Best Gadgets World

by Darren Murph, posted May 30th 2008 at 12:22PM
Ah, bugger. Just days after Apple Core began offering its aTV Flash on a foolproof USB stick, the outfit has officially pulled the software. Apparently there have been a few “questions arising regarding the fair use of a particular file present on the aTV Flash, and conflicting opinions as to whether or not it falls under the fair use category.” In order to keep itself off of the hot seat, it has “proactively” (and voluntarily) discontinued offering the product “until further notice.” Not all hope is lost, however, as Apple Core is currently working with the party in question to resolve the dilemma, and it should be keeping us all in the loop as discussions progress. Oh, and in case you’re curious — all current orders were canceled and refunded.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

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Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment

If you can’t handle having a radio in the kitchen that stands out a bit too much, you might want to check out these Dualit radios.  Looking very much like a retro toaster and made solely for your kitchen it keeps you entertained while stuck washing the dishes.  The radio features both FM reception and DAB and with each mode it has 5 different presets.  Even though it is a kitchen radio, it features an alarm and a snooze.  I don’t know, in case you fall asleep waiting for the water to boil.  That or, you could take the kitchen radio outside of the kitchen.  I know, that’s just crazy talk, no one would ever do that.

It also has an AUX IN so that you can hook up your ipod and not have to listen to any obnoxious commercials between your favorite songs.  It comes in cream, polished (silver), red and black.  Most of them are currently sold out but there is rumor of them coming back into stock and at about half the price they are set at now.  It is currently being sold for just over $295 and supposedly in July it will go down to right around $170.   Which isn’t exactly a steal, but I suppose it is a bit cheaper at least.

Source: shinyshiny

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Blockbuster is about to launch a pilot test of its in-store kiosks for downloading movies into portable media devices. Sounds cool? Even cooler is the fact that downloading one movie would only take a customer two minutes. And we’re not talking here of short half an hour movies but movies for rent in all their full-length glory.

No less than Blockbuster’s Chairman and CEO James Keyes will be the one to demo the pilot kiosk during Blockbuster’s shareholder meeting. But don’t get too excited about this uber cool service yet folks, because the in-store kiosks only contain a few titles of movies, as Blockbuster is still negotiating with major studios regarding the possibility of including their movie titles into Blockbuster’s in-store kiosks database.

The in-store kiosks was Blockbuster’s way of responding to consumers’ demand for a broader service when it comes to providing their entertainment needs anytime, and anywhere they want. Although the pilot in-store kiosks are currently capable of downloading movies for two minutes, Blockbuster doesn’t want to rest on its laurels and is even aiming for a reduced downloading time to possibly within 30 seconds. Blockbuster is earmarking the same experience that consumers get when transacting with ATM machines. Future plans for this in-store kiosks would be the inclusion of game downloading service.

As for the pricing details, Blockbuster is looking at a possible $10 monthly subscription fee.

Read [Hollywood Reporter]

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by Ryan Block, posted May 30th 2008 at 4:07PM
Watch out, everybody, the Optimus Popularis has gone from foam mockup to proper-looking prototype. (We’re really digging that full-length display in the space bar.) With any luck, we won’t have to watch this one develop over the course of 2-3 years like we did the Maximus — and with a little more luck, this one will be easier to type on, too.

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Filed under: Displays, Peripherals

by Donald Melanson, posted May 30th 2008 at 2:19PMWe haven’t heard much about iRiver’s shiny new Spinn PMP since it was unveiled at CES earlier this year, but Crave has now turned up a couple of fresh new details on the device, including word of the all important release date. That’ll apparently come sometime in August (in the UK, at least), although there’s unfortunately still no word on prices. Otherwise, Crave has confirmed that the player will still be arriving in 4GB, 8GB, and 16GB varieties, and that it’ll be shipping with built-in DAB radio in the UK, as well as built-in Bluetooth and a dedicated (but unspecified) 3D acceleration chip to spice up the interface a bit. In case you missed ‘em the first time around, you can find our shots of the device (under glass) here.

[Thanks, Alsyl]

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Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video

by Ryan Block, posted May 30th 2008 at 2:32PM
Whoa, hard to believe its been three years since the last internationalized version of Engadget launched, but we’re back and have a number of new sites in the pipeline — kicking off with Engadget in Polish!

