Move

Play air guitar with your iPhone

Playing air guitar to your favorite song just got a lot cooler. Two gadget-loving guys have come up with Air Guitar Move, a device that lets you strum the air using the iPhone or iPod Touch.

The entire set consists of two apps and a guitar pick with an accelerometer inside. The first app, called Free Play, lets you strum the air using the pick as you see fit. The second app, Arcade, is a rhythm action game that lets you strum along with songs, similar to games such as Rock Band and Guitar Hero.

Interestingly, former Guitar Hero engineers are overseeing production of the project. This means we might see more apps that are compatible with the Air Guitar Move in the future. … Read more

Files managed and more

File management and viewing utilities are great for comparing, copying, and moving files and folders in one or more directories, especially if they also extract compressed files, rename files in batches, and display a wide range of image files with auto scaling and enhancement options. If they're free, compatible with all versions of Windows from 98 to 7, and have lots of options, like MeeSoft's Commander, then all the better. It displays JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP, ICO, HIPS, CR2, WMF, EMF, and other file types, extracts ZIP and RAR files, and displays hex files.

Commander uses a split-view … Read more

The 404 836: Where it's big, round, and shaped like a spaceship (podcast)

We enjoyed yesterday's show with Joey Kaminski so much that we invited him back to sub for Jeff again today. He weighs in with us on Apple's new spaceship-shaped campus, Chinese prisoners allegedly mining MMO gold, Steve Jobs' freakiest Apple patents, and muffing the ball.

The 404 Digest for Episode 836

Steve Jobs proposes a new Apple campus--shaped like a spaceship. Steve Jobs' freakiest patents. China reportedly forces prisoners to mine MMO gold. Richard Dreyfuss reads the iTunes EULA on tomorrow's Reporters' Roundtable!

Episode 836 Subscribe in iTunes (audio) | Subscribe in iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video… Read more

E3 2011: Our predictions

With the annual Electronic Entertainment Expo happening simultaneously with the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference this year, those in the habit of making technology-announcement predictions have a big week ahead of them. We've put our collective heads together to make some forecasts, and you're welcome to play along at home and score us on how we do.

To be fair, many of these have been so reliably leaked or telegraphed that they're virtually sure bets. Others seem likely based on corroborating clues we've seen or historical precedent. We've also thrown in a final list of E3 … Read more

Kinect, 2011: Where art thou, motion?

I haven't plugged my Kinect into my Xbox 360 in nearly six months.

The reasons are, to some extent, mine. But not mine alone. Still, whatever excitement I might have felt during the Kinect's debut has withered. It's not essential, not compelling. It's not why I play my Xbox 360. And if I don't have mine plugged in, I'm wondering how many other Kinects are suffering the same fate.

The Kinect's motorized movements get annoying. The Kinect camera is meant to sit under my TV and be innocuous, but it isn't. The … Read more

E3 retrospective: Where are they now?

The big three video game console manufacturers love to use E3 as a forum to brag, tease, and whet the appetites of gamers worldwide.

An entire year later, where do all of the promises, announcements, and hype from 2010's show stand? We've hand-picked each conference's spotlight moments and detailed the progress in a slideshow.

Evolution of the console: Xbox 360, PS3, and Wii

Six years. That's nearly how long it's been since the Xbox 360 first debuted back in the fall of 2005. The next year, the Nintendo Wii and PlayStation 3 followed.

Typically, new consoles emerge no later than five years after the debut of the last iteration. This generation seems to be the exception. Perhaps that's because of the ripples of a recession, but we can also credit the Wii, PS3, and 360 for being hardy, versatile consoles. In fact, looking back at what these systems were compared with what they are now, it's hard not to … Read more

SRI shows the benefits of shrinking tech

MENLO PARK, Calif.--If you've seen the Oscar-winning film "The Hurt Locker," you know how dangerous bomb dismantling can be. But researchers have developed a system that they say can allow military and police to disarm explosives without risking anyone's life.

The system, developed by scientists at SRI International, is known as Taurus, and it is a miniature robot that can allow a trained dismantler to remotely do the work that used to require getting up close and personal, often too close for comfort, to a bomb.

According to Tom Low, SRI's director of medical systems and telerobotics, Taurus will be in field trials this summer and is expected to be commercially available by early 2012. While he would not say specifically what the 14-inch wide robot would cost, SRI's goal is to sell it for "less than the price of a squad car," meaning that many police departments, as well as military agencies, could conceivably buy it.

I got a presentation on Taurus from Low yesterday during a visit to SRI as part of my Road Trip at Home series. I've been to SRI before and seen things like wall-climbing robots, but seeing the way that Taurus could potentially help save lives was a much starker reminder of the ways that robots can make a real difference.

Taurus is a cousin of some of SRI's previous efforts into remote-controlled telemanipulation robotics. For years, the institution has worked on systems designed to allow remote surgical procedures, such as a military doctor being able to operate from afar on a wounded soldier. Low explained that this work began in the mid-to-late 1980s, and was intended to allow highly-trained surgeons to work on such soldiers within minutes of them sustaining injuries.

Over the years, this technology led to the creation of more general-purpose robots, such as the M7 system, which could allow security personnel to remotely explore, say, an abandoned bag at an airport. Low explained that it was crucial that the system be easy to use and quick to learn. … Read more

The 404 813: Where our pets' heads are falling off (podcast)

The listeners in the chat room this morning want us wish you a happy Star Wars Day, but we're pretty sure we'll get beaten up for saying something like that. Instead, we're taking taking our anger out on Wilson's floating head in the studio, dodging blueberries and corn from our neighbors in New Jersey, and, of course, bringing you silly tech stories of the day.

The 404 Digest for Episode 813

Man robs Subway sandwich shop with PlayStation Move Controller.

Original space-traveling Game Boy fetches $2,000 at Sothebys auction.

Nintendo drops the price of the Wii to $149.

Episode 813 Subscribe in iTunes (audio) | Subscribe in iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video… Read more