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Recommended Reading: Technology hasn't improved the airline experience
How Technology Has Failed to Improve Your Airline Experience Farhad Manjoo, The New York Times It hasn't been a great week for United, but that massive incident served as a harsh reminder that the airline industry has a long list of customer service issues. The New York Times' Farhad Manjoo details how technology has improved ride sharing, vacation rentals and more while the process of booking a flight and air travel still leaves a lot to be desired.
YouTube Find: Animals go insane over the iPad
We all know how much cats love the iPad, but did you know that dogs, birds and lizards love it, too? Check out this entertaining compilation video below showcasing our furry and not-so-furry friends enjoying some quality time with everyone's favorite tablet.
Amazing Spider-Man DLC lets you play as Stan Lee, Lizard, Rhino, and more today
The Amazing Spider-Man is getting a whole bunch of DLC today, including a few different packs that will have you playing as people other than the titular wall-crawler. The Lizard Rampage pack will open up a level where you play as the Lizard, along with a new Spidey suit to wear. The Oscorp Search & Destroy Pack brings two minigames, with you controlling either a giant snake or a hunter robot. And the Rhino Challenge Pack will put you behind the wheel of the Rhino, allowing you to destroy everything in a timed competition.And finally, the long-awaited Stan Lee Adventure Pack will let you play the legend himself, flying around the virtual streets of New York and spouting one-liners as everyone's favorite former chairman of Marvel Comics. Each of these packs will run you $3-$4, but you can get all four for a discounted price of $10. As Stan himself would say (and we're paraphrasing here), that's enough words spoken.%Gallery-166472%
TBCP-II tank robot climbs walls with gecko-inspired feet (video)
Taking a cue from nature and perhaps Geico, researchers at Simon Fraser University Burnaby have created a gecko-inspired robot, the Timeless Belt Climbing Platform (TBCP-II), capable of climbing smooth walls or across ceilings with lizard-like foot pads. The feet, made out of fibrillar adhesive polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), act as grip thanks to a small mushroom cap design 17 micrometers wide and 10 micrometers high for maximum surface exposure. The 240g tank-like machine is also somewhat independent, using sensors to detect its surroundings to change course based on obstacles in its way, taking us one step closer to... the inevitable. Check out the video and full PR after the break.
Sand-swimming robot gets vertical manipulation via doorstop-shaped head (video)
So it looks like a half-stuffed sock -- and it is, sort of -- but this sandfish-inspired search and rescue robot has the potential to change the way machines maneuver through disaster zones. Playing off its previous endeavors, a team of Georgia Tech researchers has designed a wedge-shaped head to manipulate the vertical movement of its sand-swimming invention through "complex dirt and rubble environments." By mimicking the pointy snout of the sandfish lizard, and attaching it to the body of its robot -- which sports seven servo-powered segments stuffed in a latex sock and sheathed by a spandex "swimsuit" -- the team found that subtle changes in the positioning of the robot's head made for drastic differences in vertical movement. When it was placed flat on the horizontal plane, the robot descended; when it was inclined above seven degrees, it ascended. For now, the robotic sandfish has been relegated to swimming in a sea of tiny yellow balls, but it's slated to dive into a pool of debris in the name of research soon. You can check out a rather dry description of the project in the video after the break.
Lizard-style bot 'swims' through sand, straight into your worst nightmare
While robots still struggle to do basic things like hang out with us or bring us cookies, it's comforting to know that the variety of locomotion methods for this burgeoning race shows no sign of slowing. The latest of these "this would be a cool way for a robot to make its way through a disaster site and rescue people" solutions is a robot from a team at the Georgia Institute of Technology that can "swim" through sand, much like a lizard. Sand's a bit of a toughie, in case you've never found out for yourself in an ill-fated game of sand volleyball, thanks to its combo of solid and fluid dynamics. The spandex-clad, squirmy solution uncovered by Georgia Tech gets along nicely, however, going mainly with the fluid approach. Check it creeping creepily on video after the break.
