Behold – the thingamajig you’ve all been waiting for. Since the movie Short-circuit came out, I’ve always had a fascination with sentient robotic beings that would do obey my every command as it’s benevolent emperor. Alas, robots came and went none really getting the obedience thing quite right and then out pops “ROMO”. Using your iPhone as it’s brains, you can command it wherever you are via an internet connection. The robot will stream video via the iPhone camera. You can even take pictures as demonstrated in the video below.
What’s really fascinating is how the robot reacts to the user. It’s programmed to respond to how close or far away you are from it and it will move accordingly which humanizes it a bit. I can think of at least a dozen use cases for this little bad boy like attending meetings for me for one! The best part is that Keller Rinaudo, CEO and Co-Founder of Romative, the company that makes Romo, is promising this robot will only cost $150 bucks. Sign me up! If we can get our hands on a demo unit, I’ll let you know how it works in person.
This past week, Gunness along with the Leary Foundation hosted an event to help out local Fire Fighters get more equipment to make sure they have the most up to date equipment available for fighting fires. Usually not my thing since I don’t drink (yeah, yeah I’ve heard all the jokes before) but it was cool hanging out with folks at the event. Boomer and Carton where there talking trash and to my surprise a black fire-fighter by the name of Jovis Depognon from Engine 40 at Lincoln Center won the illustrious prize. It was $1,000 donated in his name to his Engine House for pouring the perfect Guinness Pint. I figured I’d post this feel-good story for St. Patty’s. Check images below.
We were able to spend some quality time with the all new, just announced Samsung Galaxy S4. Check out the video below.
There are a few new features that Samsung has baked in that more than a few people will like. Some of my favorites are as follows:
13 MP Camera. There is some fuss about what makes a mobile camera good. Is it the pixels, or how the image is stitched together. Listen, I won’t refuse if Samsung wants to put 13 MP in it’s main shooter. They’ve also put a 2 MP camera in the front for a nice combo.
IR LED, Bluetooth 4.0, 4G LTE supporting up to 100/50Mbps
In addition they have added Temperature, Humidity, as well as, IR Gesture sensors.
Drama Shot allows you to take a ton of shots and select the the best one. In addition, the Eraser feature allows you to erase something from the image if it was moving which will make for a lot nicer pictures on the fly.
Group Play might be my favorite since I had this idea a long while ago. You can play your music with as many as 8 different S4s. You can also control volume on each device as well as control them like a surround sound system with Left, Right, and Center phones as speakers.
The phone will also have an accessible battery as well as expandable storage via microSD.
To be honest, I was glad Samsung decided to something different and I want to congratulate them for doing that. I’m really glad they, as a company, dare to be different when it comes to their media strategy. However, there were definitely some hits and misses with the live performance which you can watch in it’s entirety below. Skip ahead to the 40 min mark to start.
I thought the dancing kid was great, and exhibited a ton of skill. I liked how they used him in the first portion to demonstrate some of the camera functionality. However, there were some really weird parts like the banter between the announcer and his female counter part.
All in all, I felt like they pulled it off fairly well and it was a good idea to introduce each feature in a fun way. The script just needed a little tweaking in my opinion.
As many aspiring entrepreneurs know, it can be really hard to stay motivated especially when you haven’t quit your day-job or are still in the funding process. That’s why the folks over at Incubate in conjunction with DJ B-Hen came up with the ultimate entrepreneur mix-tape. Yes, a mix-tape! Black folks make everything cool. I love this idea, and the mix is hot. Take a listen and get inspired!
for inspiration, check out these three cool start up ideas:
Oculus Rift – Virtual reality headset. Palmer Luckey is the original founder and designer of the Oculus Virtual Reality headset. If your feeling it, you can pre-order your set right here. Personally, I’ve been waiting for something like this for a long time. It seems to be a size that I can handle, and the technology has really come a long way. There are games out right now that I’d love to play with this hardware. The design is fresh and modern as well so you won’t look to crazy with it on.
Kapture – This new iPhone app gives rewards to users who share images of their favorite brands. Honestly, I think it’s one of those apps where you think to yourself “why didn’t I think of that before?”. We are already sharing our experiences at our favorite stores, restaurants and parks. Why not get rewarded for it? Users get rewarded with possible discounts and even physical items. These items can even be gifted to others.
3Doodler – This is possibly the most unique item I’ve seen in a long while. This takes 3D printing to another level. Granted, it’s not precise, but you can literally draw anything you want in 3D with this little bad boy. Stencil’s or doodles, or even pieces of art. You can back this project on Kickstarter here.
Ever wonder what would happen if you ran 4kV through a Toshiba laptop? Me neither, but the dudes below tried it and it totally does NOT end up the way you think it would. Check out the video below to see what happens!
There are also a few more videos of these guys torturing other Toshiba products to the our delight. What’s really cool is that they don’t pass all the time, but it’s really interesting just to see what happens when you let’s say…put a large screen TV in a sauna. These and other profound questions to such mysteries can be answered with a simple click of the mouse button below! Let us know which was your favorite! Mine was the voltage test.
Before you judge me – I had to re-buy my PS3 because it along with my Xbox 360 got stolen a little while ago. Between the two I decided to go fore the PS3 because traditionally Sony ops for the ten year life cycle for their consoles. Thinking I knew better, I figure Microsoft would update quicker than Sony so I bought the PS3 since it has a nice blueray player and online play is free. Since I wagered Microsoft would put out their device before Q4 of this year, I’d just wait to get that console next.
