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Joey the Rocker Robot, More Conscious Than Some Humans
Posted by Seamus Byrne at 11:35 PM on May 25, 2007
Meet Joey Chaos, the rocker robot who's the latest creation of Hanson Robotics. He was introduced at the RoboBusiness Conference and Expo earlier this month, and looks a lot like his older brother Jules we showed you before. Even though Joey has the same type of camera eyes that can track human faces and speech recognition software as his older brother, he somehow seems less human, especially when his interviewer tries a few questions other than "tell me more."
Check out another video of Joey Chaos, after the jump.
For some reason, that headline sounds just wrong, but whatever. Here's the Bird Electoron DJ-4, "the passive type micro mixer of power source unnecessary." In other words: yes, it's from Japan and yes, it's a very simple passive mixer with two mini-stereo inputs and one output. The seller for me is the two big analog knobs: VOLUME and VOLUME. For just $70 you will be able to connect your two MP3 players and touch your own two big knobs until your audience's ears bleed. Or they throw you into the river inside a sack full of rocks after you play the same Black Eyed Peas track for the 28th time.
Unlike the 
Just when you thought you had to carry around a 
If this found image is to be believed, Google is in the midst of testing a Skype-out-like service with their own Google Talk. If you're not familiar, Google Talk is their IM and PC to PC calling app that's tied into other Google apps like GMail.
How would you like to have a watch that's shaped like a tooth? No? Us neither. But Seiko's just created a "Cavity" watch that's both shaped like a tooth and has a gigantic hole in the middle to display the time.
The watch comes in either silver or gold, but costs only $140 (16,800 yen). The point? To remind you every day that it's time to go to the dentist. Or eat more candy. 
This is another one of the great gadgets offered by the folks at Skymall. This is a device that dispenses a perfected portioned bowl of cereal every time. No longer will you have to deal with that box of cereal and keeping the bag sealed with clips and whatnot. Just load up the Breakfix with your cereal of choice and it can dispense a bowl's worth with a simple push of a button. It operates off of batteries, which baffles me because aren't devices like this supposed to be all mechanical? Oh well, no more Lucky Charms overdoses for me! Video demonstration after the jump. $80.
Traffic cops in Manchester will soon be carrying webcams. This will help both sides of the parking predicament. The police will be able to use the video as proof against people challenging their tickets, and the people receiving tickets will have video proof to send home to mom. Let's just hope they don't bring this over to the States or I will be in a ton of trouble in seven or eight states. 
There isn't much to say about the TheraSpa Sound Therapy Eyeshades. Either you want a fruity-looking padded eyemask that hooks up to an MP3 player to lull you to sleep with the soothing sounds of death metal or you don't. Oh, it also comes with five pre-recorded sound programs, like Babbling Brook and Chirping Song Birds, but my guess is that they're nowhere near as relaxing as Dethklok.
I think I just might have found the phone to replace my aging RAZR (which I have detested with a vengeance since the day after I bought it but am too tight-fisted and lazy to replace it. Apparently I am due an upgrade from my phone company but, like I said, BOTHERED). The most important thing is that, unlike most phones, it seems to be waterproof—in fact, it looks like it runs on alcohol, so it's easy to charge, even when you're miles from a power point. It doesn't have a camera (see if I care), or GPS—although it can make you sing "Show me the way to go home" after too much use. And do you know the best thing? It's just $12.95. 
Kasper at Appleinsider is telling us that his sources have informed him that the Mac mini will Die.
We see a lot of pointless gadgets around here, but sometimes a product comes along that blows us away with its utter lack of utility. The Disc Pod Dispenser is basically a Pez dispenser for discs. Load it up, push a button, and one pops out. Is twisting the plastic case off of a spindle when you want a disc really too much effort to put forward?
Tele Atlas, that company that creates mapping databases for many GPS devices, has teamed up with software startup Inrix, and the result is new trafficking software that uses billions of pieces of historical traffic data to predict how congested roads will be throughout the day.
It's a busy week for Dell, who's launching both their Ubuntu and third-party pickings. Later this afternoon they'll begin offering three 