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Console as entertainment hub: This time for sure
Today's San Jose Mercury News covers the PS3 and Wii launch for a broad audience, including the push to make consoles home entertainment hubs. We've heard the promise before, including Media Center Extender for the original Xbox and the PSX DVR that was supposed to ship worldwide. Even the Pippin and Dreamcast browsed the web, but few seemed to care.Are these internet and media features finally converging into single devices? The Wii has the fewest media features, but even that console is far ahead of the previous generations. Will general consumers -- or gamers -- care that they can download movies on a console?
ED unveils programmable, home-serving U-ROBO bot with RFID
While domesticated robots are becoming a (frighteningly) common inclusion in techno-friendly homes, Korean 'bot manufacturer ED has a home-ready robot that sports a plethora of communication venues including ZigBee and RFID. The ED-7270 (dubbed U-ROBO), touts a sophisticated similarity to the pioneering R2-D2, and can complete a myriad of in-home chores by using the included software to program its pathways, actions, and movements. While we aren't sure if the "ubiquitous robotic companion" can manhandle a broom or cook dinner, the innards are fairly potent nonetheless; beneath the U-ROBO's cute outfit is a 1GHz Intel Pentium processor, 512MB of RAM, WiFi, Ethernet, USB 2.0, ZigBee cooridinator, RFID reader, and a RS-232 serial port. It also rocks a 6.4-inch touchscreen, programmable display beneath his "eyes," voice recognition, motion / light detectors, and an eight-axis motor that has no qualms wheeling up slopes or braving extreme temperatures. Although we don't know precisely when these intelligent robots will start mopping our floors (or taking over our domicile), we're sure the undisclosed price will keep them in the hands of the rich and famous for awhile anyway. [Via AVing]
Bosch unloads LEGO Edition dishwasher to clean toys / dinnerware
A childhood isn't complete without a healthy stash of colored blocks to play with, but let's face it, the miniaturized (and LEGO-branded) version of Luke Skywalker and R2-D2 will eventually end up in the depths of a youngster's mouth one way or another. Taking a stand for germ-free toys (and the right to chew on nearly anything) is Bosch's LEGO Edition dishwasher, which sports a special "Toy cycle" to rid Tonka trucks and NERF blasters of microbial buildup without harming their "shape and integrity" (read: melting them into a pile of goo). While it sports the same grime-busting action as most high-end dishwashers out there, the additional cycle runs at 40 degrees Celsius in order to eliminate germs without destroying the plastic. The device comes in "freestanding, under the counter, and fully integrated" flavors, and can be found (only in Europe, curiously) now for €649 ($816), €749 ($942) and €899 ($1,130), respectively. [Via Slashgear]
Zillow Mobile appraises real estate on the go
Say you're passing by, oh, Pharrell Williams' house and you're just dying to know what that puppy's worth. You know Zillow's got your hookup, but normally, you'd have to make a note of the address and run back to your PC or fumble around with their website on your phone's mini-browser. A new project by the company, Zillow Mobile, lets you simply fire off a text message with the address and get back the home's value and vital stats in real time. Zillow says the system is still a side-project for the moment and may not be rock solid, but we think this'll be a neat tool for serious use and entertainment value nonetheless.
Down Home Cooking: It works, it really works
When we reported on Down Home Cooking for the DS, we were intrigued at the possibilities such a title could offer. Well, a forum poster by the name of Jonnyram got ahold of it and put it to the test, creating a Sweet and Sour Pork plate through entire instruction from the title. He says it turned out good, and by the looks of it, we'd agree that it is in fact edible food and not some weird concoction of various poisons.Check out the thread, Jonnyram also goes on to answer some questions about the game.
Mac Geekery debunks Dashboard 'phoning home'
JC (yes, the Ungenius guy) at Mac Geekery has used some UNIX tricks to do some digging into the whole 'Dashboard phoning home' topic that's been heating up the Mac web lately. After all is said and done and JC lays out exactly what is happening, he concludes that not only is Mac OS X 10.4.7 not sending any personal data (which we've already been told), but you actually give Apple more data about yourself simply by visiting Apple.com. Here's hoping those worried about Apple trampling their privacy can sleep a little better at night.
Brain Age paves way for Culinary Age?
Being dubbed Down Home Cooking, this "game" looks to show the Japanese how to prepare meals. What's even cooler is that the "game" has voice recognition, so that if you're stirring something in a bowl or whatever else you do whilst preparing a meal, you can progress in the recipe. It's all Greek to me, but it looks like you can also save recipes. Whether they're user-created or favorites included in the software is as of yet unknown. [Thanks Ben!]
