As more than half of U.S. adults are popping vitamins and supplements, the question remains — has it made Americans healthier?
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Do vitamins make us healthy?
iRobot agrees to provide US Navy with bomb disposal and recon bots in a deal worth up to $230 million
iRobot may still be best known as the creator of the homely Roomba vacuum-cleaning drone, but savvy readers will know the company’s endeavors span a pretty broad range of robot-related activities. One of those has now borne fruit in the shape of a multiyear agreement with the US Navy for the provision of “portable robotic systems” that can identify and dispose of explosives while also performing a bit of reconnaissance work in their spare time. The announcement doesn’t tell us the particular model(s) or number of bots that will be provided, but there is clarification to say that iRobot will be responsible for providing spares, repairs, training, and accessories along with the hardware, with the total revenue for the company potentially swelling to $230 million over the full course of the contract, which lasts through 2015. Our guess is that the “throwable” robot shown off a couple of weeks back would be a good candidate for this task, though we doubt it’ll be thanking us for endorsing it for such perilous work.
iRobot agrees to provide US Navy with bomb disposal and recon bots in a deal worth up to $230 million originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 13 Apr 2011 10:24:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
The JawSaw Is Equally Equipped for Tree Grooming and Zombie Defense [Desired]
The chainsaw, unwieldy as it can be, is a simple enough design to take for granted. The Worx JawSaw, on the other hand, is both cleverly formed, and incredibly formidable looking—whether you're looking chopping dead wood or undead. More
External batteries benchmarked, the portable juice is loose
A lot of portable PC power cells last for only four or five hours, after which you’ll find yourself chained to a wall socket. Good thing there are external batteries to keep us in current when a plug’s nowhere to be found, and Tom’s Hardware has done some benchmarking on a slew of such devices so you’ll know which one’s suited for you. A Dell Vostro 3300 and an Inspiron Mini 10 running Windows 7 were used to put packs from Amstron, Brunton, Digipower, Electrovaya, Energizer, Lenmar, PowerTraveller and Tekkeon through some real-world paces — we’re talking word processing and web surfing, not fragging and film editing. So if you’re in the market for a mobile power unit, hit the source link and get the down and dirty on which external battery’s best.
External batteries benchmarked, the portable juice is loose originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 13 Apr 2011 09:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
How to Fail Successfully [Success]
We’ve said it before a few times: failure is inevitable and also the highway to success. Marketing expert/entrepreneur Seth Godin offers tips to help you “fail better” so you end up profiting — or at least learning — from your failures. More
DARPA’s next-gen wearable display: augmented-reality, holographic sunglasses
The US military seems to adore the idea of wearable displays, hence its continued efforts to make them a reality. We know it seems like just yesterday that DARPA tapped Lockheed Martin to build low-power, lightweight augmented-reality eyewear, and it was actually four full years ago when the wild and wonderous dream was to craft HMDs as small and light as “high-fashion sunglasses.” Well, that dream lives on, this time with holograms: the lenscrafters at Vuzix just received a cool million to develop goggles that holographically overlay battlefield data on the wearer’s vision. It all sounds very Dead Space (or, you know, like a Top Secret version of Recon-Zeal’s Transcend goggles), promising realtime analysis of anything within sight. The company believes the finished product will be no more than 3mm thick and completely transparent when turned off. If all goes well, expect this to trickle down to consumers in short order; soon you’ll have full “situational awareness” — including relationship status — of that mysterious stranger you’ve been eyeballing from across the room.
DARPA’s next-gen wearable display: augmented-reality, holographic sunglasses originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 12 Apr 2011 23:39:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
T-Mobile's "Unlimited" Plans are Actually Capped at 2GB Per Month, Throttled Thereafter [Blip]
It’s a step in the right direction, sure, but if you were hoping for a genuinely unlimited data plan, think again. T-Mobile’s new plans, Even More and Even More Plus may offer unlimited phonecalls and messaging, but data is capped at 2GB a month and throttled afterwards. More
I Can’t Believe Google Docs Has Only Just Added Page Breaks Now [Blip]
It's one of the small features in word-publishing software that we take for granted—pagination. But it's taken Google up until now to add page breaks to its Docs offering. The new update also adds native printing; the ability to print right from the browser in a WYSIWYG-stylee. [Google Docs Blog] More
This House Provides Sustainable Energy in a Half-Shell [Architecture]
Solaleya’s Pearl house takes on the counter-intuitive task of maximizing its energy efficiency by limiting the amount of solar energy it absorbs throughout the year. This tactic allows the structure to delegate energy-intensive tasks to the elements. More
Windows 8 Milestone 1 Build Leaks
An early build of Windows 8 (milestone 1, of 3) is passing, as I write this, through the tubes of the internets. There are leaked screenshots showing off some, but not all (this milestone isn’t nearly feature-complete) of the new features coming in this version. Are you the curious type, who ran custom builds of Longhorn for a couple years back in the day? You probably are reading this on Windows 8.
Of course, we don’t condone piracy or the spreading of this information. But we’d be remiss in our duties if we didn’t at least mention that it’s out there.
[via Reddit]