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Video: Japan Gets Vending Machine 2.0 With See-Through Full HD Display, Facial Recognition

Posted: 20 Dec 2011 04:20 AM PST

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There can be no doubt that Japan is the country of vending machines, and this newest model is perhaps the most advanced yet. Developed by Japan-based tech companies Sanden and Okaya (and Intel), this “vending machine 2.0″ features a 65-inch see-through display with full HD resolution as the biggest selling point.

When there are no potential customers around, the display shows a digital clock and various animations to attract people. Once a person is standing in front of the machine, a facial recognition system determines the gender and approximate age and serves up personalized ads.

Maker Sanden says the machine’s display can produce text, pictures or animations in HD quality.

The company commands a 30% global market share for vending machines and is also active in the US, meaning this prototype could also make its way over to North America one day.

This video, provided by Diginfo TV, shows how the vending machine works (in English):

Sony Sells 321,407 PS Vitas In 2 Days, Apologizes For Technical Problems At Japan Launch

Posted: 20 Dec 2011 02:54 AM PST

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Sony has managed to sell a total of 321,407 PlayStation Vitas on December 17 (the day it was launched in Japan) and 18, Japanese video game magazine Famitsu is reporting [JP] today. This pretty solid number means that big S has sold about 46% of its initial shipment of Vitas (which is rumored to be around 700,000 units) in 48 hours.

The Famitsu says that back on December 12, 2004 (the day the PSP was launched), Sony sold a total of 166,074 units in 24 hours. Nintendo was able to sell a total of 371,326 3DS systems in the first 48 hours after launch in Japan on February 26 this year.

The positive sales figures were partly overshadowed today by early reports from Japanese Vita users complaining about technical problems. Sony Computer Entertainment reacted by issuing an official apology [JP] on its website and pushing out a software update (to version 1.5 [JP]) at the same time.

The company says that early adopters might have to deal with system freezes, difficulties with registering PSN accounts, or inaccuracies with the Vita’s GPS function.

Daily Crunch: Projectile

Posted: 20 Dec 2011 01:00 AM PST

Review: The Sphero, A Ball With Personality

Posted: 19 Dec 2011 11:09 AM PST

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The first time I was chased around a room by a glowing, buzzing ball I was in college and I had just come home from a rave. The last time was when I opened the Sphero and set it loose on my rug.

The Sphero is a ball with a brain. Designed by Orbotix, this 3-inch toy has an internal motor and a set of LEDs that can make it flash nearly any color of the rainbow. It’s run by iOS or Android apps that allow you to control the Sphero, play virtual golf, and draw images in light (albeit in a roundabout way).

We live in interesting times when it comes to hardware. It’s easier than ever to create cool stuff, as evidenced by the rise of gadgets like the Fitbit and the Parrot AR.Drone. The Sphero is no exception. It’s one of the coolest hardware projects I’ve seen in a while and the ease-of-use and simplicity of the concept is impressive.

Sphero is a toy and the kids in my house really enjoyed it… for a while. Sadly, I think Sphero will be relegated to the bottom of the toy box far too soon and the various apps that interact with it, while fun, aren’t all that compelling. After all, there are only so many ways you can sell “Make ball go forward. Now make ball turn green” before you get bored.

As a technological artifact, the ball is incredible. When’s the last time you’ve seen a small, self-propelled ball with built-in gyroscope, accelerometer, Bluetooth radio, and compass? You could put a little explosive in these and they could be a Bond villain.

Is the Sphero fun? Sure, for about a day. It would make a great desk or office toy and should be fun for cats (it’s clearly fun for 3-year-olds). It think the ball will be really great once Orbitix releases their SDK, allowing users more control over these wee fellows. For example, I could definitely see some cool applications in experimental robotics. Could you imagine a flock of these things rolling down the street.

As it stands right now the Sphero is cool – but maybe not cool enough. Give it a few months to see where the platform is headed and then maybe scoot over to the online store and get the ball rolling.

The Sphero is shipping now for $129.

