Hey you Google Music Beta-er. Got an iPhone and feeling left out? Be jealous of your Android-wielding friends no more! Google has brought its music locker service (still in beta, still requires an invite) to iOS devices in web app form. Sure it’s not a full-fledged app that Android users have been privy to for months now, but it gets the job done. On your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch simply point Safari to music.google.com you’ll arrive at the new portal that’ll grant you access to your Music Beta song library on-the-go. Use your finger to swipe left and right and scrub through categories like Artists, Albums, Songs, Playlists, and Genres. Cheers!
The hacker boys of Willow Garage put their minds together to make the coolest robot ever–one that can fetch and serve you beer. The PR2 robot responds to a web application called Beer Me. Let’s come up with a situation… It’s the Super Bowl and you and the fellas want a batch of fresh cold beers from the back fridge. You, the host of the party, will hop onto the nearest computer and run the Beer Me web app. In it you can access a pull-down menu and specify the exact type of beer everyone wants. Once the order is set, clicking the Beer Me button will activate the PR2 robot to fetch the beers for you. The robot will navigate your house, identify the fridge, open its door, scan the racks for the beer, grab and place the beers onto a four-holed foam block (that’s located behind the robot’s base navigation laser), close the fridge door, and report back to you with the drinks. (Note: If your type of beer is out of stock, the robot will notify the web app so you know to make a beer run.) Now it’s time for the handoff. The robot uses facial recognition to detect when a face is in close proximity so that beers are not dropped; in fact, PR2 will not let go of its death grip on the bottle until a face is detected. After you take your drink, the robot will whip out a bottle opener; you have the option to take it to open the beer yourself, or the robot can do it for you. Mind blown yet? See it all happen in the “OMG”-inducing video above. I want one.
