25 real-life robots that will make you think the future is now

If you’re anything like us, you probably can’t wait for the day you can go to the store and easily (and cheaply) buy a robot to clean your house, wait on you, and do whatever you want.

We know that day is a long way off, but technology is getting better all the time. In fact, some high-tech companies have already developed some pretty impressive robots that make us feel like the future is here already. These robots aren’t super-intelligent androids or anything – but hey, baby steps. 

From Honda to Google, scientists at companies across the world are working diligently to make real-life robots an actual thing. Their machines can be large, heavy contraptions filled with sensors and wires galore, while other ones are tiny, agile devices with singular purposes such as surveillance. But they’re all most certainly real.

Pocket-lint has rounded up real-life robots you can check out right now, with the purpose of getting you excited for the robots of tomorrow. These existing robots give us hope that one day – just maybe – we’ll be able to ring a bell in order to call upon a personal robot minion to do our bidding.

Let us know in the comments if you know others worth including.

>> Check out the full gallery of robots here

Take a tour with President Obama through the White House in VR

Obama is leaving the White House in the most 2017 way: in VR.

He filmed a virtual-reality experience that’s basically a tour through the White House. Called The People’s House (another name for the White House), it’s supposed to be for people who want to remember Obama’s legacy as well as for people who may never visit Washington DC. The VR experience is available on Facebook for everyone, as well as in the Oculus Store for Gear VR and Rift owners.

The beginning brings you right through the front door and toward a podium. From there, you can sit next to President Obama in the Oval Office. You can take a look around the room and see things like a bust of Martin Luther King Jr, a bowl of apples, etc. Michelle Obama also makes an appearance. The whole experience is around 8 minutes long, but a 20-minute version is coming later this year.

VR studio Felix & Paul filmed the entire thing last November and December and said the extended edition will be available in stereoscopic 3D, whereas the current version is essentially a 360-degree video. 

Watch the first SpaceX launch since September’s explosion

SpaceX is busy preparing for its first Falcon 9 launch since its rocket exploded in September. The Iridium-1 mission will take off from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California tomorrow, January 14th, and you can watch it all happen live after the break or through the space corporation’s website. This mission is headed to Low Earth orbit to deliver 10 satellites for communications company Iridium. They’re the first 10 of at least 70 satellites SpaceX will be ferrying to LEO for Iridium’s global constellation.

As always, though, the launch could still be delayed due to strong winds and other factors — in fact, this Falcon 9 was supposed to take off a few days ago. We’ll update this post in case that happens. Otherwise, keep an eye on the video below for the private space company’s return to flight. It will begin airing the corporation’s live broadcast at 12:34PM Eastern, 20 minutes before the launch window opens at 12:54PM.

Source: SpaceX

Bloomberg: Andy Rubin readying launch of new AI-focused phone

When the co-founder of Android makes a move, people pay attention.

According to a report from Bloomberg, Android co-founder and Google Robotics pioneer Andy Rubin has a team that’s going to build the next big deal — an artificial intelligence-centric smartphone and smart home products that work together.

Rubin is expected to announce the new company, dubbed “Essential,” and serve as its CEO according to Bloomberg’s sources. Making up the 40-man team at Essential are Rubin’s former colleagues from Google as well as talent from Apple, Samsung and Magic Leap. The goal is to blend AI with consumer hardware in a way where everything works together by design. Essential will be working on a full suite of consumer products, and “Essential” was registered with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office as a brand for smartphones, tablets, accessories and computer operating software in late 2016.

This isn’t just talk: Rubin is going to launch a phone.

The showcase product of the company will be a high-end phone with a large screen. A supposed prototype shows a screen larger that the iPhone 7 Plus’ 5.5-inch screen in a frame with a smaller overall footprint. The phone was discussed at CES 2017 with mobile carrier execs, including people from Sprint according to the source of this information. The operating system of the phone wasn’t disclosed.

Rubin knows his stuff. If anyone can marry AI and consumer hardware the way we want them to be joined, it would be Rubin. But this is a big undertaking, and the world where Apple and Samsung exist is pretty hostile to any newcomer. Rubin has the big ideas and it looks like he has the right team. We’re looking forward to seeing how this develops.

How to install new games on your NES Classic

The NES Classic — you saw our first vid on it, right? — is a cool little piece of nostalgia. But it’s sorely lacking in the games department. Or, rather, it REALLY needs a way to add games.

Fortunately the NES community has answered, and in a big way. And after a few rounds of tinkering we now have a super easy way to add games to the NES Classic.

I used the “hakchi2” method. You’ll want to read through the instructions yourself, but here’s the gist of how I did it, boiled down from a reddit post … and another Reddit post. Full props to those folks!

You’ll need at least Windows 7 to get this done.

OBLIGATORY WARNING: You’re doing this at your own risk. If your teeth loosen and your eyes start to bleed, I didn’t do it.

