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Watch An Industrial Robot Nearly Beat A Professional Ping Pong Player At His Own Game – Sort Of
If you’re looking for a vaguely frightening realization of just how good robots are getting at activities that require a high degree of optical precisions and fine motor control, than the video above has exactly what you need. In a promotional short film created by robotics company KUKA (via Slate), we see a manufacturing robot take on ping pong champion Timo Boll, with surprising results. Read More
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Oculus Rift’s First-Run Development Kit Is Sold Out As It Poaches Key Valve VR Talent
The Oculus Rift development kit is no longer for sale in most parts of the world, the company reports. The dev hardware for the virtual reality headset has been on sale since Oculus kicked off their Kickstarter campaign, and began shipping around March 30, 2013. Since its original development, Oculus has iterated on the hardware design multiple times, so it isn’t surprising to see them… Read More
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Robotiky Is (Yet) Another Cute Way To Teach Kids Coding Using Robots
Say hey to Roboticky: a robot designed to be programmed by kids using a simplified drag-and-drop software interface on their computer. It's getting hard to keep track of all the startups looking for cute ways to crack a hard problem: teaching kids how to code without boring them to death. Read More
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Microsoft Unleashes Slew Of Surface Updates, As Pricing For The LTE Surface 2 Leaks
Microsoft released a bundle of software updates this morning for its Surface line of tablets, including support for the Power Cover, which just went on sale, and improved touchpad input. Also out this AM is a leaked price point on WPCentral for the coming Surface 2 64GB SKU that includes LTE: $679. That's quite a step up from $549, the normal price for a Surface 2 with that much storage. It's… Read More
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Popcorn Time Is Like Netflix For Pirated Content
Think of Popcorn Time like Netflix, just with movies worth watching. Find a title and click “Watch It Now”. That’s it. The media catalog is impressive. Everything from first run movies to classics like Hook are available to watch. Frozen, American Hustle, Gravity — even Delivery Man if you’re a touch masochistic. Captain Philips, Dallas Buyers Club, and the Bridge on… Read More
Gadget Writers
TCTV
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Illumitex
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GroundMetrics
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SenseLabs (formerly Neurotopia)
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Luxtech
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The New HTC One’s Dual Camera Explained: Post-Shot Focus Selection And 3D Image Effects
HTC’s new One smartphone is the worst-kept secret of the season, with leaks in abundance and even official teasers that are being more forward about unannounced product than you might expect. Today, another piece of the puzzle falls into place with a leaked print ad for Australian carrier Telstra (via GSMArena) that details why the smartphone has two cameras on the back. The so-called… Read More
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iOS 8 Said To Take Maps To The Next Level With Added Data And Transit Directions
Apple has just shipped iOS 7.1, which brings a number of small enhancements and some considerable performance improvements to older devices, but now the way is clear for iOS 8, and already the rumor mill has started cranking. 9to5Mac, which generally has reliable information for first-hand reported rumors, revealed today a couple of details about Apple’s next big mobile OS, which should… Read More
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GamePop Review: The Android Gaming Console Gets Another Iteration, Still Disappoints
There’s a rush on to be the first Android console maker to strike the right chord with consumers, and there’s no shortage of contenders. Bluestacks is one such contender, and their GamePop is finally ready to ship to consumers. It’s a unique take, packing 500 top Android games into the console pre-loaded and ready to go, all for $6.99 per month. But can it avoid the pitfalls of… Read More
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Moff Is A Wearable Bluetooth Bangle For Kids That Adds Sound-Effects To Everyday Play
And the award for cutest wearable goes to… Moff! A smart bangle for kids that’s being developed by — you guessed it — a Japanese company (such kawaii) on a mission to transform boring everyday objects into toys with sound effects. The Moff wearable is a slap band — i.e. no need to fiddle with fastenings; you just slap it against your wrist and it wraps around. The… Read More
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The Jawbone UP24 Finally Gets Android Support
