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MIT team gets us one step closer to robot bartenders
Sure, we've seen machines that can mix drinks with the help of an app and robot bartenders that can create cocktails out of Keurig-esque pods, but they all require you to actually push the control buttons and carry your own beverages. The horror! Fortunately for lazy drinkers everywhere, members of the CSAIL (Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory) team at MIT recently presented a system of robots working together in a "bar" scenario that consisted of a PR2 robot "bartender" and two four-wheeled open-source "Turtlebot" kits acting as waiters. That... must have been a mighty tough day at work.
The Big Picture: Mix precision drinks with this delightful CAD drawing
Being the bartender sounds fun, until you realize you have to crack a cocktail recipe book. Engineering to the rescue! This drawing -- originally used to test plotters -- was converted into an AutoCAD file by Florian Römhild, who later colorized it. You can see it contains all the info needed to mix classic drinks -- the volume of each ingredient (with a handy key), type of glass, garnish and whether to shake or stir. It also lets wannabe drink-slingers visualize each libation at a glance. The best part? You can stick it up on your bar for reference and a touch of geek chic. For a PDF version, hit the source. [Image credit: Florian Römhild]
Build your own robotic bartender with Arduino and a 3D printer
You can certainly buy a ready-made drink mixing robot if you're flush with cash, but wouldn't you rather spend that money on the drinks themselves? Yu Jiang Tham thinks so -- he recently designed Bar Mixvah, a robotic bartender you can build yourself with $180 in parts. The key ingredient is an Arduino Nano microcontroller that takes your requests through a web-based interface. After that, it's mostly a matter of 3D printing the frame and wiring up the pumps that will make your beverage a reality.
These are a few of my favorite things - 2013 Edition
As 2013 comes to an end, here are a list of my favorite Mac apps that I used over the past year. Now there are a few important things to remember: you'll notice that many of these are not "new" apps because, well, I don't care when the apps were made nearly as much as I care if they're good and I find them useful. Instead, this is a list of the apps that I used or enjoyed the most in 2013, and expect to keep using in the future. All prices listed are in US Dollars, rounded off to the nearest whole dollar (because we all know that 99¢ is just a marketing way of saying $1, right?). If there is no price listed, then the app/utility is free, although most gratefully accept donations. Favorite New App of 2013 Bartender ($15) is the app I never knew I wanted until it existed, and now I never want to use a Mac without it installed. Bartender lets you hide apps on your menu bar, as well as organize the ones you want to remain visible. You can even use it to hide built-in OS X menu bar icons such as Notification Center and Spotlight. I even use Bartender on my Dell UltraSharp 29" Ultrawide monitor which is essentially one monitor as wide as two monitors. Favorite App of 2013 Keyboard Maestro ($36) is my favorite "non-new" app of 2013. Version 6 came out in 2013 and the app is continually improved. The more I learn about Keyboard Maestro, the more I'm impressed with it. I have written about it a lot and posted several macros on Github. I've even done some one-on-one consulting and training. Even after all that, I'm still learning new tricks that it can do. (Peter Lewis, Keyboard Maestro's developer, commented that he's still impressed to see what users come up with to do with his own app!) Keyboard Maestro's cost may seem high in a world where software is often reduced to "fart-app pricing" but it does the work of several apps. It can launch applications, move and click the mouse, execute scripts, insert (static or dynamic/variable) text, manipulate windows, control menus, create/move/copy/rename/delete/trash files, control iTunes, capture images, control iTunes, send notifications, and more. Keyboard Maestro comes with a 30-day trial which is enough time to overcome the initial learning curve and start making it work for you. The developer is very responsive to questions and support requests, and there many others using Keyboard Maestro too, so you're likely to find more tips in the year ahead if you read their sites too. More Automation on the Mac Keyboard Maestro is only the tip of the automation