athletes

NASA Athlete rover dancing its way to the stars

NASA seems to be continuously developing rovers to explore and possibly colonize the moon and Mars, but none is as downright bizarre as the Athlete, an imposing, spidery robot that H.G. Wells might love.

Initially built in 2005, the latest-generation Athlete (or, All-Terrain Hex-Limbed Extra-Terrestrial Explorer) is actually two three-limbed robots that join together to form a platform for transporting payloads weighing up to 990 pounds in Earth gravity.

At full height when standing, the prototype is about 13 feet tall, but that's only half the size of what a launch version of Athlete might be.

The six … Read more

Sennheiser, Adidas collaborate on sports headphones (podcast)

Sennheiser and Adidas worked together to create sports headphones. Sennheiser product manager Eric Palonen showed off some earbuds that include an "ear fin," saying that "we took a lot of the weaknesses of a typical headphone and made them a strength for the sports community." The ear fin, a small rubber extension near the ear pieces, keeps the phone from falling out of your ear. They also have water resistant cables that you can wash when dirty.

They range in price from $80 to $120. While these weren't 't the most exciting technology at the … Read more

JayBird Endorphin Rush earphones want to be your gym buddy

JayBird first made a name for itself as a Bluetooth company, pushing out a line of stereo headphones with discreet-yet-secure designs that were made with the iPod in mind. So it was both surprising and not when the company elected to move into the wired market with two in-ear models aimed at the fitness-minded. What was surprising was the seemingly backwards step in technology, but it was actually a move inline with JayBird's focus on active users. Of the two new sets, the Endorphin Rush Athletic Earphones ($99) are the slightly more expensive and less stylish of the two.… Read more

Running robots sprint for the win

Just as the Beijing Olympics were winding down, radio-controlled robots were going head-to-head in a sports event of their own--the annual Robot Athletic Meet in Tokyo's Akihabara district, which is known as a hub for anime and gadgets. In the photo above, two bots compete in a 2-meter dash. Fifteen bipedal robots took part in last weekend's athletic meet, which was organized by Tsukumo, a maker of robot kits and products.

Jeter, Manning join $8.6 million Weplay round

Big-name professional athletes are known for throwing money around almost as much as they throw balls, but it's not every day you hear about them investing in a social-networking site. Youth sports network Weplay, however, is an exception: Derek Jeter, Peyton Manning, and LeBron James have joined its $8.6 million Series B funding round, announced Tuesday.

The round was led by Deep Fork Capital, which has invested recently in mobile networking start-up Moblyng and visual search site SearchMe. In addition to the well-moneyed jocks, existing investor FirstMark Capital contributed.

Weplay's Series A round, announced earlier this year, … Read more

The 404 132: Where CBS is brought to you by The 404

Today's show is all about answering the questions that nobody is asking. These questions include: Is "doing the robot" considered cheating? If California legalizes marijuana, will we need to find a new co-host? Is the vibrating iPhone keypad a curse or a blessing in disguise? When will Amy Winehouse evolve into a Homo sapiens? How can we stop the Ninja Turtles from stealing our precious metals? Do the Netflix executives listen to The 404? Is there a problem that can't be solved with Viagra? All this and much much more, now brought to you by CBS … Read more