Woman Kills Baby For Interrupting Farmville Session

A 22 year-old woman from Jacksonsville, Florida has pleaded guilty to killing her baby son over a game of...Farmville.

Alexandra V. Tobias says her three-month old child, Dylan Lee Edmondson, had been crying while she was trying to play the popular Facebook casual game. This angered Tobias, who told authorities that she shook the baby, had a cigarette to calm herself down, then shook him again. It's believed he "may have hit his head during the shaking".

Dylan's death was classified as second-degree murder, a charge that carries the possibility of a life sentence in prison.

Jacksonville mom who shook baby for interrupting computer game pleads to murder [Florida Times-Union]

Send an email to the author of this post at plunkett@kotaku.com.

Republished from http://kotaku.com

Apple Faces Potential Lawsuit After Taiwanese Company Claims "iPad" Name

 

 A Taiwanese monitor manufacturer is threatening to sue Apple for $1.5 billion for the "iPad" name, claiming they registered "I-Pad" in 2000 for a tablet which failed to launch. Fujitsu tried (and failed), but Proview wants a stab too.

As the story goes, Proview registered the trademark in the European Union, as well as China, Mexico, South Korea, Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam. In 2006, Proview reportedly sold the global trademark (for each company except for China) to a US company for the equivalent of $55,100, but they weren't informed it was Apple—or even related to Apple, as they named themselves "IP Application Development." This mystery company registered the iPad trademark in the US in January of this year.

Proview's chairman Yang Rongshan told the Financial Times that "we will sue them for damages in China and in the US," and going some way to explain their stance, he said "we are in big financial trouble and the trademarks are a valuable asset that could help us sort out part of that trouble."

The whole case is pretty murky though. Due to Proview's defaulting on loans, Chinese creditors took their assets—which included all their trademarks. Apple and IP Application Development have previously sued Proview as well, for the Chinese "IPAD" trademark.

It's not the first time Apple's faced such threats of lawsuits, with Cisco famously suing Apple in 2007 for the iPhone trademark. They eventually settled and went about their business, both using the iPhone name for their own products.

And of course, there's Fujitsu, who earlier this year came to some sort of secret resolution with Apple over the iPad name. [Financial Times and Apple Insider]

Send an email to Kat Hannaford, the author of this post, at khannaford@gizmodo.com.

Nikon debuts Android-powered stereoscopic picture frame, 2D to 3D conversions for a monthly fee

By Sean Hollister 

2D to 3D conversion techniques -- whether cinematic or otherwise -- don't have us jumping for joy, but Nikon's new NF-300i display sounds like a concept we could get behind. It's a 7.2-inch digital photo frame running Android 2.1 on an autostereoscopic (glasses-less) screen, which sports a special double-density lenticular lens to display images at full WSVGA resolution (800 x 600) whether in 2D or 3D modes. It pulls down images from the cloud to 4GB of internal storage over wired ethernet and 802.11 b/g WiFi, or via USB port if you happen to have MPO files just sitting around for some reason. The notion is that Japanese users will sign up for Nikon's new My PictureTown 3D conversion and hosting service for ¥19,550 (about $244) a year or ¥1,995 ($24) a month and get all their JPEG vacation photos spirited to the device in glorious 3D, and that's also the only way you'll likely ever see one of these screens -- Nikon's loaning, not selling the NF-300i as part of those membership fees.

Tech-On, 3D Display Info

Nikon

Droid 2 update begins with promise of better battery life and more

By Thomas Ricker  

 

We've receive a number of reports that a 2.3.20 software update for Verizon's Droid 2 is slowly making the rounds this morning. The OTA push promises a number of improvements and enhancements with the promise of better battery life, faster transitions between WiFi and 3G data connection, and quicker location tracking when using GPS being perhaps the most notable. Other enhancements include:

• New ability to add pictures from your Gallery to a contact.
• Export all your contacts to the SD card.
• View details of Social Networking contacts.
• VZ Navigator is now preloaded on device.

Click through the break for the full list of improvements.

[Thanks, Mark L.]

Improvements:

• Improved battery life.
• Heightened proximity sensor accuracy to enable faster screen response.
• View the Weather widget in both landscape and portrait orientation.
• Simpler setup, improved user interactions, and better notifications for Visual Voice Mail.
• Background Email Sync during display inactivity for better user experience.
• Support for email domain suffixes containing more than three characters.
• Keep text messages organized with chronological in-box screen.
• Edit text messages after you've inserted a video file.
• Improved audio sound during recorded video playbacks.
• Stream Guided Tour videos on device in Help Center application with ease.
• Faster location tracking during GPS navigation.
• Faster transitions between Wi-Fi and 3G in data connection.