iceberg. TextExpander ($35) and Hazel ($28) both continued to be essential tools in 2013. In case you're not familiar with them: TextExpander inserts text (or images, or runs scripts) on demand when you type a shortcut, and Hazel automatically responds to changes in files and folders. TextExpander is great if you find yourself needing to re-type the same thing over and over. I use it to insert frequently referred-to links, create templates for shell scripts or MultiMarkdown documents, and mail signatures. You can even "nest" snippets within other snippets. A Mac without TextExpander feels broken. Hazel can do so many things I don't know where to start, but here's one set of recipes I use more than any other. All of these are actions taken on files added to my ~/Downloads/ folder: If there is a new archived file (.zip, .tar.gz, etc) then unarchive it and store the original file in ~/Downloads/Archives/ (in case I want to copy it to another Mac). If a new .app file is found, move it to /Applications/ and replace any older version If a new text file is found (.txt, .md, .mmd, etc) is found, move it to ~/Dropbox/txt/ If another kind of document (.pdf, .docx, etc) is found, move it to ~/Dropbox/Documents/ If an image is found, move it to ~/Dropbox/Photos/ (where another Hazel rule then sorts them by date) There are lots of other possibilities, those are just a few to get you started. Hazel is one of those tools that works in the background doing tedious things so you don't have to. It will even keep your Trash from getting taking up space with old files or oversized files. Read more at TUAW All Hazel articles All TextExpander articles Most Taken-For-Granted App I Couldn't Live Without Dropbox. Good lord, I don't even want to think about using a Mac without Dropbox. Unless you have been literally living in a cave, you must have heard about Dropbox by now, right? If so, here's a summary: it's a magic folder which syncs to all of your computers (Mac, Windows, even Linux) which you can access on your iOS devices, and even on their website (unlike iCloud documents). It is supported by tons of iOS devices which use it for document sharing and more. You get 2 GB for free, and up to 500 GB for $500/year. All accounts come with 30 days of versioning so you can go back to previous versions of documents. Other Dropbox articles to check out: Get an extra 1 GB of Dropbox storage by syncing it to Mailbox Keep Dropbox.app up-to-date when the magic fails Finding Dropbox 'conflicted copy' files automatically All Dropbox articles on TUAW This Is Getting Really Long, I'm Going to Have to Summarize a Few of These: Sorry for the bulleted list. These are great apps, but they are either better-known or more easily explained (I hope!). This was the year I switched to Alfred ($0 for most features, $28 for "Powerpack" extensions, or a little over $50 for lifetime updates) from LaunchBar ($35). LaunchBar is still a great app, I just wanted to be able to use some of the workflow features in Alfred. Alfred, LaunchBar, and Keyboard Maestro all have clipboard functionality built-in, but if you want an app just for saving multiple clipboards, get Flycut. Even has Dropbox sync. MailMate ($50) definitely deserves its own review, and I suspect I'll be using it even more in 2014, but 2013 saw me start to move away from Gmail, especially Gmail.com which was redesigned but did not get better. If you use email, you owe it to yourself to checkout MailMate. OmniDiskSweeper ($0) remains my go-to app for finding out what is using all of my hard drive space. I'm still using version 1 of Skitch ($0) whenever I need to quickly take a screenshot then annotate and/or share it. Skitch version 2 has gotten better since its initial atrocious release but "saving" a Skitch in version 2 goes to Evernote instead of just staying locally, and I have no desire, need, or interest in saving Skitch to Evernote. Soulver ($12) is the first 'calculator' that I have really enjoyed using. I've never been great at math, I can't do a lot of calculations in my head. Using a regular calculator always left me frustrated, and half the time I wasn't sure that I had done the calculations properly. With Soulver, I understand regular real-life math a lot better than I ever have. That isn't to say that it doesn't have a lot of powerful options which are useful to people who are good at math. It does. But if you've never struggled with math, you can't understand what it means to have something like this. The word "empowering" has been overused to the extreme, but here it fits, at least for me. I bought the