Oh to be one of those geeks who can effortlessly start up a remote control helicopter and make it fly, but alas. When I play with those type toys I am the one who will almost always immediately crash and burn…assuming I can even get lift off. It’s okay, though; I have found a flying toy which I can operate, and that doesn’t come complete with the same frustration I’ve discovered in others of the type: the WowWee Flytech Bladestar. Built for those who are eight years old and up, it’s even fun for those of us who have hit the big 4-0 (plus one).

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Robert’s at it again; today he has information on Mr. Personality, WowWee’s new omni-directional entertainment robot. Why might you want one? Read on…

Hello Judie,

Reminiscent of one of the robots at the robot carnival in the movie A.I., Mr. Personality is a unique interactive robot companion that talks up a storm. He’s a natural joke teller, a fortune teller, and will even give you whimsical answers about your future. Instead of a featureless face Mr. Personality has an animated face which is displayed via a head mounted full color LCD.

Features

* Can move in all directions using a unique three wheeled mobile base
* Tells stories, jokes, and fortunes and will talk to you too
* Full color head mounted LCD screen display an animated face with synchronized facial expressions and sounds
* Has several distinct play modes including: Bits, Crystal Ball, Fortune Cookies, Demo and others.
* Detects and avoids obstacles and will let you know if he has fallen over or if his batteries are getting low on juice

Official WowWee YouTube video:

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When I was a child, I absolutely loved stuffed animals; I had such a massive collection residing on my bed that they threatened to push me off should I stretch out or roll over in the middle of the night. One of my fondest wishes at that time was that some of my favorite stuffed animals could be more life-like and animated. Granted, this was in the 70s, and the closest things we had to robotic toys back then were those obnoxious stuffed dogs that came with a wired battery pack so that they could walk a few steps, bark, and then walk a bit more. These toys certainly weren’t huggable, you wouldn’t want to sleep with them, and once the initial trill of watching them do their “thing” wore off, they would invariably wind up in the bottom of a little girl’s toy bin.

Fast forward thirty plus years (ack! did I just admit that?) and we find that little girls still love their stuffed animals, they still hug on them and sleep with, and they still long for a more realistic “pet” experience. Gone are the wired yap-dogs, and in their place we now have much more life-like and animated animals such as those in the new WowWee Alive series.

I was sent their Lion Cub, and from the minute I opened the outer box, I knew exactly who I would employ as its primary “testers”. My boyfriend has two daughters, ages 5 and 9, and they both love stuffed animal; their beds bear silent testament to this fact. Would this particular toy get any type of special treatment once they had discovered its capabilities? Or would it end up in the bottom of their toy bin like the yap-dogs of yesteryear? There was only one way to find out…

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Robert Oschler teased us with glimpses of Wrex, the junkyard dawg, several months ago. Now that sassy canine has crossed our borders, and Robert has the scoop!

Hello Judie,

WowWee’s hilarious and ill-behaved robot junkyard dog has finally popped up in the USA for ordering. Amazon has it available for about $140 (USD) and lists it as “in stock”. Hammacher Schlemmer, who offers a “lifetime guarantee” on their products (about 9 years) also has it with an expected ship date of 9/26/2008 and a price of $130. Buy.com has it available for ordering with Free Shipping, but lists it as “Temporarily Out Of Stock” and at a price of $150. So far the other major retailers like Target and WalMart don’t have it yet.

Here are the relevant links:

Amazon
Hammacher Schlemmer
Buy.com

Detailed Video Review of Wrex The Dawg:

Detailed Written Review

Thanks,
Robert Oschler
RobotsRule.com

ThinkGeek, the masters of bringing us awesomely cool geek toys, has just released the Black Stealth 3-Channel R/C Helicopter. YAY! This is not just another one of those tiny palm size helicopters with a different look; this one has the important third channel to allow full control of forward and reverse movement. Previous similar sized helicopters had only two channels to control the up and down, and they used weights to tune the speed of the constantly forward moving heli. In the looks department, the Black Stealth sports a plastic body instead of the foam ones used on the other two channel helicopters; this gives it a realistic appearance and actually resembles one of the more expensive bigger R/C helicopters.

Our geek friends over at ThinkGeek say that this helicopter is the easiest to fly and has “incredible hovering and stability.” The Black Stealth charges up via the remote in 10 minutes and provides 7 minutes of fun flight time. Two different channels are available for ordering, so two of the helicopters can share the same air space. All this flying goodness can be yours for $29.99 at ThinkGeek.

