The innovative Fastap keypad looks like a real improvement on the fiddly keypads you get on mobile phones and some PDAs. This great invention squeezes a full set of alpha-numeric keys into a space not much bigger than existing keypads. The clever key layout means that even the most hamfisted of users can type quickly and accurately without mis-pressed keys. There are some great interactive demos on the web site showing just how cool the Fastap is. Just the job for the busy moblogger. Might also make mobile computing a whole lot easier, too. Now if only someone could invent a way of squeezing a usefully sized monitor into a mobile phone or PDA screen then we'd be smoking! [David Davies: m-blog]

Sony finally launches SDR (renamed QRio "Curio").

BoingBoing pal David Calkins, RSA honcho and robotics guru, points us to the new Sony website for its consumer-oriented android Qrio. Dig the Engrish-flavored prose! I 'love' the seemingly random 'use' of 'quotation marks'!

"It is the product of cutting edge artificial intelligence and dynamics technology. An entertainment robot that lives with you, makes life fun, makes you happy. Its name is QRIO. QRIO can gather information and move around on its own accord. QRIO not only walks on two legs, it can also manage uneven surfaces, dance, recognize people's faces and voices, and carry on conversation. QRIO is eager to be friends with people.

Until a decade ago, the word 'robot' was associated primarily with industry.

Having robots perform tasks in place of humans is 'helpful', but wouldn't it be 'fun' if people and robots could not only work together, but live together too?SONY decided to create a 'partner' that talks to you, plays with you, encourages you."

Link
[Boing Boing Blog]

Nano-velcro sticks tight. It's theoretically posssible to make super-velcro as strong as krazy glue out of hook-ended carbon nanotubes. (There is absolutely no truth to the rumor that carbon nanotubes are the next asbestos.)

The researchers estimate that nano-velcro would be about 30 times stronger than conventional epoxy adhesives. It would bond most solids together so powerfully that the materials themselves would break before the pads of hooks came apart. It would also be about 3,000 times stronger than a microscopic version of Velcro made by carving tiny hooks into silicon wafers

Link

(via Futurismic) [Boing Boing Blog]