(Credit:
Brian De Vitis)
Behold! The retro gaming force is strong with this one-of-a-kind R2-D2 replica by PopSci reader Brian De Vitis. The Star Wars droid was meticulously built from a cooler and houses no less than seven discontinued game consoles, a sound system, and a projector.
Based on the controllers shown in the image, our resident gaming guru has identified most of the consoles. They include the original Microsoft Xbox; Sony PlayStation; various editions of the Nintendo Entertainment System, aka NES; Sega Genesis; and Dreamcast. Give us a heads-up via Talkback below if you can recognize the joystick-like controllers and light guns on the extreme right.
A top view of the R2-D2 console droid without the projector.
(Credit: Brian De Vitis)(Source: Crave Asia)
One of the coolest features for Spore gamers is the ability to create their own creatures. Now, anyone can assemble aliens through a new site set up by Electronic Arts.
Spore Creature Creator 2-D, released Wednesday, lets you conjure up and animate your own creatures using an assortment of eyes, arms, feet, horns, and various unidentifiable body parts.
Produced by EA's Maxis studio, the Flash-based game starts with a large egg cracking open to reveal a simple alien body that you mold online like a lump of clay. Thin, fat, long, or short--you devise your creature's basic shape. Then it's time to build your baby with the right parts.
Choosing from such categories as mouths, limbs, and graspers, just drag your favorite body parts onto your creature to evolve it from a formless blob into a fully-functioning whatever. The game helps you along, directing you to drop the parts in all the right places. You can bend and resize many of the parts, giving your creature big eyes and a small mouth or long legs and stubby feet. You can also add a splash of paint by choosing from a wide palette of colors.
As you develop your creation, it takes on life by showing off its animated parts, such as a mouth that opens and closes, eyes that blink, and graspers that try to grasp. If you're in a hostile mood, you can even add weapons, like the Problem-Solvent that sprays solvent, the Hockitlauncher that spits out water, or the Phlegmthrower that shoots, uh, well, you get the idea.
If you need a helping hand, you don't have to build your creature from scratch. Spore Creature Creator 2-D lets you tap into the Sporepedia, an online gallery of creatures designed by Maxis developers and other Spore gamers. Simply load one of the pre-existing creatures and then tweak it to assemble a totally new organism.
Once you're done, it's time to name and describe your creature. You can then take it for a workout in the Creature Trainer arena, where you move it around the screen to catch bouncing balls with its mouth, hands, or other parts.
If you're proud of your new creation, you can e-mail a postcard image of it to a friend or save it as a PNG file for your own picture gallery or Web site.
A variety of Spore masterpieces are viewable at the Sporepedia Web site. And for all you budding Spore artists, Maxis is offering a Creature Creator challenge. Recreate one of your favorite Spore creatures using Creature Creator 2-D for a chance to be featured on Spore.com.
Caryl Shaw, a senior producer at Maxis who helped bring Spore Creature Creator 2-D to life, told me the game came about because Maxis wanted to make Spore more accessible and let anyone with a Web browser experience the same creativity that Spore gamers enjoy. As one of the most popular features of Spore, the Creature Creator seemed a natural.
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(Credit:
Gamespot)
With today marking the 10-year anniversary of the Sega Dreamcast, news from the company reveals that a brand-new 2D Sonic game is in development and slated for a 2010 release.
While details are slim, the teaser trailer (see below) indicates that the new game will be an HD title built entirely from the ground up. It's also unclear whether Sonic will be the main star of the game, as Gamespot is reporting that the project's codename is "Needlemouse."
Fans of the Sonic the Hedgehog series have been clamoring for a traditional 2D Sonic game in the vein of the lightning-fast titles from the Sega Genesis age. With Sega officially answering that call, we're left wondering if "Needlemouse" will be a traditional $60 boxed game or a download-only title.
If you're thinking of getting Sprint's Samsung Exclaim, the phone now comes with another cool function.
Scanbuy, the company that's been at work putting its ScanLife application on camera cell phones, announced Tuesday that its ScanLife 2D bar code reader application will now be preloaded on the Samsung Exclaim from Sprint.
(Credit:
Scanbuy)
This is the first wireless phone to be shipped in the U.S. with the ScanLife technology. The company expects additional models will ship with the application in the future.
ScanLife is an application that allows you to scan a 2D bar code with a standard camera phone to automatically launch a specific function associated with that bar code. For example, you could launch a mobile Web site or video, or get specific item information like company contacts or pricing. You can also view and share that information through social-networking communities, like Facebook and MySpace, with which the Exclaim easily syncs.
At Scanbuy's Web site, you can also create your own bar code that's associated with information of your choosing.
If your phone is not preloaded with the app, you can always install the application by going to www.getscanlife.com on your mobile browser. The app is available for free. I tried it with my iPhone 3G and it worked well. Note that once a bar code is scanned, the information will be directed to Scanbuy's server to determine the associated function. This means an Internet connection is required for this technology to work.
Nonetheless, this is a very useful and fun feature.
You know what's cool? Modding your computer case. What's cooler than cool? Modding your computer case to look like R2-D2. Yeah, that's right. A real life-size R2-D2.
Frenk Janse, the creator of this mod, used a trash can that was on its way to the recycle bin, plus pictures off the Internet and a bit of know-how and creativity to work this little guy out.