separate iPad and iPhone versions without hesitation or complaint, but I am glad to see that Soulver for iOS is now a universal app (currently on sale for $2). Need to turn a bunch of CDs or audio files into an audiobook? Audiobook Builder ($5). It will not only 'chapterize' it for you, it will also let you easily add cover art using any image file. Want to make sure your Mac doesn't turn itself off for a certain amount of time? Try Caffeine. GIF Brewery ($5) easily takes a video clip and turns it into a GIF. Use your Mac's keyboard for any iOS device (or any other Bluetooth capable device, including another Mac) using Type2Phone ($5). Growl ($4) still does a few tricks that OS X's notifications don't. Use PCKeyboardHack and KeyRemap4MacBook to make a hyper key. If you want to edit, create, or learn about launchd, get LaunchControl ($10, free unlimited demo). Hugely useful. Need to cut up an audio file, maybe to make an iPhone ringtone, or maybe just to trim it for some other reason? Fission - Fast & Lossless Audio Editing. I still haven't learned git but thanks to GitHub for Mac I've been able to fake my way along. If you use a calendar, get Fantastical ($10) for quick "natural language" entry menu bar access, and get BusyCal ($50, 30-day trial) for a better Mac calendar. Print from iOS to your Mac with Printopia ($20). You can save the file as a PDFs (or JPG or PNG if that's what the file was originally), or send them to any printer connected to your Mac. Default Folder X ($35, 30-day trial) lets you quickly jump to favorite folders, or assign specific folders as the 'default' for certain apps. This is another one of those tools that: a) feels like it should be built-in to OS X, b) when I use a Mac without this installed, it feels broken. Trying to monitor your Mac's bandwidth usage and prevent apps from covertly connecting to the Internet? Little Snitch ($35) is the tattletale little brother than those apps wish had never been born. SlimBatteryMonitor is a better battery monitor that OS X's own; MagiCal lets you easily create a menu bar clock that shows the time and/or date exactly as you want it; FreeSpace Tab shows available hard drive space in the menu bar; and I've stopped using all three in favor of iStat Menus ($16, 14-day trial) which also knocked OS X's Activity Monitor off my Dock. Of course I use VLC for most of my video-watching, including Blu-Ray discs thanks to MakeMKV ($0 for some features, $50 for Blu-Ray features, although they are free during beta see here for more info which is also what I use for ripping Blu-Ray and DVDs, almost exclusively via Batch Rip Actions for Automator which are capital-A Awesome if you are ripping lots of DVD/Blu-Ray discs. When I'm done I clean everything up using Name Mangler to get the filenames right and then I can watch my collection in the Plex Media Server. Last but not least I use Mountain ($2) to mount and unmount drives from the menu bar, Flashmount (see previous coverage) to quickly mount DMGs. and DiskWarrior ($100) to check and repair my disks. (By the way, DiskWarrior might be the most expensive piece of software on this list, but it's worth every penny. Get it to help fix little problems before they become big problems.) Looking Ahead Wow. That's a lot of great software. Here are a few apps that I'm keeping an eye on because I suspect they will be on next year's list: Shortcat (currently $16 during beta, planned $24 after): "Keep your hands on the keyboard and boost your productivity! Shortcat is a keyboard tool for Mac OS X that lets you "click" buttons and control your apps with a few keystrokes. Think of it as Spotlight for the user interface." let.ter ($4): "The tiny Markdown powered app just for writing emails." I've been using a send-only email app for 2.5 years now, but I like what I see so far in Letter. Recently released and still lacking some essential features such as multiple account support (which is planned for the nearish future), but I bet this eventually replaces what I've been using. Vellum is the new app that I'm most excited about. Anyone who has tried to make ebooks knows that it's a pain because each device has its own... "quirks." Serenity Caldwell likens making ebooks today to making websites in the late '90s when web standards didn't really exist or weren't implemented by the companies that made web browsers. Vellum bills itself as the tool to help you overcome the madness by letting you import a .docx file and export properly formatted books for iBooks, Kindle, and Nook. This is the next app on my "to test" list and I can't wait.