NaimNet brings multi-room audio to the audiophiles
If you're not completely up on Naim Audio's full product line, we can hardly blame you. After all, it's hard to be a frequent shopper of a company that sells a $23,000 pre-amp. But if you've got to have the bestest of the best, with a little UK flavor, exorbitant pricing, and now multi-room capabilities, Naim has a solution. Their new NaimNet product line, powered by StreamNet tech, uses IP networking tech for a scalable multi-room CD-quality audio network, and is based on plain-old CAT5E wired networking. They don't call their system "plug and play," Sonos sure seems to have them beat for ease-of-use, but at these prices you'll probably be opting for the custom installation anyways. NaimNet can be operated via PDAs, PCs and a stand alone control interface. Their first NaimNet products will be a four-output DAB/FM tuner, a multi-room pre-amp, and power amps for rooms, including concealed versions. Naim plans on having both top-end and "low cost" AV systems available for their system, and will support interoperability with home automations and other AV setups. NaimNet is scalable up to 1.8 million rooms, and will probably cost that many dollars by the time you get your house outfitted with the tech.[Thanks, Tom]
Watch out for game thieves
Playing a thief in a video game is all very well, but becoming the victim of crime is less pleasant. Opposable Thumbs brings a warning that is worth heeding now and bearing in mind for the future; video game theft is on the rise.It's easy to believe that you will never be the one to suffer the loss of all your beloved games, but it's a cruel world; the used-game market is booming, and there are few ways to trace your property back if it gets stolen. As a victim of game theft -- my entire collection was stolen about eighteen months ago, eerily about the same time that Ben at Opposable Thumbs suffered the same loss -- here is some advice that, with hindsight, I wish I had followed: Don't leave your games piled up in plain sight to anyone peering through windows or on a casual stroll through your house. Don't keep expensive portable gaming systems on show. Do what you can towards your general home security. Do try to make your easily-portable, easily-sold games less appealing -- for example, take them out of their boxes or mark them. Do get insurance -- replacing rare and well-loved games is hard, but it's even harder if you're footing the entire bill. Keep a note of any especially rare items, and if you're the forgetful sort, maintain a list of all your games (with receipts) for easier claims. Do report the crime immediately, if you are unlucky enough to suffer; there may be a wave of thefts and your information may help prevent more.
TUAW Tip: visit your Library
This tip could definitely be classified as rudimentary to some, but I thought it would be handy to shed some light on a folder in the Home directory that is rarely opened by many users: the Library. For those who sometimes wonder things such as where Safari stores your bookmarks or where Mail.app keeps all those messages you never reply to, your Library folder is calling your name. The Library in your Home folder is where Mac OS X stores all the data you enter into almost any and every application you use. Take a look at ~/Library/Safari, for example (the (~) stands for your Home folder). In there is just about everything Safari stores for you, including your bookmarks and history. There are plenty of other handy folders to check out in your Library, such as the Fonts folder which stores all the fonts you install, but I think the real meat of the Library is the Application Support folder. This is where most applications will store their information, such as Adium extras, Camino/Firefox bookmarks, NetNewsWire subscription information and the database file iWeb uses to create your website.The Library is where (almost) all of it happens boys and girls, so take a look around. There are a lot of handy folders in there, but more importantly: in addition to the rest of the folders in your Home directory, the Library is one of the most vital to back up. So feel free to look around and familiarize yourself with your Library, the "guy behind the guy" of your Mac OS X Home directory.
TUAW Tip: Put your apps wherever you want
When you download a new application, its installation process typically tells you to either drag it into your Mac's Applications folder, or it has a full-blown installer that takes care of this process for you. But who says you have to keep all your apps in the Applications folder? Many applications, from Firefox to Quicksilver and even FCP and Photoshop, can generally be run from nearly any folder on your Mac, allowing you to organize your applications any way you see fit.Why would this matter, you ask? Well, if you're anything like me, you've built up a healthy collection of 3rd party apps that you use on a regular basis. If you want an easy way to either backup all these apps or quickly bring them all over to another Mac, you can simply keep them in a folder in your Home folder. This way, you can still use them and call them with tools like Quicksilver, OS X can still find them, and you can easily keep track of just your apps that matter most. This also saves a lot of time if you ever decide to do some serious "spring cleaning" and wipe your entire Mac.Now, one word of caution with this tip: as a general rule, exercise care when moving around any of the big apps, as well as the apps that used a full-blown installer. I had no troubles moving the entire Photoshop CS2 folder and Final Cut Pro.app to my desktop and running them, but I have no idea if a move like that could affect the functionality of things like plugins or other addons. My personal rule of thumb (which hasn't failed me yet) is that if an app is a simple drag and drop install, it doesn't necessarily have to live in the main Applications folder. If you've been using a similar trick like this, TUAW readers, feel free to discuss your ideas in the comments.