Finally. The Jawbone UP24 now works with Android phones. The wireless UP fitness tracker launched in late 2013 and has so far only worked with iOS devices. But not anymore. The company just released the UP 3.0 Android app, which features all but the most recently added bells and whistles found in the iOS app. Most notably, the Jawbone app now allows data collected by the UP24 to sync wirelessly… Read More
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Element 14 Releases A $33 Sound Card For The Raspberry Pi
The maker of the popular Raspberry Pi just announced a little soundcard, perfect for pairing with the 'Berry Pi. The $33 card from Element 14 sits on the Pi's P5 pins and features all the inputs and outputs traditionally found on a sound card. Best of all, it's tiny and matches the form factor of the micro computer. Read More
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Robocoin Spreads Its Bitcoin ATMs Further
Robocoin, the bi-directional Bitcoin ATM, is ramping up its nascent footprint -- with launches planned for 10 more global locations. The company said today it will be shipping its first Bitcoin ATMs to two more U.S. locations -- Boston and Seattle -- and also ramping up globally. Read More
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Microsoft’s Power Cover Debuts As Rumors Of The LTE-Powered Surface 2 Landing In Stores Abound
Two quick hits from the Microsoft side of things: The Surface Power Cover is now up for pre-sale, and the rumor engine is kicking around the bit that LTE-capable Surface 2 devices have landed in Microsoft stores. Read More
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Build Your Own Bletchley Park With This Kickstarted Enigma Clone
If you invest in an open-source, crowd-funded Enigma machine today, make it this one. Created by S&T Geotronics of Columbus, Georgia, this device first appeared as an Instructable and is now available as a full DIY for $250, quite a bit less than the Allies spent at Bletchley Park while trying to crack Germany's feared encryption system. Three hundred dollars gets you a fully-assembled model. Read More
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Carbon Wants To Kick That Smartwatch Off Your Wrist – And Replace It With A Charger Instead
Your wrist is a hotly contested new battleground, with a small fry like Pebble doing battle with giants including Samsung, and activity trackers like the Jawbone UP and Nike+ FuelBand fighting it out, too. A new Kickstarter project also wants to be a contender, with the Carbon wearable solar charger. The project debuted a couple of weeks ago, with a blank-faced wrist-mounted charger that had a… Read More
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Pebble Kicks Off An Online Hackathon To Find And Reward The Best SDK 2.0 Smartwatch Apps
Pebble is launching an online software challenge, powered by ChallengePost, which begins today – right now, in fact. Developers who are interested in participating can submit new or existing apps designed for Pebble’s recently launched version 2.0 software development kit, and have two weeks to get those apps in. Once Pebble has collected all the submissions on March 23rd… Read More
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U.K. Internet Of Things Startups & Projects To Get £46M More Government Cash By 2015
The U.K. Prime Minister is clearly a fan of the HAPIfork. At a speech at Europe's CeBIT tech conference yesterday David Cameron announced an additional £45 million in funding for research in areas linked to the Internet of Things. Read More
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Myo’s Developer Alpha Teaser Compilation Video Showcases Gesture Control Potential
Waterloo’s Thalmic Labs is shipping out its Myo gesture control band alpha units to developers to get them building software compatible with the new hardware, and it’s already resulting in some incredibly impressive early demos. The Myo team compiled a few of those together into a single short teaser video, but it’s enough to spark the imagination and whet my appetite for when… Read More
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Mophie Space Pack Review: Have Some Extra Storage With Your iPhone Backup Battery
Apple offers the iPhone in a number of different storage capacities, ranging from 16GB to 64GB, but it doesn’t offer expansion storage options to let users add their own via micro SD or any other format. Mophie has spent years building backup battery packs for iPhone devices, and now it’s adding additional space to store your files, too, with the appropriately named Mophie Space Pack. Read More
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Samsung Working With Startup Partners To Add Gesture-Based Smart Home Control To TVs
Samsung is reportedly (via WSJ) preparing for a smart home control interface that uses your smart TV to recognize basic hand gestures, directed at the objects you actually want to control. So, for example, it would allow you to point at a lamp to turn it off or on, or to other nearby objects to affect them in different ways. The shift is a bit of an extension of what Samsung already offers, which… Read More
