By Chief Gizmateer, Gizmos for Geeks
Contributing Writer, RealTechNews

We found out a couple days ago that other Geeks are as interested in indoor remote control flying contraptions as we are when FARK picked up our Gizmo of the Day article on the Remote Control Indoor Butterfly Flyer. While searching our favorite sites, we ran across another such gizmo, except this involves yet even another geek passion… UFOs!

This 2005 Toy Innovation Winner in the Technology Category finally makes use of the technology uncovered years ago at Roswell!

Source: Gizmos for Geeks

By Will Wagner
Contributing Writer, RealTechNews

Asus will begin shipping a luxury PC which is a leather covered laptop, for UK customers next month. These upscale Asus Model S6F laptops will sell for £1,700 and will come with leather cowhide in Light Camel or Dark Chocolate Brown colors. This laptop has a 1.6GHz low-voltage dual-core Core Duo L2400 backed by 1GB of DDR 2 SDRAM, a 100GB hard drive and a multi-format DVD writer. It uses Intel’s latest Centrio chipset, the 945GM, which has on-board graphics to power the 11in WXGA anti-glare screen. Also includes 802.11a/b/g Wi-Fi and Gigabit Ethernet.

We Say:
Nice laptop for the commuter who has everything. What about a snake skin version for the Texas Cowboy here in the United States? This could be the start of a whole new marketing battle for distinct looks and visual features, versus the normal high tech hardware list consumers use for comparison. We will have to wait and see.

Source: The Register Hardware UK

By Michael Santo
Contributing Writer, RealTechNews

About four months after Sony put Aibo to sleep, a South Korean company has stepped into the gap with its own version of a robotic dog. Named “Genibo” or “genius robot”, the canine will enter the market next year at a still unspecified price.

The Genibo, which stands a foot tall and weighs 3.3 pounds, understands 100 commands, including “sit,” “roll over” and “wag tail.” The company says it can navigate around obstacles by itself. Source: AP via Yahoo! News

We Say: It was a sad day when Aibo was put to sleep, so it’s nice to see a new entry. I’m no expert on the Aibo, but the Genibo’s specs sound a lot like Aibo’s (so much so I’m wondering if Sony will have anything to say about this), so will the price point also about the same? We’ll have to wait to see.

By Michael Santo
Contributing Writer, RealTechNews

Ah, those days when you first learn to ride a bicycle. Most start with training wheels, but eventually have to take them off and deal with the scrapes and cuts you first get when you start to learn to balance on two wheels. GyroBike, a start-up spun-off from Dartmouth College, aims to make those “boo-boos” a thing of the past. When a child starts to lose balance, a gyroscope attached to the front wheel corrects for the error and stabilizes the bike.

“It actually makes it easier to learn to ride a bike because this is actually how people ride and recover from falling,” said Errik Anderson, a venture capital consultant who is helping the company.

Training wheels, according to Anderson, are unnatural. They prevent a bike from falling over, but don’t teach kids about balance. By contrast, the GyroBike wheel relies on natural physical forces. Source: News.com

There’s a video on this page, as well as more detailed info on just how it works.

We Say: Hmm … time to start shorting your Johnson & Johnson stock because of a potential for less Band-Aid sales? Seriously, though, at $39, this is a pretty good deal. Expect these to show up later this year or early next year.

By Chief Gadgeteer, Gizmos for Geeks
Contributing Writer, RealTechNews.

An Israeli company, Nemesysco Ltd., has taken voice analysis technology previously only used by law enforcement and the like, and applied it to the business of ‘love’. They’ve come up with a line of products that supposedly can tell you whether or not your Significant Other or love interest is being honest with you. One of those products is the Online Love Detector which you call and then in turn call your SO. The current drawback is that if you’re using a cell phone, the mobile provider must be compatible with the service. I guess this company must just be getting started around the world, since they only list 3 providers, but I can see this being a hugely popular tool.

Read the entire article over at GizmosForGeeks.com.

Source: Gizmos for Geeks.

The Rotasole: Australian invents Sports Shoe with Rotating Disc in Sole

By Martin Regtien
Contributing Writer, RealTechNews

I just watched the latest episode of Beyond Tomorrow, the Australian technology show, which featured the Rotasole. This innovative sport shoe will be able to massively reduce the number of sports injuries from twisting and turning one’s feet in sports like basketball or tennis. The secret of the Rotasole is in the rotating disk in the middle of the sole which turns as you turn. This can minimise the stress on your ankle by some 30%. The Rotasole is already available.

Click here for more…

By Michael Santo
Contributing Writer, RealTechNews

The Nintendo Revolution is now known as the Wii. And that’s pronouned “we”, or “oui” or “whee” … but you get the point. Honestly, I figured Revolution was a good name, and based on today’s Nintendo statement, so did they … to a point anyway.

“While the code-name ‘Revolution’ expressed our direction, Wii represents the answer,” Said Nintendo. “Wii will break down that wall that separates video game players from everybody else. Wii will put people more in touch with their games … and each other. But you’re probably asking: What does the name mean? Wii sounds like ‘we,’ which emphasizes this console is for everyone.” Source: MTV

We Say: Nintendo went on to say that “… it’s really not about you or me. It’s about Wii.” At this point of the press release I started to feel as I did earlier this week when I was sick. A little (or a lot) too saccharine for me.

I really liked the name Revolution, and can foresee a long period of time (before people get over it) of joking about this name. Really, do you want to name your gaming system with the word young children use for a certain bodily function? Or would you rather name your system something that grabs people from the start? Something like Rev — oh, wait, that’s been done.

By Alice Hill
RealTechNews

Piracy is a problem in the tech world and a major strain on doing business with China in particular, but what about when your entire company is pirated? And what if it isn’t a little company, but a huge electronics behemoth as big as NEC? Sounds strange? That’s what we thought until we started researching this issue more.

It seems that Chinese piracy experts not only started duplicating and selling NEC branded products, they began setting up fake NEC factories and warehouses, in essence, hijacking the brand and the operations of an entire company by impersonating the company itself. A pirating first.

Like hundreds, if not thousands, of manufacturers now locked in a war of attrition with intellectual property thieves in China, the company hired an investigator to track down the pirates. After two years and thousands of hours of investigation in conjunction with law enforcement agencies in China, Taiwan and Japan, the company said it had uncovered something far more ambitious than clandestine workshops turning out inferior copies of NEC products. The pirates were faking the entire company.

Evidence seized in raids on 18 factories and warehouses in China and Taiwan over the past year showed that the counterfeiters had set up what amounted to a parallel NEC brand with links to a network of more than 50 electronics factories in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. Source: Intenational Herald Tribune

We Say: Wow. That’s on a whole other dimension. Two questions: if the goods were for sale and this has been going on for some time, how can we tell what NEC products are actually the real deal? And if it could happen to NEC, who’s to say who isn’t being scammed by a simailar setup? Scary business, literally.