Best Mac apps of 2013: Talkcast recap
On this Sunday's TUAW Talkcast, several Mac pundits picked out their favorite Mac apps of 2013. Our own Michael Rose convened the panel, including GeekBeat TV host Benjamin Roethig; TUAW TV Live host Shawn "Doc Rock" Boyd (who hates snow); longtime TUAW contributor, app developer and podcaster Brett Terpstra; and the managing editor of The Mac Observer, Jeff Gamet. The show will be available on iTunes momentarily (and streamable from Talkshoe), but in case you want to speed up your app sampling, we've recapped the app list here. To best highlight these apps, I will list them alphabetically with links and relevant quips contributed by the host and guests. All of these apps are compatible with OS X 10.8 and 10.9, and reasonably priced. Some of them work with older systems, also. Also, be sure to read Brett's own list of his favorite apps of 2013, over at brettterpstra.com. Best Mac Apps of 2013 1Password 4 from AgileBits Inc. (On numerous people's lists.) Jeff called it "magically awesome." Brett notes that it stores your passwords and personal information (including credit card numbers, software license keys and more) and "makes storing and generating [the items] just simple." The popup that used to only work in browsers now works anywhere on your Mac; that way, you don't have to open the main 1Password app nearly as often as before. AirServer 5 from App Dynamic. An AirPlay receiver for Mac and PC. Can mirror your display from iOS devices. "Great for demoing iOS apps, and a more professional feature set than Reflector" -- Mike Rose. Alfred v2 from Running With Crayons. A free, hotkey-based launch controller that also can initiate a quick web search and offers a number of other capabilities (offered by Doc Rock; he referred to it as one of his household servants). This one received a TUAW Best of 2011 for Mac Utility apps. Adobe Edge Code and Edge Inspect Combo. Doc Rock uses these programs with his Creative Cloud subscription. Edge Code is a HTML and CSS editing tool. Edge Inspect is an inline editor of code, which while working on a line, the meta key will open up accompanying files in a modal box, so they can be adjusted without leaving your main HTML file. "It's amazing," according to Doc. Bartender from Surtees Studios Ltd. (Offered up by Brett Terpstra and Jeff Gamet.) "Bartender is a lifesaver." It lets you control which menu items show up on your menu bar, and lets you rearrange them at will. Bartender was also written up on TUAW as a Friday Favorite while it was still in beta. BeamApp from BeamApp UG. Brett noted this Mac and iOS tool for quickly sending phone numbers, songs, maps and more between your devices and your Mac. Mike pointed out DeskConnect, which has some of the same functionality but also allows you to send files (PDFs, presentations, Word docs) between the Mac and your iOS device in a jiffy. BetterTouchTool by Andreas Hegenberg. A free utility for OS X 10.7 and above that lets you configure gestures for your mouse and trackpad. Brett says he uses two Magic Trackpads and can set them up to do just what he wants. CheatSheet from Media Atleier. This free utility uses the command key to show you all available shortcuts for an app. Not available in the Mac App Store because it cannot be sandboxed. See Media Atelier's blog for the explanation. Clarify 1.1.3 from Blue Mango Learning Systems. A great tool for quick and easy documentation. You can capture an image, edit it and add text, all on one place. You can read about Clarify's first iteration in TUAW's Daily Mac App feature from 2011. Clef and Waltz. Mike Rose pointed out this new take on password and authentication management; just point your iPhone at an animated barcode patch and it lets you into the target site, removing your need to remember passwords. Although relatively few sites work with Clef, the new, independently developed Chrome plugin Waltz expands it to work with Twitter, Facebook, Dropbox and more. Clyppan by Ole Morten Halvorsen. It stores all your clipboard clippings, letting you recall them with a quick keystroke. Not new, but very useful. Coffitivity from coffitivity.com. Both Jeff and Mike called out this menubar tool. A certain amount of ambient noise can help stimulate creativity, so folks who work in silence may benefit from running Coffitivity, which adds background and ambient noise from a coffee shop. Downie by Charlie Monroe. Web video and YouTube downloader "that actually works." Downie actually suports 120 different sites, and Mike noted that it's replaced older tools like Grappler and EVOM for him. Everpix. This made the list despite the photo storage service closing shop earlier this year. "It was a fantastic app while it lasted." You can read the story of Everpix's closure from Megan Lavey-Heaton on TUAW. Evernote from Evernote Corporation. It's a note taking app that can do many things and Michael notes that it "keeps getting more useful." Jeff Gamet also notes that the Jot Script Evernote Edition (US $75) is more like writing with a real pen as opposed to a stylus. It's got a hard tip and clicks on the iPad, which is his only complaint. Fantastical 2 from Flexibits Inc. This is billed as "calendars and reminders done right." Jeff notes that additional plain text entry options, multi time zone and dictation support have been added. You can read TUAW's review from Victor Agreda to learn more. Final Cut Pro X from