Product Page



The Value Of The Bleeding Edge: Thoughts On A Nexus Tablet

Posted: 19 Dec 2011 10:57 AM PST

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Just a few days after the Galaxy Nexus landed in the United States, it appears that Google’s next foray into the consumer electronics space may be a little bigger. According to Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, Google’s Eric Schmidt has let slip that Google plans to throw its considerable weight behind a tablet within the next six months.

If you’re looking for details, prepare to be disappointed. Schmidt declined to mention anything concrete on the device: there was nary a word on specifications, features, or even potential manufacturers (though Motorola and Samsung would be prime suspects).

In fact, if the Google translation holds true, all we can really tell is that he expects things to heat up between Google and rival Apple.

That hasn’t stopped the rest of the blogosphere from (perhaps erroneously) referring to the nebulous machine as a Nexus tablet. While I admit that my heart goes aflutter at the mere mention of a new Nexus series device, I’m not sure that slapping the Nexus name on a tablet would do Google much good, especially if it turns out that they want to take on the iPad.

What strikes me as particularly odd about the idea of a Nexus tablet is that the Nexus brand has been meant from the beginning to put users right at Android’s cutting edge. Each new Nexus device debuted alongside a major Android update: Android 2.1 debuted with the Nexus One, Gingerbread debuted with the Nexus S, and (as if I have to remind you) Ice Cream Sandwich recently launched with the Galaxy Nexus.

It seems to me that the driving idea behind the Nexus series of devices is that they aim to provide people with the cleanest, most up-to-date version of Google’s Android vision. And that’s great — as an Android nerd (among other things), I rather appreciate it. But when it comes to the mass market, would a strictly vanilla experience (even one that gets updated frequently) appeal to people?

I recently posted an opinion piece on why I didn’t want Samsung to “ruin” Ice Cream Sandwich, in which I mainly asked the company to let Ice Cream Sandwich shine as opposed to completely covering it up with their near-ubiquitous TouchWiz UI. Commentors agreed with me, but Philip Berne tweeted this at me:

MobileBurn’s Dan Seifert followed up with this:

They both had a point, and it got me to thinking: let’s say a Nexus tablet does indeed materialize during the next few months. What exactly does a (probably ICS-powered) tablet need to do to appeal to a wide audience? A constant stream of updates? An unencumbered UI? Love it or hate it, TouchWiz does indeed add a lot to the stock Android experience, and that sort of approach may be closer to what people actually want.

The Nexus line has always been about being on the bleeding edge, and the value of being on the bleeding edge is in the thrill of experiencing something new. Naturally though, not everyone will want to deal with the potential hiccups that could come with it.

Google seems to understand that the Nexus line hasn’t played terribly well with the non-techie audience, which explains the fun, people-oriented tone of their Galaxy Nexus commercials. Would it be impossible for them to spin the Nexus brand into something more approachable, more friendly to your less-than-geeky parents and friends? Of course not, but they couldn’t do it without risking some of the brand’s original audience. A Nexus-branded tablet could be risky no matter how Google chose to spin it.

That is, if it’s a Nexus tablet at all. Schmidt played those cards very close to his chest during the interview, and this talk of a Nexus tablet could turn out to be the work of a few bloggers with high hopes. But if Google truly intends to take to make a big splash in the tablet space, they’ll need a hook, and I don’t think the Nexus brand is it.



Retailers Offer Last Minute Holiday Price Breaks On RIM’s PlayBook

Posted: 19 Dec 2011 08:25 AM PST

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It’s clear that the BlackBerry PlayBook is a tough sell (unless you don’t have to pay for them), but that hasn’t stopped RIM and their retail partners from going nuts with PlayBook promotions. To wit: Best Buy, Staples, and Office Depot have dropped the prices of RIM’s tablet yet again, starting at $199 for the 16GB model.

RIM’s most recent financial statements still paint a grim picture for the tablet, with PlayBook sales dropping for yet another quarter. Still, RIM’s top brass still took a remarkably optimistic stance on the PlayBook’s future, essentially saying that the best was yet to come. I’ll believe it I see it — especially considering the company had to write off $485 million in sales discounts in order to get those PlayBooks moving.

