Philips has released a host of new desktop peripherals with four wired and wireless mice and a wireless keyboard. The mice are designed with an ‘ergonomic feel’ – aren’t they all these days? – and sport high gloss finishes to prevent dirt build-up from your grubby mitts.
Shaped a little like a British World War One tank, the SPM8713 [pictured] is a wireless laser mouse for notebooks, with 'soft silicon cushions' for prolonged use. It features Philips’ twin-eye laser sensor for more accurate positioning and has a 1600dpi resolution. Battery life is a year since the mouse turns itself off when not in use.
The SPM7711 is a desktop wireless version of the notebook mouse, also with one year battery life.
The SPM4701 is a cheaper wireless mouse with only 7-months battery life while the wired SPM4700 mouse has a 1000dpi resolution.
The keyboard, the SPT5701, has odd – but possibly useful - drainage holes that can resist some accidental spillage. That’s a drop of tea mind, not a pint of lager. It also includes a 4-way scroll wheel and a wireless mouse with 1000dpi resolution and a seven month battery life.
Out next month, but no prices yet.-Martin Lynch
PC notebook peripherals keyboard
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Those wacky Scots, eh? When not terrorising the pages of historical battles by flashing their hairy arses at the enemy – to great effect, I might add – they’re building robot villages. Scientists at the University of Abertay are to build just that, to see how ‘artificial culture’ emerges within a group of robots.
A group of 60 miniature robots will be used as guinea pigs, organised into groups and programmed to interact and imitate each other. We’re not talking HAL, or I,Robot, here but a social experiment akin to watching groups of ASBO-wannabes congregate at the weekend, just with less fighting and alcohol but, maybe a little gentle bumping.
Professor Winfield explains: “Of course the behaviours which emerge and evolve will not be human but decidedly robotic. We do not expect these artificial 'memes' to have any meaning in a human cultural context - they will only be meaningful within the closed context of this artificial society.”
“One of our key challenges in this research will be to identify and interpret these patterns of behaviour as evidence for an emerging robot culture and to see whether this new understanding may shed some light generally on how culture emerges and whether this has any implications for human, animal or artificial societies. In a sense we will be using robots like a microscope to study the evolution of culture.”
The project will run for four years and there will be a Web site created in the coming months for those that want to follow the progress of Bot-town.-Martin Lynch
technology science robot geek
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This project is the latest of designer Susanna Hertrich. It is a traditional 365 day calendar but it will shred the day. It unfortunately isn't a real product, but rather it is a product in a series of "fictional products designed to be useful for human hibernation." Any makers out there want to tackle this project? I'll pay for it (as long as I get to keep it). –Travis Hudson
Chrono_Shredder [Josh Spear]
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What do you get when you combine one of our favorite toys, the Robosapien, with a dildo? Something both kids and adults can enjoy. When we imagine having sex with robots every night, this is totally not what we're thinking of. – Jason Chen
Video: VERY NOT SAFE FOR WORK! [Pornotube NSFW via Fleshbot NSFW]
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This Fold-Flat Barbecue could make you the most popular guy on the block this summer. It's not like it's the first portable grill, but it is probably the easiest to carry around. It's made of pressed steel and folds out into a 45 x 30 cm cooking area with a high enough windbreak to cope with a stiff summer breeze.
This Briefcase Grill could have been the perfect answer to the prayers of those NY subway travellers who had the misfortune to be on the same train as Borat and his hens. Char-grilled chicken wings could have been the perfect way to calm everyone down. It costs $40 on its own and $50 with the rucksack.
– Ad Dugdale
Product Page [I Want One Of Those via Sci-Fi Tech]
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There are so many figures flying around these days from legitimate and 'paid-for' researchers that it’s hard to separate the truth from the bullshit in the high-def format spat.
The latest batch, from Home Media Research (HMR), claims that Blu-ray disc sales have topped one million and that 70% of all HD movie sales in the US during Q1 were Blu-ray. So is it legit?
HMR – after a lot of looking – is actually part of home entertainment magazine, Home Media Magazine in the US. More importantly though, its research seems reasonably solid, being based on studio estimates and Nielsen VideoScan point-of-sale data.
Here’s the rest of the highlights:
Consumers, when given a choice of formats, are opting for Blu-ray. Warner released The Departed on both formats on the same day, in mid-February. By the end of March the Blu-ray version sold 53,640 copies while the HD DVD version lagged with sales of 31,590.
8 of the top 10 HD titles sold in Q1 were Blu-ray movies. Casino Royale topped the list.
Between Jan 1 and March 31, consumers bought nearly 1.2 million HD discs: 832,530 Blu-ray versus 359,300 HD DVDs.
Read the full story here. If this continues then maybe the bigheaded claim that Blu-ray would win in just three years might come true after all. -Martin Lynch
blu-ray HD DVD movies HD
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Editor and Contributor | Martin Lynch
Contributor | Tamlin Magee
