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Audi R8

The Audi R8 Blackbird is perfect for gadget lovers, sporting "four GPS units, two radar detectors, police scanner, CB radio, kill switch for all rear lights, and high-speed broadband Internet with Wi-Fi running on a tablet PC." Video after the break.

Codenamed Blackbird, the coupe is stuffed with enough gadgets to be a testbed for NASA's shuttle replacement, but don't for a second think the interior resembles a jungle of wires, screens and antennae.

[via Autoblog]

[in TechEBlog]

UK researchers give robot a "biological brain

Filed under: Robots

It looks like a group of researchers from the University of Reading are making a solid run at the title of mad scientists of the year (in the best sense, of course), with them now boasting that they've developed a robot that's controlled by a "biological brain." That's not quite the sci-fi sight you may be imagining, however (though it's close), with it instead made up of some 300,000 neurons taken from the neural cortex of a rat fetus, which are contained in multi electrode array that packs 60 electrodes to pick up the signals generated by the cells and in turn control the robot. According to the researchers, they are particularly interested in using the robot to study how memories are formed in the brain, and how the brain stores specific data, which they hope will lead to a better understanding of Alzheimer's Disease, Parkinson's Disease, stokes, and other brain injuries.

[Via Emerging Tech, New Scientist]

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[in engadget.com]

LED Floor

Measuring 25 square meters, this LED "floor system consists of over 1000 Sensacell HSI64-36-W interactive modules -- the capacitive sensors allows the floor to detect and respond to visitors footsteps right through the 20 mm thick architectural glass that forms the surface of the floor." Video after the break.

Far from being the first LED-infused floor we've seen hipsters and hippies break dance and boogie down on (respectively), Sensacell's latest contraption still manages to stand out by bringing back memories of when mouse trails really were the coolest thing about an operating system.

[via Engadget - Geekygadgets - PRweb]

[in TechEBlog]

Sensacell lights up your steps, Roomba should follow

This pressure sensitive floor will surely attract the attention of those who walk on it (especially Michael Jackson fans), if it were a little smarter, one might get it to lit up just a little in front of you when walking in the dark. While we're at it, could iRobot make Roomba automatically go there and clean that dirt that just landed on the floor? Movie in the full post.

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[in Uber Gizmo, the Gadgets News Blog]

Switched On: Rethinking the living room PC

Filed under: Laptops, Media PCs

Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about technology, multimedia, and digital entertainment.

Even as Microsoft continues to support broadcasting standards around the world to bolster Media Center's support for broadcast television, the future of noisy, black 17-inch-wide boxes sharing a cramped cabinet with your stereo receiver remains in jeopardy. Indeed, the future of the living room PC may be sitting in your lap.

When Microsoft announced the Media Center edition of Windows XP, it was in some ways the desktop counterpart to the Tablet PC mutation. Whereas the Tablet PC was envisioned as a new form factor for notebooks, Media Center held the promise of transforming the desktop into its own new form factor. Indeed, in one of Bil Gates's final CES keynotes promoting innovative PC designs, he didn't mention desktops at all, referring to stationary computers as "entertainment PCs" in an AV component style.

But while a few companies continue to sell Media Center PCs explicitly designed for connection to a television -- among them Sony, Alienware, and companies targeting custom installers such as Niveus Media, the form factor hasn't taken off for a variety of reasons. Microsoft, in turn, has focused more on Media Center Extenders such as the Xbox 360 and HP MediaSmart Connect to bring the Media Center experience to the big-screen TV. And despite some technological improvements coming to help the cause, that situation is unlikely to change dramatically.

Continue reading Switched On: Rethinking the living room PC

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[in engadget.com]

NAB approves four-week quiet period around DTV switch

Sssh. This is strictly hush-hush. The National Association of Broadcasters have passed a four-week ‘quite period’ that should maintain analog signals before and after the national shutoff date of February 17, 2009. From the sounds of it, the majority of the networks have signed the action –CBS is one notable exception – which will give procrastination Americans two more weeks of their analog signals. But remember, this is suppose to be a quite thing, so let’s keep it between us.

