ibot

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  • Toyota is bringing back Dean Kamen's stair-climbing wheelchair

    Remember Dean Kamen's iBot wheelchair? Its uniquely adjustable wheel orientation gave patients the freedom to climb stairs and effectively stand upright, but its high price ($25,000) knocked it off the market in 2009. Well, it's poised for a comeback: Toyota is partnering with Dean Kamen's DEKA to develop the next generation of iBot. Neither company is committing to a release date, but they've shown a familiar-looking prototype (below) that gives a hint of what to expect.

    Jon Fingas
    05.22.2016
  • Jagex wins court case against RuneScape botters

    Jagex Games Studio is trumpeting its legal victory against Mark and Eric Snellman. The brothers formed a company called Impulse Software, which now owes Jagex unspecified damages following a two-year legal battle concerning macro and botting tools for the company's RuneScape MMO. The brothers have been muzzled as a result of an injunction, and they are forbidden from discussing Jagex, RuneScape, or the lawsuit. Additionally, the pair must relinquish "all websites, domains, source code and customer details to Jagex along with all the details of all those individuals who have developed scripts for iBOT and sold or re-sold those scripts," according to a company press release. Jagex CEO Mark Gerhard vowed to protect RuneScape users from similar threats in the future. "We have spared no expense fighting this case, as demonstrated by the seven figure bill this action has cost, but the point of this and other cases of its kind is that we will continue bring to justice those who set out to harm the game or our beloved community. We are delighted to say that we have convincingly neutered them after a very long battle," he said. Jagex also says that its "Bot Nuke" operation, which began in October and includes a suite of code obfuscation tools, has rendered 98% of RuneScape bots obsolete. [Source: Jagex press release]

    Jef Reahard
    01.23.2012