Earlier this year, we reported on Tomotaka Takahashi, the famous engineer who sent the first talking robot into space, and his plans to make robots as popular a consumer electronic as smartphones. He’d been teasing a humanoid phone to debut this year, and here it is: a cutesy, talking, limbed phone that hitches rides…
What will it take for robots to become as common in our homes and daily lives as smartphones, TVs, and computers? Ask roboticist Tomotaka Takahashi. The famous Tokyo professor aims to be “the Steve Jobs of robotics,” by moving away from technical specs and emphasizing design, as well as pure bot charisma.
It's easy to laugh at futurist predictions. But when they're proven accurate, it's hard not to be impressed. Especially when it comes to technology that we now use every day.
There are far, far more important costs that today's devastation in Japan will levy than economic ones. But the reality is that Japan is integral to the manufacturing and distribution of a huge portion of the world's electronics.
These clunky "firsts" will leave you hungry for a game of Duck Hunt and your favorite cassette. Or possibly send you scrambling to hug your sleek iPhone while giving thanks for the goodness that is modern technology.
In an era when companies are getting focused, trimmer, leaner, Panasonic has unapologetically taken the stance that more is more. Thousands of products? Try a million. This is old school everythingism, and I kind of love it.
With AmazonBasics, the online retail giant is jumping headfirst into the consumer electronics space with its own private line of low-cost accessories.
Sure, election coverage is getting the most play tonight, but we're equally (well, almost) invested in the destruction of everybody's favorite mediocre consumer electronics chain – Circuit City. A tipster has sent us a sneak peek at Circuit City's severance pay, and it's not pretty. Part-time associates get an extra…
In perhaps the most spirited and cheery interview I've ever seen given by Sony chair Howard Stringer, the knight of the realm tells Charlie Rose that after several years in the driver's seat, he's still trying to integrate all of the electronics divisions of Sony. "We're so big that we're making the same thing twice…
Sony became the latest to jump on the app trend bandwagon, but not with a product you'd automatically equate with downloading itty bitty widgets. The company has released an App development kit for its line of Bravia television sets. It expects people to create things like small multiplayer online games, weather and…
Look, John Connor, I get that we at Skynet are considered your enemies. I also understand that with the whole trying to "terminate" you thing, you'd probably get a little "drag Hector around the walls of Troy" once you've claimed victory over one of us. But this, sir, is ridiculous. Even genocidal robots have certain…
I know "All Giz Wants" are supposed to be fantasies involving shiny objects, but this really is my fantasy: I'd like high-def disc players that don't flash "unreadable" error messages, receivers that can pull music from a network without headaches—in general, home electronics that aren't shacked by Ethernet plugs,…
Good magazine has whipped up an amazing chart that shows how much energy your electronic toys will suck up next year — even when they're turned off. Most electronics stay in standby mode when turned off, maintaining a clock in a microwave, say, or a timer in your DVR that tells it when to turn on. After the jump, see…
At Intel's Pre-CES briefing today, execs discussed a new super-small solid state drive, WiMax-capable devices, and 45nm Penryn chips in everything from UMPCs to television sets to slender desktop all-in-ones from your favorite computer makers. Here's the rundown:
We ship 50 to 80 percent of the 300k to 400k tons of electronics that actually make it to recycling each year—out of 2 million tons tossed—overseas. The "recycling" part happens when workers in places China, Nigeria and India bust up old gear with hammers, gas burners or their bare hands to pull out metals, glass and…
Every gadget freak knows of them, and usually despises them. Yes, extended warranties. Every Sam, Joe and Bob salesman at your favorite consumer electronics store is trying to hock one to you. The Washington Post took a very in-depth look at extended warranties, the numbers, and what they mean for the consumer.
This study was conducted by the Consumer Electronics Association. It showed that the average household has 26 "non-discreet" CE products and upwards of $1,200 was spent on said CE products. The top five growing products are MP3 players, digital cameras, car video systems, in-dash CD players and laptop computer. The…
