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Feature: Brain-Controlled Humanoid Robot Can Pick Up and Carry Objects (Video)

New Leaked iPhone Firmware 1.1.3 Shows Faux GPS and Other Cool Stuff [Rumors]

Gearlive is showing off some convincing screenshots of the new iPhone firmware 1.1.3. Arn over at Macrumors thinks they seem like functions Apple would do, even if the features don’t line up with previous rumors:

* The ability to send an SMS message to multiple people is now there
* Google Maps application can now pinpoint your location using cell tower triangulation
* Google Maps can now display the Hybrid map view
* You can now drag and drop application icons on your home screen
* The home screen supports pagination
* You can now add web bookmarks to your home screen

The proof is in the screenshots, which there are a few of below, but many more at Gearlive for you to investigate. Do they look real to you? They look real to me. If so, glad Apple is moving things along, but you know, half of this functionality was done by the hackers already. [Gearlive via MacRumors]

i-Snake Robot to Offer Slithering Assistance During Surgery [Medical Gadgets]

The i-Snake may sound like a cheap iPod peripheral, but it is actually the name of a revolutionary concept surgical robot, which hopes to advance keyhole surgery significantly. A team at Imperial College, London, has been awarded a £2.1 million ($4.2 million) grant to work on the device, which will be an elongated tube with a series of motors, sensors and imaging tools.

The boffins are confident the robot will be able to aid in general laparoscopic surgery, but the researchers are intending its use to be specially designed for heart bypass operations. The benefits of such procedures against traditional surgery are numerous; patients have a reduced recovery time and incisions are rarely sizable. Given the miniscule scale in which the i-Snake needs to function, it will be quite a feat to have a working model that packs in all the desired features, but if anyone can do it, a team of leading researchers with $4.2 million are probably the best chaps for the challenge. [BBC News]

Clever Dinner Table Decorations [Money]

Are you celebrating New Years with a nice dinner party? Dress up your table with affordable and elegant centerpieces or table-settings that show some creativity. Take a vase and fill it up with hand-picked flowers. Use colorful tablecloths. Repurpose your holiday ornaments and scatter them throughout the table. Light a candle or two. Make art with napkins:

Cloth napkins are not at all expensive, but lend a real elegance to a table. You know you’ve officially grown up when you have these at a dinner party. Learning how to fold a napkin is a simple way to lend a cool, elegant look to your table, or you can simply roll your napkin and tie a few inches of ribbon around it in a bow.

It really doesn’t take too much cash to add a little decor and spark to any meal and your guests will appreciate the added effort to make the meal feel just a tad more homey and welcoming.

Gemei PMP Has Big Screen, Big Controls, Big Heart [PMPs]

This Gemei PMP, with the oddly patriotic name of United States X900, thinks big. There is a 4.3-inch TFT screen (480 x 272), but by far the most interesting hardware feature is the full sized, detachable gaming pad.

The controller has two joysticks, which could make retro game playing great fun. However, the weighting may be an issue. If the controller is really light, expect wrist ache to ensue, which will not be a new phenomenon for you, but still would detract from the gaming enjoyment. The device utilizes an ADI chip, which should allow NES and SFC gaming. An additional GPS receiver can also be added on for directional goodness, and the SD slot, with support for up to 4GB cards, provides enough storage capacity for a movie and some games.

If all that was not enough to get your multi function senses tingling, support for AVI, MPEG4, MP3, WMA, FLAC, an integrated ebook reader and an FM tuner should have you in multi functioning convulsions. Ironically, the United States X900 may never hit the United States, as shipping details are non-existent. Dammit. [PMP Today]

My Wife’s Take After a Week With an eReader [Impressions]

I gave my wife a Sony Reader for Christmas after she’d talked about them for some time (she deemed the Kindle “ugly” btw, which is important as anything else for a gadget that’s designed to be looked at for hours on end, I guess). Her verdict on the experience? Good, but there’s one thing she’s surprised to miss most from real books:

It’s not just the smell, the texture, the page turning or the better contrast ratios of a real hardcover that you’d expect. She feels disoriented without the constant, tactile feedback of the book’s thickness—that unconscious reminder of just how much of the story is left to go (are there really enough pages remaining for Mr. Darcy and Lizzie to work things out??). Sure, there are page numbers on the screen, but it’s not the same.

I found her reaction simple and somewhat profound. While this small detail is far from a deal breaker for the Reader (or any other similar device), it’s not the sort of issue E Ink will ever be able to address. Of course, if/when our generations make way for children who never know paper, the industry will have solved its problem of a homesick readership.

Remedy Aches and Pains on the Cheap [Health]

Got a pressing headache? How about an aching sunburn? Prevention magazine asked seven experts for their home remedies to cure common health concerns. For example, if your teeth aren’t as pearly white as you want them to be, combine 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda with 1 or 2 drops peroxide. Brush the solution onto your teeth and then rinse. Headaches can be relieved with do-it-yourself acupressure or by massaging a few drops of peppermint oil on your lower neck. For a charley horse, apply pressure to the middle of the calf for 30 seconds. The article lists an additional 14 home remedies that are cheap, fast, and will hopefully cure your aches. Surely, these are better options than going to the drugstore and taking over the counter medications—again. Photo by powerbooktrance.

Retromodo: Encyclopedia Brittanica Kid Grows Up [Clips]

“Hardly any of this stuff can really help me with my schoolwork,” he says, feet up on a computer desk complete with printer and VHS camcorder. Then the Encyclopedia Brittanica kid, late 80s/early 90s geek poster boy, explains why books rule and computers drool.

In a moment of extreme nostalgia we grabbed this clip from VH1…also finding it amusing that the actor now uses computers on a daily basis, as he’s a webmaster for a porn site.