DeviceGuru

House-cleaning robot gets pet Roomba

deviceguru — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 17:36:36 +0000

A Silicon Valley homebrew robotics club has added vacuuming capabilities — via a small vacuum-bot stowaway — to its prototype house-cleaning robot. In a newly released video the Readybot picks up clutter from a family room floor, and then releases its pet Roomba to perform the finishing touches.
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Nokia acquires Symbian: so what?

deviceguru — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 23:47:40 +0000

The mobile phone operating system world was rocked recently by the announcement that Nokia had acquired all of the shares of Symbian that it didn’t already own, and that it planned to transition the OS to an open-source licensing model. How significant is this move?
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Xandros acquires Linspire

deviceguru — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 18:39:40 +0000

Two highly vocal — though not particularly successful — U.S.-based desktop Linux vendors have become one. The formal announcement that Xandros has acquired Linspire came today, following several days of static on the blogosphere.
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First 12 Microsofties, then and now

deviceguru — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 05:22:34 +0000

Today was Bill Gates’s last full-time day at Microsoft. To commemorate the event, Microsoft released a pair of photos showing 11 of the company’s first dozen employees — the so-called “Albuquerque Group” — back in 1978, and now.
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Surviving Slashdot despite cheap web hosting

deviceguru — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 01:49:03 +0000

Since its launch last December, DeviceGuru.com’s stories have made it onto Slashdot about once a month. Unfortunately, the site’s “budget” web-hosting service balks at delivering the resulting traffic spikes. What to do?
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Review: Roku’s rockin IP-radio

deviceguru — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 01:42:58 +0000

Having recently been bit by the Netflix STB bug, I couldn’t resist checking out Roku’s latest SoundBridge “network music player.” In less than 10 minutes of fooling around with the device after its arrival, I was ensnared!
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Via debuts Mini-ITX 2.0

deviceguru — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 03:01:24 +0000

Via Technologies has launched gen 2 of its signature mini-motherboard standard. Mini-ITX 2.0, an evolutionary update to the seven-year-old 170×170mm form-factor, introduces new and emerging buses and interfaces such as PCI Express, SATA, Gig-E, and HD A/V, while preserving backwards-compatibility with the original standard.
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Monkey’s brain controls robotic arm

deviceguru — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 01:07:22 +0000

Scientists at the University of Pittsburgh have demonstrated a robotic arm being operated by a monkey’s brain activity. Signals transmitted by a microcontroller implanted in the monkey’s brain enable the animal to robotically feed itself pieces of fruit in an effortless and natural manner.
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Handheld radar device ’sees’ through walls

deviceguru — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 01:38:38 +0000

Motorola-backed startup Camero has introduced a handheld radar device that can “see” through walls. Weighing about six pounds, the laptop computer-sized gadget is intended for use by military, law enforcement, fire, and rescue personnel.
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Top ten disruptive technologies

deviceguru — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 05:02:54 +0000

Market researcher Gartner Inc. has come out with its prognostication of the top ten disruptive technologies for the next five years. Included on the list are multicore processors, social networking, web mashups, cloud computing, augmented reality, and more.
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Robot climbs walls electrostatically

deviceguru — Fri, 30 May 2008 23:46:03 +0000

R&D think tank SRI International claims to have created the first robots to use electrically-controllable adhesion (”electroadhesion”) to reliably climb walls.
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Free book explains Windows CE development

deviceguru — Thu, 29 May 2008 21:30:54 +0000

Microsoft is offering a Windows CE certification “Preparation Kit” as a free download on its developer website. The kit, implemented as a 335-page book, provides valuable technical information for developers wanting to know more about Windows CE, regardless of whether they plan to take Microsoft’s certification exam.
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First impressions of Netflix’s $100 STB

deviceguru — Tue, 20 May 2008 18:30:13 +0000

Netflix and Roku have jointly announced a tiny set-top box (STB) said to offer unlimited streaming of DVDs and TV episodes on Netflix members’ TVs. The $100 “Netflix Player by Roku” is confirmed to run a customized version of Linux, along with robust DRM (digital rights management) technology.
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Fixing Kubuntu’s trash icon