Apple. Listener John Brown suggested Apple's flagship 64-bit video editing application. John noted they've made it quite simple for most people to use and refers to it as "remarkable." Doc Rock also notes that it is "a major step forward" and "a great application." This week's 10.1 update added optimizations for Apple's new Mac Pro desktop. Hazel from Noodlesoft. Doc says this pairs up with Alfred as his "domestic help" and notes that "it does a really good job of keeping icons on desktop organized," plus it can move files around based on a variety of file attributes that you set. MailMate from Feron. An IMAP email client with an impressive array of features. "It does everything I need it to," says Brett, who describes it as "the TextMate of email." Marked 2.2 from Brett Terpstra. We couldn't let the show go by without a hat tip to Brett's own Markdown preview tool, very much improved in the 2.x version. MindNode Pro from Ideas On Canvas Ltd. Both Mike and Brett called out this Mac and iOS mindmapping tool for its speed, easy interface and good-looking output. Mouseposé 3.2.4 from Boinx Software Ltd. Updated in December, it's a useful mouse pointer highlighting tool for demos and presentations. "A lot of my colleagues use tools like OmniDazzle or Zoomit for remote presentations," says Mike, "and whenever I pull out Mouseposé everyone on the call goes 'oooh, ahhh.'" OmniPresence from The Omni Group. For users of OmniGroup's apps. It's a free service and menu bar item that offers file syncing between devices. "It makes all of the changes between your files appear everywhere," says Jeff, but without the limitations and aggravations of iCloud. PollEv Presenter app from Poll Everywhere. SMS-based polling service that works with PowerPoint or Keynote to show live polls in real time. Mike calls it one of his go-to tools. Popclip from Pilotmoon Software. (Offered by Doc Rock and Brett Terpstra.) A $2 app that shows up when you select text with your mouse or trackpad -- simulating the iOS text selection experience.. ReadKit from Webin. RSS reader; Brett says it's "simplistic and powerful, and it supports every RSS system you can think of, and makes my life easy." RocketDocs. This single-session browser tool is specific to the Google Drive/Google Apps productivity tools. Mike says it's often easier than setting up Chrome for Docs use, and keeps your editing sessions away from general browsing. Shush from Mizage. A cough button for your Mac, so that you can mute yucky noises when recording audio. Works in FaceTime, iChat, Skype, Podcast Capture and more. Both Mike and Brett enthusiastically recommend it -- Mike even used it during the show, and blocked every snuffle and cough! We welcome your suggestions for the best Mac apps of 2013 -- let us know in the comments or on Facebook.
Daily Update for November 22, 2013
It's the TUAW Daily Update, your source for Apple news in a convenient audio format. You'll get all the top Apple stories of the day in three to five minutes for a quick review of what's happening in the Apple world. You can listen to today's Apple stories by clicking the inline player (requires Flash) or the non-Flash link below. To subscribe to the podcast for daily listening through iTunes, click here. No Flash? Click here to listen. Subscribe via RSS
iKeg makes sure the local bar has beer on hand for your Friday Afternoon Club
For beer drinkers, there's nothing worse than going to your usual watering hole on Friday afternoon (or any other time) only to find out that your favorite brew isn't available. Statistics show that bar patrons will actually drink one-third less during a visit if they're "forced" to consume a beer that's not their "usual." So for bar owners and beer distributors alike, it's critical to know when a keg is getting low in order to keep the suds flowing. That's where iKeg, from SteadyServ Technology, comes in handy. It's a multi-part solution to a problem that's plagued bartenders and beer drinkers for hundreds of years; knowing when a keg is going to run dry. To start off with, each keg of frosty brew is equipped with a SteadyServ sensor that sends out a constant stream of information to the cloud over a wireless (WiFi and cellular) connection: how much beer is in the keg, the type and style of the beer, when it was delivered to the bar, when it was tapped, its age and an estimate of when the keg might run dry. The horror... the horror... Steady Serv's cloud service then combines that data with other information like the next scheduled delivery date and previous orders, consumption trends (both at the bar and other bars nearby), event information (patrons might drink more during a local sporting event) and local weather forecasts. That info can generate alerts to order another keg just in time for it to arrive as the last draw is pulled from the tap. Of course, there's an app for all this. The SteadyServ iKeg App (free) is targeted to those brewers, distributors and bartenders who keep the important stuff flowing toward our thirsty mouths. I won't go into detail about it; for that, there's a video embedded below showing you everything you need to know. Just sit back, sip a pint of that lovely ale as you watch and try not to get too bored with the narrator. On behalf of all the beer drinkers who read TUAW, I want to thank SteadyServ for helping keep the world a happier place. Now, be sure to point your local barkeep to this post, OK?
