The dual-camera DSi hits in Japan tomorrow, but thankfully, it seems that we occidents won’t have to wait until “well into 2009″ as originally thought. Nintendo pres. Satoru Iwata told Reuters that a fall or Christmas ’09 release would likely be too late. Which leaves Summer or even before as the new launch window. Get your cat ready to be photographed now. [Reuters via Kotaku]
On one hand. robots have come a long, long way in the last 25 years. On the other, 3/4 of the Gizmodo staff is still wiping their own butt. Regardless, Carnegie Mellon is hosting an excellent gallery documenting 25 years of their Field Robotics Centre robots. This guy, called the “Terragator,” was built in 1984 to navigate roads and map mines. And if you like him, there are plenty of others on CM’s site, each packing a palatable one-sentence description. So hit up the link for more robot fun. [The Field Robotics Center via bbGadgets]
Japanese company Tsujiden has presented a new protective film that diminishes fingerprints in a matter of seconds, breaking down the oily residue using a simple property of chemistry previously utilised in soaps and detergents. The company claims that the lipophilic and hydrophilic properties of the film cause the grease to be “obscured” by allowing it to “become flat” against the treated surface.
How embarrassing. A loyal and loving wife baked this beautiful MacBook cake for her husband’s friend’s birthday. Note her meticulous attention to detail, including the little indentation in the front to open the computer and the perfect slightly-different-white Apple logo.
This could be a tongue-in cheek bit of high-tech flirtery: Brazilian designer Lucia Lorio’s “Find Me If You Can” lingerie line has embedded GPS-uplinking units that a partner can remotely track. So you could play a titillating game on your man by flitting around near his location, and then zipping far away. Or you could see it as a sensible safety device in…uh…high kidnap-rate areas. For sure, it’s not a good way to find out if your missus is doing the funky bedspring with someone behind your back: that unit is too clunky for stealthy stalking and the wearer can switch it off. Still, it’s unusual. And costly: $US800 to $US1100. [TheAge via GizmoWatch]
On a recent earnings call, Asus explained some of their plans going into 2009. The big one? The company expects to have a $US200 entry level Eee PC—which we assume has no Windows. But that $US200 announcement is even more interesting when coupled with another announcement—Asus intends to phase out all 7″ and 8.9″ models for 10″ netbooks. So will the smaller systems go for $US200, or will we see a $US200 10″ netbook in 2009? I guess we’ll have to wait to find out. [Digitimes]
Earlier we learned that it was Verizon’s requests that’ve partly crippled the Blackberry Storm, but we at least hope Verizon follows the lead of Vodafone UK and prices the thing reasonably. The Vodafone pricing scheme’s just out, and it’s seemingly good news: under a 12-month contract the phone costs the equivalent of $US485 at its cheapest, but if you go for an 18-month contract it’s free. Does that bode well for the un-contracted handset pricing over here? We’ll have to wait and see. [PocketLint]
After weeks of wrangling, Wired had finally gotten commitments from high-level surrogates from both the Obama and McCain campaigns to participate in a debate about technology yesterday afternoon. So how did it go? It didn’t. The McCain campaign cancelled a few hours before the event, with no plans to reschedule. While McCain’s personal indifference to technology , difficult-to-defend tech policies, personal vendettas and general oldness all come to mind as reasons for this decision, more likely than not they just didn’t see this as the most effective way to, you know, win. Oh well. [Wired Epicenter — Thanks, Nick and JosephGerardi1]
The worst bit of snowball-fighting has always been, to me, the massive pain caused as you over-chill your hands by frantically sculpting your 100′th snowball: something that’d not be a problem with this snowball gun. It sculpts the ‘balls for you, three at a time, and then you can use its internal slingshot to fire them at neighbour kids up to 15 metres away. Actually I’ve remembered that the worst bit of snowball fighting is being hit by one that “accidentally” has gravel in it, but you take my point. With this baby tucked under your arm, wintry Cold Wars will be decidedly more one-sided. Yours for $US30. [HammacherSchlemmer via OhGizmo]
Though the omission of two all-but-standard smartphone features from BlackBerry’s Storm is disappointing, it isn’t totally inexplicable. BGR has confirmed through a “really top-level” Verizon source that the crippling was — surprise! — carried out at the behest of the wireless company. Few wireless providers are innocent of phone neutering, but this blatant promotion of their data service and the added network anchor that the lack of tri-band HSDPA adds protect interests that, well, don’t really need much protecting. Even with Wi-Fi, who the hell is going to buy a Storm without a data plan? Stop baiting us, Verizon. We like you. [BGR]
