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Toshiba's humanoid retail robot is ready to greet you
If you happen to be shopping in Japan sometime soon, don't be surprised if the first offer of help comes from a machine. Toshiba has just installed Aiko Chihira, a humanoid greeter robot, at Tokyo's Mitsukoshi department store. The kimono-clad automaton will guide you around the shop while it blinks and smiles -- at once helpful and, as you can see above, a little creepy. It can't respond to questions yet (don't yell at it over a faulty product), but it's capable of handling both spoken and signed languages. No, Aiko isn't as interactive or relentlessly adorable as SoftBank's Pepper, but it'll be a big time-saver if it prevents you from getting lost in the aisles. [Image credit: AP Photo/Shizuo Kambayashi]
Sprint lays off all in-store greeters and hosts?
We're hearing rumors today that Sprint has laid off greeters and hosts from its stores -- a likely scenario considering the company's ongoing financial struggles and the fact that Verizon appears to be making similar moves. By the same token, it'd seem like these cats would want to be ramping up in preparation for the Pre, not down, so this doesn't bode too well -- making room for more straight-up sales reps, perhaps?[Thanks, anonymous tipster]
