USPS R2D2 Mailboxes

Engadget reported, Friday, that for the upcoming 30th anniversary of Star Wars, the US Postal Service will be outfitting post office across the nation with Star Wars themed mailboxes. These new mailboxes are cleverly made to look like everyone’s favorite droid, R2-D2. Personally, I’ve got to say, I think it’s pretty cool.

What I wonder, however, is who exactly is footing this bill, and in which direction is money being given? In one case, Lucas and company could be paying the USPS money to have these little marketers installed across the country. On the other hand, the USPS could be paying George Lucas tuck loads of money to license the likeness of the droid. In this case, I’m no so sure if the tax dollars spent on this are worth the “oh cool” factor. It just gets me thinking, if it is indeed the postal service paying for all of these shiny new drop boxes, is that really the best use of money? Did they really need to go crazy replacing standard blue mailboxes with the, no doubt, more expensive, R2-D2 ones?

Video Conferencing Robot

A few days ago (I’ve been slacking) Engadget reported on a video conferencing robot, called Giraffe. It has a screen at the top where the video conference-ee’s face would appear. At the robot’s base is a set of wheels that allow it to shuffle about an office.

The idea here is that you can sit at home (or on a trip) and operate this robot and create a physical presence in the workspace. The operator can tilt the LCD up and down to look around and the built in microphone also sends sound back to the user. Then, of course, the built-in screen and speakers allow everyone at the office to see and hear the person running the machine. However, I just can’t see it being widely adopted, or even at all. It’s just plain odd. The price isn't set in stone, but the word is that it'll retail for somewhere between a whopping $3,000 and a paltry $1,800. But, Hurry! Pre-orders yield deep deep discounts! OMG!

The Vulcan Flipstart

Today Engadget posted a hands-on piece about the Vulcan Flipstart “handheld PC.” They didn’t offer a price, but for the dearth of features that it offers, I’d hope to see it somewhere under $500. I really can’t find much good in it. It’s bulky, it’s slow, the screen doesn’t look bright, and its screen resolution looks to be about 800x600, which isn’t really practical these days.

The story goes, that this piece of tech-junk was announced in 2003, and they just never delivered, until now. Well, this makes me think that the features and the components and design were set in stone back then, but now in 2007 they’re all just about obsolete. Hell, the thing even offers an RJ-11 jack for modem connection. All this thing needs is a hand crank and it’d go perfect with the line of OLPCs designed for remote areas in third-world countries.

The kicker, is on the same day as this review, came some news about a new Samsung handheld PC. In comparison to the Vulcan’s 512MB of RAM, 30GB hard drive, and 800x600 washed out screen, the Samsung Q2 offers up 1GB of RAM, a 100GB hard drive, and a brilliant 1024x600 wide-touch-screen. The Samsung also gets my vote on design.

I guess the lesson to be learned here, is that a concept that includes top of the line hardware, just doesn’t hold up after 4 years.

(Pictures via Engadget)

Valet Free Robotic Parking Garage

It’s Two For Tuesday! What’s that mean? Well I mean you get to hear my opinion twice today! Oh how lucky you must be feeling! Please notice: this is not necessarily going to be a ritual for Tuesdays. It just happened that I had some more time than usual today, so I updated here, as well as reviewing the latest from The Higher, called “On Fire,” you can check that out over at Audiosyncratic.

Earlier today Engadget reported on the NYC Parkhaus from the people at Automotion Parking Systems. It’s a parking structure that stores your car away on a shelf while your gone. The idea really is a good one in my opinion. Since there doesn’t have to be as much space to allow people to drive in and out and because they shelves can be closer to each other, there’s the possibility for storing more cars in less space, than a traditional parking garage.

The other benefit that I see is that there won’t be as much worrying about someone jacking your car while you’re away, because it’s kept within the robotic structure’s bay. This way, there won’t be the freedom for people to come in and out as the please. From the sounds of it, the service is also priced fairly competitively in comparison to other parking structures.

I guess you just have to hope that there isn’t a power outage when you want your car. I’m also a bit weary about how long it would take to get cars in and out, as this could cause long lines, especially during rush hours when commuters are trying to drop off their cars for the day.

Check out this way cool video, thanks to Popular Mechanics.

Omelet Mouse Cover, Who Even Needs a Mouse Cover?

There’s something to be said for quirky accessories, both tech related and even other sorts. I would generally put this mouse cover in that category, except that it costs almost $70. So for $70 and some potentially pricey shipping from Japan, you can cover your Mouse with an omelet, a plastic one of course. But this begs, the question, why would you even want to? It doesn’t appear as if you’d even be able to use it with the cover on it. And I highly doubt that an incredibly fake looking rice omelet is going to keep any nefarious users from using your PC. “Haha I’m going to steal all of Brian’s files! Oh no! Where’s his mouse? Is that an omelet? Wow I’ve been foiled.” No…

So if you’re really into Japanese rice omelets and you can bear to part with $70, this might be the product for you!
Check out some reporting on delectable dish from Engadget and Akihabara.

512MB Memory Unit for 360, Hard Drive Still a Better Deal

Today Engadget is reporting on a newly announced 512MB Memory Unit for the 360, which will push down the price of the current 64MB edition. Although I don’t own an Xbox 360, I understand why this is a well-needed addition. The 64MB card could only hold a few of your game saves and at most one Live Arcade game. Well, the cap on these games was recently raised from 50MB to 150MB, so everyone without a hard drive in their 360 was left in the dust.

This new 512MB Memory Unit will reportedly be introduced at a price point of $49, and will include, at least initially a copy of Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved. It’s not exactly a bad deal, but the hard drive, which can be purchased after market, is certainly a much better one. I would, however, suggest holding off on buying one just yet. All of the speculation floating around seems to suggest that there will be both or either an updated 360 or an increased capacity hard drive. So, if you’re looking to crawl out of the gaming depths, known as the Core system, the hard drive is your best bet out.

So, I just can’t exactly recommend the purchase of a 512MB Memory Unit for $50, when a 20GB hard drive, for your 360, can be procured via eBay for somewhere in the same price range. Plus, if you can bear to stick it out somewhere between a month and a year, a new hard drive might become available to satisfy your Live Arcade gaming needs.

I don’t like your iTude, Mister

I swear I’ve seen these floating around before, but now that I have an outlet to complain about them, and they were recently featured on The Unofficial Apple Weblog, I’ll complain about them. They are neon headphones, called iTude, for use with your iPod.
The cables are connected to a battery pack (2 AAA) and they glow to the beat of your music. The idea is pretty cool, but it’s the execution that bogs them down in my mind.

From the photo, comparing the size of the headphones which appear to be normal Apple ear buds, with iTude graffiti’d on them, to the battery pack, it seems that it is far from small. In fact it appears as though it would rival the size of an iPod Nano. It’s just one more thing to stuff in your pocket while you’re on the go. Plus, because the cable that connects it to the iPod is short, you would have to take it out of your pocket every time you wanted to change a song.

Finally one last nitpick, the ear buds used in the iTude are of the last-gen style. These days the ear buds are sexy and curved. Plus according to just about everyone a whole heck of a lot more comfortable. So, with no price available and the fact that they can be found only on a Japanese website, I won’t be expecting to see these glowing babies around any time soon. That, and I’m not much for the rave scene.