Hiroshi Ishiguro's android mannequin creeps out Japanese shoppers (video)

If you didn't think mannequins were creepy enough already, maybe this will change your mind. In an attempt to lure shoppers, Japanese department store Takashimiya installed an eerily lifelike interactive robot for its Valentine's window display. The retailer called on robotics guru Hiroshi Ishiguro to provide the humanoid dummy, which can not only wink and yawn as people approach, but also display a range of emotions -- beyond boredom, indifference and oblivious content, we assume. While this was just part of the store's seasonal promotion, it might be a hint at where visual merchandise is going. Whether Ishiguro's model "model" will crossover into more professional roles like her sister, however, is unclear. Want to see that cheeky wink for yourself? Then hit up the video after the break.

Continue reading Hiroshi Ishiguro's android mannequin creeps out Japanese shoppers (video)

Hiroshi Ishiguro's android mannequin creeps out Japanese shoppers (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 03 Feb 2012 06:32:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/02/03/hiroshi-ishiguros-android-mannequin-creeps-out-japanese-shopper/

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Skype 5.3 for Windows released, improves mobile video call quality

Version 5.3 of Skype for Windows has just been released, with the main emphasis of the new release being improved call quality, and the quality of video received by mobile Skype users. Presumably one party of the video call must be using Skype for Windows 5.3, though.

Beyond improved call quality, not much has changed. You can now see your friends' presence icons when contact cards are collapsed, and the topic editing button is now always visible on the conversation header. For a complete list of changes, hit up the Skype Garage blog.

Download Skype 5.3 for Windows

Skype 5.3 for Windows released, improves mobile video call quality originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 07 Apr 2011 12:17:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/04/07/skype-5-3-for-windows-released-improves-mobile-video-call-quali/

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Daily Crunch: Animal TV Edition

Video: Super-efficient Chicken Breast Deboning Robot Colorfly?s ?Audiophile-Quality? Audio Player Is Made Of Wood Video: A Scary Realistic Iron Man Mark I Suit The 4:20 Watch From Cadence Panda Itazura Bank: Super-Cute Piggy Bank (Video) This Wooden iPad Frame Does Retro Right

Source: http://www.crunchgear.com/2011/06/16/daily-crunch-animal-tv-edition/

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Survival Lab is a fun pixelated game where dying doesn't matter

Survival Lab
In most games, dying is a bad thing. You have to start all over again, or at least revert to the last save point and lose some progress. Not so in Survival Lab: in this pixelated gem you play as a lone individual pitted against ruthless weapons in a sealed chamber. You have to run, jump and duck, collecting little yellow things (I have no idea what they're called).

For each donut-like yellow thing you pick up, you gain a bit of experience. If you manage to collect several in a row without getting hit, this counts as a combo. You can see my mad combo skills in the screenshot, of course. Collecting combos is a good thing, because a ten-point combo gives you for more experience than just collecting ten dounts one by one (getting hit in-between).

Having experience is useful, because once you die, you get to a screen where you can upgrade your skills. You can learn to run faster, double-jump (and then double-jump higher), and duck. You can also gain more armour so that getting hit won't kill you so quickly.

What makes this simple game so addictive is that when you die, your experience doesn't reset. You just go back to the same level, or another level of your choosing, and keep accumulating more and more experience. Lots of fun, especially if you're into the whole retro-gaming thing.

Survival Lab is a fun pixelated game where dying doesn't matter originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 28 Feb 2011 16:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/02/28/survival-lab-is-a-fun-pixelated-game-where-dying-doesnt-matter/

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Amazon Cloud Player review: functional, not mind blowing, and still US-only

Amazon Android Cloud Player appIt's hard to believe: our world-spanning network, our Internet, which is the cornerstone of free speech and free society -- which, on a good day, is capable of causing populist revolutions -- is still crippled by banal geolocation restrictions. We are, of course, talking about Amazon's two latest offerings, both of which are only available in the United States. Last week it was the excellent Android Appstore for Android, and today it's the Amazon Cloud Player for Web and Android.

Along with Cloud Player, Amazon also launched Cloud Drive, which is basically just like any other cloud storage digital locker. It's not particularly feature rich, and there's no real reason to use it over something like SugarSync or SkyDrive -- it does work outside the US, however.

Its primary purpose, as far as we're concerned, is that it stores your your Cloud Player music in a subdirectory. You get 5GB of Cloud Drive storage for free, and then it's $1 per gigabyte per year if you need more space.