Droid Life

Verizon

Sony's Peter Dille thinks the PSP could use a cellular data connection, iPhone gamers 'aren't satisfied'

By Joshua Topolsky

Peter Dille -- Sony's Senior Vice President of marketing at SCEA -- sat down for a "fireside chat" with CNN, and made some interesting comments regarding the PlayStation Phone. Despite kinda / sorta sticking to the company's policy of refusing to discuss rumors, Dille allegedly said that the lack of a cellular data component in current PSP devices could be holding the line back. "The PSP is a Wi-Fi device," he said. "People are used to having always-connected devices." Dille also noted that current smartphone platforms don't give users a hardcore experience, instead providing "Time-killers," which "gamers aren't satisfied with."

While the CNN article certainly includes some healthy speculation, Dille (and a company spokeswoman who told the publication that Sony "has relationships with Google") was pretty talkative when it came to the PSP and more specifically the PlayStation Network. Apparently, Dille alluded to the fact that the current PSP doesn't fulfill Sony's goal for creating a content delivery hub that's always accessible, saying "I don't think we fully realize that vision with a Wi-Fi device... If it's not connected [to a cell network] then it does sort of limit people." Of course, we're not taking this as any kind of confirmation from the company, but Sony seems awfully talkative about a device that they won't comment on.

CNN

HTC Speedy a Knight in Sprint armor coming January 6th?

By Ross Miller

We were just getting used to HTC Knight when along comes more supposed details of the still-unconfirmed slider. Boy Genius Report has what it claims is a leaked accessories list from Sprint that reveals a case for the Knight is due on January 6th, 2011. Does that mean the phone itself is launching on the same date? Would that date have something to do with the start of CES? Oh, and BGR also claims from a source the Knight is getting a new title. What do you think about the HTC Speedy -- descriptive, eh? As far as we can tell, there isn't really much else to go by at this point, so our jump to conclusion will just have to stay under the bed for now.

Electronista

Boy Genius Report

BlackBerry PlayBook demoed courtesy of RIM's Mike Lazaridis and Adobe's Kevin Lynch

By Chris Ziegler

RIM has now uploaded the full video of its PlayBook's brief stint in the limelight during Adobe MAX yesterday, where Adobe CTO Kevin Lynch and none other than Mr. BlackBerry himself, RIM co-CEO Mike Lazaridis, take the "professional tablet" through its very first public test drive on the keynote stage. The duo run through an MRI scan viewing app -- presumably in an attempt to woo the lucrative medical market -- along with the PlayBook's Air-based video player and browser-embedded Flash player, both of which seem to work pretty well. We also get a quick look at the tablet's multitasking cards, where we see that apps continue to function even from within their card views; it looks pretty nice, but at a glance, it doesn't do any tricks webOS wasn't pulling off a year ago.

Interestingly, the edited video has a number of cuts -- some seem like harmless attempts to cut out boring parts, but there are a couple suspicious ones where we suspect something unsavory happened on the PlayBook or it ran just a little slower than RIM would've liked (of course, with the PlayBook's release still months out, they've got plenty of time to tighten that up while they wait for developers to submit their wares in exchange for a free PlayBook of their own). At the end, Lazaridis expertly skirts Lynch's question of when exactly the device will be released... and he didn't even need a seasoned PR rep standing next to him to deflect it! Follow the break for the full demo.

White iPhone 4 evidence shows up in Apple Store app's update?

By Laura June

So, you may or may not have noticed that this morning, Apple updated its own Apple Store app for the very first time, and version 1.1 has a little surprise. That's right, in the 'Reserve Products' screen, the much delayed white iPhone 4 shows up as an option. Now, before you lose control of yourself, keep in mind that you can't actually reserve one... yet. Of course, this could just be some sort of cruel glitch in the system, or it could be a tiny bit of evidence that the white iPhone is actually, finally on its way. At the very least, we know that Apple's still thinking of it... just like us.

