And of course there’s the expected price drop: 8GB for $199, 16GB for $229, 32GB for $299, and the brand new 64GB for $399. Plus, the 64GB is “50% faster” — although we know what that means when Apple says it. It does now support OpenGL|ES, which should improve game performance even further. Now, if only it had a D-pad…

I don’t know if I trust Ubisoft to really make something great out of Assassin’s Creed, since that game relied so much on the rich world you inhabited. But hey, it looks pretty awesome for what it is: a sort of simplified 2-D version of the game. Here are a couple screens:

Then you’ve got Riddim Ribbon, which looks like Audiosurf, and Nova, a first person shooter where, in a shocking twist, you play a space marine! And Madden for iPhone, which I won’t dignify with a screenshot.

Here are a couple hands-on shots of the 64GB.

We’re all pretty surprised at the lack of a camera. It would have been a lot of fun, but maybe they just couldn’t find the space? After all, the iPod touch does have a different circuit layout than the iPhone and it may have been too difficult to incorporate the hardware changes they already were planning as well as a camera.

DiGORO is about 150cm tall, weighs 120kg, has two arms, a camera in his head and moves on wheels. He’s also equipped with a microphone that comes with a voice recognition function to identify his master. The researchers claim DiGORO can learn up to ten movements and is also able to adjust to its immediate environment, for example pieces of furniture placed in a room he’s supposed to clean.

DiGORO is said to be the first programmable robot that’s designed to do housework. His makers plan to commercialize the technology within “several years”.

Via Nikkei [registration required, paid subscription]

Back in April, Panasonic was the first company that announced a Blu-ray player for installation in cars, and today [JP], the CY-BB1000D – and the even cooler “Strada CN-HX3000D” navigation system – finally got a price tag and a release date. But first the specs and some pictures.

CY-BB1000D Blu-ray player (pictured above)

• world’s first in-dash Blu-ray drive
• HDMI port
• AVCHD and AVREC support
• SD card support

Strada CN-HX3000D navigation system

• “world’s first navigation system of its kind” (Panasonic)
• GPS and Bluetooth
• 80GB HDD
• CD/DVD drive
• 7-inch WXGA screen with amazing 1,280×720 resolution
• Yahoo Japan Maps and Google Maps support
• 50W×4ch amplifier
• iPod/iPhone 3G connector
• One-Seg digital TV tuner
• HDMI port
• CY-BB1000D connectivity

Both devices go on sale in Japan on September 10. And quality has its price: Expect to pay $1,000 for the Blu-ray drive and $3,800 for the navigation system.

OK, Panasonic’s Evolta batteries are quite powerful, alright. A robot in a mini car powered by nothing more than two AA Evolta batteries completed five and a half laps on the famous Le Mans 24 Hours circuit in France. This means the little guy ran a distance of 23.7km before finally running out of juice.

Panasonic also made sure the accomplishment made its way into the Guinness Book of World Records as “the longest distance covered by a battery-operated remote-controlled model car”. The Evolta robot is 30cm long, 20cm wide and 20cm high. He was guided around the course by a vehicle that emitted infra-red light in front of him (see above).

The event [JP] took place on August 5.

The most interesting model is the RD-X9 (pictured above), which not only boasts a 2TB HDD but also supports external HDDs (via USB) in case you have that many video files to handle. The usual DVD formats are supported, too. There is another USB port, which is reserved for USB keyboards, Toshiba says. The RD-X9 will be available in Japan starting next month (price: $1,300).

The RD-S1004K (see above) is one of two “standard” DVRs Toshiba unveiled today. It features a 1TB HDD and lets you store video on DVDs and an external USB HDD, too (price: $950). The RD-S304K features an HDD that stores just 320GB, but it also comes with a USB port, just in case. This model costs $750 and is pictured below.

Both the S1004K and the S304 are available in Japan from next month. Toshiba is yet to say if these DVRs will ever be sold outside this country, too.

Formerly known as iSwing, Toyota’s single-seat personal mobility cars gained worldwide attention back in 2005 when TIME magazine called it one of the ”coolest inventions” of that year. But now Toyota has decided to update the vehicle (by reworking the 4-wheel car into a 3-wheel “chair”), give it a new name (i-Real) and let the Central Japan International Airport near Nagoya test a total of four units on a daily basis.

This is the first test run for the vehicle in the real world. Once it’s charged, the i-Real is good to go for about 30km. Toyota says the top speed is 15km/h, but drivers usually don’t go over 6km/h.

Three of the i-Reals will be used for security patrols while one is to be used to assist airport visitors (that special vehicle is equipped with an information terminal, printed airport brochures and an external defibrillator).