If you’ve been intrigued by our previous posts on the new WowWee Femisapien, or E.M.A. the Kissing Robot, then you’ve probably been waiting to hear when she would become available. Robert Oschler, our neighborhood robot guru, has got the low-down…

Hello Judie,

WowWee’s first female robot ever, Femisapien, is now available for purchase for $99 (USD). So far she’s been spotted for sale at Amazon, Target, and WowWee’s online store and listed as being in stock. Femisapien is also known as E.M.A. the Kissing Robot.

Amazon

Target

WowWee Online store

My 5000 word detailed review and companion video review of Femisapien

Thanks,
Robert Oschler
RobotsRule.com

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Sure we’ve all seen laser pointers; they are a favorite for playing tricks on people, playing with your pets at home and even for pointing out details during a presentation.  However, not all laser pointers are created as equals, and I am here to say that Wicked Lasers have NO parallel in the laser pointer arena.  Wicked Lasers are huge step above any laser pointer I have ever seen; in fact, what they create are not just laser pointers, but a tool that can be used in various situations.

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Update: This giveaway is now closed, and the winners (randomly chosen by Clinton) are Heatwave316, Peter and Gary. Thank you for entering!

Here’s a fun give-away that I think we’ll all enjoy watching unfold. Simtec, the people behind those crazy Funslides Carpet Slides Allen reviewed last year, are sponsoring a give-away on Diary. What’s up for grabs are three of their Face-Off Frenzy PowerBand Hockey games.

To enter, leave a comment about your favorite toy when growing up; it’s that simple. Keep reading for the small print…

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Ugobe is set to release their second software update this month for their robotic baby Pleosaur, which will make him (or her) “more animated, interactive, and expressive through a wider range of responses, motions, and sounds.”

As you’ll recall, the first update was on March 4th, and it was to “allow Pleo to be more animated, interactive, and expressive through a wider range of responses, motions, and sounds.”

I’m pretty impressed that Ugobe is cranking out their upgrades with such regularity.

Plindar has informed me that he would prefer I hurry up and do the upgrade, as he is all about expressing himself. If your Pleo is giving you the “me-too” eye, you can get your update here.

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I first heard about the Sling Box on Mobility Today. Dave Ciccone was in the process of reviewing a beta version of WM Sling Box client, and posted a video review of what he was looking at. I thought that the idea of a Sling Box was right on the money: I’m in a strange city on business/on vacation/etc., and I want to watch (what ever); but its not on here/on an unknown channel/blacked out/etc.

Enter the Hava Gold. With it, you can watch YOUR TV, anywhere you can get an Internet connection.  Does the Hava Gold give you what you want, or does it provide a gilded experience?  Let’s take a quick look and see how it goes…

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When I was a kid, my parents bought me my first robot. Except this was in the early 70s, so it wasn’t a real robot – it was a fuzzy effigy, a mechanized kitten thing. The kitten was tethered by co-joined wires to a long battery box which also served as a remote control. It could walk forward…stop…walk forward…stop; it might have even meowed, too – but I honestly don’t remember. Anyway you get the idea; the kitten wasn’t very exciting, and it certainly didn’t replicate the fun of owning a real cat. In other words, the kitten reacted but it did not interact. It bore no true resemblance to a real cat. It was supposed to be neat because it was a robot, but that’s really all that was neat about it.

Bear in mind the kitten was given to me not long after the “incident” when I had convinced my brother that he wanted to trade his incredibly cool Christmas robot (the one that showed a mini-movie of things blowing up on its stomach screen complete with sound effects) for some doll that I had received, so perhaps there was some parental bait and switch going on there.

Now granted, Mark’s robot didn’t interact, either. But it at least looked like a robot was supposed to look, which made all its other shortcomings moot. Man, I wish I still had my brother’s robot…for so many reasons.

But I digress.

A few decades passed, and toys got a lot more sophisticated. Fast forward to the late 90s: remember the Furby? Yeah, I bought one of those, too. Mine was brown and white, and it looked like Gizmo from Gremlins. What I liked about that little guy, beyond the fact that it was under $50, was that it was cute, it didn’t look like a creepy pet effigy, it was hackable, and if you put a couple of them together they would interact via their infrared ports. Granted, Furbies didn’t directly interact with humans (even though some people swore theirs did), so they weren’t quite as far up on the robotic evolutionary chain as I wanted. But they were definitely a step in the right direction, and for $35 I had no reason to complain.

In 2001, I got to review a Sony Aibo. At the time, this robot was retailing for $1500. It was programmable, interactive, and the closest thing to a true robotic pet that had ever been seen, at least by me. It also looked like a schizophrenic cross between a dog and a cat. Aibo’s plastic body was not conducive to cuddling or petting, and I had trouble getting past the fact that it was trying to look like a mash-up of real animals…but not.