Looks like my gamble was a little off. When I pulled the trigger on the purchase the rumors of the next gen device from Sony started to come in fast and heavy. Spec sheets, design mocks, and rumors galore! Today was the confirmation and the device sounds good. Sony hasn’t gone so far as to show what the device looks like yet, but there is an honest-to-goodness spec sheet available now. We also get to see the new controller.
Spec Sheet:
Single-chip custom processor, with eight x86-64 AMD Jaguar CPU cores and 1.84 TFLOPS next-gen AMD Radeon based graphics engine
8GB GDDR5 memory
Built-in hard drive
6x Blu-Ray and 8x DVD drive
USB 3.0 and auxiliary ports
Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth 2.1
HDMI, analog AV-out, and optical S/PDIF audio output
DualShock 4 controller, with two-point capacitive touchpad, three-axis gyroscope, three-axis accelerometer, vibration, light bar with three color LEDs, mono speaker, micro USB port, stereo headset port, extension port, 1000mAh battery
PlayStation 4 Eye camera, with two 1280 x 800 cameras, f/2.0 fixed focus lenses, 85-degree field of view, 30cm minimum focusing distance, four-channel microphone array
It looks like Sony is putting a lot of emphasis on social gaming. New features include the ability to watch someone else play a game remotely or even take or yield control of the game online. It looks like you will be able to browse content with your smart phone as well.
There is at least one downside to the upgrade however which comes in the lack of backwards compatibility with PS3 games. This is a major shift in the status-quo that we are used to from Sony. They usually pride themselves on an ecosystem that spans several generations. Personally I don’t think it’s a bad move, but time will tell whether or not it’s a good move. One thing is for certain, and that is that someone at the top is listening to what’s going on in the market. Sony seems to realize that if they drag their feet here, they will be left in the dust by the likes of up and coming whippersnappers like the Valve Steam Box and the Android Ouya consoles.
Update: Check out this awesome new video of the new “Destiny” Trailer from Bungie (creators of Halo) for PS4!
Update#2
Apparently the PS4 will have the ability to play used games, however, the folks over at Eurogamer are saying that
Shuhei Yoshida, Sony’s head of Worldwide Studios wasn’t able to clarify past vague comments about how selling used PS4 games would work. This is becoming a sore point as the next generation Xbox System is rumored to lock down games so that no one other than the original purchaser can play them.
So I’ve already written about NBA 2K13 when it first came out, and usually that’s the end of it. However, I’ve been playing and noticed some things that you might not know – and some folks playing online definitely don’t. It’s gotten to the point that there seems to be a pretty big gap between folks who know how to play this game effectively and those who just suck it up for the rest of us – running around not passing the ball and such. Therefore, as a courtesy, me and Stephen Straker (my lil cuz) came up with a 5 point list of why your doing it wrong and how to improve so the next time I’m on your team online you won’t screw it up for me and our teammates.
5.) You spent all your VC on clothes and accessories.
You don’t know how angry it makes me when I’m playing on the black top and I see someone bling’ed out and his mid-range jumper is bumish. This person should be beaten with a stick with rusty nails. What you need to do is make sure you spend your VC on actual skills instead of that cool jumpsuit you copped for like 5K VC.
4.) You play like it’s a game.
Admittedly, this is a weird point – but hear me out. Games these days are advancing and though this game is no where near reality – its a lot closer than you think. Items such as height, strength, play-style all go into your match-ups If you are a PG and under 6’5″ you have no business trying to make that shot in the paint against KG in the post. It’s not going to happen…PERIOD. Don’t take that shot. Same goes for online match-ups so you have to think about the situation your in. Calling plays (even though I don’t do it too much) also helps to turn the tide against savvy players. Run the pick and role at least! This will at least create a little space between you and your man so the probability of your shot going in is higher. This is especially crucial when you haven’t fully built up your player yet.
3.) You’re not a team player
When playing the game you will go through streaks. Sometimes you’ll be hot and hit everything you see, while other times you’ll be cold. You need to know how to avoid and overcome double-teams especially if you become a star player, by passing the ball. You’ve got to trust your teammates sometimes and the game rewards you heavily with a good teammate score the more assists you get. This little skill helps out online as well which leads me to my next point.
2.) STOP BALL HOGGING!
It’s so annoying when a ball hog gets the PG spot on the Black Top. They never pass, and try to score all 21 points by themselves. All that ends up happening is everyone on the team gets annoyed and eventually stops helping or quits. It’s extra annoying because your overall win ratio goes down when you lose. I’ve got a couple go-to peeps that I can play with when online but they aren’t online all the time so I’m going to need you to step it up if I’m on your team.
1.) Equip skills that suit your ideal playing style
What this means is spend your VC wisely on attributes and signature skills that make sense for the way you play and the way you designed your player. An example is if your player is really big and pushing 7ft you should make sure to increase your offense under the basket as well as your dunking ability. Having the “Bruiser” signature skill will drain energy from your match-up so later in the game you will have the advantage. Increasing your shot ability from three range is an added threat but I’d wait that out until your other skills are polished first. You probably won’t need the “Highlight Film” Skill or the “Ankle Breaker” just yet. I think people just go for what is cool before taking a second to actually think about a strategy that makes sense for the type of player they want to be.
Do these 5 things and I promise you’ll get better a lot quicker and your teammates will thank you!