By now, you’re probably aware of all the PlayBook’s shortcomings, but the closer we get to the holidays, the more enticing these things could look. If anything, I imagine that it could get some play as a last-minute present for people who forgot to order a Kindle Fire in time. I can see it now:

“Hey honey, I know you had your heart set on the Kindle Fire, but I bought you a PlayBook instead! It’s actually better than the Fire because it has a camera and more RAM! What’s that? Apps? Well, it doesn’t have a ton… oh, you can’t send email without a BlackBerry either. Wait, where are you going?”

On second thought, don’t try it — I don’t want to be held responsible for anything that happens.

Stock Up Now, Seagate And Western Digital Are Chopping Hard Drive Warranties In 2012

Posted: 19 Dec 2011 08:18 AM PST

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You better overnight Santa an addendum to your Christmas list. You’re going to want to acquire as many hard drives as possible before 2012 rolls around. Both Seagate and Western Digital are slashing hard drive warrants for hard drives shipped next year. Tell Santa, tell your mother-in-law, tell you boss. All you want for Christmas this year are hard drives.

Currently the Seagate Barracuda XT, Constellation 2, ES.2 and Momentus XT hard drives ship with a stellar 5 year warranty. However, come 2012, the warranty drops to just three years. Seagate’s other lines are also seeing warranty cuts. The SV35 Series and Pipeline HD drives will soon have a two-year promise while the Barracuda, barracuda Green and 2.5-inch Momentus will ship with only 12 months of coverage.

Western Digital is also cutting hard drive warranties. The Scorpio Blue, Caviar Blue and Green will soon only have a two year warranty rather than the current three-year note. However, the company is letting buyers extend the warranties if they don’t mind coughing up a bit more cake.

These changes come after a period of amazing hard drive deals abruptly interrupted by mother nature. Widespread flooding in Thailand forced many consumer electronic companies to close factories, which in turn, caused prices to spike. Once upon a time 2TB hard drives could be had for less than $70. Now, as 2011 is coming to a close, 2TB drives are priced around $100 and steadily increasing. Hard drive manufacturers are no doubt looking at ways to keep prices competitive. Slashes warrants no doubt helps with short-term loses by increasing the profit margin. As always, back up your data. Hard drives do not last forever.



Review: Orb Audio Booster With Super Eight Subwoofer

Posted: 19 Dec 2011 08:03 AM PST

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Orb Audio is roundly seen as being a company that produces decent to excellent mini speakers at a price that is, at the very least, acceptable to a wide strata of the speaker-buying public. We reviewed a set of Orb home theater speakers and our reviewer found them excellent for cinema playback. The company, seeing a niche, has just released the Orb Audio Booster kit, a $356 package with two basic speakers and a little amp, for computer use.

Installation is dead simple: you plug in the speaker wires into a port on the back and then connect the speakers using simple, push-type mounts. You can then add up to four inputs – two RCA and two mini-jacks – and an optional $299 Super Eight subwoofer. Orb, to their credit, screws the speaker wire to the small green connector cage out of the box.

The front has power, volume, and mute buttons along with a light to indiciate current inputs. A clipping indicator rounds out the package. It has a “large/small” switch for use with the “Mod2″ configuration (two Orb spheres on top of each other, daisy-chained).

The Good
Orbs have excellent clarity. What do I mean? Well, when gaming and watching movies over my PC I often found cheaper speaker systems – most notably a Logitech set with tiny subwoofer – to mash most of the instruments and effects into one dense miasma of sound. These on the other hand, offer extremely distinct audio reproduction, allowing for a perceived separation of sound.

Even at high volume these little balls won’t distort and coupled with a Orb’s own subwoofer they create a sound-field that is unmuddied and quite listenable. They’re solid, American-made speakers that look fun and offer excellent reproduction for the price. They are all hand-polished and finished and contain a 3-inch driver.

Because of their small size and simple mounting system you can place these nearly anywhere in a room without much fuss. I usually hate setting up home theatre gear but because the Orbs are small, light, and surprisingly configurable I had no problems with this kit.