Monsieur robotic bartender pours libations at home for $1,499 (hands-on)
A night out at the local watering hole can be a pain sometimes, having to elbow your way through crowds and struggle to catch the bartender's eye, all for a tasty beverage. If only we could leave all the hard work to a machine. Fortunately, Monsieur, the "robotic bartender" that we first met at TechCrunch Distrupt a few weeks ago, is back to deliver a Jetsonian experience to those who thirst for more than tech. It's certainly not the first of its kind, but the delivery method employed here is of a subtler sort, downplaying the anthropomorphic angle and hiding away the mechanism inside a streamlined casing. The home-bound version is significantly more compact (and less expensive) than the enterprise edition seen above, and it should be making its way to consumers soon. Grab a glass and join us after the break to see what's in store.
Bartender for Mac updated with support for OS X Mavericks, dynamic menu items
Bartender is a wonderful tool for organizing your Mac's menu bar. When a new app is installed, it regularly adds yet another icon to your menu bar, creating clutter that makes it harder to find the app you really want. With Bartender, you can set which app icons appear in your menu bar and in what order they're shown in. Now Bartender has released version 1.2, and they're holding a special sale on the program to celebrate. Until September 30, 2013, you can buy the app for just US$10, down from the regular price of $15. Here's what you can expect from version 1.2: Full Mavericks support, including multi-monitor with separate spaces / menu bars. Show for Updates for System Items. This allows you to set the battery menu to appear when you connect the power cord, or only show Time Machine when a backup is in progress. Show for Updates for all apps now uses image recognition to determine if the Menu Bar Item has updated. Ever wished you could simply drag something to an app hidden by Bartender? Dragging anything to the Bartender Menu Bar Icon will now perform the default click action. For most users this is to display the Bartender Bar; this is to allow dragging to apps such as CloudApp, etc. Reduced Bartenders power usage optimized for Mavericks. Increased app compatibility. There are many advances and bug fixes included in this release. You can view them here in the release notes.
Monsieur robotic bartender automates mixed drinks with a tap of a finger
While many of us enjoy the pleasure of mixed alcoholic beverages, not everyone wants to take the time to make them ourselves. Perhaps that's why the Raspberry Pi-powered Bartendro cocktail mixing bot proved so popular that it easily reached its $135,000 Kickstarter goal. Yet, the Bartendro's decidedly homespun look might not fly so well in more respectable establishments. Enter the Monsieur, which is a much more elegant solution for lazy lushes everywhere. Monsieur is a "robotic bartender" housed inside a stylish black box, developed by Georgia Tech mates Barry Givens and Eric Williams after Givens got tired of waiting for a mixed drink at a bar. The duo spent months working to make sure it poured just the right measurements per drink (that must've been fun to test) and making other refinements that resulted in the machine you see above. The Monsieur comes in either eight or 12 bottle configurations, and you can find out which alcohol or mixer to put in which slot by following the instructions on the machine. It has a built-in recipe library, customizable drink profiles and it even creates a grocery list for you. Right now the machine uses an Android tablet to drive it, but they hope to have a more integrated solution when it comes to market. There's also a corresponding mobile app that offers recipe ideas. The Monsieur is currently being marketed as part of bottle service at high-end bars and at sporting events. All the staff would need to do is roll the box into a room and let customers order what they want; the computer will keep track of the orders and bill them when they're done. Givens and Williams don't rule out the possibility of a consumer version, but that's not in the cards just yet. Until then, check out the source link for more info or hit up the via to see their presentation at TechCrunch Disrupt.
MIT makes a smartphone-controlled bartender
We've seen beer-pouring robots before, but MIT has recently put together a smartphone-controlled robot bartender, with three robot arms that can pour and mix up to 100 different alcoholic and non-alcoholic flavors. The Makr Shakr lets you order up a drink directly from your iPhone, and then it will make the drink and deliver it to you as requested. The robot will be officially unveiled later this week at Google's I/O conference, and for now it's just an interesting robotics project, so it's unlikely you'll see your own robot bartender in a local watering hole any time soon (plus, who would you flirt with if there was a robot pouring you drinks?). But this is a fascinating idea -- it would save bars time and money to have a robot behind the counter, and the fact that nearly everyone has a iPhone in their pocket these days means there's an easily accessible interface ready to go. You can order your drink at Starbucks from your iPhone, so why not order up a drink at a bar, from a robot or anyone else?