Take a look at the i-Real in action in the short video below.

Via Chunichi [JP] (video from BBC News)

Specs:

• Intel Atom 230
• 1 TB hard drive
• 2 GB DDR2 memory
• 5 USB 2.0 ports
• 1 eSATA port
• Gigabit Ethernet

Hardware:

This isn’t a tiny box. It’s a good size larger than the HP MediaSmart. Up-front there are four removable hard drive trays, along with status lights, USB port, and power button. I can’t tell you how much I love the front facing power button. HP continues to place its power buttons on the back of its WHS which is a pain in the ass. Around back there are 4 USB ports, eSATA port, 10/100/1000 Ethernet jack, and power jack. There isn’t anything missing. This server is fully equipped.

Performance:

I was slightly concerned that the Atom CPU would disappoint me, but just like with the HP LX195, this guy works just fine. The low power-consumption CPU handled running uTorrent 24/7, unRARing, and backing-up just fine. I didn’t notice any hiccups or performance issues at all when using this server.

Software:

HP has dedicated a lot to building-up an extensive suite of applications to enhance its line of MediaSmart WHS. The EX line can do everything from stream content to iPhones, back-up Macs, transcode video on the fly, host a photo sharing site, and all this is done through a refined user interface.

Acer hasn’t done any of this with the easyStore. Instead, the company installed a couple of WHS add-ons and shipped the product. That’s fine with me. I could care less about all the extra crap loaded on HP’s boxes – except the OS X compatablilty. Windows Home Server is a solid piece of software by itself and there are a ton of additional add-ons that users can easy install themselves. As long as the server provides a reliable file storage and back-up solution, I don’t think you can ask for more.

There is one thing: OS X backups. The easyStore H340 doesn’t support Time Machine and so it cannot back-up OS X natively like all the new HP LX and EX MediaSmart WHS can.

Price:

This thing is a a great deal at its $399 MSRP. That’s almost the same price of the HP LX195, but comes with a 1TB hard drive instead of 640GB. Plus, it’s $200 less than the 750GB EX485 and $350 less than the 1.5TB EX487. Those HP servers do feature all of the benefits above, but you could add three 1TB drives for a total of 4TB and still come under the cost of the top HP MediaSmart. Storage capacity tops software in my book.

Conclusion:

Besides the small downside of not being Time Machine compatable, I cannot think of a reason to buy any other NAS/WHS over the Acer easyStore H340. The hardware is solid, the performance is acceptable, and the price is stellar at $399. It’s even better at Amazon: this model is $349 right now.

Product Page

I don’t get a bonerd for LEGOs like some people I know whose names start with a J and end with an S and work for a site that rhymes with shmimono, but I have fond memories of spending countless hours as a youth erecting LEGO fortresses and castles and whatever else my imagination could conjure up. It was always about smashing the other fortress and kicking some tiny LEGO ass, but that was at least 20 years ago. Now fast forward to 2009 and while I still like to kick ass, I enjoy doing it on a much smaller scale. Enter LEGO Battles for the Nintendo DS.

If you’re a hardcore RTS gamer then Battles isn’t really for you, but it’s still fun to see tiny LEGO pirates, knights and moon men duke it out on the small screen. However, the charm dissipates rather quickly into story mode one of six. Think of Battles as an introductory course to real time strategy games. I hate RTS, but found LEGO Battles to be amusing and worth the time to review.

The cut scenes are fairly amusing and I have to say that the tiny actors portraying LEGO characters are hilarious, which made me laugh out loud. Multiplayer is about as good as your chosen opponent allows. In other words, find someone who is good at RTS and multiplayer can be pretty sweet on Battles. Another highlight is the free play mode where you can mix and match troops from the Space, Pirates and Castle series to do your bidding.

LEGO Battles isn’t perfect, though. With such a small screen on the DS (and even DSi), trying to control your troops when there’s so much going on can be a challenge. The artificial intelligence is pretty dumb and I spent a few minutes cursing them out when they decided to get lost or stop doing their jobs. Can you imagine a grown man yelling at a video game on a packed plane? Yeah, that was me over the weekend.

I enjoyed Battles but it’s not for everyone. Seasoned RTS gamers will want to pass unless they plan on handing it down to junior RTS nerds in the making. If anything, LEGO titles like Battles are much better than the licensed titles that involve non-LEGO characters like Batman. Just saying.

LEGO Battles

Here’s a cut scene in glorious HD.

Tokyo-based robotics venture ZMP has developed a mini vehicle that is about one-tenth the size of a real car and able to drive autonomously. Equipped with a CCD camera and an infrared laser system, the robo-car is able to detect obstacles and calculate their distance.