Download hakchi2 and unzip: direct download link
Browse to your saved ROMs, and decide what you want to install on the NES Classic. (I kept the original 30 games, too.)
Find box art — either use your own, or just hit the handy Google button in the GUI to automagically search. (Nice touch!)
Plug your NES Classic into your PC using the Micro-USB cable. Leave the console turned off. We’re going to enter FEL mode.
Hold down the reset button on the front. Then press (and release) the power button. After a few seconds, release the reset button. You won’t actually see anything happen.
You should now be able to hit the sync button in the hakchi2 program. (If you didn’t get the FEL mode thing right, it’ll tell you. I didn’t do it right the first time and nothing blew up.)
Reboot the NES Classic.
Profit!

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See the NES Classic
See the NES Classic controller extension

Is LG about to launch a round Android Wear 2.0 smartwatch?

LG is getting ready to unveil the LG G6 at Mobile World Congress next month, but it looks like that’s not all we can expect from the company.

An Android Wear device from LG recently passed through the US Federal Communications Commission, and according to images and details in the FCC documents, it appears to have round display and standalone LTE connectivity. Actual photos of the device are of course kept secret by the FCC, but we can still read between the lines and make a few educated guesses about the device itself.

At least three different variants are being tested: LG-W280, LG-W280A, and LG-W280V. As DroidLife noted, these letters could correspond to the carriers they’ll be available through (V for Verizon; A for AT&T; and Wi-Fi-only device). And the model number ZNFW280 indicates it will be a new LG Watch Urbane. If that’s the case, it’ll probably run Android Wear 2.0, which is set to roll out in early February.

Screenshots of the Settings menu and the Personalisation option also indicate it is an Android Wear 2.0 watch. Keep in mind Google is now working on two flagship Android Wear 2.0 devices, which might launch at MWC 2017. It is not yet known which manufacturer has partnered with Google on the watches, rumoured to be codenamed Swordfish and Angelfish, so LG’s watch could be one of the two.

• LG Watch Urbane review: All that glitters is not rose gold

However, the most likely scenario is that this device will be the Watch Urbane 3rd Edition. Pocket-lint will be at MWC 2017 in Barcelona at the end of February to bring you all the latest as it happens, including hands-on reviews and analysis.

Nintendo’s HD Rumble will be the best unused Switch feature of 2017

If I had to describe Nintendo in just three words, I’d steal the shared city slogan of Austin, Santa Cruz and Portland: “Keep Nintendo Weird.” The Japanese game giant delights in its own unique character, and has made a habit of defying convention. Nintendo’s gimmicks are always fascinating, but they don’t usually work out. The Wii Remote’s speakers largely went unused. Most third-party developers failed to take advantage of the Wii U touchscreen. So, what’s Nintendo Switch’s soon-to-be-overlooked innovation? A haptic feedback system called HD Rumble.

Nintendo’s Yoshiaki Koizumi introduced the feature at the company’s launch event last night by picking up a Switch Joy-con controller, moving it lightly. “It feels like something shaking in a glass,” he said. An animated cup appeared on screen to illustrate his point. Koizumi explained that HD Rumble’s subtle feedback allowed him to feel more ice cubes dropping into the virtual glass. As the on-screen cup filled with water, Koizumi said he could feel the liquid rising. This is Nintendo’s new gimmick: being able to feel specific sensations through the Switch’s controller. It’s an evolution on the blunt vibration of modern force feedback engines, and it oozes potential.

Nintendo believes in this new feature enough to have built an entire game around it. 1-2-Switch is the new console’s showcase title. Like Wii Sports and Nintendo Land, it’s designed to sell players and developers alike on the Switch’s new features. The twist here, is for most of the mini-game compilation’s modes you’re not supposed to look at the TV screen. You’re supposed to feel the game through HD Rumble. This means adjusting how you pull down on a digital udder in a cow milking game based on resistance, or knowing when to open a safe based on how the lock’s internal tumblers feel in your hand. It’s conducive to experiences that feel more like engaging in make-believe with the other players than playing a video game. It’s too bad that probably no developer apart from Nintendo itself will ever use this feature.

It’s a story as old as the original Wii: Nintendo tries to disrupt the game industry with a new innovation only to watch third parties do the bare minimum to support those innovations. The Wii Remote may have been a motion controller, but most games used its waggles to merely replace a button-press. The Wii U gamepad offered the potential to create transformative dual-screen gameplay, but we were lucky if third-party developers merely mirrored their title’s TV output on the bulky tablet. When was the last time you saw a 3DS game use the portable console’s augmented reality features? Probably never. Even the 3DS’ flagship feature goes relatively unused these days, with the majority of Pokémon Sun and Moon and Dragon Quest VIII being presented in non-stereoscopic form. It’s hard to imagine that a subtle evolution in force feedback technology will fare any better.

On the other hand, HD Rumble has the advantage of being a successor to the one innovation Nintendo did get the rest of the industry to adopt. The N64’s Rumble Pack was a mere novelty when it launched with StarFox 64, but today gamers expect their controller to shake with the highs and lows of on-screen action. Third-party developers (and console competitors like Sony and Microsoft) probably won’t be scrambling to build screen-optional games like 1-2-Switch, but maybe Nintendo’s efforts will push a more nuanced form of force feedback technology into the norm. Unlikely, perhaps — but it would be nice to see one of Nintendo’s more bizarre innovations bear fruit at least one more time.

