king

Wolf King's bongo keyboard

As sick as it undoubtedly seems, we're all about keyboards here at Crave, whether they be of the computing or musical variety (or both). And we're particularly fond of those that aren't afraid to break the mold, figuratively and literally.

Wolf King's new gaming keyboard falls somewhere in between those last two categories. Proposed in FCC filings, the weird creation has seven hotkeys and blue backlights but has a relatively small 14.3- by 3.4-inch footprint, according to Gizmodo. The gear maker is no stranger to unusual designs, but this one goes disturbingly further than … Read more

Baseball robot will eventually sign with Yankees for $18 million per year

More video is rolling in from last week's Robo-One 12 competition, courtesy of Robots Dreams. One of the challenges of the recent bipedal robot competition in Japan was to have a robot play catch.

As this video shows, robot King Kizer took that challenge to another level altogether, also fisting an inside changeup to the opposite field, diving back to first base on a pickoff attempt, and stealing second with no throw. Let's watch.

This isn't the first time we've seen a robot with baseball skills, although King Kizer may have the most well-rounded game. This … Read more

Daptone Records: MTV visits Brooklyn's analog oasis

If you think all new records sound sterile and cold, check out this amazing MTV video tour of Brooklyn's Daptone Records. Hunkered down in a funky townhouse in Bushwick, Brooklyn, Daptone's revivalist sound is rough, raw and supremely soulful. It doesn't hurt that the records are cut direct-to-analog tape with real, hard working musicians. Unlike poser labels that record analog as an effect and immediately transfer to digital to edit, mix and master their music, Daptone's LPs and singles are 100% analog (only converting to zeros and ones to make CDs). The MTV video takes you … Read more

King.com launching new revenue-sharing games site

This morning King.com is launching its new user-generated casual games site, MyGame.com. The service combines some of the professionally made casual games offered on King.com alongside user-generated titles and those made by users with a Web-based game creation tool. Game creators who publish on MyGame.com can opt-in to a revenue-sharing program, which pays off ad clicks. The service is also promoting an advanced payment scheme similar to recording industry contracts that pays in advance to popular titles.

I had a go with MyGame's game creator yesterday, and had a good time with the three titles that are currently available for editing. Users can upload a picture either off their hard drive, or by using their Webcams. MyGame will do its best to map your face, as well as give you a quick and dirty cropping tool to fine-tune. You can then test the game to make any last-minute adjustments to your face.

Once done, users (even unregistered ones) get quick-sharing links, along with embed codes to put their creation on a blog or Web site, which I've done below. Users who decide to register with the service are given some extra power tools, like a stats manager, high-score list, and guest book.

I'm looking forward to seeing some of MyGame's future game offerings, along with some of the user-submitted content, although between Kongregate's recent inclusion of badges, and that oh-so-addicting McDonald's Flash game, MyGame must compete for my unfortunate lack of attention span. … Read more

'Transformers' provoke unexpected variety of rapture

The new Transformers movie has inspired a surprising degree of lyricism and detailed cinematic analysis for what is, in most respects, a kids' movie about giant robots. Blogospheric commentators used the language of formal cinematic criticism or just let fly with off-the-chain gushing normally seen in 12-year-old boys. In particular, scroll down for the entry from a self-styled "film theologian" who offers his exegesis on parallels between the movie and the scriptural Book of Kings.

Everyone seems to agree that the CGI sets a new record in coolness, the action sequences are numerous and fast-moving, and the new … Read more

Amazing robot makes terrible omelettes

Fresh from the Robo-One 11 bi-ped robot competition at Kourakuen Hall in Tokyo comes this impressive video of OmniZero.4.

As you can see, OmniZero.4 climbs ladders, clomps around, jumps rope, and makes crappy, shell-heavy omelettes.

According to Robots-Dreams.com, OmniZero.4 edged out the spawn of the Great Majingaa by a score of 453 to 432 to win the demonstration competition.

An earlier iteration of The Great Majingaa can be seen below, controlled by an emotionless child wearing some sort of robotic exoskeleton device.

You may also want to check out this epic Robo-One 10 battle between King … Read more