roberts
Latest
Dr. Henry Edward Roberts, personal computing pioneer, loses battle with pneumonia
Sad news out of Georgia this morning, Dr. Ed Roberts, pioneer of personal computing, has died of pneumonia at the age of 68. Roberts founded Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems (MITS) in 1970. In 1974 his company released the $395 Altair 8800. It was based on Intel's revolutionary 8080 processor and, after being featured on the cover of Popular Electronics (included after the break), would become the world's first truly popular personal computer. It would be on this machine that the former Micro-Soft would get its start, with Bill Gates and Paul Allen being contracted by Roberts to write Altair BASIC, a version of the simple programming language that Allen delivered by hand on paper tape to the MITS office in Albuquerque. Those two are remembering him today with the following statement: Ed was willing to take a chance on us -- two young guys interested in computers long before they were commonplace -- and we have always been grateful to him... The day our first untested software worked on his Altair was the start of a lot of great things. We will always have many fond memories of working with Ed in Albuquerque, in the MITS office right on Route 66 -- where so many exciting things happened that none of us could have imagined back then. Our thoughts go out to the Roberts family this morning.
Roberts releases solarDAB: world's first solar-powered DAB radio
Roberts may get ridiculed for its design cues, but one thing's for sure: it sticks to its guns. The latest patently ugly (but sort of cute) DAB radio to emerge from its lair is the solarDAB, which predictably gets energized by the sun. The unit packs a top-mounted solar panel along with a "level indicator on the display screen that shows the strength of the solar level being absorbed." Once the rechargeable batteries are fully juiced, said radio will blast out tunes for a whopping 27 hours. You should be able to secure one in a variety of colors here soon for £79.99 ($158).[Via TechDigest]
Roberts reveals RD41 DAB radio: high on features, low on style
Nah, Roberts' RD41 isn't quite as minuscule as its RD49, but unfortunately, it's essentially just as ugly. Taking a few notes from tableside radios circa 1990 (and sadly, today as well), Roberts has crafted a fairly well-spec'd DAB iteration that also does FM on the side, can record to an SD card and touts a dozen alarms that can wake even the most notorious slumberer. You'll also find MP3 / WMA playback from the SD card, rewind and pause functions, scrolling text about the station you're tuned into and audio in / out sockets to boot. Word on the street pegs this one at £139.99 ($277), but we'd recommend hiding it somewhere good before company shows up.[Via The Red Ferret Journal]
Cath Kidston partners with Roberts on flowery DAB radio
You already know what Cath Kidston can do, and it seems the designer is striking back once more by flowering up a Roberts DAB radio. Dubbed the Washed Rose, this retro-inspired device sports a cutesy floral pattern, built-in display, automatic tuning, a carry handle, PausePlus to pause / rewind live programming, and the usual complement of knobs and buttons. Granted, she ain't cheap at £200 ($402), but that's the premium you'll pay for a design such as this, we suppose.[Via RetroToGo]
Roberts RD49, the smallest portable DAB radio evar?
Usually the very fact that a manufacturer claims they've got the smallest version ever of a particular device is enough to question their assertions straight up, but in the spirit of "we don't really care because it's a DAB radio" we're going to award the medal without question to Roberts for their new RD49. Along with the hardly minuscule dimensions of 8.5 x 4.6 x 1.6-inches, the "smallest portable DAB ever" has an FM tuner, 10 presets, a tiny LCD and an alarm clock function. The radio can also be plugged into the wall to top-off its rechargeable battery, and should be available now for around £60, or about $114 US.