Redmond Pie

SlashGear

Samsung Omnia 7 takes on HTC's HD7 and 7 Mozart in battle for WP7 supremacy (video)

By Vlad Savov

The alternative headline for this post was "a visual tour of the phones Americans aren't getting," but alas, the HD7 spoiled our macabre fun with its T-Mobile plans. All the same, there's no disguising our disappointment at having to settle for Samsung's Focus and LG's Quantum in the US, while the rest of the world gets to enjoy the delights of the far prettier Omnia 7 and Optimus 7 from each manufacturer. Even HTC, which is also bringing the 7 Surround Stateside, is sending its aluminum-clad 7 Mozart to other, presumably sunnier, climes. Sadly, we can't force these phones' makers to bring them to you, but we can certainly live up to that promised visual tour. Check out the gallery below plus video after the break.

If there's one thing that really stood out to us, it was the quality of the Omnia 7's Super AMOLED display. It should be no surprise anymore that it delivers stellar black levels and eye-twisting viewing angles, but it still managed to take our breath away set against its WP7 contemporaries. The 7 Mozart doesn't do too badly for itself, but the HD7 ended up a distant third in our eyes. Closeup video of all three displays follows after the break.

P.S. -- LG's Optimus 7 was too late in arriving to join the fray for this post, but rest assured that it, along with the other WP7 handsets featured herein, will be getting a full review in the coming days. If you're curious about the (admittedly small) differences in specs between these phones, don't forget we've broken them all down in our comparison from launch day right here.

Music credit: Waterfall Caverns by Pongball

AlphaUi Back-Type keyboard for tablets will never catch on, but we wish it would

By Paul Miller 

You know, traditionally we try to be thankful for stuff like slim device profiles and innovative touch UIs, particularly with Thanksgiving coming up soon, but every once in a while we shake a fist against the aesthetics of our time and wish for an alternate history that had rerouted us to a 2010 full of IBM-built keyboards and buttons galore. AlphaUi's Back-Type, which has been making the rounds for a couple weeks, is just such a technology, with 24 anachronistically tactile keys on the back designed for a bit of blind typing that engages eight fingers instead of the typical two thumbs. It's not an entirely new idea, Grippity's been talking about rear mounted keys for a while, and Microsoft Research just put out a clunker of a prototype, but AlphaUi's version seems the most mature and usable. Right now the keyboard is being demoed on the rear of 7-inch Archos tablets, but AlphaUi will be showing off the tech at CES and probably courting a hardware partner if they haven't found one already. Check out a video of the tech after the break.

Apple TV jailbroken again with Greenpois0n, lets Shatter off the hook

The iOS dev community already shattered the new Apple TV, but now it's been poisoned, too. What does this mean for you? It means that there's still a chance your $99 set top box might be jailbroken to run apps, even though Shatter is gone. Now we'll just have to wait and see if someone figures the hard part out, and gets some apps installed. Those Angry Birds don't fling themselves, you know.

9to5 Mac

@p0sixninja (Twitter)

Man traps himself in toilet trying to retrieve cellphone, has time to re-evaluate life priorities (video)

  

By Vlad Savov 


When we say this chap was trapped in the toilet, we don't mean he was stuck in the bathroom, he literally jammed his arm down the porcelain-encased pipe. The poor gentleman from Jiangsu Province in China was clearly in desperate need of his cellphone, as not even the typically repugnant idea of diving down for it was enough to prevent him from trying to chase the thing down. Good news is that emergency services rescued him with only minor cuts and bruises to his arm, though we suspect the injury to his ego will take a long, long time to heal.

[Thanks, Adiwidya]

AMD demos next-gen Llano Fusion APU, promises consumer availability in 2011

By Darren Murph

2011 can't come soon enough, particularly if you're AMD. The company has been attempting to maintain hype behind its CPU / GPU hybrid since last century, but the newest demonstration of its Llano Accelerated Processing Unit (APU) is getting us back in the mood. For those who haven't followed the play-by-play, this here all-in-one chip is expected to hit laptops and desktops at some point in 2011, and the company's most recent demo featured a single chip simultaneously processing three separate compute-and graphics-intensive workloads. Llano was able to calculate the value of Pi to 32 million decimal places, decode HD video from a Blu-ray film and handle some other mysterious task that we may or may not ever truly find out about. Head on past the break for a promotional / informational video, and be sure to re-circle next year on your calendar. That'll be the one... just like your high school football team always thought.

