Bizarre - SlashGear

‘bizarre’ Stories

Rebound Rumble pushes robotics development with will.i.am and Bill Clinton

Chris Davies, Jan 8th 2012 Discuss [2]

Robots playing basketball, with former US presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton, along with will.i.am and Segway inventor Dean Kamen in the audience, sounds like the setup to a bizarre South Park joke, but it's actually the kick-off of Rebound Rumble. A brand new game designed to encourage robotic development, Rebound Rumble sets two alliances - each consisting of three independently controlled 'bots - against each other to score points through a cluster of basketball hoops. Read The Full Story

Stephen Hawking starts wheelchair geek hunt

Chris Davies, Jan 3rd 2012 Discuss [3]

Professor Stephen Hawking needs help with his wheels, and he's looking for an assistant handy with a spanner, electronics and at fending off the press. The legendary theoretical physicist is advertising for a graduate assistant to offer technical support for his computer-equipped wheelchair, though it promises to be a challenging role: one of the key responsibilities is "maintenance of "black box" systems with no instruction manual or technical support." Read The Full Story

DIY Robot Avatar pets cat through Kinect and Wiimote power

Chris Davies, Jan 3rd 2012 Discuss [0]

Take one Nao robot, a Kinect sensor bar, a couple of Wiimotes, a treadmill and a head-mounted display - oh, and a patient cat - and you can do what software engineer Taylor Veltrop has achieved: use a remote robotic avatar to pet your kitty. In a new video demo, Veltrop shows how he can remotely control the 21-inch tall robot, walk it around his kitchen, grab a brush and groom his cat. Read The Full Story

Samsung borrows Apple actress for Android tab ad

Chris Davies, Jan 2nd 2012 Discuss [12]

Apple has already accused Samsung of being an arch-copyist with its smartphone and tablet designs; now, the Korean company appears to have borrowed one of its Cupertino rival's actresses. Cheryl Lindo Jones spotted that a new Galaxy Tab 8.9 LTE commercial for the Korean market - since yanked from YouTube, though not before copies were made - uses the same young actress as Apple's iPhone 4S camera commercial. Check out both ads after the cut. Read The Full Story

Fusion Garage apparently implodes: Grid10 MIA

Chris Davies, Dec 19th 2011 Discuss [1]

Tragicomic tablet firm Fusion Garage has lost its PR company, frozen sales of its Grid10 slate and has left pre-order customers waiting for their purchases for months, in what looks like it could be the company's final gasp. After significant downtime over the weekend, Fusion Garage's site and online store now merely says "We are running out of stock" when trying to place a new order; meanwhile, the firm's PR agency has dumped them over zero communication with existing customers. Read The Full Story

Unlucky thieves snatch $1.7m-worth of PlayBook tablets

Chris Davies, Dec 17th 2011 Discuss [28]

Ah, the irony: over the past few weeks even RIM has admitted that the BlackBerry PlayBook is so unloved it can't even give it away, and now $1.7m-worth of the 7-inch slates have actually been stolen. A truck transporting 22 pallets of the PlayBook to Ontario, Canada, was parked up for the driver to take a rest break, The Herald Bulletin reports, when it was stolen by person or persons unknown. Read The Full Story

Asterisk insect robot demos prey-grabbing talents

Chris Davies, Dec 15th 2011 Discuss [2]

Humans, this is your fate: scooped up by a terrifying, insectile robot and dumped into the organic power-reclamation unit or, if you're lucky, the breeding vats. Researchers at Osaka University have developed an omni-directional robot called Asterisk, capable of grabbing and carrying prey DigInfo reports, and perfect for when the AIs revolt and begin to see us as the fleshy Duracells we really are. Read The Full Story

Google pulls plug on Google Shoot View mashup

Chris Davies, Dec 14th 2011 Discuss [6]

Google has taken down a first-person shooter that turned its Google Maps Street View into killing fields, using those people inadvertently captured in the 360-degree road-level photography as motionless targets. The game, "Google Shoot View", was the handiwork of creative agency Pool, and added an M4A1 assault rifle to the familiar Street View UI that could be used to fire wildly with sound effects and bullet holes. Read The Full Story

Nintendo puts Miyamoto in Mario Kart: “Look, he’s not leaving!”

Chris Davies, Dec 12th 2011 Discuss [2]

You're Nintendo: what's the best way to convince people your iconic game designer, Shigeru Miyamoto, really isn't stepping back from developing hit franchises and retiring? You could issue an enthusiastic press statement, certainly, but how much better to put Miyamoto into a life-sized Super Mario Kart looking gleefully excited. Read The Full Story

Drunk RIM execs escaped cuffs on in-flight fight

Chris Davies, Dec 12th 2011 Discuss [2]

Rambunctious RIM wags given the boot for mid-flight misdemeanors managed to chew through plastic restraints in order to resume their hunt for liquor, court documents have revealed, forcing the pilot into an unscheduled landing. The two execs, George Campbell and Paul Alexander Wilson, have since been fired by the BlackBerry manufacturer, as well as being fined almost $72,000, receiving suspended sentences and being placed on parole for twelve months, CBC reports. Passengers have accused Air Canada of mishandling the situation, however. Read The Full Story

Eight-jet Google execs fear $33m Hangar One refurb NASA snub

Chris Davies, Dec 11th 2011 Discuss [1]

Google's top three execs have offered NASA $33m to refurbish NASA's historic Hangar One, though parking provisos for an eight-strong fleet of private jets suggests both self-interest and altruism are in play. Larry Page, Sergey Brin and Eric Schmidt made the offer via their H211 airplane operations company, run independently from Google, back in September Mercury News reports, but NASA is yet to greenlight the scheme. "We understand the interest and historic nature of the facility" NASA spokesperson Bob Jacobs conceded in a statement, suggesting though that "we have to weigh that against the reality of constrained resources and use." Read The Full Story

smart for-us electric pick-up packs smartphone mirrors

Chris Davies, Dec 9th 2011 Discuss [0]

Compact car manufacturer smart has revealed its latest concept, the smart for-us, an Earth-friendly electric pick-up that's just 3.5m long. Set to debut at the Detroit Motor Show, the for-us is powered by a 55 kW magneto-electric motor fueled by a 17.6 kWh li-ion battery, good for up to 120kph (75mph) though smart is yet to confirm range. There's no shortage of other tech, either, including replacing the rear-view mirror with a smartphone and a video camera. Read The Full Story