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The iconic Renault 5 is coming back as an EV
Renault is increasing its bet on electric by announcing that it will launch 10 new EVs across brands, including a re-imagining of the classic Renault 5
NASA sends its Valkyrie humanoid robots to college
NASA wants to send its 6-foot-tall, 290-pound humanoid robot R5 (which also goes by the more intimidating name "Valkyrie") to Mars and other extraterrestrial locations. The agency originally designed the R5 for search-and-rescue missions, though, so to prepare the machine for a future of exploration in harsh environments, it's sending two units to college. One will go to MIT, specifically to the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL), and the other to Northeastern University in Boston. The institutions were chosen from among the groups that joined DARPA's Robotics Challenge, and each will receive $250,000 per year for two years to finance their research.
Samsung has new 360-degree wireless speakers and a better app
Samsung is releasing three new 360-degree wireless speakers -- the R1, R3 and R5 -- as a follow-up to its Portal-esque R7 device. They're not quite egg-shaped like their predecessor (and its own predecessors), but they feature the same "ring-radiator" technology that helps them fill a room with sound. Plus, they now have a physical user interface on the top panel that allows users to quickly play, pause, adjust the volume and switch music sources.
At just 4.85mm, Oppo R5 is the world's slimmest smartphone
Step aside, Gionee, as your record for the world's slimmest smartphone has just been beaten by a fellow Chinese manufacturer. Oppo's R5, the successor to the Asia-only R3, comes in at just 4.85mm thick, thus beating the 5.15mm-thick Elife S5.1 from Gionee. Despite the crazy thin metallic body, the R5 still packs a handful of goodies: a 5.2-inch full HD AMOLED screen, an octa-core (quad 2.1GHz and quad 1.5GHz), 64-bit Snapdragon 615 SoC, 2GB of RAM, 5MP/13MP cameras (both with f/2.0 aperture), LTE radio and a 2,000 mAh battery. All of this comes in at just 155g heavy. Of course, there's bound to be a trade-off: You only get 16GB of internal storage, no microSD expansion and, unlike the Elife S5.1, no 3.5mm headphone connector here -- you'll need to use the bundled micro-USB adapter or Bluetooth (there's an optional O-Music Bluetooth clip for your headphones and for triggering the camera).
NASA's humanoid Valkyrie robot could lead the way to Mars (video)
NASA's Robonaut is only just getting its legs, but it already has some fresh (and arguably superior) competition. The agency's Johnson Space Center has given IEEE Spectrum a sneak peek at Valkyrie, a DARPA Robotics Challenge entry built to take on dangerous tasks that would normally require a human presence. In addition to sporting more joints than many of its typical two-legged rivals, the sometimes autonomous machine is chock-full of cameras, LIDAR and sonar that help it quickly move around. It can operate under planetary gravity loads that Robonaut can't touch, and even an inexperienced user can keep it running; the modular design lets astronauts swap out batteries and replacement limbs within minutes. Valkyrie isn't guaranteed to enter service, as it will have to win the support of both DARPA and NASA officials before it progresses much further. If it passes muster, however, it could be vital to NASA's long-term plans for Mars -- robots such as Valkyrie will likely prepare any future Martian landing site and assist humans once they arrive.
OCZ goes SSD crazy at CES, leaves no port unplugged
OCZ came rolling into CES this year with a pile of SSDs in tow. Most are pretty firmly aimed at the enterprise market but, what's impressive, is how the company has made sure to cover practically every interface . If you're looking to fill up some PCIe slots, the Z-Drive R5 and are R4 CloudServ have you covered. The former is based on the Kilimanjaro platform, designed with help from Marvell, and can deliver a staggering 2.52 million IOPS and 7.2GB/s. The latter is an evolution of the existing R4 line, but with nearly double the performance in a card that can carry up to 16TB of solid state storage. If rack-mount servers are more your style, the SATA 3.0-packing Chiron delivers a respectable 560MB/s and 100,000 IOPS in a 3.5-inch package. The most exciting item, at least for consumers, is the Lightfoot -- an external, compact SSD ready to take over your under-utilized Thunderbolt port. Lightfoot will be available in 128GB, 256GB, 512GB and 1TB sizes, though, price and release dates are still very much up in the air. Check out the gallery below and complete PR (with a few more products) after the break.
OCZ details Z-Drive R5 enterprise SSD, reckons it doubles speed of the R4
We've barely digested the carb-rich Z-Drive R4 and already OCZ wants to flaunt the next in its series of enterprise PCIe SSDs. The R5 sports an entirely new 'Kilimanjaro' controller platform (shown in the reference design above), developed in cahoots with Marvell and incorporated into each and every flash module that you might wish to add to the base card. These scalable controllers communicate directly with the host system, removing the need for an extra SATA RAID chip and thereby promising greater speeds -- especially as you pile on more modules. We won't get full specs until CES, but in the meantime OCZ has hinted at a doubling of the SandForce-based R4's performance, which could take us into the three million IOP realm. So long as the company also tackles the question of reliability on this new type of drive, then it'll likely be an easy sell. Check out the source link for more.
Rumor: Resident Evil 5 embraces online co-op
Recently, new information regarding Resident Evil 5 surfaced over at Games Radar, revealing all kinds of (yet to be confirmed) informative bits that are sure to make RE fans' heart go a flutter. Sadly, the news post has since been removed (Capcom damage control?), but not before the crew over at Eurogamer copied all the goods.According to the leak which we're currently filing under the rumor category, the biggest RE5 feature reveal is that the game will include online enabled campaign co-op all the way through, where a second player will play as a female mercenary who'll be present the entire game. If not player controlled, the game's AI will take over. Other juicy details were mentioned including word that the mercenaries mini-game from RE4 will be back and the addition of a new cover system. As far as a release date goes, Capcom is said to be shooting for a 2009 release that should see RE5 on store shelves between January and March of next year. You can check out the other rumor'ish and spoiler'ish nuggets of RE5 campaign info after the jump.[Thanks, Boff]