See, here is my thing: I know what dogs and cats look like, act like, and feel like. So if you give me a robot made to resemble a dog or a cat, it will come with certain built-in expectations. These types of expectations may not apply to anyone but me, but they will still be there, and I won’t be able to get past them. These pet-type robots are too close to the animals they are meant to mimic, and yet they generally fall very short of the experience of owning an actual dog or cat. In another example of how hard I am to please, if the robot looks too similar to the animal it is meant to mimic, I will simply find it creepy. Witness the Yume Niko Smile; need I say more?

The answer then? Give me a robotic toy that is not based on an animal with which I am familiar. Make it a baby, so it’s cute. Make it lovable. Make it receptive to touch. Make it interactive. Make it programmable. Make it responsive. Make me want to pet it, hold it, touch it. Make it…

…a baby dinosaur named Pleo.

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It seems like I have been waiting forever to get my hands on the Ugobe Pleo, the robotic baby dinosaur that I first read about on my way home from CES 2007. A year has passed and even though Wal-Mart canceled my Pleo order right before Christmas, in the end Ugobe came through with a review loaner for me to enjoy.

This is a mighty dangerous proposition, of course. They loaned him to me for two weeks, and the clock is now ticking. Will I be able to send him back without any regrets? Or will I have to pay for the sample I mysteriously lost (wink, wink). Only time will tell.

In the meantime here is my unboxing as well as a video of Pleo waking up and interacting a bit…enjoy!

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When one thinks about the massive undertaking it takes to set up a concert tour and the amount of gear that a band takes on the road, it boggles the mind. Besides the band of musicians and a drummer, it takes lots of hands to pull off a concert every night. There are tour and production managers, roadies, sound and video engineers, production crews, technicians, tour drivers, merchandisers and tag alongs. Tractor trailers are filled with concert sound and light equipment, merchandise, and much more.

For some bands, it can mean endless days on the highway, playing seedy bars from coast to coast, with each night wishing and hoping for a lucky break to hit the big time.

When a band goes on tour, it may or may not have the financial backing of its label. An artist receives a fixed fee or a percentage of the tickets sold by the venue owner or promoter. Touring is an expensive process. A moderate estimate of touring costs with a bus and small crew can easily reach $15,000 a week. If an artist tours with the support of their label, the expenses are all recoupable, thus potentially increasing a band’s debt. Many successful bands tour without the support of their label so that they can keep all of their touring revenue. An independent band would have more difficulty than a highly successful one in being self-sufficient on tour.

Source: Wikipedia

This Christmas, the Best Lil’ Lego Band from Nashville caught a big break with some new sound equipment and a new stage!

In case you missed it, here are some 2006 archive photos from the Best Lil’ Lego Band from Nashville practicing on their old stage set at Kerry Woo’s Kitchen Table Sound Studios in West Nashville (Tennessee).

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At the same time that Gear Diary was approached to review the Johnny Lightning Battle Wheels, we were also invited to review the V_Bot. What is the V_Bot? Well, here is a clipping from the email describing it:

“V_Bot, the new high-tech hero, transforms from a sleek street vehicle into a giant robot loaded with action moves. This revolutionary RC toy captures kids’ imaginations with a giant robot that they can control, transform and drive. V_Bot even has a plug-in for an MP3 player.”

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Sometimes, I need to have white noise playing in the background in order to be able to concentrate. This can take the form of music (CD, MP3’s etc), radio (Internet or other), or the TV. Sometimes, the simple sound of the air circulating in the room that I’m in can be deafening, and just too loud.  I need to fill the air with something other than, well… the air.

Recently here in Chicago, we had a very bad rainstorm come through. My sump pump decided to die the day AFTER the storm when a lot of the water absorbed by the ground decided to continue to run off.  My house is the last on the street, and a corner lot.  I am at the bottom of a slight incline, and I get run-off water from about 4-5 houses to the west of me.  During this past Spring, my sump pump kicked out about 5-10 gallons of water every 15-20 minutes…it ran ALL the time.

The day after this last storm, we got some water in our basement. Not a lot, but enough to ruin the carpet and to spur my wife and I to move my home office upstairs, out of the basement and into the “living room.”  So long 25″ TV in the basement…Hello….wall. Great. Just great…and with the start of the football season, I’m basically screwed, right?  WRONG!

Enter Hauppauge’s WinTV-HVR 950 Hybrid TV Stick!  The WinTV-HVR 950 models 1139 and 1136 (here on out, called the 950) are USB 2.0 devices. Its an analog AND HD-TV TV tuner that works with both Windows Vista and XP SP2 (Mac OSX users need to use model 01145, which includes Elgato’s EyeTV Lite, so you can watch and record analog and ATSC digital TV on your Mac.) I was given model 1139 to review.

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