Why Polish, you ask? Well, besides the fact that we had some amazing talent waiting in the wings to blow it out, it’s also a smaller (dare we say underserved?) market to soft-launch in that allows us to work out the kinks as we prepare to do even more international versions of Engadget in the coming weeks and months.

So if Polish isn’t your bag, just hang tight, you’ll be seeing even more localized Engadgets soon enough. And if it is, head on over and welcome our Polish team to the fold!

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Filed under: Announcements, Meta

by Darren Murph, posted May 30th 2008 at 11:00AM
During his sit-down at D6, TiVo’s head honcho Tom Rogers was grilled with a flurry of questions. Aside from a lengthy back-and-forth over the DVR’s ability to skip through ads, we finally got to some real meat. First off, Mr. Rogers noted that he was “hopeful” that TiVo would be launched in the UK “soon.” Secondly — and probably most interestingly — was the notion that TiVo was working up a “whole home model” in order to solve the problem of needing multiple boxes to service an entire house. Sadly, that snippet is all Tom uttered, so we’re left to ponder what’s really going on behind the tightly sealed doors at TiVo. Here’s to hoping we know more by the time CEDIA rolls around — you listening, Mr. Rogers?

[Via Electronista]

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Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment

For fans of all things robotic, you’re probably no stranger to the name WowWee. Those of you who have been reading CG for a while might remember WowWee’s name mentioned numerous times in our Robot Toys Gift Guide from last year’s holiday season.

If you couldn’t get enough of the WowWee Robosapien, Roboreptile, or Flytech Dragonfly, they’ve got a whole new bot coming out this summer. And lucky for you, we’re giving you an early look at what to expect from WowWee during the dog days of the sunshine season. The summer of 2008 might very well be the summer of Tri-Bot.

WowWee’s Tri-Bot is an interactive companion which is programmed full of personality. The Tri-Bot offers users a fun alarm clock feature, while also providing an assortment of games such as Pattern, Minefield, and Maze. Tri-Bot can even tell a joke or two.

Tri-Pod’s personality is feature through an animated face which changes related to context. It gets its  name from its unique tri-wheel omni-directional base, powered by 3 motors, 3 infrared sensors, poseable arms, a speaker and a LED indicator. All of this is controlled with a remote control which is powered with three AA batteries. Tri-Bot will be available this summer for only $99.

Review Page via TechPin

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Asus, famous for their Eee PC, split earlier this year into three sections and one of these (now known as Pegatron) in turn created a design department called PEGA. Following a theme of “between off and on” they created 8 ‘innovative’ ‘tangible interactive products’. The first, and one that I will look at, is the Look@Me Emoticon Keyboard.

Having worked my way through the design ‘concept statements’ (something about ancient Egypt…?) I got to the keyboard, and I must say it’s quite odd. And to be fair it could well be practical for someone who does excessive amounts of instant messaging with its 40 Emoticon Elements, consisting of 18 letters and 22 symbols, which would allow you to do any emoticon of your choosing.
However, why would you really spend money on this? It’s essentially a cut down version of a keyboard that you would put next to your current one, which means you would be effectively doubling up on keys which is not only bad from a financial point of view but could well end up impractical.

All the same, I feel that this is all missing the point. They are obviously, as the flowery language suggests, design concepts which merely demonstrate (in this case quite well) modern life and how it functions. So from a practical view its mostly pointless, but as a design statement it is most certainly effective.

Via[PEGA] and [OhGizmo]

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by Donald Melanson, posted May 30th 2008 at 11:47AM We got a chance to spend a bit of time with WowWee’s Tri-Bot way back at CES earlier this year, but the folks at RobotsRule recently got a chance to put the bot through all its paces in advance of its summer release, and they’ve now churned out a fairly thorough review. On the whole, they seem to have been mightily impressed by the bot, and they think it’ll appeal just as much to more DIY-minded folks as it will to kids, thanks in no small part to its unique wheel base and tilt sensor-equipped remote control. On the downside, the bot’s sensors were unable to detect anything on the floor below its chest, and it apparently had a tendency to occasionally topple over while trying to climb walls (the ten minutes of pre-recorded audio also seems like it could get tiring real fast). If that hasn’t made up your mind, you can check out the review in video form after the break.

[Via Slash Gear]

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Filed under: Robots