Today Motorola said it would chew off its woefully underperforming Mobile Devices group in order to safeguard its healthier businesses—namely Broadband & Mobility Solutions, which includes network equipment, walkie-talkies and business products. This comes after famous Wall Street curmudgeon Carl Icahn laid seige to the mismanaged company. Assuming the deal passes the usual legal and regulatory hurdles, shareholders will get shares of both companies, probably some time in 2009. Handset customers will presumably get nothing, at least in the short term: this doesn’t seem like a vote of confidence for Motorola phones. [Reuters]
newVideoPlayer("bigdogbeta_gizmodo.flv", 520, 410,""); If you thought Humanity was damned after watching the latest BigDog quadruped robot, prepare to loot the nearest supermarket and run for the hills, because this video of the beta version of BigDog will leave you in awe. And probably make you wet your pants like some of the best Monty Python skits. Peter Furia (who I hope is Nick’s cousin and works at SHIELD) sent us the exclusive high resolution footage this morning and told us the story behind it.
According to its creator, Christoffer Nøkleby, the Merium Home Theatre PC has a “sky high wife approval factor.” According to my wife, any home theatre PC should be hidden away in another room, although “the zebra cover could be cute. Hidden under the table.” The 10.4 x 9.2 x 3.6 inch Merium runs Windows Home Premium, comes loaded with ports and cables, and has interchangeable plates for a whopping US$1,561, which is the premium you pay normally for Scandinavian design (probably manufactured in China). More after the jump. galleryPost('merium', 3, '');
On a slow news day, one company can always be relied on to bring out something so unutterably useless that I fall to my knees and give thanks to James T. Kirk and all the angels: Brando. Their phone strap-slash-stylus-slash-lightsaber-for people-of-extremely-restricted-growth costs five bucks and would redefine the word pointless if it didn’t actually have a retractable point. Still, I can think of one person who might find it handy when he’s on a post-coital cleanup. [Brando] galleryPost('luminoustylus', 3, 'luminous stylus');
Bead curtains are like, so 1950′s huh? Artist Devorah Sperber doesn’t think so. Her amazing Star Trek bead curtains are much more likely to be adorning gallery walls than the front door of your local grocery store. Kind of like pixel-art in 3D, she slides tens of thousands of beads onto threads to create these detailed portraits. Check out the holodeck door, Enterprise-D’s bridge, and my favorite: the “beaming down” series, which looks spookily like the “real” special effect. galleryPost('StarTrekArt', 3, '');
Reuters is reporting that the Miami-Dade police department will “soon” start deployment of the infamous Honeywell Micro Air Vehicles, the spy drones that will keep all you criminals and Gizmodo editors in check with forward and downward looking cameras, flying over a 100 waypoint flight plan at 57MPH, and from 10,500-foot altitude. Seeing them hovering over the skies is kind of menacing. Actually, with the right music, it’s downright scary.
A posable sports robot-theme webcam, with a choice of ball: basketball, baseball and football (US and Euro style). Who’d've thought there’s a market for this? Chinese company Rodintech for one, though a trip through their website shows that they’ll try and stick a USB webcam in just about anything. This MPC-095 has a 350 kilopixel CMOS sensor, plus the regulation built-in mic for your video-calling needs. Sorry, posable sporty robot theme webcam fans, there’s no info on price or availability. [Rodintech via Geek Alerts]
My Touch Keys is a simple idea; a thin sheet of plastic with holes where each key appears is mounted onto the iPhone’s screen. When the keyboard is used, you can “feel” each key as you press, thanks to the slight depression the My Touch Keys sheet offers. Though this isn’t exactly a new concept, it is the first time it has been commercially made available, and we think it may be a worthwhile investment for some. Watching a movie with the plastic film attached will probably annoy you to no end, but if you can’t quite get to grips with the whole touchscreen thing, there are probably worse ways to squander US$8. Additionally, the guys at My Touch Keys are running a BOGOF promotion, meaning you can grab yours for US$4, just as long as you have someone to go halvsies with. [Product Page via OhGizmo]
Asus’ president of sales, Kevin Lin, has announced the upcoming 8.9-inch Eee PC will have a touchscreen incorporated. Lin also speculated that the device may have GPS functionality, too, however this was not confirmed. The announcement has us a little confused, as earlier reports suggested otherwise. Still, Lin went on to say the expected starting price for an 8.9-inch touchscreen toting Eee will be around US$500, and he also added that the Eee Desktop PC will begin retailing at the US$199 mark. Put that in your Eee PC news pipe and puff it. [DigiTimes]
Toshiba’s new robot pal is basically a voice-operated infrared universal remote control, heavy on the cuteness. Programmed to be fairly smart, he’ll wait until you use a controller for your electronics, then ask you what you were doing: the next time you want to perform the same action, you just have to tell ApriPoko to do it for you. He’ll then wave his IR transmitter arm and *bing*, on goes your TV. He’s even equipped with a camera to identify users, presumably to learn their habits. For now he’s just an R&D demonstrator device, and is limited to simple commands. We hope we’re right in expecting the technology to make its way into consumer gadgets soon. [Robot Watch] galleryPost('apripoko', 3, '');
