Iraqi forces assumed formal control of Baghdad and other cities today after American troops handed over security in urban areas in a defining step toward ending the US combat role in the country. A countdown clock broadcast on Iraqi TV ticked to zero as the Monday midnight deadline passed for US combat troops to…
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Do you dream of big plastic tennis-rackets and steering-wheel snap-ons for Sony’s upcoming motion controller? Yeah, then why not build them yourself? Sony Computer Entertainment has launched its Official Licensing Program that gives accessory and peripheral makers in Japan, Asia, North America, and Europe access to all the PS3, PSP, and PS2 tech documents and schematics required to qualify your product for an “Official Licensed Product” logo. Sure, you’ll likely have to hand over some cash for the privilege, but imagine the bank that awaits the person who converts the glowing orb atop Sony’s motion controller into the very first official PS3 lightsaber.
Filed under: Gaming, Peripherals
Sony seeks official PlayStation peripherals — offers logo, good time originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 30 Jun 2009 03:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Mind-controlled wheelchairs are becoming all the rage these days, but before you start letting your thoughts wander elsewhere, this latest from researchers at the Brain Science Institute (BSI) — Toyta Collaboration Center have what they claim is a system that’ll control the ride using brain waves analyzed every 125 milliseconds, which it boasts bests the competition by several seconds. Testers using the wheels and EEG cap system have achieved accuracy up to 95 percent which, as you can see in the video after the break, will make cubicle obstacle courses a challenge of the past. So what mindset do we have to be in to trigger the flames?
[Via Switched]
Filed under: Transportation
Toyota’s mind-controlled wheelchair boast fastest brainwave analysis yet, most stylish EEG cap originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 30 Jun 2009 03:13:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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SYDNEY, June 28 (Reuters) – Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd on Sunday hailed as an example to Australia the U.S. House of Representatives passage of a bill to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the United States. Rudd’s Labor government is struggling to get its own emissions trading scheme approved by parliament, and the deadlock is being watched around the world ahead of climate change talks in Copenhagen in December. Commenting on the U.S. bill’s passage on Friday in Washington, Rudd urged Australia’s opposition and other holdouts against his government’s scheme to take note. “That is good news for the world,” Rudd told reporters. “And can I just say to those who are delaying action…
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FRANKFURT (AFP) – German banks are facing a firestorm of criticism from the government and industry federations that accuse them of threatening small businesses with their tight-fisted credit policies. More than 16,600 small and medium-sized companies in Germany failed in the first half of the year, 14 percent more than in the same period of 2008, the association Creditreform has estimated. The bankruptcies affected 250,000 jobs and Creditreform has warned that a total of 540,000 jobs could be eliminated by the end of the year. Tight credit policies have…
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As recently as May Sony has itself stated that a PSP phone “could happen,” and now a report from Nikkei business daily states that Sony is planning on putting together a team as early as next month to build product that would act as a combination of a PSP and a Sony Ericsson handset. It makes plenty of sense, both as a differentiation from Nintendo and as a confrontation of the looming iPhone threat — and hey, it might also act as a decent salve over the lukewarm reception of the pricey PSPgo. Unfortunately, if Sony is just about to get started on this, we likely wouldn’t be looking at any resulting product for a while to come. Sony declined comment according to Reuters, which doesn’t mean a whole lot, but it’s worth keeping in mind that we’ve been hearing this sort of rumoring since back when the N-Gage (as a product) was still almost relevant.
[Via Mac Rumors]
Filed under: Cellphones, Gaming, Handhelds
Sony investigating PSP phone? originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 28 Jun 2009 04:03:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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After what must’ve been a few painful minutes of rehearsal, a few robots built by the Interdisciplinary Centre for Computer Music Research have preformed what we assume to be their first and last paid gig: a rendition of Happy Birthday to celebrate the 100th of the Science Museum in the UK. What’s interesting about these bots — outside of their horrible ear for music and laughable singing voices is the fact that they’ve actually been programmed to communicate and teach each other to sing through the process of singing to each other. Videos of both painful acts are after the break, and while we wouldn’t call it art, we shouldn’t throw stones: we’ve been in plenty of garage bands that sounded quite a bit worse.
[Via robots.net]
Filed under: Robots
Tone-deaf robots teach each other to sing, passionately butcher a Happy Birthday rendition originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 28 Jun 2009 01:38:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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England skipper Andrew Strauss has told Monty Panesar to focus on his strengths as he attempts to address his poor form heading into the Ashes. Panesar has been working with England’s new spin-bowling coach Mushtaq Ahmed to add more variety to his game – his major…
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At the end of this month, the gay community will celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall riots, which began the gay liberation movement. This season, known in gay circles simply as “Pride,” will be particularly emotional because of the gay marriage avalanche. While gays and lesbians have much to be proud of (such as early health organizing around the devastating AIDS epidemic), gay history since Stonewall is unfortunately stained with selfishness and arrogance, traits that ironically were once themselves called pride – back when that wasn’t a compliment. Having experienced the closet and coming out as a gay…
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