Click here to catch up on the latest news from Nintendo’s Switch event.

Sony Entertainment CEO Michael Lynton is stepping down

Michael Lynton is moving on from Sony, to focus on being the chairman of Snap, Inc., the parent company of Snapchat. Lynton has been at the top of Sony Pictures for 13 years, a span which included the massive 2014 hacking incident that saw unreleased films, emails and other studio information released on the internet. At the time, his co-chair at Sony Pictures was Amy Pascal, she left the company in 2015.

He’s also been the CEO of Sony America since 2012, and Sony says that his departure will extend over the next six months as it works to find a replacement. In the meantime, Sony CEO Kaz Hirai will take over the title of Chairman and co-CEO of Sony Entertainment, and maintain a second office at Sony Pictures’ headquarters in California.

As far as where he’s going, Lynton has long been involved with Snapchat and his role there is increasing ahead of its anticipated IPO. When Sony was hacked, emails leaked from his inbox revealed dealings with a company, Vergence Labs, that hinted at the development of Snap’s recently-released Spectacles.

In a statement, the exec said “I have been involved with Evan and Snapchat since its early days, and given its growth since then, decided the time was right to transition and focus on my role as Chairman of the Board of Snap Inc. I leave Sony with great pride in all we have accomplished together, and confidence that the broad changes we have made and new management team we have assembled over the last few years will strengthen the company overall. I want to thank Sony Corp. – Kaz Hirai and Howard Stringer in particular – for their leadership and support over the years, and our excellent teams at Pictures and Music for their unwavering dedication to producing and distributing outstanding entertainment.”

Source: Sony

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler defends net neutrality in final address

FCC Chairman and net neutrality champion Tom Wheeler will be stepping down next week when the Trump administration takes office. Wheeler’s Open Internet Order, which passed in 2015, was instrumental in keeping the internet a level playing field, but the Republicans have already indicated that rolling back the legislation will be a top priority for them once the GOP regains control of the agency. On Friday, Wheeler used his last public address as FCC chair to give one final defense of net neutrality and a look at the legal battles to come.

Speaking to an audience at the Aspen Institute, Wheeler insinuated that corporations like AT&T and Verizon will not hesitate to hurt consumers in order to make a buck. “Those who build and operate networks have both the incentive and the ability to use the power of the network to benefit themselves,” Wheeler said, “even if doing so harms their own customers and the greater public interest.”

Arguing against the Republicans’ plans to repeal the Open Internet Order, Wheeler pointed out that a so-called “free market” online would actually be a step back for the internet. “A hands-off approach to network oversight is more than a shift in direction,” Wheeler said, “it is a decision to remove rights and move backward.”

Finally, Wheeler offered a look at what’s ahead in the battle to secure net neutrality. If the FCC itself wants to undo the earlier regulations, it will require the agency to go through a rule-making period and wait for public comment. On the other hand, Congress could more swiftly do away with the Open Internet Order simply by updating the Telecommunications Act. Either method is likely to result in lawsuits, but open internet proponents already have a strong case after a Washington DC circuit court upheld the FCC’s net neutrality rules last June.

Via: The Verge, Hollywood Reporter

Source: Aspen Institute

The Nintendo Switch will reportedly have Neo Geo games

The Nintendo Switch will support a handful of new games, of course, but it’s also going to feature some fan-favorite classics from the Neo Geo era, Famitsu says. The Arcade Archive collection from Japanese video game publisher Hamster Corporation will land on the Switch worldwide beginning in March with King of Fighters ’98, according to the report. Keep in mind that the Switch itself is scheduled to come out on March 3rd for $300 in the United States.

Other Neo Geo classics headed to the Switch after March include Waku Waku 7, Shock Troopers, World Heroes Perfect and Metal Slug 3, Famitsu says. The nostalgia doesn’t end there, either — there will be a setting that restores each game to its original, 1990s glory, complete with all the grainy visuals of a CRT TV set.

Players will be able to adjust difficulty on these vintage games as well, and compare rankings with players worldwide.

The Switch is Nintendo’s newest living room console, but it’s a convertible device that can easily go mobile. It’ll launch with a slew of new online features, which will eventually be available via a subscription service that goes live in the fall. This grants access to online multiplayer, the Switch smartphone app, and downloads of a classic game from the Nintendo Entertainment System or Super Nintendo Entertainment System each month.

According to Wired Games Editor Chris Kohler, these NES and SNES games will be available to paid subscribers at no extra charge for that month only, unless players actually buy the game as well. As always, we’ve reached out to Nintendo for clarification and will update this post as we hear back.

We got our hands on the Switch and some of its new games today, and overall had a smashing time (no, there weren’t any Smash Bros. demos).

Via: NeoGAF

Source: Famitsu