Powered by a nickel metal hydride battery, it can drive up to one hour continuously, avoiding any obstacle in its path. Weighing about 3kg, the cars are sized at 429×195x212mm.

Users can control their robo-cars via a remote-control. The Linux-supported vehicles can communicate with each other, too.

ZMP will start selling therobots as early as this month with prices ranging from about $6,000 to $13,000 (for a stylized body). The company hopes to sell 200 units in the first year and is open for orders from abroad.

Via Robot Watch [JP]

We covered them all: Teaching robots, kissing robots, space robots, modeling robots and even sensitive robots. But Ninomiya-kun, a book-reading robot, is a new one. He might get along well with Booktime, a page-turning robot (just saying). And needless to say, all of these robots are Japanese.

Ninomiya-kun doesn’t read e-books, but those physical, paper-printed books. Standing 1m tall (weight: 25kg), he was showcased yesterday for the first time at a robot show in Southern Japan. The robot was jointly developed by two Japanese and one Chinese university.

Ninomiya-kun is able to read through a character recognition software installed on a PC that he carries in his backpack. His two camera eyes look at a book page and a voice synthesizer turns the text he “reads” into spoken language.

The robot is able to distinguish about 2,300 Japanese characters, which is the minimum amount the national school system expects Japanese people to learn at school.

Via Yomiuri Online [JP]

The full HD TV measures just 6.4mm at its thinnest point, and with a weight of just 5.7kg, JVC also gets the bragging rights for the planet’s lightest LCD screen. It features 400cd/m2 brightness and a contrast ratio of 4,000:1.

As LG is said to work on LCD displays as thin as 5.9mm, JVC is particularly quick to bring their LCD to market.

Japanese users should be ready to spend $2,500 for the device, with JVC hoping to sell 10,000 units yearly (mainly to stores and public facilities). A price or release date for overseas markets hasn’t been announced yet.

Well, the original contest didn’t really pan out so just leave a comment and I’ll pick a winner tomorrow. Fair enough?

Update: I have no idea what’s going on with WP, but it ate the image and won’t give it back. The prizes include a Tekken 6 Xbox 360 face plate and some fancy piece of art.

The question on everyone’s mind since October 2, 2008, has been whether it will be worth upgrading to the DSi from the DS Lite, right? We’ve all seen the countless videos coming out of Japan about the DSi’s new features and I’m sure most of you have already made up your mind by now, but if you’re on the fence then I hope this review helps.

The DSi’s hardware is leaps and bounds ahead of the DS Lite. The screens are 0.25 inches bigger and a bit brighter than the DS Lite. The power switch is now a power button and serves as a reset to take you back to the DSi Menu, so you don’t have to restart every time you want to get back to the main menu. The matte finish offers better grip than the previous edition, but it’s prone to oily smudges so keep your hands clean.

Nintendo was all abuzz during the original announcement of the DSi because of the two VGA cameras that were added in this iteration. With a slogan like, “What will you and “i” do?,” it’s fairly obvious what Nintendo’s goal is for the DSi. They’re hoping to make the handheld device just as social as the Wii. The first US DSi commercial is evidence of that.

Either bumper activates the internal camera from the main menu, which you can switch to the external after launch. It may not be Nintendo’s intention to eliminate your camera, but both VGA cameras aren’t that bad. Considering Japan’s obsession with sticker picture booths it comes as no surprise that the picture editing software lets you edit images to add borders, cat ears or Mac-like Photo Booth effects. If you haven’t seen the first US commercial then check it out to see some of the editing software’s abilities.

I was never quite satisfied with the DS Lite’s speakers and I’m happy to report that the DSi’s speakers are loud and clear. They’re also much more conspicuous. By adding an SD card slot, you can now ditch your MP3 player if you’re looking to travel light. DSi Sound allows you to manipulate your music by adding sound effects, changing pitch or overlaying your own recorded snippets. Other effects include filters, like, radio, instrumental, echo and 8-bit game. Visual effects are played on the top screen that include playable Super Mario and other visual treats. The parakeet that lives inside offers tips and repeats your recorded tracks, which is a bit creepy.

The Opera powered DSi browser works just as you’d expect. You can check out the video I took the other day if you’re wondering how both screens work for browsing. However, I’ve been notified that my device memory is too low to display certain pages even though I’ve only been to one or two sites.

