Japanese Robonurse cares for elderly

Japanese researchers have created a robot nurse that can lift elderly patients from wheelchairs and beds. Naturally, it looks like a giant teddy bear.

Riba, short for Robot for Interactive Body Assistance, was developed by the state-run Riken research center. Promoters are calling it the world’s first robot to lift people in its arms.

Riba can move patients weighing up to 134 pounds in its foam-padded paws and transfer them from beds to wheelchairs. Its cute face is designed to make the 400-pound robot less imposing.
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Nokia Booklet 3G brings all day mobility to the PC world

Nokia finally announced a very real 10-inch Netbook – 3G mini-laptops or “smartbooks.” It’s called the Booklet 3G, it has a clear design relationship with its phone line, while still being an honest-to-goodness laptop. It’s running an Atom Z530 processor, it is also noted that it has:

• an SD card reader
• A-GPS and maps integration
• an HDMI port
• Wi-Fi
• 3G (obviously)
• a webcam
• Bluetooth
• a 12-hour battery life

Nokia Official Press Release:

Espoo, Finland – After more than 25 years as a pioneer and leader in the mobile industry, Nokia will bring its rich mobility heritage and knowledge to the PC world with the new, Windows based, Nokia Booklet 3G.

Powered by the efficient Intel Atom processor, the Nokia Booklet 3G delivers impressive performance with up to 12 hours of battery life, enabling people to leave their power cable behind and still be connected and productive. Delivering the rich experience of a full-function PC inside an ultra-portable aluminum chassis, the new mini-laptop weighs 1.25 kilograms, More

Apple iPad Compete Against the Amazon’s Kindle?

A Border customer survey asks about a mystery Apple iPad large-screen reading device.

There are rumors swirling out there about a forthcoming Apple tablet of some sort. And while we certainly don’t feel the need to point you to each and every supposed leaked photo or tip from a super-secret inside source, this potential clue is too interesting to pass on.
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The Sony PSP Go – the smallest PSP

This will be the smallest and mightiest PSP® system yet. You can download rich, immersive digital gaming or the best movies and TV shows saved directly to the ample 16GB hard drive and browse the incredibly deep lineup of PSP gaming and movie content on the PlayStation® Network. Another cool feature is the use of the built-in Bluetooth support to connect a wireless headset and utilize Skype to talk with friends. But best of all, show off your content via the ultra-crisp 3.8 inch LCD screen on the most portable PSP system yet.

This will be the most portable PSP, thus the name Go. The release date for the PSP Go is in Fall of 2009.

Shooting the boss and getting paid for it

To thank him for letting them spend the last two hours of their workweek playing video games on the company dime, Kevin Grinnell’s employees often single him out and shoot him in the head.

To be fair, the employees at Grinnell Computers aren’t firing real weapons at their boss but are instead releasing the stresses of their week in a multiplayer online game known as Combat Arms.

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11-Year-Old Damon Weaver Interviews the President

the whole story on Mashable.com

Cisco and Warner Music extend Web partnership

Warner Music Group announced Wednesday that it has expanded its partnership with Cisco Systems, using the tech giant’s software platform to power more Web sites for its artists.

Warner Music is the first and only company that has said it is using Cisco’s Eos social media software platform. Cisco announced the platform and hosted service in January.

The service, called Eos, allows media and entertainment companies to create, manage, and grow online communities. Through Eos, Cisco has compiled technology tools and slapped on an easy-to-use interface to make building and customizing Web sites easy. But most importantly, it’s bundled into the software technology that will allow media companies to build interactive Web sites so that fans can connect with musicians, TV shows, movies, or whatever brands they want to promote.
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HP, Dr. Dre plan new ‘digital music ecosystem’

According to CNET.com:
A new partnership among hip-hop impresario Dr. Dre, Interscope Chairman Jimmy Iovine, and computer maker Hewlett-Packard aims to save digital music.

No, this is not an attempt to fix the record industry’s business woes. The goal is to lift the sound quality of the too-often tinny tunes squeaking out of our ear buds, and it’s ambitious nonetheless. HP will release premium-priced laptops, headsets, and software featuring the “beats by Dr. Dre” brand sometime this fall, music industry sources with knowledge of the partnership told CNET News.
Read more on CNET.com

Facebook Acquires Friendfeed

It’s official. Friendfeed is now a part of Facebook. Last year, Facebook has borrowed quite a few features that FriendFeed popularized, including the ‘Like’ feature and an emphasis on real-time news updates. Obviously Facebook has already built out some of FriendFeed’s functionality so there is some overlap, but there are still numerous ways FriendFeed beats out Facebook’s News Feed setup. One of these is the way stories are ‘floated’ to the top as new users comment on them. And FriendFeed’s system is truly real-time, unlike Facebook’s feed which users have to manually refresh. More

Rumor: iTunes 9 to Support Twitter, Facebook, and Last.fm

According to “reliable source” over Boy Genius Report that the next version of iTunes (iTunes 9) will add a bunch of new, highly requested features. Boy Genious Report’s source says iTunes 9 features Blu-ray support, a new way to organize iPhone apps within iTunes and integration with Twitter, Facebook and Last.fm.