AMD

 

 

Apples back to Mac' event is tomorrow at 1PM ET

What will happen tomorrow? A new version of OS X? Tiny MacBook Airs? Verizon iPhone announcements? Tomorrow never knows... but Steve Jobs probably does. Even if we can't predict the future, we can at least follow along with the present, right? That's exactly what we'll be doing tomorrow at Engadget, as we bring you the best liveblog in the business! Tune in at the URL and times below for the full scoop on just what Apple is getting up to. You won't want to miss this!

Check back at the times below!

07:00AM - Hawaii
10:00AM - Pacific
11:00AM - Mountain
12:00PM - Central
01:00PM - Eastern
06:00PM - London
07:00PM - Paris
09:00PM - Moscow
02:00AM - Tokyo (October 21st)

11.6-inch MacBook Air detailed

By Thomas Ricker

So, we've just been discussing the rumored, and long overdue, MacBook Air refresh with a trusted source. This person recently had a working model in their possession for a few minutes and managed to glean quite a bit of detail that would seemingly confirm Apple's plan to announce an 11-inch MacBook Air at the "Back to the Mac" event later today. Here's what we've been told to expect:

• Smaller 11.6-inch display.
• 2.13GHz Intel Core 2 Duo (with a 2.33GHz option possible).
• 2GB of memory in the base configuration.
• No optical drive, naturally.
• Mini DisplayPort, USB, and SD card reader along the left-hand side and USB and power on the right (that's 2x USB).
• The trackpad has been updated to match that of the new MacBook Pros.
• Although smaller due to the 11.6-inch display, it's still about the same thickness as the current MacBook Air.
• A black power key now sits immediately to the right of a smaller eject key on the MBA's keyboard -- the round aluminum power button is gone. A design decision that might support the MBA's rumored instant-on capabilities though our source didn't see this functionality exhibited (possibly because it was running OS X 10.6.4).

Unfortunately, our source couldn't identify the graphics or the storage related to the rumored "SSD Card." So where does that leave us? Well, it looks like a smaller (and presumably, cheaper) MacBook Air originally rumored by AppleInsider is in the bag for a Steve Jobs announcement later today as is a refresh to the 13.3-inch model we broke last week (pictured nekkid above). So check back in a few hours and watch the reveal live, won't you?



Update: Reader Lucas F. subimtted a mockup of the new power and eject keys which you can see after the break.

[Thanks, Anonymous]

Motorola prepping 4G USB modem for LTE networks, doesn't say which ones

By Sean Hollister

Motorola is definitely tossing its hat in the LTE mobile broadband ring -- it just announced this plug-and-play USB-lte 7110 modem at the 4G World conference in Illinois. It's rated for FDD-LTE Category 3, meaning the little exclamation-point-shaped dongle is theoretically capable of 100Mbps download and 50Mbps upload speeds, and it's got a pair of omni-directional MIMO antennas to help you pull down as much of that juicy, low-latency data as Motorola's unnamed partners intend to squeeze. Just don't be fooled by the company's claims that this is the "first commercial 4G LTE device" -- we're pretty sure Samsung and LG have Moto beat. PR after the break.

HRP-4C dances and sings her way into the Uncanny Valley (video)

By Thomas Ricker

AIST's HRP-4C fashion robot has dramatically improved since we first saw "her" strut her stuff on the runway. She's so mesmerizing in fact, that we bet you'll barely notice the quartet of scantily clad dancers around her. Watch her tear it down in a pair of videos after the break. Shame about the man-hands.

BlackBerry PlayBook 64GB variant confirmed, strapped to a 5,300mAh battery (video)

By Vlad Savov

You already know most of the spec sheet delicacies that RIM has in store for its PlayBook, but here are a couple more details to complete the picture. The PlayBook will indeed match the iPad in having 16GB, 32GB and 64GB variants available, and will also come equipped with a pretty huge 5,300mAh battery. That'd be a generously proportioned cell for a full-sized laptop, we imagine it'll turn the PlayBook into quite the endurance champ. Beside those tidbits, there's another video appearance by the tablet that we weren't allowed to touch just after the break. You know you wanna see it.

Samsung Wave II has its Super Clear LCD tested against Galaxy S Super AMOLED display

By Vlad Savov

Well, "tested" might be a strong word, but the living legend that is Eldar Murtazin has squared up Samsung's latest Bada handset against the company's top of the line Galaxy S for a bit of side-by-side screen comparison action. The 3.7-inch display on the Wave II holds its own admirably against the hyper-advanced Super AMOLED panel alongside it, but it does seem to have a tendency to introduce a slight yellow hue into images, as illustrated above. Regrettably, the Russian weather wasn't conducive to doing any comparisons under sunlight, so we'll just have to content ourselves with even more pictures setting the Wave II up against Nokia's N8 and Samsung's first Bada phone, the Wave numero uno.