deviceguru — Sun, 18 May 2008 05:13:06 +0000

Call me old fashioned, but one complaint I have about Kubuntu 8.04 — aka Hardy Heron — is the lack of a traditional desktop trash icon on its KDE desktop. Fortunately, this is easy to fix!
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U.S. Army invests in robotic insects

deviceguru — Mon, 05 May 2008 23:52:56 +0000

The U.S. Army is backing a project to develop robotic insects aimed at enhancing the military’s situational awareness capabilities. The autonomous, multifunctional miniature intelligence-gathering robots will be capable of operating in places too inaccessible or dangerous for humans.
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Robot to conduct symphony orchestra

deviceguru — Sat, 03 May 2008 04:11:05 +0000

ASIMO, Honda’s amazing 51-inch tall humanoid robot, is preparing to conduct the Detroit Symphony Orchestra in a performance of “Impossible Dream.” Along with renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma, the mechanical marvel will open a special concert performance for young people in Detroit on May 13.
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Hardy Heron moves into the Black Tower

deviceguru — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 19:48:59 +0000

Last time I wrote about the “Black Tower,” I had just installed Vista and Kubuntu 7.10 in a dual-boot setup. When version 8.04 of Kubuntu (”Hardy Heron”) hit the Web last week, I wasted no time upgrading to it.
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Molecule-scale memory augurs terabyte iPhones

deviceguru — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 13:36:58 +0000

Researchers at the University of Glasgow claim to have created a molecule-sized switch that offers vast increases in solid-state storage for devices such as MP3 players. The “breakthrough” molecule-sized switch can theoretically increase the number of transistors per chip from today’s limit of around 200 million to “well over a billion,” the team says.
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When stackable PCI Express buses collide

deviceguru — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 13:47:41 +0000

Two competing stackable PCI Express standards are being unveiled this week at the Embedded Systems Conference in San Jose, Calif. Targeting slightly different slices of the market, the mutually incompatible standards threaten to disrupt next-generation embedded device design much as 4-track/8-track, Beta/VHS, and HD-DVD/Blu-ray rivalries impacted consumer electronics.
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Linux gurus convene in Texas

deviceguru — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 01:11:19 +0000

The Linux Foundation will hold its second annual Collaboration Summit this week in Austin, Texas. The invitation-only Summit, which brings together many of the foremost minds in Linux server, desktop, and mobile software development, aims to “determine how to advance the operating system in the year ahead.”
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Report warns of nanotechnology’s toxic risks

deviceguru — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 05:28:19 +0000

While nanotechnology promises to transform the fields of electronics, medicine, environmental remediation, and solar energy, the “nano boom” is not without substantial envirnmental risks, warns the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition (SVTC) in a newly published 30-page report.
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Join the Climate Protection movement

deviceguru — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 14:54:09 +0000

The Alliance for Climate Protection (founded by Al Gore) has kicked off a project that aims to “ignite a movement” in the U.S. to solve the Earth’s climate crisis. The campaign will employ advertising, online organizing, and grassroots partnerships to mobilize 10 million supporters to demand “real solutions” from their government.
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Eight ‘disruptive’ embedded technologies

deviceguru — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 01:13:27 +0000

Eight “revolutionary” embedded technologies have been selected to be showcased in the “Disruption Zone” at the Embedded Systems Conference (ESC) April 14-18 in San Jose, Calif.
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Tiny projector targets mobile gadgets

deviceguru — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 01:30:20 +0000

Microvision will showcase a tiny laser projector — small enough to be embedded in a mobile phone — at the CTIA Wireless show next week in Las Vegas. The company claims its mobile pico-projector technology produces highly focused DVD-quality WVGA (848×480 pixels) images of up to 100 inches in size (depending on distance).
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Embedded Linux Conference courts developers

deviceguru — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 01:43:50 +0000

Developers thinking of using Linux as an embedded operating system won’t want to miss the annual Embedded Linux Conference in Silicon Valley next month. The event features keynotes and technical sessions on topics such as Maemo, real-time performance, power management, embedded graphics and multimedia, mobile phone technologies, fast boot, and much more.
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