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Taking gaming into the real world
Playing video games and enjoying the outdoors don't have to be mutually exclusive. Various creative minds have come up with ways to take gaming into real-world environments. Why chill at the crib when you could be out driving a real-life Mario Kart or letting hadoukens fly at Burning Man? We've highlighted just a few of these pioneering projects this week, so head to the gallery for a look at the gaming experiences you've missed by staying home.
WWDC for fun and tickles
It's that time of year again! This morning, when Apple announced its WWDC dates and opened its new lottery system, potential attendees started going crazy attempting to book flights and hotel rooms in the hope they'd get lucky. This morning thousands of developers signed up for a chance to pay $1600 (not to mention those hotel and flights) to participate in one of the most valuable -- but exclusive -- events on the Apple social calendar. Some tell me they're planning to travel regardless of whether they do or do not win that golden ticket. With a major swell in third party conferences and landing zones, WWDC has spilled out from the walls of Moscone into a much wider community event. Think of Burning Man, but with better dressed attendees... (If you like, you can skip the word "better" in that sentence.) Some developers I talked to this morning were busy contemplating a startup selling souvenir badges. "Why feel outcast when you can purchase a fake attendee thing to hang around your neck. You can walk around SF looking like a real hipster!" I don't believe they were being entirely serious. Meanwhile, others were busy carefully dissecting the new announcement art. Although we at TUAW still think it looks a bit like a horse's behind, we're curious about the suggestion it creates of display technology and pixels. Very intriguing if so. What do you think of the artwork? Any secret clues? Share your thoughts in the comments and tell us what you think about the new WWDC sign up system. Love it? Hate it? Fear it? Also, if you have any third party events you're organizing or planning to participate in, please drop us a line! We'd love to hear about it.
Listen to the Engadget Mobile Podcast, live at 3pm ET!
A giant man is burning somewhere in the desert, and Myriam is currently gazing upon him. In her absence, Brad will be joined by fellow Engadgeteers Dana Wollman and Jon Fingas to discuss the latest happenings at IFA (as well as the rest of the world). We've got a lot to discuss in a very short period of time, so the ratio of mobile geekery / minute is going to be pretty dang high. Join us at 3pm! August 31, 2012 3:00 PM EDT
The Engadget Mobile Podcast, live at 5PM ET!
We're not going to let a Burning Man get in the way of our weekly podcast, are we? That's a negatory, as the Engadget Mobile Podcast lives on in Myriam Joire's absence. Co-host Brad Molen is still behind the mic offering his soothing sounds, and in to help him hit the weekly rant quota are special guests Zachary Lutz and Dante Cesa. Join us, won't you, for another round of mobile goodness? Be here at 5PM ET (2PM PT, 9PM GMT) for Episode 102.
Wearable lab coat TV packs thousands of LEDs, heads for Burning Man (video)
Sure, we've seen iPad hats and augmented reality tattoos, but a 60-inch display suitable for hours of wear under the hot Nevada desert sun? Well that's just crazy talk. Believe it or not, a one Dave Forbes built exactly that: a 12V battery powered, 160 x 120-pixel monitor capable of displaying standard NTSC analog video from an in-pocket iPod. The result is nothing short of incredible, but when you're building a wearable lab coat-based TV with thousands of LEDs and a pair of circuit boards, features like breathability and water-wicking tend to get overlooked. Forbes spent six months creating this ultimate gadget, which is likely to make quite the colorful splash when he shows it off next month at Burning Man. But with a multi-month time commitment and $20,000 price tag, we can't help but wonder what this 'brainiac' could have come up with were he to redirect those resources towards a super-slick tech project for the masses, instead.
Rumor: Eric Schmidt chewed out by Jobs, gave iPhone to mistress
While Google CEO Eric Schmidt may wield enough power to influence search results in China, this power apparently isn't strong enough to develop and maintain good friendships -- this is according to a post at Valleywag. The piece examines the persona that is Schmidt, the head of one of the most well-known companies in the world, through the lens of the events at Burning Man 2007. While Schmidt longed to connect with his peers, Valleywag claims that he didn't exactly go out of his way to establish those connections. Rather than camp out in the desert at Burning Man, Schmidt chose, instead, to drive two and a half-hours back and forth from his Reno, Nevada hotel room in order to sleep on his cozy bed. During one of these treks, Schmidt received a phone call from Apple CEO Steve Jobs. The rest, as they say, is history. At the time, rumors had begun swirling about the Google "G-Phone" and, while Schmidt was on the road, word of the phone leaked from HTC. Feeling a sense of betrayal, Jobs allegedly berated Schmidt during the call. "Steve was very, very upset," Schmidt is said to have told his companion Kate Bohner (more on her in a bit). "My God, he was so angry." Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/keithallison/ CC BY-SA 2.0
Video: Orb Swarm gets a brain, going autonomous at Burning Man
Remember Orb Swarm, that merry band of rolling semi-autonomous spheres? Well, they've seen the open-source wizard and came back with a brain. In other words, they've gone autonomous, or mostly so as they are now capable of navigating within a pre-defined GPS course. Besides navigation, these orbs feature an embedded processor, accelerometer and ZigBee wireless communication all of which allow the rolling spheres to "flock , flirt, dance and interact," say their creators. They're set for release en masse onto the Burning Man playa at the end of this month where they're sure to punish chemically-influenced revelers with a sense of panic suitable to the uprising. Check the video after the break for a taste if participating in pagan festivals celebrating experimental living is a bit beyond your sense of sheltered sensibility. [Via Hack A Day and BotJunkie]
Mondo Spider robot walks, consternates onlookers
Joining the Land Walker, Robotic Giraffe, and the Anchorage Mecha as some of the most exotic, over-the-top ways to get from point A to point B is the Mondo Spider, which required a team of skilled engineers and "thousands of hours" in order to assemble. The creators seemingly spared no cost on the mechanical arachnid, as it boasts an impressive array of gears, linkages, and sheer quantities of metal to bring it all together. The man-driven beast cranks up like your average vehicle, but slipping it into first gear gets the spidey's legs a-crankin', and before long, it actually gets up to a respectable pace and commands respects from anyone close to its path. It may not shoot rubber balls or pass a state inspection, but we can't imagine too many vehicles standing up to this intimidating monster. Catch the videotaped demonstration in the links below.[Via Wired]
The Robotic Giraffe
It's a bit hard to get noticed in all the mayhem of the Burning Man festival, so Linsday Lawlor did what any other self respecting engineer would do and built himself a 17-foot tall robotic giraffe. Named Rave Raffe, the huge robot runs off of three 450-amp batteries that are charged by a 12-horsepower propane engine. The whole unit can run for about 8 hours at Raffe's top walking speed: 1 mile per hour. The 1700 pound robot has a pneumatic powered 8-foot neck, 40 strobe lights, 400 LEDs and a killer speaker system. The bot walks by moving two of its wheeled legs forward at a time, and then locking them with hydraulic brakes while the other two shuffle ahead. Lawlor (a laser-light-show designer, can you tell?) isn't done yet though, he's working on computerized flashing giraffe spots, a light up circulatory system, and a gas grill to get Raffe ready for this summer's Burning Man. If we weren't allergic to sunlight this might be worth a trek down to Nevada all on its own.[Via MAKE]
