Filed under: Laptops, Tablet PCs

It’s a little late, but it looks like the HP is finally ready to take your money and hand over a tx2000 tablet. Nothing really new to report specs- or price-wise: $1,299 buys you a 2.1GHz AMD Turion, 2GB of RAM, GeForce Go 6150, 160GB disk, LightScribe dual-layer burner and a fingerprint reader, while $2,311 bumps you up to a 2.2GHz Turion, 250GB disk, Verizon 3G ExpressCard, and Vista Ultimate. And, of course, that 12.1-inch touchscreen that “has a digitizer!” Not a bad deal, actually — anyone going to take the plunge?

[Thanks, Sky]

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Filed under: Gaming, Robots

Sure, we’ve seen DS bots before, but some youngsters in France have taken the whole control issue to the “next level.” Apparently, six engineering students decided to pull a fast one on a Pekee Robot (an open, modular, Roomba-like bot) which was collecting dust, and mainline DS controls into its tiny brain. The end result is a multi-use control rig run based entirely on Nintendo’s portable console, offering wireless command of the bot with the D-pad, touchscreen, motion sensors, and stylus strokes, as well as a target mode modeled after Super Mario 64 DS, and voice commands via the system’s mic. You can watch the video after the break to see the little guy in action, but you might want to avert your gaze when he becomes self-aware, determines humans are inefficient, and goes on a kill-crazy rampage.

[Via DS Fanboy]

Continue reading DS-controlled robot works six different ways

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Sony is remaining coy about hefting the hard drive on the PS3, not to mention whether a slim version will drop later this year.

However, their man in Australia has suggested that if you want more space or stashing TV shows via PlayTV and the like, you may as well do it yourself.

Now, we’ve known we could do this for some time, but its pleasing to hear that the man is giving mod lovers the world over a chance to tinker.

According to our mates at CVG, Michael Ephraim told Aussie paper The Age that the hard drive was “non-proprietary” and that, “As we all know, the price of hard drive space is coming down. If we [make the drive bigger], fine, but if we don’t do it, the consumer will still have choice.”

Excuse us while we give our PS3 a lift and turn it into the proper home hub Sony should have dropped this time last year.

Archos is taking square aim at Apple today, bringing their super slick TV+ streamer to the UK to kick some Apple TV ass.

It’s due to be officially unveiled here in Blighty on Wednesday, but we’ve managed to get a sneak preview of what we can expect.

Packing a massive 250GB into the top end model (with an 80GB edition also hitting the shelves), TV+ also includes a full web browser, something you won’t find on Steve Jobs’ so-called pet project.

Then there’s a full EPG for snaffling shows up to a week in advance, not to mention access to the Archos Content Portal, letting you download and rent movies or just watch the news if you fancy.

And then there’s the plain old streamer, letting you spy video you’ve got stashed away on your PC. Bear in mind everything will need to be encoded in MPEG4 and WMV though. You’ll have to buy plug-ins direct from Archos if you want to use more formats.

Music wise it’ll handle MP3s and AACs. And don’t forget you can beam over snaps too.

Elsewhere, you won’t find any HDMI ports, so hi-def isn’t nearly as fun as it could be. Still, with that much space and that many features, it’s not a terrible gripe.

The 250GB version will clobber you for £240, with the 80GB coming in at a mere £170.

We’ll be getting a full hands-on on Wednesday, so be sure to check back for full video and image gallery.

Filed under: Peripherals

If you’ve never tracked down just the right desktop widget to display your PC vitals, perhaps analog gauges are your last hope at harmony with processor utilization. DIY Life has a nice how-to on how to hack your very own old-school gauges to work off of USB and, you know, gauge stuff. Unfortunately, the hack is pretty involved — we set ten of our finest interns to the task, and only three of them made it back with all their appendages intact — but don’t let that frighten you too much, our interns are a rowdy lot.

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