And it doesn't just sit there, either. This droid includes fans and a Webcam, and even beeps and buzzes out of speakers Janse attached to the legs.
The best part? The entire thing costs less than $150. Now that's a Force to be reckoned with.
(Via TechEBlog)
It begins with iPhone 3 software details, progresses into face stealing, and somehow ends up at a claw machine containing a mountain of mammaries. Obviously words do nothing to express the joy of this week's Gadgettes.
Listen now: Download today's podcast
 |
EPISODE 129 |
iPhone OS 3.0: What you need to know
iPhone 3.0-ready with $24 stereo Bluetooth headset
iPhone OS 3.0 will turn your phone into a revolutionary sex toy
The 3D FaceStatue might be the creepiest product of all-time
Japan’s latest supermodel–a robot
... Read more
An Android-based smartphone, the G1 from T-Mobile.
(Credit: T-Mobile)After preloading an iPhone app on Sansumg camera phones and expanding to Mexico, Scanbuy announced Tuesday that its ScanLife multi-bar code reader is now compatible for mobile phones running on Google Android.
As in any other mobile device, the ScanLife application allows for scanning a 2D bar code and automatically performing an action or function associated with that code. The action can be displaying a specific Web site, launching a video, dialing a phone number, or anything else a smartphone can do.
This way, bar codes can help eliminate the need to use the phone's tiny keyboard. You can even go to Scanlife's Web site to create your own bar code and associate it with whatever Web page or contact information you want.
The application supports major 2D bar code formats (including Datamatrix, EZcode, and QR) and can be downloaded for free from www.getscanlife.com when you visit the site on the mobile browser.
With the addition of Android, the ScanLife software is now compatible with virtually all popular mobile operating systems including BlackBerry, iPhone, Java, Symbian, and Windows Mobile.
Bar codes have become more popular in the last few years. If you fly now, most airlines allow you to print your own boarding pass that contains several types of bar codes. American Airlines even lets you use your mobile phone that displays a bar code to board their airplanes at selected airports.
We're not trying to give robots too much power over our lives, but let's face it...there are some things that we'd rather not have to do, and our robot underlings would be perfect fill-ins. That is, of course, until they become self aware and jump onto our faces until we surrender to their immense robotic power. But that won't happen for a long time, so don't worry about that just yet.
Listen now:
Download today's podcast
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Episode 115 |
DanBall the finger massaging robot looks like anything but a finger massaging robot
Roofus the snow-sweeping robot protects the roofs of large buildings
Magic system fills glasses from the bottom up somehow
Pink Watch
Sony announces Bluetooth headphones, travel-friendly speakers
A propos (of) nothing
Erasable Shower Tablet for inspired moments (thanks HollyHock!)
Here it is for sale!
What the hell?! (Vibrating stool edition)
Vibrating Toilet Seat
Mario Mushroom vibrating stool (thanks Dr. Karl!)
Gender Gap
Tomahawk Skull Gauntlet
Tool Time (baby edition)
Badass Oakley Roddler stroller gives your kid an early chip on his shoulder
Electric-drill-powered stroller should come with a Father of the Year award
Pretty……..
BMW unveils electric Mini Cooper
Dirt-cheap Christmas crap
Walmart offers $128 Blu-Ray
Feeling a little blasé about how ordinary your blinds look from day to night? OK. Fine, so you don't care. How about if they did something more than just open and close?
Designed by Yoon-Hui Kim and Eun-Kyung Kim, the Solar Vertical Lamp takes an average vertical blind and embeds it with special mini photovoltaics and LED pixels. Close the blinds during the day and the miniature solar pads on the back of the blinds start to soak up the sun's energy. Once the sun goes down, artfully placed lighting pixels illuminate in certain parts of the blinds.
(Credit:
Inhabitant)
The two-dimensional lamps come in table lamp, floor lamp, and chandelier forms. Besides being completely energy-efficient and saving you tons of money on your monthly bill, they create a sexy and dramatic ambiance for any part of the home.
(Credit:
Inhabitat)
Scanbuy, the developer of the 2D EZcode bar codes, announced on Wednesday that it has secured a global agreement with Samsung to preload the ScanLife mobile 2D bar code reader application on Samsung's camera phones.
(Credit:
Scanbuy)
The deal comes into effect as early as next month when Samsung starts selling these phones in Spain, Italy, and Denmark. With this move, Scanbuy hopes to quickly expand the use of EZcodes in other major markets, including Mexico and the United States.
EZcodes allows for instantaneously executing an action that the code is associated with, such as launching a Web site without you having to remember its Web address and typing it on the phone's browser. For example, if you see a product that features an EZcode, you can take a photo of that code using your mobile phone's camera, and the ScanLife software will immediately gives you information related to that product such as its price, functions, specs, or even place a call to its technical support. Aside from EZcodes, the application also reads major 2D bar code formats designed to quickly recognize and process information.
As part of the global agreement, Samsung will preload camera phones with the ScanLife application for each new country that's rolling out Scanbuy's complete solution. Samsung will also use EZcodes to promote and market its extensive portfolio of consumer-related electronics.
Personally, I've tried the ScanLife app on my iPhone 3G a couple of times and thought it was really cool. However, this kind of technology only makes sense if it's implemented ubiquitously, which is exactly what Scanbuy is trying to achieve with this deal.