[Thanks, Ronan]

Mobile-review

Palm gets official with webOS 2.0 and Pre 2: hitting France on Friday, Verizon 'in the coming months'

By Darren Murph 

And just like that, the rumor mill smirks. HP has just come clean with a device that we've been hearing more and more about over the past few weeks, and with it will come the next generation of webOS that we've been hearing about for even longer. The Palm Pre 2 will be the first device to ship with HP webOS 2.0, with the revamped and renamed (presumably to use on more than just Palm smartphones) mobile OS promising "true multitasking," Stacks (for organizing apps) Just Type, HP Synergy (links your email and social networking accounts), Exhibition (enabling users to run apps designed specifically for the Palm Touchstone Charging Dock) and support for Adobe's Flash Player 10.1 Beta. It's also bringing along a new Favorites tagging option, Skype Mobile (on the Verizon version only), text assist, integrated Quickoffice, VPN support, a redesigned launcher and full support for Bluetooth keyboards and SPP peripherals.

As for Pre 2 itself? Little is being revealed at the moment, but we're told to expect a 1GHz CPU, a five megapixel camera (LED flash, extended depth of field, geotagging, and video capture), glass display and a "sleeker, streamlined design" that still combines a touchpanel with a slide-out QWERTY keyboard. In other words, it's a faster, slimmer Pre, and some would argue it's what the Pre Plus should've been. At any rate, SFR customers in France will get first dibs on Friday, with Verizon and an undisclosed carrier in Canada scheduled to get it "in the coming months." Oh, and as for US-based developers? They'll be able to purchase unlocked UMTS versions of the Pre 2 (!) in their homeland, though pricing remains elusive.

Update: The Pre 2 portal is now live, showcasing a 3.1-inch 480 x 320 (HVGA) multitouch display, a black enclosure, Exchange support, built-in GPS, ambient light / proximity sensors, an accelerometer, 802.11b/g WiFi, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR, 16GB of inbuilt storage space, a battery good for around 5.5 hours of talking and a 3.5mm headphone jack.

HP, Palm

iPhone-controlled Acutouch HT-9500 massage chair now available

By Donald Melanson

Have you been struggling to come to terms with your non-iPhone-controlled massage chair ever since seeing the Acutouch HT-9500 back in August? Well, your long, comfortable nightmare could soon be over. The massage chair is now available for the low, low price of $4,999 -- that's a full grand off the MSRP. In case you missed it, the real selling point here (for some folks, anyway) is the accompanying HT-Connect app for the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch, which will let you wirelessly control the chair and give you "instant access to a world of resources, massage programs and expertise designed to improve your wellness and life." Head on past the break for a glimpse of the app itself, and hit up the source link below to find a retailer near you (it's unfortunately listed as out of stock online).

Human Touch

WSJ: Facebook apps and games are dishing out your user ID to unauthorized third parties

By Vlad Savov

So you thought tweaking your privacy settings could actually keep you private on Facebook? The Wall Street Journal has some sobering news for you and everyone else playing Farmville on the 'book: your favorite apps are transmitting your user ID to advertisers and other third parties, and there's pretty much nothing you can do about it. According to the WSJ, even users who set their privacy sliders to the most hermit-like setting are exposed to having their unique Facebook identifier served up to data collection and advertising agencies, who in turn have been connecting that ID with your name (and anything else you've set to "share with everyone" on your profile) and snowballing it into their archive on your habits and tastes. Even more unsettling, three of the top 10 most used apps, including Farmville, have been found to have dished out the IDs of their users' friends. For its part, the company that Mark Z built says it's "committed to addressing" the issue and a number of the offending apps have been noted as becoming unavailable following the WSJ report. Farmville is of course not among them, it'd be madness to ever yank that cash cow, but whatever happens, you should have already got the message: the internet and privacy don't mix well.