The Amazon Cloud Player itself will not, to put it bluntly, blow your mind. It works, but it's very much an early, and possibly rushed, release. Let's dive in to the Web and Android players for a closer look.

Continue reading Amazon Cloud Player review: functional, not mind blowing, and still US-only

Amazon Cloud Player review: functional, not mind blowing, and still US-only originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 29 Mar 2011 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/03/29/amazon-cloud-player-hands-on-review-functional-not-mind-blowin/

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This Gigantic 1600 HP Engine Used to Power an Entire Stadium Single-Handedly [Past Perfect]

Purported leaked Samsung render shows mix of new, old and nonexistent

Samsung Android smartphone with Ice Cream Sandwich

We might not get the Samsung Galaxy S III at Mobile World Congress, but that doesn't mean there might not be something new to play with Mobile rumormonger Eldar Murtazin today teased the Twitters with the image you see above and the following five words: "Barcelona. Samsung. Press Photo Leaked." We can't speak at all about the validity of the image, so we'll just talk about what we see. 

Android Central at Mobile World Congress So, yeah. That looks to be some sort of Ice Cream Sandwich with some sort of TouchWiz-esque mash-up. It's different than what we saw in that leaked video from the Galaxy S II in December. It wouldn't greatly surprise us to learn a new phone would have a new version of TouchWiz, nor would it surprise us to learn that the earlier leak was just that -- an early leak and is off the table.

The icons in the dock look like they've been refined a little bit, which you'd expect, right? They've got the ICS app drawer icon on the middle. Glad to see it.

Now the capacitive buttons at the bottom. ... They're done in the style of the on-screen ICS buttons, only they're obviously not on the screen here. The icons are different than what you find on Samsung phones today -- They're the ICS buttons.

Unlike the three-buttoned LG Spectrum, which has menu-home-back, this render goes back-home-multitasking.

And that's that. If you want to get really nit-picky, that calendar entry is for a date that doesn't exist. And that's the old icon for the Android Market, not what you'll see on the Samsung Galaxy Nexus. Could just be poor rendering, or it could be a sign. And note that this render looks like it borrows heavily from the T-Mobile UK Galaxy S II.

Anyhoo. Maybe it's legit. Maybe it's not. One way to find out: Let's go to Barcelona.

Source: @EldarMurtazin

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/3L7_tdug4mE/story01.htm

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Beware the ATM Gangster of Taiwan — He Uses English as a Weapon [Wtf]

When you're in Taiwan and you use the ATM, you should be wary of the English interface. Apparently the gangster will use this to cheat you. More »


Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/AnvcEorycMM/beware-the-atm-gangster-of-taiwan--he-uses-english-as-a-weapon

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Kyocera DuraPlus: a Sprint phone so masculine it'll kick your face in for misdialing

Sprint's announced that it'll carry the Kyocera DuraPlus -- a rugged cellphone that recalls a lifetime of tedious internet memes. It's certified to "Military Standard 810G," for its resistance to dust, shock, vibration, temperature extremes, humidity and it's able to withstand water depths of one meter for, erm, up to half an hour. You'll also find an embedded LED flashlight capable of lighting the darkest of very dark rooms. Using Direct Connect, you can push-to-talk to other subscribers or use Group Connect to chat with 20 at a time. It'll ship with a 1650 mAh battery (9.5 hours of talk time) with an additional 2300 mAh battery for those long trips round the secure compound. You'll also be able to buy an external charging port to juice multiple units at once -- if you're running your own private militia and need to swap out devices on the go, for example. It'll be available in the first half of the year for an undisclosed price, but we'd wager it'll be something really manly, like the teeth of a wild animal you've vanquished or in exchange for capturing Denis Leary.

Continue reading Kyocera DuraPlus: a Sprint phone so masculine it'll kick your face in for misdialing

Kyocera DuraPlus: a Sprint phone so masculine it'll kick your face in for misdialing originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 01 Feb 2012 19:22:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/02/01/kyocera-duraplus-a-sprint-phone-so-masculine-itll-kick-your-fa/

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Analysts Debunk Rumor That iPhone 4S Is Influencing Competitor Launch Dates

Digitimes has reported that Samsung, HTC, LG and Nokia are launching new smartphones in Q2 2012 instead of Q1 in order to avoid direct competition from Apple's iPhone 4S. Analysts, however, tell us that the product roadmaps of these companies aren't being influenced by Apple's runaway success.

Source: http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2012/01/smartphones-holding-off-q2/

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