Zune to Be Priced UNDER iPod Now

According to Microsloth inside sources, Redmond has decided to drop the anticipated price of the Zune digital media player to US$230. As you may have already heard, MS was shocked by the recent news from Apple that the new 30GB iPod would be priced at $249. They had plans to roll out the Zune at $290, thinking that would be ten bucks below Apple’s comparable player. Surprise!

So MS will now have to take an even bigger up-front hit to stay on target as being the iPod killer (or so they dream). Gizmodo surmises they’ll likely try to minimized the pricing blow by ditching pre-loads we wouldn’t have given a crap about anyway.

How-To: Build a Robot from a Coat Hanger

Okay, the title lies. It’s not really a robot (and it’s not only built with a hanger), it’s a little one-motor walking machine (no sensors, no feedback), but the project does teach you about basic breadboarding, soldering, use of the BEAM Bicore control circuit, how to hack a servo motor, and other deep geek mojo you can apply to building actual bots.

This is a version of the project that was in my book, Absolute Beginner’s Guide to Building Robots, and pictured in Make Vol. 6 and on the issue’s Web page. The illustrations were done by Boing Boing’s Mark Frauenfelder and the photos are by Street Tech’s court photographer Jay Townsend.

Charging Stations, at Home, on the Road

A year or so ago, I was thinking that there should be some way of consolidating all of the different charging adapters for portable devices, rechargeable batteries, tool powerpacks, etc. We have a drawer full of this mess. Right after this “brainstorm,” I saw a piece, in think in ReadyMade, for building a small cabinet to act as an uber-charging station. Gawd, it really DOES take a small cabinet, doesn’t it?

The items linked to here won’t solve all of your problems, but they do consolidate up to three devices (phones, iPods, PDAs) into one streamlined unit. They have a home model and a traveling one. The Traveling Power Station (shown here) is actually a respectable travel bag, with space for other gear, papers, etc. The cigarette lighter-type DC adapter allows you to charge three gadgets at once on your car’s power.

[Via Gear Factor]

Steampunk “Lobster Tank”

Steam-driven vehicle builder I-Wei Huang has done it again, his latest extraordinary machine being the “Lobster Tank,” a propane/butane-powered tank built out from a Tamiya 1/16 clutch-driven R/C model. Besides the powerplant conversion, I-Wei built a cool sheet-aluminum body. The page for the tank includes some concept sketches and a video of the vehicle in action. [Via Make]

Frog Dissection Kit as a Fashion Statement

Jack Spade, preferred clothier of preppified metrosexuals everywhere, has a Frog Dissection Kit for sale in their stores, complete with a real vacuum-seal formaldehyde frogger, ready for you to deconstruct.

Gross. I mean, I’m all for so-bad-it’s-good grade school nostalgia, but what’s next, 21 Club serving tainted Salisbury steak and succotash on cracked fiberglass trays to bring back those precious lunchroom memories?

[Via Cool Hunting]

MacArthur “Genius Awards” Just Announced And…

…inexplicably, I’m not on the list. But don’t despair. Other worthies are, and a number of them do interesting science and technology. Among the grantees:

* Victoria Hale, who …founded… a nonprofit pharmaceutical company that seeks to develop low-cost drugs for malaria and other diseases that are widespread in developing countries.

* James Fruchterman, who… adapts technologies to help raise literacy rates and improve the lives of low-income people worldwide.

*Kenneth Catania,… A neurobiologist, his study of the star-nosed mole and other mammalian insectivores provides insights into the organization and evolution of the sensory cortex.

*Kevin Eggan… a developmental biologist whose work on the use of nuclear-transfer and stem-cell technologies could lead to therapeutic applications for diseases such as Parkinson’s and insulin-dependent diabetes…

Read the whole piece in The Chronicle.

Ten Things You Should Know About the New iPods

iLounge has a piece worth reading called “Ten Must-Read Details on the New iPods.” Here’s an eye-opening sample:

How much better are the new iPod screens?
Apple says that the “enhanced” 5G iPod is 60% brighter than the original, but the difference wasn’t that much more noticeable during our limited testing time. Apparently the new screens have been quietly trickled into pre-Showtime 5G iPods, and no one has noticed. Resolution of the new iPod’s screen apparently hasn’t changed from before – it still displays 320×240 resolution, despite the fact that Apple’s iTunes videos now display at 640×480 on computers. In other words, if you didn’t like the prior 5G screen, this one isn’t going to win you over, but we liked everything but the small size of the prior screen, and continue to like this new one.

“Apple’s press announcement for the iPod nano suggests that the new nano screen is also brighter than before, without quantification. We’ve seen variability in brightness in older nano screens, so it’s hard to know right now just how much better the new nano’s screen is.”

Tech Troubles with iTunes 7?

Daily Tech is reporting that a heap o’ tech complaints have been lodged on Apple’s forums since the release of iTunes 7 for the Windows and Mac platforms. Says the DT:

“Going through the Apple iTunes forum, some of the problems most frequently reported are:

* Being unable to playback podcasts
* Some iPod Nanos not being recognized by the Windows version of iTunes 7
* iTunes 7 not being able to save preferences
* Music often becomes jerky or distorted during playback
* Music becomes distorted when switching to another application in the Mac version
* iTunes 7 quitting unexpectedly
* iTunes 7 freezes during library updates
* Next track is played before current track fully finishes
* Different types of coded error messages”

Here’s a link to the rest of the DT piece.

Personally, I’m happy as a hog in swill with my copy, running on a Mac and talking to a first-gen Nano. Any Street Techies having troubles?

MANOI Robot Feature in Robot Magazine

The Fall issue of the most excellent Robot Magazine is on newstands now. Among other juicy fare, it has a cover story on the Microsoft Robotics Studio and a closer look at the NXT Mindstorms system. On the mag’s website, they also have a preview of an upcoming feature piece for the Winter issue on the amazing MANOI Humanoid Robots (which look like they were beamed straight out of a Japanese anime). The Web piece has lots of photos of the two main MANOI models (pictured above), bot innards, and a hi-res exploded schematic. Also: Tom Atwood, Editor-in-Chief of Robot, was recently on the Daedalus Howell Radio Show. You can access an MP3 of it here.