Bartendro cocktail mixing robot lands on Kickstarter, wields Raspberry Pi (video)
If you prefer robot bartenders to lack limbs that could be used against you in the impending robopocalypse, Bartendro might be your kind of bot. After two years of building and tweaking, the folks at Party Robotics have finally polished their Raspberry Pi-powered cocktail-making rig and have posted it to Kickstarter. Born from a need to re-create mixed drinks in perfect proportion, Bartendro uses food-grade tubing, pumps and custom-built electronics to pipe liquids out with a measurement accuracy of a milliliter. According to the projects' site, however, it can't quite handle carbonated beverages in its current state. By using a device connected to the contraption's own WiFi network, thirsty folks will be able to select drinks from a web-based interface. Mixologists, on the other hand, can leverage the control panel to customize cocktail recipes, manage dispensers and even read reports of what drinks were made and how much of which ingredients were used. Both the hardware and the software that make up Bartendro are open source, and the team behind it even wants to create an online drink compendium that's free as in freedom and beer. The hope is that intrepid enthusiasts can hack together mods ranging from breathalyzers to a stirring or shaking mechanism. Early supporters can snatch a ShotBot with one dispenser for $249, a Bartendro with three for $375, a model toting seven for $1,199 and a fourth version carrying a whopping 15 for $2,499. However, crafty DIYers can roll their own system by pledging coin for individual dispensers and the Linux boxes that power them. The group has currently raised over $20,000, but it's aiming for $135,000 to push the bot into production. Click the bordering source link if you're inclined to chip in or hit the jump for Party Robotic's pitch video.
Bartender will hide your menu bar icons, goes to version 1.0
Bartender is a simple but excellent little app that lets you control that flood of icons up in your menu bar on the top of your OS X window. Now, designer Ben Surtees, who we spoke with earlier this year about where the app came from, has released version 1.0.2 of the app, officially releasing it as a finished product out into the world. You can buy it now for US$15, or there's still a four-week trial period available, if you just want to check it out for free. Bartender offers a lot of different functionality to let you control your menu bar exactly as you choose. You can hide everything, kick icons down to Bartender's own bar or even set it up so that your icons are usually hidden, but only appear if they change. Plus, the app works with Notification Center, so you can hide or control that icon too as you'd like. And even when icons are moved down to the Bartender bar, they retain all of their functionality, as you can see above. Bartender is a handy little app, and congrats to Surtees on finally releasing it. Again, it's available for purchase right now.
TUAW Origin Stories: Bartender
We wrote up Bartender for Mac as a Friday Favorite some time ago, even though the app isn't out of beta. In this Origin Stories, I speak with Ben Surtees, who has been programming since he was 15. Check out the story behind Bartender in the video below, and the app itself if you're tired of menu bar items cluttering your Mac.
Addon Spotlight: 6 addons you shouldn't play without
It would make a very sad paladin to think that anyone was playing WoW without these addons installed. Sure, some of you are purists -- but if you are, then maybe this column isn't for you! I love these addons, and I want to share. Do note that this is six addons I couldn't play without. Your opinions may differ; these are mine. None of these are for specific gameplay situations so much as more just for general quality of life in WoW. I'd love to see their features included in the standard UI by Blizzard, but until then, I'll carry on using them. You could give them a try too if you felt like it! Addon Control Panel Download Addon Control Panel: WoWInterface, WoWAce, Curse This nifty addon is top of the list. Why is it top of the list? Because as the name suggests, it's an addon that allows you to control your other addons! It's all very meta. Seriously, though, if you're into addons like me, this is the one addon you should never be without. It allows you, by way of a simple screen, to switch on and off addons and modules of addons at will, without logging out of the game. I honestly don't know why this hasn't been included in the Blizzard interface as standard yet. Addon Control Panel proves it's possible, and it is just such a huge quality of life improvement for anyone who uses addons -- and that's most people.
