KUBI telepresence robot arm for tablets now shipping, starting from $399

It was almost a year ago when we checked out Revolve Robotics’ KUBI, a motorized tablet cradle that lets you remotely pan and tilt your device — via an iOS app (Android version coming soon) or web portal — during video calls. After missing its summer launch window, this US-made telepresence robot is finally shipping to its Indiegogo backers starting this week. Those who want in now can also order one through the company’s website, albeit at much higher price points: the KUBI Hacker Edition for developers costs $399, whereas the prettier but otherwise identical KUBI Classic (pictured above) is asking for a steep $499 — almost twice as much as the original intended price due to a change in tooling, for the sake of speeding up production.

If you’re really desperate for a Bluetooth LE robot arm for your tablet, order soon — delivery is expected within three to four weeks. For now, you can get a glimpse of the first few KUBIs off the production line in the short clip after the break.

Filed under: Robots

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Source: Revolve Robotics

Spotify tablet streaming goes free — if you don’t mind sitting through a few ads

We can’t say as we were particularly taken aback by today’s Spotify announcement, after all someone spilled the beans the other week (thanks a lot, The Wall Street Journal) – but we trekked through a cold New York City morning to Spotify headquarters all the same. As anticipated, the company used the occasion to announce a free version of its tablet streaming service. Of course, nothing in this life is truly free, right? As such, the streaming offering will be ad-supported, much like the non-premium version of its desktop offering.

Ek kicked things off by rattling off some impressive numbers, including 1.5 billion playlists created (with one and a half million made each day) and 4.5 billion hours of music streamed last year, before launching into the big news of the morning. The new version of the service will work with both Android and iOS tablets and plays along nicely with the company’s new Connect offering, so you can play that music through some of those high-end compatible speaker systems. You’ll be able to access your playlists through your tablet devices, but beyond that the exec didn’t break down the service too much, save for saying that it’s “the same as the desktop experience.”

Filed under: Home Entertainment, Software

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