The Bad
Without the subwoofer you had better really enjoy the high-end. These speakers offer excellent separation and high-end reproduction but absolutely no bass without a subwoofer. If you have a powered subwoofer lying around the house – perhaps from an old stereo – you can quite simply add it to this kit and experience a considerable improvement in audio.

The Super Eight I tested is a 200 Watt BASH amp with a solid 12x12x12 cabinet and 8-inch driver. This subwoofer, when not tuned correctly, can really shake the room. Thankfully Orb includes a well-written manual so that novices can set their crossover frequencies and set the volume correctly.

That said, you can survive without a sub, but $300 extra will make you much happier.

Finally, one little problem keeps bothering me: the Booster itself. While it’s a handsome device – metal-clad and clearly labelled – it looks surprisingly generic. At CES each year there is a whole hall dedicated to OEM hardware straight out of the assembly lines in China. While the audio sounds fine, it would be a shame to discover that Orb is selling a $10 audio amp at a considerable mark-up and, given the generic nature of the device, I’m sure someone will find an example of it on monoprice or alibaba.com. I’m well aware of the value proposition of commodity hardware but folks who spend nearly a thousand dollars on audio gear may take umbrage at cost-cutting.

Orb Audio states that isn’t the case at all: rather, the Booster was designed and made in the United States, and sports a few features (subwoofer output, four inputs, large/small speaker switch) that are still uncommon on some other amps.

Bottom Line

High-end audio is, arguably, a maze. “Cheap” solutions abound and every audiophile will look down with disdain on your choice, citing various nebulous forum quotes in order to salt the ground before they begin their own exegesis on the value of carbon fiber over composite and how Amp X is better than Amp Y. But most of us just want our music to sound decent.

At $356 for two speakers and a Booster you’re not paying very much for excellent sound. For example, I’m a big fan of a pair of M-Audio studio monitors that are priced at about $800 and offer a full range of audio in a fairly small package. These little Orbs, on the other hand, offer similar sound in a much smaller package and with far-superior bass reproduction, provided you go the Super Eight route.

Orb audio deserves a look – they’re a strong, small company dedicated to direct-to-consumer sales of good audio gear. They aren’t “audiophile” speakers, whatever that means, but they are a far sight better than what came out of the box that your Dell came in and they’re far superior to anything you can get from your average pair of PC speakers.

Click to view slideshow.
Product Page



5,000 BlackBerry PlayBooks Stolen From A Truck Stop

Posted: 19 Dec 2011 07:08 AM PST

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Wow!

They must be breaking mirrors, opening umbrellas and walking under ladders over at RIM because this is starting to get unbelievable. A big rig, carrying around $1.7 million worth of BlackBerry PlayBooks, was stolen in Indiana.

The PlayBook has been a rough product for the Waterloo-based company. While RIM did quite a bit right with the little tab, lack of native email and calendar support made it a tough sell. The price tag didn’t help either, though RIM’s done what it can to squash that issue. In fact, PlayBook sales are actually looking up compared to what they’ve been.

Of course, the truck had no tracking software included, so at this point your guess as to where it may be is as good as mine. But the FBI’s guesses are a bit more informed, and they think that the truck may be headed to Miami, a popular spot for stolen goods.

So if you happen to see about 5,000 BlackBerry Playbooks being sold in a shady store in Miami, call the cops. Not out of the moral goodness in your heart, but out of sheer sympathy for RIM. The company has already lost around $485 million due to PlayBook inventory write-offs (translation: we can’t sell ‘em), but according to Electronista, this extra $1.7 million can’t hurt that bad.

But embarrassing screw-up after embarrassing screw-up? That can sting like a b-word.



Brick-And-Mortar Retailers Want You To Boycott Amazon

Posted: 19 Dec 2011 06:35 AM PST

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Amazon recently built a price-check app that has left many brick-and-mortar retailers frustrated. The idea isn’t revolutionary at all — many companies use price-checking as a way to beat the competition at the point of purchase — but with Amazon being an online presence, the idea becomes much more cut-throat. That said, retailers are asking customers to boycott Amazon as the new price-check app threatens their holiday sales.