Addon Spotlight: Mailbag 3
Each week, WoW Insider's Mathew McCurley brings you a fresh look at reader-submitted UIs as well as Addon Spotlight, which focuses on the backbone of the WoW gameplay experience: the user interface. Everything from bags to bars, buttons to DPS meters and beyond -- your addons folder will never be the same. Do you know where I am right now? I am probably at the Anabella Hotel in Anaheim, Calif., about to hand out some seriously sweet prizes to you awesome fans who are showing up for the party. If you're not here, you're most likely getting yourself pumped for the live stream. If you don't care about any of this and you're just reading Addon Spotlight today, well, I appreciate it and I love you, loyal readers. Since I am writing this column in advance of my impending journey to California, I went with the mailbag motif. If you have a question for Addon Spotlight, want to recommend an addon for the column, or have a comment about addons that have been featured, send an email to mat@wowinsider.com with something Addon Spotlight-related in the subject. Let the good times roll.
The Perfect Ten: The secret lives of NPCs
It is fun, I've decided, to overthink things in life. This is especially relevant in MMOs, where we've long since taken absolutely bizarre staples as the accepted status quo. Sure, it's all polite fiction that allows developers to merge necessary game mechanics with a veneer of credibility, but many elements of MMOs simply fall apart when put under the microscope. Case in point, the NPC. Is there a figure in online games that more symbolizes the thin barrier between the server database and user playerbase than the non-player character? NPCs exist to fill the world with warm bodies so that places don't feel empty, yet they also exhibit no more life than a mannequin with a tape recorder strapped to its back. These cardboard cutouts of the MMO scene are either reanimated corpses struggling to remember basic quest-giving instructions, or else they're prisoners of a foul witch who has struck the entire land with a paralyzing spell. So even though it's 2011 and you'd think that NPCs would be showing us more signs of life than swiveling slightly when we approach, I'm happy to jump in and offer my opinion as to the secret life of these figures. What makes them tick? What do they get out of helping -- and prodding -- us into action? Why don't they ever sleep or use the bathroom? Just who are these people we encounter and dismiss every day?
Reader UI of the Week: Ymïr's UI
Each week, WoW.com brings you a fresh look at reader-submitted UIs. Have a screenshot of your UI you want to submit? Send your screenshots, along with info on what mods you're using and some background information, to readerui@wow.com. Welcome friends! I hope your weeks are all off to wonderful starts. Hopefully, by the time you read this, the servers are back up, life is dandy and Dalaran hasn't crashed to pieces on you. Once you log in to your server of choice and choose your character, gaze and marvel upon the user interface before you, for it could one day be here in this very column. Another Reader UI of the Week is upon us! This week, I chose to feature Ymïr's user interface. His UI is tailored to his shaman, and as I have recently had a renewed interest in my own orc shaman I might be a little bit biased in the selection. For this UI, I wanted to focus more on functionality and spatial concerns, especially with respect to where buffs and debuffs are placed, as well as the tooltip.
Reader UI of the Week: Mar's UI
Each week WoW.com brings you a fresh look at reader submitted UIs. Have a screenshot of your UI you want to submit? Send your screenshots, along with info on what mods you're using, to readerui@wow.com. As promised, this week is non-widescreen addon/UI week! Often requested and often put to the side, I receive a lot of e-mail from readers about configuring user interfaces for non-widescreen resolutions and smaller monitors. The secret is that there really is no difference between configuring for a widescreen or non-widescreen monitor -- it's all about knowing how things fit together. On this week's Reader UI of the Week, we are going to take a look at Mar's UI. Mar has asked for some pointers on getting her interface right, so let's see if we can help out and, at the same time, give some awesome design pointers on configuring a user interface with less space.
AddOn Spotlight: Castbars
AddOn Spotlight focuses on the backbone of the WoW gameplay experience -- the user interface. Everything from bags to bars, buttons to DPS meters and beyond -- your AddOns folder will never be the same! This week, can we dethrone Quartz as king of cast bars? The cast bar addon/mod holds a special place in my heart, mostly because it was the last addon I got on board with. We will never really know why the cast bar was the last bastion of the WoW stock user interface for me, most likely because I was a healer, but eventually the tide turned. For a while, I let my cast bar live in my unit frames, below my health and mana, as a compact little meter that was happily minimal and out of the way. Something changed, though, and I suddenly realized I wanted a more full featured cast bar. Today, we talk about the king of cast bars, an alternative to the king (The Queen? Rival Nation of Castbaria?), a quick discussion about DoT timers and some reader mail. Let's get rockin'.
