reality

If you've ever wanted your very own working Android robot, this Kickstarter project is something to watch.

Reality Robotics is fishing for funding for Be the Robot (BERO), a pint-size bot you can control with a Bluetooth-enabled smartphone.

The programmable droid was inspired by the Android mascot, but since Google hasn't officially given its blessing to the project, it looks a little different. It can dance, avoid obstacles, and take commands from an open-source phone app. … Read more

Wednesday's tech news roundup is at full throttle:

T-Mobile will launch a truly unlimited data plan beginning Sept. 5. No caps or throttling. Sprint also offers this, but T-Mobile is competing with pricing. Sprint's starting price for unlimited data is $80 a month, and users are limited to 450 voice minutes. T-Mobile also starts it at $80 a month, but throws in 500 minutes. The larger difference is when you want both unlimited data and unlimited talk; Sprint charges $110, T-Mobile charges $90 a month. Of course, there's also smartphone choice and service to consider. T-Mobile will … Read more

You'd think this were the turn of the 1990s. The "Total Recall" remake just opened today in theaters, and a virtual-reality headset ended up being up the hottest thing in the gaming world this week.

The Oculus Rift works like a conventional head-mounted display, but packs a few features that make it ideal for gaming. For example, the Rift offers impressive head-tracking capabilities; stereoscopic 3D rendering; a wide field of view (110 degrees -- most headsets only offer around 40 degrees); and several inputs (DVI/HDMI and USB). When wearing the Oculus, each eye gets close and personal with a 640x800 LCD screen for a total resolution of 1,280x800 (720p). … Read more

Imagine a future where everything is a game, from cooking to dating, thanks to pervasive augmented-reality technology.

That's the premise behind this deliciously geeky, but ultimately disturbing Israeli short film titled "Sight." This seven-minute flick takes us along for a day in the life of an engineer at a dominant AR company, from breakfast to a date that goes off the rails and has to be "reprogrammed." The concept imagines the merging of big data, social media, gamification, and augmented reality into something that ultimately doesn't seem that far-fetched, or even that far down the road.… Read more

First a broadcast partnership with Nascar, then NBC for the Olympics, now Twitter might have its own reality TV show?

News leaked today that the social network might be gearing up to create several original video series that will air on its Web site. According to Adweek, the company has been hobnobbing with Hollywood executives and producers tossing around the idea of running a series "similar to MTV reality shows," such as The Real World and The Hills.

The way it would supposedly work is the show would be presented in a standalone Twitter page that would include … Read more

Infiltrating the Borg or having dinner with Deanna Troi are just a few of things that could soon become a (virtual) reality with some help from a team based at the University of Southern California.

Project Holodeck is exactly what it sounds like -- a very serious effort to make the iconic virtual-reality room from "Star Trek" an actual reality.… Read more

Wouldn't it be handy if when someone was speaking a foreign language, subtitles appeared just below their face? CNET reader Will Powell thought so, so he built some glasses that make you feel like you're in an arthouse movie.

Using some 3D specs, a couple of mics, a smartphone, a few cables, and two Raspberry Pi mini-computers, Powell hacked together a working automatic translation system -- and he's made a video showing it working.

Powell, a programmer with a background is in Adobe Flex and AS3, was inspired by Google's high-concept Glass project. … Read more

Ikea has already introduced its catalog for mobile devices, but now the Swedish furniture giant is going a little more in-depth with the 2013 edition. There are more than 40 bits of extended content sprinkled throughout the catalog.

The 2013 physical catalog pairs with a special Ikea catalog app to unlock more than meets the eye on the printed page. Unlike the Moosejaw X-ray catalog peep show, expect to see furniture rather than statuesque Scandinavian models.… Read more

Hello Internet. Eileen here, Supervising Producer for Always On. Molly is on vacation, so I'm filling in to give you a little background on this week's episode!

This week we get physical! Molly is in the best shape of her life and was inspired by her road test of both the Nike+ FuelBand and Fit Bit Ultra to enter her first half-marathon! She said to me, "I think we need to stay true to the extreme nature of the show. How about I sign up for a half-marathon?!?"

At first I thought she was crazy to … Read more