You see, Amazon can already sell goods at lower prices than most retailers. Their costs of operations are simply lower. By offering a 5 percent discount on any product scanned at a retail location, Amazon is making it almost impossible for those retailers to land a sale, even though they already have the customer in the store.

At the same time, Amazon’s gotta do what Amazon’s gotta do. The only real flaw in Amazon’s business model is the fact that the customer never gets to play around with their desired product. By using brick-and-mortar stores as showrooms, Amazon effectively squashes that problem while undercutting the competition. As far as Amazon and the consumer are concerned, it’s a win-win. The only real loser are the brick-and-mortar stores who simply can’t compete with Amazon’s discounted prices.

According to a piece in the Huffington Post, there seems to be quite a bit of overreacting going down.

Store manager of Oakland-based Diesel, A Bookstore John Stich has been handing out buttons with “Occupy Amazon” emblazoned on them. (Is it just me, or are people just slapping the word occupy on anything these days?) Here’s what Stich had to say:

When we see shoppers taking pictures with their phones or using the app, we won’t go so far as to be rude or ask them to leave, but sometimes we’ll be sarcastic about it, and ask them, “Hey, what’s that app? How cool!” I think the only thing you can do is make people aware.

Yes, making people feel uncomfortable about saving money in a recession is a great way to notify them that you’re threatened by this Amazon deal. It’s not great customer service, but you win some and you lose some I guess.

Compared to some of the other responses, Stich’s is actually quite mild. America’s Bookseller Association CEO wrote an open letter to Amazon in which he stated that this offer is “the latest in a series of steps to expand your market at the expense of cities and towns nationwide, stripping them of their unique character and the financial wherewithal to pay for essential needs like schools, fire and police departments, and libraries.”

Um, what? I was on board with the whole “expand your market” bit, as that’s the purpose of every company in the history of Capitalism. But the bit about cities and towns nationwide being stripped of financial wherewithal, thus destroying the financial basis for schools and emergency servies? Yeah, that lost me.

Then there’s David Didriksen, president of Willow Books & Cafe in Massachusetts. He called the deal “another in a long series of predatory practices by Amazon. You would think that a company of that size would be willing to just live and let live for small retailers who can’t possibly affect them. But, no, they want it all.”

Am I the only one completely shocked by statements like this? Since when, in the history of all time, has a company ever said, “No, we’ve got plenty of market share. Let’s just chill for a bit.” That’s not how business works. If Amazon can offer to offer a discount on products and pull you out of a competitors’ store, why wouldn’t they?

Fight fire with fire is what I say, and Third Street Books in Oregon agrees with me. The book seller has offered a deal of its own, offering 15 percent off of their purchase on Saturday, along with a gift certificate valued at $5. There’s a catch, though. You must prove that you’ve cancelled your Amazon account.

It’s a strong, confident idea and one I’m sure will pay off for the small bookseller, though it’s pretty far reaching. For one, nothing stops the user from making a new account the second they walk out of the store. Secondly, Amazon sells way more items than books, so it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense in terms of direct competition but it’s the survival of the fittest, am I right?



Video: The Interactive Angry Birds Christmas Lights Display

Posted: 19 Dec 2011 05:48 AM PST

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Eat your heart out, Clark Griswold.

This fully interactive Christmas lights display should erase any doubt that Angry Birds is an ubiquitous fixture in pop culture. Rovio’s game was everywhere this year from unofficial Chinese themeparks, to a cookbooks and mooncakes. Rovio’s CMO Peter Vesterbacka’s wife even wore an Angry Birds formal gown to a state gala. But all of those appearances pale in comparison to this interactive holiday lights creation.

The builder clearly found a niche. This isn’t his first go at such a display. He ported Guitar Hero to Christmas lights in 2009, which allowed for real games thanks to the Guitar Hero controller. This time around players use a slingshot-style controller and the cord is even long enough to reach people’s cars where audio is provided over a low-power FM transmitter. But the game is the same. Pull birds back in anger and let them fly at the evil pigs.