HyperMac will stop selling MacBook charging cables on November 2 -- Apple wins, you lose

By Thomas Ricker

Uh oh, HyperMac just announced that it will cease the sale of MacBook charging cables and car chargers -- on November 2nd at 00:00 US Pacific Time, they'll be gone for good. While the HyperMac batteries will be sold, you won't be able to charge your MagSafe-equipped MacBook without the cable, so what's the point? This, obviously, is the direct result of the patent-infringement lawsuit Apple filed over Sanho's unlicensed use of Apple's MagSafe power connector. And while it may be a victory for Apple legal, it's an unsettling blow to consumers like Engadget editors who need the extra juice to augment the life of Apple's non-removeable MacBook, MacBook Air, and MacBook Pro batteries. Read the full statement after the break.

Update: We've spoken with Daniel Chin, President of Sanho Corporation, who tells us that his company is, "in middle of license negotiations with Apple and ceasing the sale of the MagSafe cables was a perquisite for negotiations to go on." So there is still hope for a legal solution to this mess. Otherwise, it'll be soldering guns and X-Acto knives at dawn.


Dear Valued Customers,

As part of our ongoing comprehensive licensing negotiations with Apple regarding a wide array of technologies and issues, we have decided to cease the sale of the MacBook charging cables and car charger on November 2, 2010.

While we will continue to sell the same batteries together with the rest of our product line after November 2nd, they will not be able to charge MacBooks without the cables.

If you wish to get the world's ONLY external battery and car charger solution that works with ALL MacBook, MacBook Air and MacBook Pro (supports dual voltage) as well as the iPad, iPhone 3/3GS/4, iPod and all other USB devices, NOW is the time.

On November 2, 2010 00:00 U.S. Pacific Time, they will gone for good.

As we have very limited stocks, do order early to avoid disappointment. We will continue to sell until November 2nd and while stocks last.

We wish thank the many customers who have already gotten the HyperMac External MacBook Battery and those of you that gave us wonderful reviews.


source: HyperShop

Netflix on Wii drops the clunky disc requirement, starts streaming through Wii Menu

By Vlad Savov

It's not just the PS3 that will be doing its Netflix streaming disc-free from today: the Wii is joining in the fun as well! Americans and Canadians alike will be able to download and install Netflix from the Wii Shop Channel, provided they've signed up for a subscription of $8.99 (C$7.99 in Canada) or above. Notably, over three million Wii consoles are said to have been hooked up with Netflix since the service launched back in April, and this step should make that number grow even larger. Only question is what we're all going to do with those three million redundant discs now. We can't turn them all into coasters, any ideas?

Google's driverless car drives interest in driverless cars (video)

By Thomas Ricker

Self-driving cars are hardly new. We've seen dozens of automatic vehicles over the years, many of which have seen advances driven (so to speak) by various DARPA challenges. But now that Google's involved -- whoa! -- the mainstream media is suddenly whipped into a frenzy of hyperbolic proclamations about the future. Still, it is fascinating stuff to watch. So click on through if you like having your tech salad tossed with a side of smarmy TV-news voiceover. Trust us, it's delicious.

Robotic curtain tries to guard your privacy, save on fabric (video)

By Donald Melanson

Of all the things that could potentially be roboticized, we can't say a curtain would be high on our list -- but then again, we're not hardware hacker Niklas Roy. In an attempt to create a "little piece of privacy," Niklas developed this curtain that can watch passers-by outside (with the aid of a surveillance camera) and automatically follow them along the window to block their view inside. Of course, as Niklas notes, a sentient curtain does also have the unfortunate side effect of actually attracting the very passers-by it's trying to guard against -- such are the perils of innovation. Head on past the break to check it out in action, and hit up the source link below for all the necessary details to build your own.

Windows Phone 7 viral reeks of the Old Spice Guy (video)

By Vlad Savov

Never above appropriating an internet meme for its own nefarious purposes, Microsoft is apparently shipping Isaiah Mustafa (Old Spice Guy, to you and us) over to Australia to pimp out Windows Phone 7 with his rippling muscles and dreamy eyes. Does your phone look like this phone? Come October 21, it could do.

Hammacher Schlemmer's tablet-controlled 'Emotive Robotic Avatar' captures your heart, nest egg (Video)

By Tim Stevens

Yeah, it's almost time for the holidays, and smart busy-bodies are already checking items off their shopping lists. For that special someone, consider the most outrageously overpriced plastic toy we've ever seen. $65,000 buys you this "Emotive Robotic Avatar" from Hammacher Schlemmer, a little servo-actuated guy that can wave its arms around and go from looking happy (above) to evil (below). It's all controlled by a tablet PC with a 30 foot range that receives a real-time video feed, as we saw when we checked this guy out at the Toy Fair earlier this year, back when he was called Quasai. As shown in the video after the break, the "operator" can even speak through the robot, which will pitch shift his or her voice, a trick sure to give your children nightmares. If that doesn't work, just tell 'em you blew their college fund to buy the thing and they'll have to get work study jobs. That ought to send the shivers up their spines.

