friday

Here at Crave, we like to keep our eyes out for the latest in robots. Just this week, for example, we told you about kissing robots and a robot that can solve Sudoku puzzles. And really, the wacky-robot news never ends.

In recent months, we've featured a fashion model robot, a sunflower robot, a mind-controlled robot, and an eerie robobaby, to name just a few.

Advancements in modern robotics amaze, amuse, and occasionally appall, which got us wondering. What should robots never, ever be allowed to do? Vote in our poll, and if we missed anything (given the endless … Read more

This week, we finally met the much-anticipated PlayStation 3 Slim, which features pretty much the same hardware as its predecessor but has a thinner chassis, vertically and horizontally.

As my colleague Josh Lowensohn notes, however, the PS3's more compact cousin is part of a shrinking-console trend over the last several years. And that got us wondering: in this era of ever-tinier gear, which other gadgets would you most like to see getting smaller?

Vote in our poll, and as always, feel free to sound off in our comments section below.

This week, Microsoft let more Zune HD details out of the bag. The black 16GB version of the upcoming touch-screen media player will sell for $219.99, while a 32GB version in a "platinum" shade will cost $289.99.

Among the device's features are its OLED (organic light-emitting diode) display and multitouch Web browser. It will be able to send video in 720p to an HDTV (using a dock, sold separately).

So now that you know what to expect when the Zune HD shows up in September, what are your thoughts? Vote in our poll.

Week after week gadgets embellished with crystals and flower power hit the market with the intention of targeting women. This week was no exception. We told you about ChicBuds, a new electronics company that targets women, appearing to think they will only purchase gadgets if Swarovski has puked all over them.

There seems to be no end in sight for this growing trend, and if you're like me, you're getting sick of it. It's time for some girl talk. How do you think gadget companies should market their products to women? Or should they? Vote in our … Read more

This week we got nostalgic about the Game Boy Micro and got excited about this fabulous '80s-style Casio watch. Not surprisingly, all that looking back got us rifling through our mental gadget drawers and thinking about other classics we pine for.

So what about you? Which of these old-time favorites do you miss most? Vote in our poll. And if you have something better, please share it in the comments!

Let's say you're staying at a nice hotel on vacation, and you'll have plenty of time to relax. As a reader of Crave, it's likely your relaxation has something to do with using gear. Hotels are starting to include gadgets (for free or for a nominal fee) as an incentive, and it's a great idea.

But we'd like to know which gadget offering would most entice you to choose one hotel over another next time you're on holiday. Vote in our poll. And if we missed anything, let us know in our TalkBack … Read more

Happy (almost) Fourth of July!

Two hundred thirty-three years ago, our nation's founders declared independence from Great Britain. But nailing down a final version of the Declaration of Independence took time, with the writers (or more likely their couriers) flitting about on horses with drafts, as the authors debated phrasing and passed edits around.

That got us thinking: which tool of the Digital Age would have had the greatest influence on the course of American history? Vote in our poll, and as always, chime in with your own ideas in the TalkBack section below.

This week we got a close look at HTC's latest Android device, the Hero, and saw leaked images of another, the HTC Firestone, a possible successor to the HTC Touch HD.

As we start to see more and more Android devices, we'll probably see a boom in the Android marketplace, which not long ago banned tethering apps.

But we have to wonder: with all the discussion around Apple pulling a softcore-porn app from its App Store this week, which app would Google be most likely to nix from the Android Marketplace for being a violation of terms?

This week, we talked a lot about how Twitter is impacting the real world--as a means of conveying information about the political situation in Iran, for example, and as a ThinkGeek T-shirt theme.

But probably our most-discussed Twitter story was about a guy who got his old Commodore 64 connected to the microblogging service. It's an awesome and fun project, and it got us wondering: where's Twitter going to show up next?

Vote in our poll, and if you come up with possible uses we missed, let us know in our TalkBack section.