DARPA's just put up a pretty interesting job posting... if you're the wary-of-our-future-being-controlled-by-robots type, anyway. The call involves a new research and development program called ARM. Basically, DARPA's looking to build a robot that can use its arms to dexterously and autonomously grasp objects. The quote from the job posting which is raising eyebrows around here says that the bot should be able to "hold an inert grenade with one hand, and pull the pin with the other hand" without any direction from humans. Now, we're not really trying to hit the alarmist

Scientists working on the Doomsday Clock, designed to predict humanity’s extinction, announced that they were moving the clock’s hands – but not by much. The time was changed by just one minute, making it 23:54 right now.The scientists responsible for the clock’s operation are the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, and their goal was to predict the end of humanity. Originally created in 1947, it has been moved 18 times so far. Its original setting was 23:53, and this has changed by 8 minutes so far.If you find the idea of such a scientific group odd,

We covered the Neato Robotics XV-11 robot vacuum in detail on BotJunkie back in December, and last night at Digital Experience here at CES we got a chance to check it out in person. Just to recap, the Neato is unlike most other robot vacuums in that it isn’t a gussied up Roomba knockoff but rather an original design, the flagship feature of which is a laser based room navigation system that can clean much faster and more efficiently than a Roomba’s pseudo-random patterns. Check out our earlier post on BotJunkie for more details, or just watch the demo, narrated by

Besides 3D, ebooks and media players, another popular phrase thrown around this year’s CES is multi-touch. And one of the more impressive pieces of multi-touch hardware I’ve seen so far is 3M’s new M2256PW LCD display. Using the company’s ‘projected capacitive technology’ the display is able to recognize up to 10 simultaneous touches, with a response time of less than 15 milliseconds. Now the response time is faster with less touches at one time, but even when using every finger on both hands the display is very, very responsive. I was

We didn’t get a whole lot of time to play with it tonight at the Marvell mini-booth (CES: Unveiled can be a bit of a madhouse) but our first real hands-on opportunity with Spring Design’s surprising compact and slim e-ink/LCD reader left us rather impressed. While we should have more coverage of the Alex later this week when it has its first official showing, let’s just say it shouldn’t worry too much about the Nook’s head start.[ Spring Design Alex eBook Reader ]

It looks like the folks over at Engadget have managed to get their hands on Google’s Nexus One a few days before the official announcement. With the phone in hand, high quality pictures of the device are now going around, and that’s always a good thing. Initial impressions indicate that the phone is slightly thinner than the iPhone, which is nice. The Nexus One will sport Google’s Android 2.1, 1GHz Snapdragon CPU, 3.7-inch 480 x 800 display, 512MB of ROM, 512MB of RAM and will come bundled with a 4GB microSD card. Stay

Every few weeks it seems like a fresh round of rumors about an Apple tablet sets the tech world on fire. People really want tablet form factor devices to hit the market. That fabled Apple tablet isn’t here yet, but there are some other tablets that are here or are coming really soon.Engadget went hands on with a new Android powered tablet called the ICD Ultra. The tablet has a 7-inch screen and runs the NVIDIA Tegra T20 CPU. It has 512MB of RAM and 512MB of ROM. Storage capacity is 4GB and the tablet has integrated 2G/3G radios.Other features include a 1.3MP camera, HDMI out,

The Stylophone Beatbox was recently released, some 40 years after the original Stylophone. They sent us one for review purposes. Now I’m not musically inclined myself, but I did find the device to be fun and pretty easy to use. And despite my lack of hip musical skills, it was pretty easy to figure out and start making beats.It’s cheap too. At only $25.50 you could buy a few and have some fun with your friends. The device plays sampled sounds as you touch the stylus around the control surface and several samples can be triggered at once. That means you can really get

One of the things that most of us hate most about winter is the cold. My fingers just don’t work right when my hands get cold. I can’t type with cold fingers and cold fingers is just generally annoying. ezGear has a new rechargeable hand warmer that will keep your phalanges nice and toasty.The device is small at about 1.6 ounces and only 1/3 of an inch thick. The hand warmer is covered in aluminum for good conduction of heat and looks a lot like an iPod to me. The thing ships with a sock to put it in as well.ezGear says that the rechargeable battery is good for 2.5 hours

SanDisk sent us a complimentary Sansa Clip+ to check out. After using it for several days, we’re ready to share our thoughts on the device. The original Sansa Clip has been a popular choice where cheap mp3 players are concerned and the Sansa Clip+ is even better.The design beats the original, with a larger capacity and better features. The first thing that you notice is how durable this thing is. Despite it’s tiny size, it looks and feels tough. It’s definitely more durable than your average mp3 player. And it feels natural in your hand.Unlike the previous