes, the sloppy cut-overs. . .the whole thing is just about goofy puns and giggles. My only complaint about it, though, is that the piece runs a little long for its style. Clocking in a little over six minutes, I'm not sure its humor can be sustained for the whole length. [Via Warcraft Movies] If you have any suggestions for WoW Moviewatch, you can mail them to us at machinima AT wowinsider DOT com. Previously on Moviewatch ..
Mii Spotlight: Take a look inside
It's Saturday, and obviously, that means another week in the Mii Spotlight! This week, however, we offer something a little different than our usual fare. Or, depending on how you look at things, it could be seen as exactly the same as our usual fare. Decide for yourself!
Papercraft pets from Azeroth
Regular readers will know that I'm a huge fan of real world crafts based on WoW (I'm disappointed that it seems like that Crochet set never worked out-- if anyone plans to make the Twill set, let me know). And so I was thrilled to see these papercraft figures that "Eric" has put together-- he's making paper models of pets in WoW, and he's selling the plans (in a PDF files) to make them yourself. At least I think that's what he's selling-- his site is pretty barebones, to say the least.But he's got the bunnies and some dragonwhelps up, and over on his eBay page, you can see actual models of a few he's put together (I especially like the mechanical chicken). I'm not tempted to buy any, because I know I'd completely mess it up, but the few he's put together look awesome.More please! I'd like to see a papercraft Bangalash, and I know kids all over the world would love a papercraft Murloc. As you've probably guessed, I'm clueless about this papercraft stuff, but would it be possible to build player models this way, or is that too complicated?[ via WorldofWar.net ]
