Thursday, December 18, 2008

Swarm-bots Converge On Child, Rescue Her From Freaky Parents

11:40PM December 18, 2008 | Mark Wilson

The collective power of many little robots could do a lot of good for the world. But for now, it just pulls little children across the floor in a freaky way.

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Gadgets

Rand McNally Releases Atlases for Kindle, Has Odd Vision for the Future of Maps

11:19PM December 18, 2008 | John Herrman

Rand McNally can’t be happy with everyone dropping their bulky atlases for GPS units and nav-enabled phones, so they’re fighting back. But they seem a little confused.

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Mobile

‘Cupcake’ Roadmap Hints at What’ll Be In the Next Android Update

9:40PM December 18, 2008 | John Herrman

Hidden among a slew of bugfixes and refinements announced in a posting on the Android project site are a few serious feature upgrades, which could make their way to your G1 fairly soon.

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Mobile

First Smartphones, Now Feature Phones: Motorola Leaks More 2009 Handsets

9:20PM December 18, 2008 | John Herrman

Yesterday’s purported renders of Motorola’s 2009 smartphone line seemed plausible, but these less adventurous feature phone renders are almost too safe to be fake. Behold, the Son of Razr!


Software

SlingPlayer For BlackBerry Launching in Public Beta Before Next Year, Just

8:30PM December 18, 2008 | John Herrman

SlingPlayer for BlackBerry, which was previewed in a usable state nearly a year ago, is finally coming to BlackBerry in a public beta.

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Gadgets

Lighters Will Blend, But Also Ultimately Pwn ‘Will It Blend’ Blender

7:30PM December 18, 2008 | Elaine Chow

Will lighters blend? Yes, they will. And the explosive results, filmed in slo-mo, have finally warmed me up to this otherwise inscrutable internet meme. Good thing we didn’t try this at the Giz Gallery! [Kotaro269]


Software

Mobile Spy Can Now Secretly Record Your iPhone SMS, Calling Data

6:00PM December 18, 2008 | Elaine Chow

Mobile Spy, that terrible piece of technology that silently monitors smartphones without the user knowing, has come to the iPhone. Goodbye safe haven of SMS and calling privacy, it was nice knowing you.

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Phillipe Starck Zikmu Speakers Belong in the Living Rooms of Those With Inscrutable Accents

4:30PM December 18, 2008 | Elaine Chow

On some level, I know that these minimalistic wireless speakers by Phillipe Starck are classy works of art. But when I look at them, all I can think about is Nuni and Nooni Schoener.

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Art: Ohm

3:03PM December 18, 2008 | Brian Lam

It looks as if Tomas Schneider’s piece, Ohm, is of electric demigods bowing to each other a moment before the telsa coils on their heads toss off arcing streams of electrons.

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Gaming

Here’s a Good Question: Is Kevin Rudd A Gamer?

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2:52PM December 18, 2008 | Nick Broughall

New Kotaku AU editor David has posed a very interesting question over on our sister site today: Is Kevin Rudd a gamer? Normally, the mere idea of any politician in power as a gamer strikes me as absurd, but the fact is that K-Rudd (or his staff) spends a lot of time on social networking tools like Facebook, MySpace and Twitter, so why not gaming? With the latest batch of consoles (and most current PC titles too), games are becoming more and more about engaging with your fellow man, right before you blow a hole in his virtual head (sometimes you have one blown in yours instead).

Do you reckon the PM partakes in the odd bit of gaming? Would he own any consoles? Head on over to Kotaku to discuss with our gaming-obsessed brethren…

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