LittleDog Learns Several Terrifying New Tricks
Saturday, 22 May 2010 20:19
Yes, it's true. LittleDog, which is being developed at USC as part of Darpa's robot locomotion initiative, will now chase you across rocky terrain, over crevices, and up stairs of various heights. Any weaknesses we might've perceived in the initial videos of LittleDog have vanished and with them our hopes of ever resisting the RoboDog takeover.
This newest version of LittleDog is even programmed to teach itself to be more efficient (read: deadly), possessing the ability to evaluate the difference between a good foothold and a bad one and adjusting its steps accordingly. While this thing's getting smarter all the time, my dumb human programming remains the same: when you see a RoboDog, turn around and put one foot in front of the other, as quickly as possible. [">YouTube]
Apple News
 If you can just put down Angry Birds for one minute and plug your iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPod touch 2nd generation, iPod touch 3rd generation, or iPod touch 4th generation into iTunes, you should be in for a plea |
 Apple today released Safari 5.0.2 Software Update which contains improvements to compatibility and security, including the following:
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Game Center compatible with 2nd-gen iPod touch, not iPhone 3G 07 September 2010, 21.59 admin Apple News 
Apple has confirmed that Game Center, its social and gaming networking application included with iOS 4.1, will work on the second-generation iPod touch, but not on the iPhone 3G.
The iPhone 3G joins the first-generatio |
Military
 A new laser technology aims to protect helicopters in combat operations from heat-seeking missiles. The laser-based defense system, under development by the University of Michigan (UM) and Omni Sciences, Inc., a UM spin-off |
 The U.S. Army is developing snakelike robots for battlefield action that could include search and rescue missions, opening doors, and handling improvised explosive devices (IEDs) in a bid to keep troops out of harm's way.
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Star Trek-style force-field armour being developed by military scientists 18 August 2010, 12.19 admin Military news  A space-age "force field" capable of protecting armoured vehicles and tanks by repelling incoming fire is being developed by British military scientists.
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Microsoft
 250 GB console to come with sensor and game A new Xbox 360 bundle is to hit the shelves alongside Kinect as the existing 250GB console is going to be packaged up with the sensor and Kinect Adventures.
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Internet Explorer 9 Beta sees video demo, hits 95/100 on Acid3 test 07 September 2010, 22.10 admin Microsoft News  Looks as if the Internet Explorer 9 Beta has now leaked on video, and -- surprise, surprise -- it looks exactly like Internet Explorer!
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Microsoft begins Windows Phone 7 media blitz with new teaser ad 07 September 2010, 22.02 admin Microsoft News  Microsoft has posted its first teaser video advertisement for the upcoming Windows Phone 7.The one-minute ad, posted on the official Windows Phone UK YouTube channel, was created for a Secret Cinema showing of 'Lawrence of |
ATI/AMD News
 Chip company AMD has announced that, four years after acquiring it, the ATI brand is to be dropped from all its marketing and will be referred to only in nostalgic terms from now on.
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 ATI's Eyefinity may be a technological wonder, but to build a three-monitor display means that at least one of screens has to be connected via DisplayPort. This will often require a new and relatively high-end monitor tha |
 ATI Tray Tools is a small utility that can be found in the windows tray which then allows instant access to options and settings. Quite handy and quite a small download.
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Entertainment
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'The Guild': Felicia Day show uploads new episode, Rock Band track 08 September 2010, 21.16 admin Entertainment  Following a stint at Comic-Con, "The Guild" is now back online with a new episode full of hilarity. You can check back Sunday for a full recap, but let's just say that the relationship between Codex and Fox will come to a h |
 When director/star/cult luminary Bruce Campbell decided to make a sequel to My Name Is Bruce instead of the long rumored Bubba Nosferatu: Curse of the She-Vampires, many of his fans were disappointed. In a recent interview |
 Liam Neeson has joined the cast of Universal's Battleship, the Hasbro board game adaptation directed by Peter Berg.The film also stars Taylor Kitsch, Alexander Skarsgard, Brooklyn Decker, Rihanna and Hamish Linklater
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Technology
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Samsung suggests Galaxy Tab will cost between 0 and 0 -- also coming to Vodafone UK 05 September 2010, 22.24 admin Technology  Early reports indicate Europe will pay a pretty penny for Samsung's Galaxy Tab, but the 7-inch tablet may cost a good bit less when it comes to US shores -- the Wall Street Journal paraphrases a Samsung executive who claims |
 The Walkman section of Sony's booth at IFA this week has an automatic information system that pops up specs on a central display for each model as you pull it away from its base, but there was one unknown model chilling out |
Nike files patent for auto-lacing sneakers, Marty McFly doth protest 26 August 2010, 17.46 admin Technology  We've seen some extremely DIY auto-lacing sneakers, but it looks like the big boys -- Nike -- have thought about getting in on the game as well.
