Glasses are not enough for Google-- the company reveals a prototype Android-powered talking shoe designed to keep wearers active with words of either encouragement or mockery.

Shown off at the South by Southwest (SXSW) 2013 conference, the "Google Shoe" consists of an Adidas sneaker with an accelerometer, gyroscope, Bluetooth radio, custom-built microcontroller and a circular speaker grafted in the tongue.

The hardware provides amusing aural feedback (such as ""if standing still was a sport, you'd be world champion" or "you've made me a very proud shoe") as per wearer movements, and pairs with Android smartphones to push further commentary on Google+ and other social media outlets.

Customers complaining about all the man hours they waste cleaning smartphones and tablets? No more-- Japan's Takara Tomy has an adorable mechanised solution with the "AutoMee S."

Looking like a palm-sized Roomba robot, the AutoMee S trundles on 5 tires (3 for maneuvers, 2 for cleaning) over devices, with sensors making sure the little robot does not fall off the edges while performing its duties.

Takara Tomy says the robot takes 4 minutes to clean a smartphone and 8 minutes for a tablet, and Continue reading...

LG follows the wearable technology trend at CES 2013 with the Smart Activity Tracker-- a wristband-style device similar to the likes of the Nike+ FuelBand and the Jawbone UP.

Just like those devices, the LG Smart Activity Tracker tracks fitness habits (via accelerometer and altimeter) once paired with a smartphone carrying a companion app. Nike+ FuelBand users will also be familiar with the dotted LED display, USB clasp and soft-touch rubber coating.

However the LG take on the concept is compatible Continue reading...

The Playstation Vita and Nintendo 3DS might have to watch out-- Nvidia reveals Project Shield at CES 2013, a handheld console handling both Android and PC games.

Project Shield looks like an Xbox controller and is powered by the newly announced Tegra 4 processor. It supposedly handles console-quality games, outputs 4K video via HDMI to external displays and even provides "deep, rich audio" through a bass reflex tuned port system.

The clamshell integrated display is a 5-inch 294 dpi multitouch Continue reading...

Handwritten notes get a lick of wifi-powered paint with the Livescribe Sky Wifi Smartpen-- an audio-recording pen saving handwritten notes and linked audio files directly to Evernote accounts.

Like earlier Livescribe smartpens the Sky demands users to write on proprietary physical notebooks (the paper has microdot patterns the smartpen tracks notes and audio with). However the Sky drops USB connection with PCs in favour of a wifi radio and automatic content beaming content Evernote accounts.

The Continue reading...

The New York Fashion Week is the last place most expect to find the latest in consumer hi-tech-- yet that is where the Google Glass augmented reality (AR) glasses made a showing, with several models sporting the glasses at the Diane Von Furstenberg finale.

The Belgian designer and members of her design and production team also got to wear the glasses at he event as part of "DVF through Glass," a video project Google will showcase on YouTube later this week.  "Beauty, style and comfort are as important to Glass as the latest technology... We are delighted to bring Glass to the runway together with DVF," Google co-founder and Glass "key leader" Sergey Brin says. Perhaps predictably, Brin also showed up at the fashion show wearing a pair of the AR goggles.

Science fiction used to promise we'd have all sorts of robotic help by the 21st century. So far the "future" proved to be rather disappointing-- even if ASIMO maker Honda now offers the Miimo gardening robot.

The Miimo looks like the familiar Roomba robot vacuum cleaners and acts very similar to one, too. But instead of sucking down dirt, the Miimo mows 2-3mm of grass from its owners' lawns.

Think of it as a robot lawn mower for your more lazy customers, then.

Handling robot controls are timers, Continue reading...

Which material will lead the post-silicon computing future? Graphene steps forward as likely candidate, as researchers find a means of making the "miracle material" fulfill its promise in electronics.

Discovered in 2004 by two University of Manchester scientists (winning them the 2010 Nobel prize in physics), graphene consists of one-atom-thick sheets of carbon. It can carry electric charges faster than any other material, making it theoretically perfect for use in electronics... but it makes a Continue reading...