Hi-tech Frontier

Handmade Wooden USB Drive Here is a new kind of USB flash drive with wooden housings. The unique design is attractive, right? It has 2GB storage capacity and costs $25.

CB2 "Child Robot" returns: smarter, creepier than ever All caught up on your sleep? Good. 'Cause our old friend the "Child-robot with Biomimetic Body," or CB2, has now returned to haunt your nightmares. As you might expect, the bot hasn't simply spent its past two years of existence terrifying the staff at Osaka University, it's actually been learning, and it's now apparently able to make use of its 51 air-powered motors to move itself through a room "quite smoothly" -- with a helping hand, of course. What's more, the researchers behind CB2 are now also starting to talk about some of their future projects, including a new "robo species" that they say will have learning abilities "somewhere between those of a human and other primate species such as the chimpanzee." Yeah, we can't wait to see what that looks like either.

Ben Heck's Commodore 64 laptop mod: like 1982 without the feathered hair Benjamin J. Heckendorn seems unusually enthused by his latest hack'n mod, calling the Commodore 64 laptop "probably one of, if not my favorite project I have done." That's saying something from the man whose brought the "Benheck" finesse hammer down upon just about every modern and classic PC / game console and accessory you can think of. The C64 lappie features a C64C motherboard, a Gamecube power supply, and special 1541-III DTV device that emulates a floppy drive using a FAT-32 formatted SD card -- all while keeping true to the beige 8-bit spirit of the original. . Then again, there could be an Xbox 360 controller hiding in that joystick knowing Ben.

Nokia E75 It's out, Nokia's E75 S60 QWERTY is now shipping according to a feverish Nokia press release. For Espoo, that leading "E" stands for businEss so this slider is all about corporate eMail -- a first handset to ship with Nokia's new eMail user interface -- as well as getting you connected to your personal accounts from Yahoo, Gmail, and Hotmail. Unfortunately, the decent quad-band GSM / EDGE and dual-band HSPDA data, WiFi, microSD expansion, 3.2 megapixel camera, and a-GPS specs are offset by that puny 2.4-inch QVGA (320 x 240 pixel) display. For our money, we'll be holding out for the 3.5-inch, 640 x 360 pixel N97 QWERTY slider just peeped in the FCC, thankuverymuch.

Protector Three Wheeled Motorcycle Concept by Tryi Yeh Motorcycle is the most popular means of transportation in Taiwan but it is remarkable that among the huge number of variety of motorcycles, there is none for a child. Tryi Yeh is a specially designed motorcycle for woman and a child with a smooth surface. This superb looking motorcycle will reduce the possibility of dangerous hit and the length is reduced with its stretch advanced seat. The latest three wheel design of this motorcycle is more steady and nimble than conventional two wheel motorcycles. Additionally, the design of this motorcycle’s backseat will save the straddles and this is why the designer is naming the vehicle as a Protector.

Moixa Sphere : The World Is In Your Hand Moixa has developed an apple sized device, named Sphere, with multi-touch feature allows a user to surf the world like Google Earth, control interactive games and browse web pages. Sphere can display an interactive map of world and can be recharged by releasing a leaf like petal. You will be able to zoom, select and rotational and gyroscopic tasks with its multi-touch interactions. Sphere is a sign of expanding IP collection of geometric forms that reorganize the axioms of portable advanced computing. This handy device is planned to finish the development process anytime this year and will be commercially available in the market in 2010.

IRXON Mini Bluetooth Keyboard Features: 83 keys QWERTY format Bluetooth specifivation v2.0 Bluetooth HID profile v1.0 Frequency range: 2.4 ~ 2.4835GHz ISM Operating range: up to 10 meters Connect most of bluetooth enabled devices, e.g. PC, PDA, Smartphones or Playstation 3 On/Off button Powered by 2 x AAA batteries (not included) Support WM5.0, Windows Vista/XP/2000, Mac OS X 10.3 or higher Dimension: 140 x 70 x 12mm (approx.) Weight: 66g Price: US$ 35.00