[in CrunchGear]

Participate in Wired.com's Global iPhone 3G Study

IPhone 3G network performance issues aren't isolated to the United States, and the time has come to collect global data. IPhone 3G owners from around the world: Wired.com needs your help. We've created an interactive ZeeMap, and we'd like you to report your iPhone 3G's 3G and EDGE upload and download speeds. We promise it's easy, and assuming your connections aren't grindingly slow, this should only take you about five minutes.

Here's what we'd like you to do:

1. On your iPhone 3G, point your browser to TestMyiPhone.com and tap Start Test.

2. Under Download Speed Test, tap the EDGE button. After the test runs, record the speed in Kbps (in the screenshot example, that's 171 Kbps).

3. Repeat step 2 for 3G download speed, and do the same for upload speeds for both EDGE and 3G.

4. Visit our ZeeMap, login (register if you don't have an account; we promise you it takes less than 5 seconds). Under "Add" select "Marker." Fill in the location and detail fields (see screenshots for examples). The Key (password) is 1234. Hit "Submit."

When you're done, your addition should look something like this:

And that's all there is to it. We'll provide an update with averaged global data once we've received a sufficient number of contributions.

Good to go? Ladies and gentlemen -- start up your iPhones.

[in Gear Factor]

Vudu features $0.99 rentals, rentals extension

Vudu users have 24 hours to finish watching (or watch again) once they have started to play a movie. While it's OK most of the time, it can be annoying if something came up and you had to stop watching. Vudu hopes to alleviate this problem by letting customers watch the movie again within seven days, for 99 cents. Vudu has also selected 99 blockbuster movies that can be watched for 99 cents. The best video download service just got better - read our Vudu review.

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[in Uber Gizmo, the Gadgets News Blog]

The Raon �??EVERUN NOTE�?? looks to be pretty powerful

Remember the Raon EVERUN NOTE from yesterday? Turns out that it�??s got a little bit of punch under that tiny hood. Raon opted to go with a 64-bit dual-core AMD Turion chip instead of, say, a more mobile-friendly Atom or VIA chipset. You�??ll lose out on the battery life that you�??d get from Intel or VIA �?? the EVERUN NOTE will top out at around 2.5 hours �?? but you�??ll gain what appears to be an assload of speed and power.

Here are two benchmarks of the EVERUN NOTE using CrystalMark 2004 R3, one of the notebook in Auto mode, which I�??ll assume is like a normal processing mode, and one in power saving mode, which is likely running on batteries.

Compare the above benchmarks from Raon�??s notebook to the below benchmark of a 1.6GHz Intel Atom chip running inside the Fujitsu Lifebook U2010 from a post over on digital.xy.hk.

You�??ll see that the AMD chip handily outpaces the Atom chip in both Auto and Power Saving modes. Couple grains of salt, though. The benchmarking done on the EVERUN NOTE was done by Raon, so it�??d be nice to see it tested independently. Also, remember that one of the huge plusses of the Atom chips is super long battery life. Power and speed isn�??t really high on the list of features. Still, a common complaint of these tiny netbooks is that they�??re woefully underpowered. Looks like the EVERUN NOTE might be able to perform admirably for such a small machine.

[UMPC Portal via SlashGear]

[in CrunchGear]

Google Maps Captures Natural Wonders by Photoshop [Google Maps]

Geologists and people wasting time on the internet alike have failed to explain this particularly repetitious forest in Holland. A pretty clear result of a lazy/botched clone stamping in Photoshop, we can't help but wonder what Google covered up here. Government secrets? Cloud interference? A leprechaun lair? No one knows, but stay tuned as we spend millions of dollars in hard-earned ad revenue to fund an expedition and find out...or maybe just distract you from that promise with a poorly-executed wood-to-penis alluding pun. [Google Earth and PsD via boingboing]

[in Gizmodo]