Robot Braces Itself Like a Human

Since robots have already attained or surpassed our strengths, now they're going for our weaknesses.

We tend to take a lot of things for granted about our body. No, we’re not talking about the nation’s propensity towards obesity, we’re talking about how we move around, like say, grabbing onto a desk for support. Sébastien Lengagne realized this is exactly it’s time robots learned how to give themselves a little helping hand.

Lengagne took an HRP-2 and programmed it to recognize if certain objects can provide stability during certain actions, like sitting, It then calculates the precise movements required to complete its action. Ok, so does this make it weaker than other, more well-balanced robots, or is this HRP-2 just trying to lull us into a false sense of security?

Digital Clock Looks like Relic from Fallout

These retro clocks are ready to survive a Chinese invasion and a nuclear holocaust.

Part of the charm in the Fallout games is the strange ‘50s lo-fi tech married with nuclear weaponry circa 2161.Now you can enjoy that very hybrid of Cold-War and modern technology outside of the videogame world, thanks to the Nixie, a set of retro-looking clocks from BDDW.

Samsung Develops 30nm-class DDR4 DRAM Module

Samsung has developed the industry's first DDR4 DRAM module.

Tuesday Samsung Electronics said that it has successfully developed the industry's first DDR4 DRAM module using 30nm class process technology.

The new DDR4 module can achieve data transfer rates of 2.133 Gbps at 1.2V and also makes use of a new technology called Pseudo Open Drain (POD), which allows the module to consume just half the electric current of DDR3 when reading and writing data.

Lenovo Launches ThinkPad With AMD Zacate APU

A new generation of netbook?

Lenovo this morning took the wraps off of a few new ThinkPads. One such model is the new entry ultraportable ThinkPad X120e laptop, the first commercial laptop to feature an AMD Fusion "Zacate" E-Series Accelerated Processing Unit (APU).

"Multimedia elements like audio and video have become important parts of our world, and businesses are embracing this trend in digital content," said Dilip Bhatia, vice president, ThinkPad Marketing and Product Operations, Lenovo. "We've optimized the ThinkPad X120e to not only give businesses an excellent experience creating and consuming multimedia content, but we've also made key improvements to an area that has plagued laptops: battery life."

Thanks to the AMD Zacate, Lenovo boasts that the APU gives 65 percent faster graphics performance, while also extending battery life by up to 30 percent over the previous models. The X120e is now rated for more than six hours of use.

The X120 sports an 11.6-inch screen and a full-size keyboard and weighs under three pounds.  The ThinkPad X120e laptop will be available beginning in February starting at under $400.

The 3DS Virtual Girlfriend Who Stays Faithful

Dating sims are nothing new, especially in Japan. Originally they were mostly PC games, but now they're in the mainstream – and one is being made for the Nintendo 3DS.

Project LovePlus is one such new title, and it will use the front facing camera of the 3DS to identify the player through facial recognition software. The feature is called the "Boyfriend Lock" which will keep the game's character faithful to the owner.