Garmin's $23 Chirp wireless beacon brings geocaching thrills to Oregon, Dakota GPS units (Video)

By Darren Murph

Looking for an avenue to join millions of others in geocaching, eh? We know, there's hardly a better way to spend a weekend than by playing a sophisticated game of hide-and-seek, and Garmin's right there with us. If you, like it, are stuck in Kansas with nary a Jayhawk game in sight, this here pebble is the answer to all of your boredom woes. The Chirp is a wireless beacon that's designed to work with any compatible wireless-enabled Garmin handheld (the Oregon, Dakota and the recently announced GPSMAP handhelds are mentioned by name), and once you've set it up to cooperate with your device, it'll automatically transmit program coordinates so other cachers can find each stage of your multicache -- it's touch-and-go in its simplest form. The whole thing measures just 1.3- x 0.9-inches, weighs under an ounce and can be had for just $22.99. So yeah, good luck sticking to Segway polo with an offer like that.

Iomega serves up adorable 1.8-inch External USB 3.0 SSD pocket drives

By Darren Murph

Some might say that you have somewhat of a problem when calling a solid state drive "cute," but what do they know, anyway? Iomega's newest batch of external SSDs are easily the most adorable we've seen, as these 1.8-inchers can just about slip into any oversized Fifth Pocket that you may have. Available in 64GB, 128GB and 256GB sizes, the diminutive drives support USB 3.0 and are built to be lugged around and occasionally dropped, stepped on or used as a stress-relief tool. Specifically, the metal enclosure is engineered to handle drops from up to ten feet, and the 256-bit hardware encryption ensures that only you and your cronies will see what's inside. The company's also tossing in its Protection Suite (loaded with anti-virus, cloning and backup applications), and it'll be hawking these in early November for $229, $399 and $749 from least capacious to most. Oh, and that noise you hear? A hundred million USB 3.0 flash drives getting all sorts of perturbed

ArcadeDock converts Lenovo laptop into retro gaming machine (video)

By Darren Murph

Dean Liou, the same fellow responsible for the ToiletPC and LovePC, has just concocted what's likely his most splendorous mod yet. The ArcadeDock Laptop Dock is a half-height arcade machine, complete with a flame job from a dark corner of 1994, a full-on joystick + large button splay and a secret cabinet for a touchpad-equipped keyboard. Put simply, this rig is designed to hold an IdeaPad Y560, and when plugged in and connected via USB, the controls you're peering at above function exactly as you'd expect them to. Toss on a couple of your favorite ROMs (Street Fighter II, anyone?), grab a Go-Gurt and settle in -- a demonstrative video is after the break, and feel free to tap that Lenovo link below if you'd like to vote this mod up above the competition.

Nokia N900 will soon give users the option to dual-boot into MeeGo, experience the future

By Vlad Savov

Whatever else you might say about Nokia, the company knows how to keep a promise. Back in March, we were told there'd be a dual-boot solution for the N900, providing users of the Maemo 5 phone with a taste of the MeeGo life, and, even though it might have taken a while, that firmware is now on the precipice of becoming available. Mind you, there's quite a distance between offering users the option and supporting the dual-boot experience (which Nokia isn't doing), but given the choice between some MeeGo and complete NoGo, we know what we'd prefer. Hit the source to get fully educated while waiting on the dual-booting PR 1.3 update to drop.

Robots learning our pain threshold by punching humans and seeing if they cry

By Vlad Savov

The first rule of robotics is you do not talk about robotics that a robot should not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm. But how does a robot know when its acts or omissions are causing nearby fleshies discomfort? The obvious way is to scan for the same signals of distress that we humans do -- facial, physical, and aural -- but another, more fun, way is to just hit people over and over again and ask them how much each blow hurt. That's what professor Borut Povse over in Slovenia is doing, in a research project he describes as "impact emulation," where six test subjects are punched by a robotic arm until they can't take it anymore. It's funny, yes, but it's also novel and a somewhat ingenious way to collect data and produce more intelligent machines. Of course, whether we actually want more intelligent machines is another matter altogether.