Spotify is great, particularly when you’re having one of those parties where people keep asking “oh, have you heard that new track by…”, but the current computer-bound UI isn’t exactly conducive to being passed around. If you’re lucky enough to have a touchscreen Crestron home entertainment system, however, Custom Controls may have the app for you: they’ve whipped up a new UI that will allow for fingertip control of Spotify through Creston panels.
Video demo after the cut
We know this looks like a plastic trashcan full of junk electronics, but it’s actually the inside of WowWee’s Rovio robot webcam just after he’s been given a remote-control mod. Obviously blind to the dangers of granting your robot power over high-voltage appliances, RoboCommunity member Thel has hacked together a system whereby he can switch devices on and off at the mains using Rovio.
Radio-controlled cars might not seem the most obvious place to mount a server, but JokerWorks disagree: the company has unveiled what they’re calling the world’s first Linux server for R/C cars, the Joker Racer R/C Server, easily allowing for remote internet-linked control. To keep things simple, the Joker Racer unit hooks up to the standard servo cables already in the R/C car, together with an off-the-shelf webcam.
Video demo after the cut
The FCC has kindly outed Cisco’s latest device, the FlipShareTV, seemingly a companion media streamer for the company’s Flip range of point-and-shoot camcorders. The three-part FlipShareTV consists of a remote control, USB dongle for your computer, and a set-top box, with a basic folder-based browsing structure that can be used to view recorded video that has been transferred from the camcorders.
IR extenders – which can be used to remotely-control A/V components tucked inside closed-up equipment racks or in other rooms – aren’t new, but Logitech probably have the brand-name recognition (and bricks-and-mortar shelf space) to soon dominate the market. The Logitech Harmony IR Extender System works with your existing remotes, and comes with a compact IR receiver and an IR blaster with various tethered mini-blasters.
The Magic Mouse isn’t the only peripheral from Apple that’s had a makeover; the venerable Apple Remote, last seen looking vaguely tired in white plastic, has been dipped in aluminum for its latest incarnation. The Apple Remote still has dedicated play/pause and Menu keys, together with track-skip and volume controls, but now looks like a drawn-out, flattened iPod shuffle.
To use it with your iPod, iPhone or iMac, you’ll need a suitably equipped dock or a desktop that has an IR port. The Apple iPod Universal Dock will do the trick for the PMPs, priced at $49, while any iMac introduced from 2005 onwards should have the required receiver.
After rumors earlier this year about a BlackBerry Bluetooth watch, now CrackBerry have managed to acquire some renders of what’s tipped to be the wrist-worn peripheral itself. Believed to be called the inPulse, the watch won’t be made by or for RIM and won’t carry the BlackBerry logo, but it will be designed especially to work with the messaging-friendly smartphones.
While we’d love to say this is SlashGear’s new intern, in actual fact it’s a shot from the first review we’ve seen of WowWee’s RoboRover. Announced at the tail-end of September, the RoboRover is WowWee’s first robot to use tank-track style locomotion and, according to RoboCommunity member GWJax, they – together with the IR-based obstacle avoidance system – do a pretty decent job.
Continued »
Remotely controlling your TiVo from a BlackBerry has been possible for a while now - thanks to the mobile web interface - but now there's a specific app that aims to make it even easier. TiVo for BlackBerry Smartphones is available free from the App World, and has browse, search and scheduling functionality, together with "Daily Picks" and "Most Popular" categories.
Earlier this month we were lamenting the dearth of consumer robotics in 2009, and it seems someone at WowWee has heard our cries. The company has released preview information of two upcoming ‘bots, the WowWee Roborover (left) and the WowWee Joebot (right), both with remote-control functionality as well as autonomous modes.
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