Pleo: The Robotic Dinosaur
Wednesday, January 16th, 2008
Move over Barney, here comes the dinosaur which would replace you in the hearts of many. Enter Pleo. It’s small, it’s cute, and unlike you, it’s not purple.
Pleo is a replica of a newly-hatched Camarasaurus, a herbivorous dinosaur that lived during the late Jurassic period. Whilst I wish it does grow into its real life 60-feet tall adult counterpart so I could terrorise the town, Pleo remains cute, small and cuddly because well, it is a robot.
Using UGOBE’s Life Operating System, Pleo is able to show a range of emotions from sadness to happiness, can show environmental reactions, and can even beg for some lovin’ much like a real pet does. UGOBE boasts that their Life OS enables each Pleo to develop a distinct personality making one different from all the others.
For 249.95, you get a prehistoric pet which only needs to be fed batteries. Check out their web site for stores which carry the Pleo. With the Pleo and the Rovio available for consumers, it’s hard not to get hyped up by the new leaps robotics would take in the near future.
It’s been hit with a few snags along the way, but it looks like the HTC Shift’s slow roll out around the word is finally nearing a close, with it now making its expected debut at the FCC. In addition to putting it through all the usual tests, they of course also ripped the thing apart and, thankfully, provided of pictures of the process (hit up the link below for more). Prospective Shift buyers can also take advantage of the FCC’s generosity to check out the device’s user manual, although there aren’t exactly many surprises to be found, considering how long this thing’s been around already.
There’s already plenty of wireless printer options out there, but those looking for a few more capabilities than your standard offerings provide may want to keep an eye out for Ricoh’s new HotSpot series models, which the company says are the first printers that let users “print documents from any Wi-Fi enabled location or device.” That, however, is done is a rather roundabout way, with users required to either upload the file to a website associated with the printer or forward the file to the printer’s own email address. On the upside, that means you won’t have to install any drivers, and you’ll be able to print from a handheld or cellphone in addition to a computer. No official word on a price from Ricoh just yet, it seems, but CDW already has the monochrome SP 4100N-KP listed for a cool $1,700, with the color SP C410DN-KP model undoubtedly set to demand a good deal more. 
You’ve gotta admire folks who bring their trade to a whole new level, even if that does mean escalating the international arms race between builders of automated, wooden, rubber band miniguns. The 24-barrel, tripod-mountable monster you see above, lovingly known as the Disintegrator, was rather amazingly hand-carved and assembled by Anthony Smith of the UK, who spent four months on the ambitious build. Unlike your dinky little six-shooter, this model boasts a 288-band capacity and 40-round-per-second firing capability, making it one of the most dangerous weapons to remain unbanned by the TSA. To see this wonder in its full operational glory, you simply have to check out the video after the break.
Multicore processors have become a major part of the consumer mainstream in the past couple years, but if a cryptographic researcher named Joseph Ashwood has his way, the next few years will see the rise of multicore memory. Ashwood’s design, which he’s had positively reviewed by a team at Carnegie Mellon, allows memory to actually become faster as it gets bigger, due to the way data is organized across individual memory cells. Ashwood says the ratio is almost 1:1 — doubling size should result in a doubling of speed — but it’s all theory for now, as he’s only gotten as far as the software simulation stage. Once a manufacturer commits to the tech, however, Ashwood says chips could be coming off fabs in as little as three months, but it’ll be interesting to see who signs up first — with so many next-gen RAM techs all jostling for position, Ashwood is going to need quite a sales pitch to stand out.