Let’s be honest, the DSi Shop is totally worth the $170, but Nintendo decided to ditch the GBA slot, which is a bummer for anyone that has an archive of GBA games or newer games like Guitar Hero: On Tour that uses the GBA slot for the accompanying grip. However, I’m hoping the rumors of a Virtual Console for the DSi are true. Download speeds will depend on your Internet connection, but all my downloads averaged a minute or less. And each game or app can be stored on the DSi or SD card. And don’t forget that you’ll receive 1000 free DSi Points by purchasing on or before October 5th of this year.

Of the five DSiWare titles available, I’ve downloaded all but Master of Illusion Expres: Funny Face. I’m not that enthusiastic about the games that utilize the camera, but the WarioWare title seemed like a must have to show others what the new handheld and software is capable of. Let’s hope Nintendo pushes out some more titles and apps in the next month because the existing lineup isn’t appealing to everyone, but Bird and Beans and Art Style: AQUIA are my favorites of the bunch.

My review thus far probably sounds like a big endorsement for the DSi, but it’s not perfect. Battery life is considerably shorter than the previous generation by a few hours and nixing the GBA slot eliminates the use of all previous accessories that one might have purchased. The battery is user replaceable and I’m positive that larger capacity batteries will hit the market soon. But I can honestly say that those are the only two issues that I have with the DSi.

As cheesy as the photo editing and audio software are, they’re neat to have and use. The Web browser is now included, which eliminates the need to spend another $30 or so unless you’re the homebrew type. The DSi Shop has the potential to be huge, but only time will tell what Nintendo has in store for us. If you currently own a DS Lite, then I suggest you wait around for a bit to see what happens with the DSi Shop. If you have an older model or you don’t own one at all, then, by all means, go out and purchase one immediately.

Product Page

You know, I have to give props to Microsoft’s ad agency Bradley and Montgomery for a hilarious new ad promoting IE8. It’s full of celebrities poking fun at the Internet with intermittent sprinklings of IE8 that don’t overwhelm and bore you like other MS ads. Kudos all around. Happy YouTube Friday!

Among the many Wii rumors today, QJ was tipped off that Nintendo is working on a “double USB hard drive” for the Wii. Since, you know, storage on the Wii stinks at the moment and only supports 2GB SD cards.

It will supposedly attach to the rear of the Wii and a firmware bump will unlock its awesomeness. The rumor goes on to say that there will be 32GB and 64GB models. Sounds feasible and the earlier rumor about the Wii getting streaming content can’t just be coincidence or can it? But then again we heard something about this last June.

And now for our part in all this: Lenovo and Intel have been kind enough to provide us with a Star Trek messenger bag to give away. So, here’s our little contest:
Send your best picture of yourself and one or more tribbles to contest at crunchgear dot com.

Creativity is a must, and your picture will be posted when we announce the winner. The contest will close on Sunday, March 8th and I’ll announce the winner during the podcast on Wednesday, March 11th.

Bonus points if you dress like a Klingon, but you have to sell it.

I’d like our readers to join me in a collective daaaaamn.

The cool factor of having a two-way wrist-mounted videophone is off the charts (well, some charts), but there are precious few who can afford any phone that expensive, to say nothing of a weirdo early-adopter piece like this one. Maybe our resident watch lubber will take the plunge.

Of course, the unit cost won’t necessarily be the cost for the end user, but nobody likes the kind of contract that lets you save $500. Faustian bargains, all of them.

To heck with those neck pillows, I want something that will replicate that car seat belt wherever I go. Enter TravelRest. It touts itself as the ultimate travel pillow and I’ve been taking it across the world with me for the last couple months to see if that holds true. Hit the jump to find out if your hard-earned $27 is worth it.

The TravelRest pillow is pretty low-tech and kind of chintzy looking, but it works as advertised. I won’t go into telling you what I think it looks like, but I’m sure you can think of a few things. Setup is easy and quick. A small nipple like the ones you’ll find on anything that you can inflate is located at the skinny end near the snap-flap. You can attach the snap-flap to your lap belt to keep it from moving about as you rest.

A cord is located on the bulbous end so you can attach to a headrest or around chairs themselves for support. If you don’t have either of those you can actually sling it around yourself like a messenger bag and free ball it.

The fabric is faux velvet and I’m not fond of it but that’s just personal preference. I was skeptical of the seal thinking it would irritate some part of my body, but that was never the case. It’s pretty low-tech, but works surprisingly well. The reason I’d take this over a neck pillow is that there’s more surface area where your head can rest on.

For $27 (discounts if you purchase more than one) the TravelRest pillow is disposable if it’s not your cup of tea, but its versatility won me over. A handful of times I was stuck in an airport because of weather delays and I’m a big fan of naps. Sure, I looked like a goof, but I was the only one waking up from my naps without a cramped neck.

TravelRest