teddy

Robovie mR2 is a 30-centimeter-tall humanoid robot developed at Japan's ATR Robotics and Communication Laboratories. It speaks Japanese (in a kind of creepy-cute voice) and can communicate info from an iPod Touch that you insert in its stomach.

According to ATR, it is not only possible to control Robovie mR2 by touching the screen of the iPod Touch, but also via Wi-Fi (802.11b/g) or Bluetooth.

Think of it as a modern-day Teddy Ruxpin. Instead of cassette tapes, this robot can speak what's on your iPod. Considering the ubiquity of Apple handheld devices, there is a potential … Read more

After multiple cancellations and attempts to get him on the show, Mr. Ngo is finally in the 404 studio in New York! We're excited to pick his brain on all the new advancements in the CNET labs, but we get sidetracked by the most random conversations. Dong and I have a special relationship (don't go there): Dong was actually the first person I met when I first started working at CNET! In fact, you could consider him my printer mentor! Thanks, Dong.

Since we have Dong in the hot seat, we take this opportunity to pick his brain about his experiences coming to America from Vietnam. As you can imagine, it took the young Dong awhile to adjust to our idioms and figures of speech, which he illustrates beautifully in a cheeky story involving an attractive blond woman and a big, yellow Hummer.

In addition, Dong surprises us all and tell us that it was actually Michael Jackson who inspired him to learn English! I can just imagine little Dong saying "Who is the Man in the Mirror and why are we asking him to change his ways?"

Believe it or not, we finally arrive at an actual news story in the second half of the show. This one is about a Japanese teddy bear robot nurse named RIBA (Robot for Interactive Body Assistance) meant to transport the elderly and handicapped in its creepy outstretched arms. Has anyone noticed that it looks a lot like a certain bear meme?

Either way, we all take issue with the fact that the bear can only hold up to 134 pounds in its foam-padded paws! Clearly this robot ain't picking any Americans up anytime soon. I think we actually have babies that weigh more than that.

Big thanks goes out to Paul Ramsay for inviting us to last night's hypnotism show at the Julliard Academy. It was tons of fun--who knew a group of kids could Riverdance so well!? Maybe you can help Jeff through his knife phobia! If you're not familiar with Paul's work, be sure to check out his appearance on our show. Also, head over to the Inside CNET Labs Podcast to catch more of Dong Ngo's crazy antics.

No, it's not Internet lingerie (how would that work exactly, anyway?), but it might be just as questionable. According to its Web site, iTeddy is the "cuddly way to watch, learn, and play." Is it just me, or does that sound slightly foreboding?

In any event, the U.K.-based company iTeddy appears to focus on just the one product: an otherwise standard-looking stuffed bear with a screen on its belly and memory in its brain...512MB of it, to be exact. The iTeddy also includes an SD card slot for memory expansion, built-in external speakers, a … Read more

If you think GPS breathalyzer devices are intrusive, you'll love this next item from Japan. Engineers at iXs Research are developing a talking teddy bear that serves as an in-car navigation system, giving directions while sniffing out any alcohol on your breath with a sensor embedded in its neck, asking "You haven't been drinking, have you?"

As if that weren't irritating enough, this backseat-driving teddy also has sensors designed to detect reckless driving, such as sudden braking and acceleration ("Watch out!"). And as a "bonus," according to Pink Tentacle, the bear … Read more

If fashion designers are willing to stake their reputations on cable boxes, audio servers, and hard drives, then it should be a no-brainer to do a phone for kids. And thankfully, France-based Sagem didn't fall back on the usual cheap toy look that curses so many children's gadgets.

Instead, it commissioned artist Lulu Castagnette to design the My411C handset, which looks pretty much like a grown-up mobile phone except for an external display that's cut out in a teddy bear silhouette. As Uberphones points out, the rest of its features are anything but remarkable, though that obviously … Read more

Here's how to ruin a thing of beauty. Find a Prada phone, one of the most gorgeous handsets we've seen, and attach a scruffy miniature teddy bear to it. Worse yet, dress the little sap in some tiny Prada label too, then charge nearly $100 for it.

That pretty much sums up this line of phone straps marketed by the design house, as seen on Chip Chick. And believe it or not, the teddy pictured here actually isn't nearly as hideous as some of the others in the "Mobile Trick Quirinos" line, such as those … Read more

Voting is now closed for this round. See the results of these battles here and vote on the Sweet Sixteen matchups here.

These robots don't want to fight. That's why you have to pick the winners. Here's part two of the first round of our grand tournament, featuring robots from the movies and TV. All you have to do is vote for the winners.

Voting is open from now until next Monday, September 10. Check back then for the results of this round, exciting second-round matchups, and a couple of surprises.

A couple of months ago for Halloween, we bestowed the completely made-up Demented Genius Award upon the Evil Mad Scientists Laboratory, in recognition of the modification of a Lego man by sticking an LED in it. This created a disturbing modern version of Ichabod Crane's nemesis, the Headless Horseman.

Today we present the second Demented Genius Award to Evosapien member Nocturnal and his alter ego, who prefers to go unnamed. We were able to confirm that it's Mr. Nocturnal, and not Ms. Nocturnal, who took WowWee's popular Robosapien toy, gutted a teddy bear, and merged the two in an unholy union. … Read more