Samsung does the Roomba

All good things come to him who waits. If you can just take your mind out of the gutter, we're clearly not referring to the accessory in the backdrop, but to the model in the red, hot number. Enter Samsung's Hauzen premium-branded VC-RE70V, which is about to give Roomba's robot floor vac some chick-to-chick competition, right down to the Bobby Brown lipstick rouge.

This isn't the the first robot vac out by the chaebol, though there's been some effort at styling it up this time. Closeup, this Hauzen resembles a giant dust mite magnified a million times over, but prettier. Using cameras to automatically map the room in 3D to be cleaned, it has enough built-in smarts to avoid obstacles and return to base to juice up when the power guage starts to dip. The Hauzen should be out in Korea by end month, with an expected premium price for all that sophisticated gadgetry. Though remember that if you hear something go bump in the night, it's just another vacuum bot biting the dust.



Via AVING Korea

Consumer version of Surface could hit by 2011

In targeting casinos, restaurants, and hotels, Microsoft knows it is barely scratching the surface of the demand for its tabletop computer.

The company is convinced there is a mass market for an interactive touch-screen computer, but perhaps not in its current US$10,000 version. CEO Steve Ballmer told financial analysts last month that Microsoft had a plan to speed up the arrival of a consumer version of the tabletop computer Surface.

Originally, Microsoft had said it could take up to five years for a home version of Surface, but Microsoft is now aiming to have that out in three years' time, according to an interview that Microsoft's Tom Gibbons did with Fortune magazine.

"In the three-year time window, we absolutely see how to get there," Gibbons told Fortune. "If we can beat that, we'll try to beat that."

But before it can focus on the home market, Microsoft still needs to work on satisfying the initial customers for the product. When it announced Surface in May, Microsoft was aiming to have its initial customers with products in hand by years' end. By the fall, though, CNET News.com reported that Microsoft was unlikely to meet its goal.

"We're running a couple of months later than I'd like with our deployments, Gibbons said in the Fortune interview. "While I was hoping we'd have something out now, we'll definitely have something out in the next couple of months."

Via Crave CNET

PlayStation Network compromised!

Heads up, people! If you're a member of Sony's PSN online gaming community, its high time you verify the integrity of your existing account. The Japanese company has recently issued an official apology for a security breach. Apparently, hackers have gained illegal access to account information through malicious programs or worms. These were found in some PS3s, leading to reported cases of compromised passwords and PSN credits.

We have sounded out Sony's regional office and are awaiting updates on the severity of the problem. Accordingly to Akihabara news, a firmware patch is in the pipeline and should address the console and network vulnerability. Stay tuned.

Via Akihabara news | Photo credit: Sony

Fancy a Wi-Fi-enabled picture frame?

Sure, there are digital picture frames out that boasting high resolution and touchscreen functions, but how many can actually download images off the Web without a computer?

Well, Kodak's EX811 digital photo frame may just be the answer. Besides sporting an 8-inch LCD display with its proprietary Color Science technology, the gizmo is Wi-Fi-enabled, too. This feature allows you to send and receive pictures from other Kodak Wireless Photo Frame users over a Wi-Fi network. Sadly, you cannot browse the Web on this device.

The border of the frame is touch-sensitive, so organizing images just takes a few strokes of your finger. If you don't want to leave fingerprint smudges on the surface, you can always use the remote control to scroll through the pictures. It accepts the most commonly used flash memory cards like SD/SDHC/MMC, CompactFlash, Memory Stick and xD-Picture Card.

If wireless is your way of life, give the US$199.95 EX811 a closer consideration for your next digital picture frame.

Meet ApriPoko, a talking universal remote robot

There's got to be a subliminal message of some sort coming out of Japan with the influx of robotic gizmos the Japanese seem to be conceptualizing endlessly, not to mention giving them affectionate nicks. Just name us any other country that's so obsessed with birthing mechanical substitutes.

The latest labor of love is one ApriPoko, an 11-inch-tall talking robot developed by the researchers at Toshiba as a voice-activated universal remote control. ApriPoko is still in embryo stage, so it's unlikely to debut in stores anytime soon. But its purpose in life has been coded into its genes. It will, unlike your regular universal remote, go beyond manual programming into the realm of voice control.
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