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Games News
 Microsoft has released an extended version of the 'Deliver Hope' live-actiion Halo Reach trailer that's currently on every television ad break all week long.
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 Konami has just officially announced that its eighth Silent Hill game will be released next year on PS3 and Xbox 360. The publisher's given it a working title of Silent Hill 8. See what it did there.Konami says that the tit |
 DICE has confirmed it will be showing its upcoming Vietnam expansion for FPS Battlefield: Bad Company 2 at Tokyo Game Show next week.
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Hardware
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Mad Catz's Black Ops PrecisionAim gamepads and Stealth mouse hands-on 08 September 2010, 18.12 admin Hardware News  At $50, the Call of Duty: Black Ops PrecisionAim gamepads cost nearly as much as first-party controllers, but we wouldn't hesitate to say they feel just as good if not better, with nigh-indistinguishable buttons and analog |
 TWO DUAL CORE CHIPS from Qualcomm with clock speeds of 1.2GHz and 1.5GHz will find their way into devices next year.
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 Return of the Ashton Kutcher cam. What does the stylish Nikon Coolpix S80 bring to the catwalk this Fall? Find out in our full story.
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Nvidia News
 We may be used to details leaking out about GPUs, but rarely do they come from official channels. This time, though, NVIDIA appears to have inadvertently posted details of the GeForce GT 420 to its website - a previousl |
 When it comes to customised and pre-overclocked graphics cards, few are as venerable as Gigabyte's Super Overclock series.
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 GPU DESIGNER Nvidia has finally managed to get its Tegra chip into a mobile phone worthy of mention, with LG Electronics confirming that it will use the chip.
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Robotics
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The state of household robots in Japan: looking pretty great 04 September 2010, 21.04 admin Robotics  This crazy looking little fellow is Toshiba's ApriPoco robot, and we couldn't want to meet him more -- especially in his updated form.
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Willow Garage PR2 robot learns to sort socks for k prize (video) 21 August 2010, 21.34 admin Robotics  We've been following the evolution of the Willow Garage PR2 robot for a little over a year now, watching as it learned to mooch electricity and hustle pool sharks.
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 Well, that didn't take long. Just a few months after Fujisoft's PALRO was formally introduced to the Japanese education segment, said humanoid is now set to receive a host of new applications as well as become useful as a p |
Software News
Also coming is a major user interface change called tab sets, formerly known as tab candy.
Hardware acceleration, coming to all the major browsers in various forms, is designed to shift some tasks from a computer's main |
 next version of Google’s browser has been promoted to beta status. You can now download Chrome 6 beta and start testing it out on multiple platforms.
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 Adobe on Friday announced that their flagship production and design software collection, Creative Suite 5, has reached RTM and is now shipping. Adobe has also posted 30-day trial downloads for every application and suite in |
Latest
'The Guild': Felicia Day show uploads new episode, Rock Band track 08 September 2010, 21.16 admin Entertainment
Following a stint at Comic-Con, "The Guild" is now back online with a new episode full of hilarity. You can check back Sunday for a full recap, but let's just say that the relationship between Codex and Fox will come to a h
Mad Catz's Black Ops PrecisionAim gamepads and Stealth mouse hands-on 08 September 2010, 18.12 admin Hardware News
At $50, the Call of Duty: Black Ops PrecisionAim gamepads cost nearly as much as first-party controllers, but we wouldn't hesitate to say they feel just as good if not better, with nigh-indistinguishable buttons and analog
If you can just put down Angry Birds for one minute and plug your iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPod touch 2nd generation, iPod touch 3rd generation, or iPod touch 4th generation into iTunes, you should be in for a plea
Microsoft has released an extended version of the 'Deliver Hope' live-actiion Halo Reach trailer that's currently on every television ad break all week long.
TWO DUAL CORE CHIPS from Qualcomm with clock speeds of 1.2GHz and 1.5GHz will find their way into devices next year.
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