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Update to Street Tech’s Robot Project Pages

Years in the making, but I have FINALLY updated the support site for my Absolute Beginner’s Guide to Building Robots. I’ve corrected mistakes from the book, added a few hacks and clarifications, and provided links to things like the PDF instructions for making “Mousey the Junkbot: (as it appeared in Make vol. 2) and to a video clip from a guy who made of a version of the DiscRover with added edge-detection capability.

It is still highly recommended that anyone building the projects in the book read through the “Building Robots” conference on Shop Talk for current info, but most of the critical problems/changes to-date have now been added to the robot pages.

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Suunto Updates Sports Watches

Suunto’s watches are top-notch outdoor equipment, having pioneered the whole “wrist-top” computer thing with watches that have digital compass, barometer, altimeter, and most recently, GPS functions. Being designed for outdoor use, most of their watches aren’t always that good looking. But when it comes to sailing and golfing, apparently style is a little more important, so Suunto is putting out at least two new models in January – the M3 and G6. Both get a slicker look closer to the Observer model, and some updated features like USB interface (for the G6 Pro model). Each has features specific to the sport: for instance, the G6 golf watch keeps track of the locations and distances to the holes, and keeps track of your strokes as well. The M3 has multiple race timers so you don’t have to bother to keep time while you’re trimming the jibbits or furling the hibbits and whatnot. If you can afford the green fees or you race sailboats, you won’t likely blink at the estimated US$300 pricetags.

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Personal Electronics Chain Stores: Which Level of Hell?

A friend and I went to BestBuy yesterday to get a cheap digital camera for a project. We knew we were stepping into it, but had no choice. It was as…ah… impressive as we’d feared. Insanity to the n-th degree. The place was choked with rabid shoppers reaching over each other for expensive blinking baubles from Far East silicon sweatshops. When we finally asked a salesperson whether the camera we were interested in was available, he looked taken by surprise. He went away for a while, came back, and said: “It probably is…” PROBABLY is? “We want to buy it,” we replied, “so we need to know.” “Oh, well I represent Canon, you’ll have to ask somebody else.” He was in an official BestBuy get-up but he’s a shill for Canon? Imagine a future in which all of the salespeople in a store can only talk to you about/sell you products that they represent.

This is just one Kodak Moment (from hell) of the afternoon. The parking lot was particularly entertaining. Each time we saw a near-accident or bone-headed manuever, we’d break into: “It’s the most wonderful time of the year.” Indeed.

For more electronics store funtimes, check out this entry on Boekhoff.org about a nightmarish Circuit City encounter.

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Another Geektastic Watch

TokyoFlash has done it again, creating a retro-futuristic watch that is as geeky as it is cool. This one shows the time using rows of diodes (of the light-emitting variety) to display hours and minutes — very Forbin Project.

The guy who reviews it on OhGizmo claims that it’s a real conversation starter with people… “And yes, that does include a few from the opposite sex.” Yes, and we’re sure the conversation lasted only long enough for the…ah… entity FROM the opposite sex to verify that you ARE as big of a nerd as you first appeared. But hey, wear the watch — keep hope alive.

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Air Guitar Made More/Less Dorky?

According to a piece in NewScientist, a group of compscis at Helsinki University have developed a system to add a fitting soundtrack to your next air guitar solo. The system uses computer vision to monitor hand placement/movements and to play fitting guitar riffs to go with them (one would assume making adjustments for utter lack of talent — which would be why you’re playing air guitar in the first place). The piece has a link to a video demo. Oh, the humanity!

Thanks, Jay!

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And you thought ringtones were obnoxious…

Had your fill of celebrity ringtones, “moantones” (ringtones from pornstars), and music clips from already overplayed pop songs? This same sorta noise pollution is coming soon to a car navigation system near you. NavTones, a California company, has hired the likes of Mr. T, Burt Reynolds, and Dennis Hopper to record navigation commands (wow, talk about your celebrity A-list). And you thought the voice of that disembodied Stepford Wife that can currently be heard in a lot of car nav systems was creepy and quickly annoying.

A little more to our liking is TomTom, another personal nav company, that has hired John Cleese to do various characters, including a New York cabbie and a Freudian analyst. That’d definitely be entertaining… for what? A day? One trip across town?

“I pitty the fool who pays actual money for infotainment this lame.”

[Via CNNMoney]

Thanks, Jay!

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Firefox 1.5 Released

Mozilla has released the latest version of their monopoly-fighting open-source browser Firefox 1.5. The latest release includes faster browsing, better security, more customized interface, improved pop-up blocker, and enhanced privacy (read: ability to hide the naughty bits in your history). The most interesting feature is the “live bookmarks” feature that scans your favorite sites for updates and shows the fresh content right in the bookmark icon. Pretty cool.

In another interesting twist, Mozilla has gone dotcom. That’s right, you won’t find the new version at Mozilla.org – all you’ll find there is a redirect to the new Mozilla.com website. The new corporation is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Mozilla Foundation, a non-profit organization whose sole purpose is to support the development of the Mozilla software suite. So the new corp is supported by the non-prof, which in turn feeds the profits back to the foundation? I’m confused. But I’m happy as long as somebody’s getting rich other than Bill.

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PSP Firmware Upgrade 2.6: Wave of Content to Follow?

Sony has updated the firmware of the Play Station Portable, now up to version 2.6. The new version adds support for WMA audio files (though apparently not the “Plays For Sure” kind), and adds an RSS reader to the mix as well. Most telling though is the addition of support for encrypted video files.

Could this be the first step towards an iTunes-like /musicvideo store from Sony? They certainly have enough content of their own to push out to consumers, and they have started a digital video download service in Japan, though their ties with Japanese TV are a little closer than US TV. Keep in mind though that Sony produces huge amounts of TV shows on DVD, and probably has relationships with numerous insiders. Hopefully this firmware upgrade is a foreshadow to the launch of a US media store for PSPers that would allow downloading of content from anywhere there’s an open WiFi connection. I’d take that over video iPod any day.

*note that the new firmware upgrade, just like previous ones, will prevent you from runnning unauthorized software on the PSP, which really stinks.

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Street Tech’s Holiday Gift Guide

Our sometimes annual Street Tech Holiday Gift Guide is now online, in our Reviews section. Read about recommended products that we’ve actually tested ourselves, most of which we paid our own hard-earned gold pieces for. This is “sucks less” holiday buying, stuff we’re certain (in our not even remotely humble opinion) does what it’s advertised to do, and does it well. So get ready to part with account numbers and follow us…

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360 First Look from Hack-A-Day

Hack-a-Day has a nice first impressions piece on the Xbox 360 from a hardware hacker’s perspective. Their conclusion:

I think the best plan would be to wait till next year to make the purchase: the console will be cheaper, the selection of games will be broader, used games will be available, you’ll know the Playstation 3’s features, the Xbox 360 games will be making better use of the console’s power, Microsoft will have most of the bugs ironed out and you might be able to run Linux.