Gizmodo: bear

Apple Won't Replace Heroic, Bear-Distracting iPhone

Rosa Golijan — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 04:20:00 EDT

Poor Kris Rowley. She gets chased by a bear, sacrifices her iPhone to escape, returns days later (armed with a baseball bat) to find her iPhone all chewed up, and now Apple Geniuses don't believe her story.

Things ended with Rowley buying a new iPhone because Apple doesn't cover using the phone as a self-defense weapon against bear manglings (especially when Geniuses don't believe that's what happened). What I truly can't believe is that it took me until now to hear about the iPhone's bear distracting powers, but I applaud Rowely her quick thinking. [CIO]

Photo by ToddBlm

Care BEAR

Mark Wilson — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 08:40:00 EDT

We've written about the Battlefield Extraction-Assist Robot before, but this shot from Newsweek's "Weapons Porn" gallery was just too tempting. The BEAR lifts 500lbs—enough to get a wounded soldier off a battlefield, or me out of a Shoney's.[Newsweek]

Stuffed Animal USB Hand Warmers Quickly Brand You as "Office Weirdo"

Dan Nosowitz — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 18:30:00 EDT

If you feel like your coworkers just don't ostracize you enough, these fuzzy bear and rabbit USB hand warmers are sure to do the trick. "Why does that guy have his hands jammed into a stuffed animal's esophagus?" they'll ask.

Though I've had the good fortune to have never worked in an office, I have seen every episode of The Office and thus feel qualified to say that wearing these things are a surefire way to turn you into a weirder, colder and furrier version of Dwight (or Gareth, or whoever fills that role in the Australian, Quebecoise etc versions). They're a little bit cute and a lot bit creepy, and available for $22.50 per pair. [Technabob]

Battlefield Extraction-Assist Robot Is a Real Care BEAR

Jack Loftus — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 16:30:00 EDT

Sure, the BEAR robot is a bit terrifying to look at, but one day, after you discover the pipe bomb your estranged wife left in the mailbox, this automaton could very well save your life.

Funded by the Army, the BEAR locates victims, removes hazardous materials, and can even carry 500-lb. loads over long distances. It's another 'bot in a long line of battlefield helpers that have pretty much transformed the way soldiers deal with disarming certain deadly encounters in the field. Except this one, you know, looks like a bear. [CNET]

Bandai RilakKuma Finally Achieves Maximum Netbook Adorability

Dan Nosowitz — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 01:45:00 EDT

It can be hard to tell the legions of identical netbooks apart, but this Bandai RilakKuma will never have that problem, because it's the cutest Atom-based piece of hardware we've ever seen.

RilakKuma, meaning "Relax Bear," is the name of the character whose eyes and nozzle are seen on the back of the netbook. This model is packing a 1.6GHz Atom, 1GB of RAM, 160GB HDD and an 8.9-inch screen, so it's totally anonymous except for that adorable case, which apparently costs a hefty amount. The limited-edition netbook (only 500 were made) costs over $850 USD, but nobody ever said cuteness came cheap. [Akihabara News via Engadget]

Bear Sleeping Bag: Getting Mauled To Death Might Be a Better Option

Sean Fallon — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 20:00:00 EST

A bear-shaped sleeping bag might protect you from being mauled, but you have to ask yourself: would I rather be mauled by a bear or violated by one? Think about it.

[Eiko Ishizawa via RGS]

MIT's Huggable Robotic Bear Keeps Ill People From Feeling Sad

Kit Eaton — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 10:30:00 EST

Normally you think science, lasers, and silicon chips when someone says "MIT," but Huggable is an MIT invention nonetheless: it's another smart robot companion, a bit like Paro meets Teddy Ruxpin. Its body is covered in sensors and motors, including webcams behind his eyes and a speaker in his nose, and its designed to respond to you and react like an electronic pet. But it's a little smarter than Paro: it can act as a telepresence device, echoing the movements of a remotely-manipulated Huggable.

And the remote bear can also be moved by you, which opens up the chance for the possibility of remote-controlled cuddles. It may, at this point, help to remember the bear's intended for uses in places like hospitals, and in early-learning applications.

It's the latest version of a device that MIT's Personal Robots Group has been working on for a while, and as you can see it's a research device so it's not exactly wonderfully cuddly at the mo. Still, the group's working on a refined version that'll be used in real-life human-computer interaction experiments. [MIT via BotJunkie]

Headless Teddy Bear USB Drive Combines Kiddy Nightmares, Storage in One

Kit Eaton — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 06:12:00 EDT

Ages ago we showed you a DIY version, but now the removable-head Teddy Bear USB drive is a real product, ready to trigger-off those childhood nightmares all over again. The little guy is around 3 x 3.75 inches, is USB 2.0, stores 1GB inside its teddy guts, and costs $17. Not much else to say. [Geekalerts]

Talking Twittering Teddy Bear is Nearly A Freaky Mod Too Far

Kit Eaton — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 07:27:00 EDT

Having a cyborg teddy reading out your Twitter alerts... *shiver* the idea gives me the creeps a little. But not the guys who came up with the idea over at HyHome2.0. They've even got an instructional video so you can build your own artificial-voice bear, which uses Bluetooth to get data from your PC so you can plop the toy anywhere and still keep in touch. I'm not going to be building one: I've got a vision of teddy getting bored with endless inane Twitter updates, slapping in some steel fangs in its cyber-jaw and chewing its way out of the house. [Project page via Hackaday]

Gutted Teddy Bear Reincarnated Inside Robosapien Body

Louis Ramirez — Thu, 14 Dec 2006 08:45:59 EST

As cool as this hack is, there's something creepy about seeing someone gut a teddy bear and then stuff its lifeless skin with the cold body of a Robosapien. Yet as disturbing as the video is, I can't help but watch it till the bitter end. R.I.P. teddy. – Louis Ramirez

Robosapien Bear [SlashGear]

USB Warming Slippers With Bear Attachment

Jason Chen — Fri, 24 Nov 2006 16:00:41 EST

We've seen USB slippers before, but this one's special in two ways.

One, they're more like booties and cover your entire foot, plus your ankles. No part of your foot will be exposed to the elements.

Second, they come with a bear attachment. OMGWTFBBQ bear attachment! This is the best thing we've ever seen. – Jason Chen

Product Page [Busytrade via Gizmodo Japan]

USB Teddy Bear With Removable Head

Jason Chen — Mon, 19 Jun 2006 07:30:44 EDT

If you were to embed a USB flash drive into a teddy bear, where would you put the connector? In the hand? Crotch? Feet? Tail? If you answered "in the brain stem, beneath the severed head" give yourself ~~the clap~~ a clap on the back.

A modder decided to empty out the guts of a teddy bear and shove in a USB stick. The head acts as the cap, and when you plug the stick into your machine, it looks like the creature from the 100 acre woods got a little too curious.

This shouldn't be too hard to do yourself, provided you have a bear, a USB stick, and some childhood trauma. Maybe we should have a contest of the weirdest things USB sticks can be shoved into—excluding your own anatomy. – Jason Chen

Photo Set [Flickr]

Worst USB Gadget Yet: Decapitated Teddy [The Raw Feed]