How to Survive a Robot Uprising is the title of a very funny book, an associated website, and apparently the working title of a possible robot comedy by Paramount Pictures. Author Daniel H. Wilson is a robotics specialist & doctoral candidate at the Robotics Institute of Carnegie Mellon University, and so should know a thing [...]

Wired Magazine has just published a list of the best robots around. The list consists of 50 bots, some real and some fictional. Appearing at number 1, as well as being the best “real” robot, is Stanley, the driverless car that won the DARPA Grand Challenge for 2005. Stanley is regarded as a paean to [...]

Here are some more views of that Xbox-themed car from Nissan that we made note of late last year. The unique feature of this concept car is the integration of the car’s controls with the game console’s controls. Gran Turismo and similar racing games can be controlled by the car’s steering wheels and brake [...]

Now showing at the North American International Auto Show, we have, and apparently for the first time, a car with a built-in espresso maker, and that car is the Audi Roadjet.
The Roadjet looks good, has a great name, is nicely spec’d and all that, but more importantly it can brew a cup of espresso! [...]

Canon and Toshiba have been working on their surface-conduction electron-emitter display (SED) technology for several years now, and have demonstrated it recently at CES 2006. This new TV display panel approach looks promising and may well give pause to manufacturers of LCD and Plasma screens over the next few years. Although they are not yet [...]

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has just announced their list of top 10 patent receivers for 2005. As usual, IBM continues to dominate the list, however their productivity has slipped about 10% compared to last year - they’re down to 2,941.
1. IBM - 2,941 preliminary patents issued in 2005.2. Canon - [...]

Here’s an iPod dock with a difference. The Griffin TuneCenter connects the iPod to your home entertainment system and displays the iPod’s entire control interface on the TV and lets you manage all the controls via the 14 button remote.
TuneCenter plays the iPod’s music on your stereo, and displays photos and movies from [...]

Of the thousands of products on display at CES 2006 in Las Vegas this year, CNet has selected the Creative Zen Vision:M to receive it’s “Best of Show” award. CNet stops short of calling the Vision:M an iPod killer, but touts a number of advantages that the Vision:M has over the Video iPod, such as:
-brighter [...]

Apple announced it’s Intel-centric notebook the MacBook Pro yesterday at Macworld 2006 in San Francisco. This is the first use of Intel chips in an Apple product. Specifically, the high-end MacBook Pro uses the 1.83GHz Intel Core Duo with 2MB shared L2 Cache. The display is 15.4-inch 1440×900 LCD. The MacBook Pro comes with 1GB [...]

In a sign of the times, camera manufacturer Nikon has just announced that it will stop making film cameras entirely, in order to focus on digital ones…at least in the U.K. Good to be able to avoid that nettlesome film loading process…
Nikon prepares to strengthen digital line-up for 2006 - Nikon Press Release, January 11, [...]