Get your barrel on with these Champions Online screenshots
What do fish-men, giant fish gods, zombies and barrels all have to do with one another? They're each a part of the newest screenshots for Champions Online released by Cryptic! Well, that and we actually have several tomes and errata concerning each of these subjects here at Massively HQ. If fish people and their evil giant fish god every send zombies wielding barrels after you, we've got you covered.What we'd really like to point out about the image above, is that the man (Manotaurfishlizard?) has quite the elegant tail-horns-flipper ears we've seen in uh... well ever! That and the enemy he's about to introduce to his barrel with extreme forcefulness has some wicked cool claw weapons. We're not really sure what purple pantsuit woman is getting up to in the air, but it looks heroic.Feel free to take a closer look in our gallery if you doubt us!%Gallery-17946%
Revised PotBS Prima eGuide comes with reptilian pal
Flying Lab Software and Prima Guides have put the word out that a revised version of the Prima Pirates of the Burning Sea eGuide is now available. The guide was updated to fit with changes that were made to the game in Build 1.4, and contains handy information like the stats of all ships, strategies and tips, career guides, and a look at the new Buccaneer class.But things like "information" and "strategies" aren't all that you will get with your purchase -- we know that you expect more, and so does Prima. President of Prima Games, Debra Kempker, said, "Continuing in a new tradition of in-game items, we were able to once again offer exclusive content -- something we hope to keep doing in the future." The in-game item you will receive with the PotBS eGuide is the shoulder-lizard you see at the top of this post, a very stylish accessory for any Caribbean adventurer. The eGuide (and shoulder-lizard) will be available from the Prima Games website for $19.99 and is only available in digital format.
Analyst sees 2008 as a very good year for the DS
When it comes to predictions and the gaming industry, they often involve the name Michael Pachter. Not today, though, as an analyst for Lazard Capital Markets has tossed his own hat into the virtual ring of predictions and sees the DS as having an amazing year, even better than the previous year. Colin Sebastian sees sales improving from 5.9 million total units in 2008 to a far more profitable 6.4 million. We've never been ones to boast any kind of ability in predicting the future, so we would never dare make an estimation of our own. But, we will say that Nintendo knows what they're doing and amazing games keep releasing on the platform, so that's something to consider when looking at the future.
Stanford's Stickybot wall-climbing robot lizard
We thought MIT's slime-climbing robo-snail was pretty, er, slick, but we have to admit that our new fave wall-climber has got to be Stanford's Stickybot. The robot gecko has feet coated with a polymer designed to mimic the properties of setae, the tiny hairs on gecko feet that enable the lizards to climb walls. That allows the bot to clamber freely without the surface in question having to be doused with slime, as required by MIT's bot. Not surprisingly, the Pentagon is already interested in adapting the tech for military use in gloves and boots for soldiers. We can only hope this trickles down to civilian uses fast; we're so ready to connect with our inner Spidey as we climb the walls in our gecko gloves. [Via I4U]
The miraculous CMU Water Runner
Although it probably won't win a following of apostles for the feat, Carnegie Mellon University bot Water Runner's ability to, well, walk on water, is at least worthy of a small write-up in a gadget blog, we think. The lightweight plastic and carbon fiber robot, which is the newest member of a supposed zoo of animal-inspired devices from CMU's NanoRobotics Lab, owes its gravity-defying skills to research done by Harvard University biologists on the basilisk, or Jesus, lizard. Like its scaly counterpart, Water Runner uses a rapid slapping motion of the "feet" that provides enough propulsion for the bot to avoid sinking or tipping over. Although it's currently just in the proof-of-concept, prototype stage (like, it still needs to be plugged into the wall, making it less than ideal for outdoor applications), future versions of the project will sport batteries (of course), sensors for monitoring water quality, cameras for peeping stuff, and even bacteria for breaking down pollutants (think: Exxon Valdez). These applications are all well and good, but as usual, all we really wanna know is: could it take down RoboSnake in a land-and-sea grudge match?[Via Robot Gossip]
