Future Technologies

At six-foot-two and 330 pounds, this hulking first responder has all the qualities you'd want in the field after a disaster:  strength, endurance and calm under pressure. Better yet, it has two sets of hands, 28 hydraulic joints, stereo cameras in its head and an onboard computer. The  ATLAS humanoid robot , which looks vaguely like something from the "Terminator" movies, was created by Boston Dynamics for DARPA, a research arm of the U.S. Department of Defense. It will compete in the  DARPA Robotics Challenge  (DRC), a competition that invites engineers to create a remotely controlled robot that can respond to natural or man-made disasters. The winning robot could be used in situations deemed too dangerous for humans, like the 2011 nuclear disaster at Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. The DRC is broken up into three challenges. The first was the Virtual Robotics Challenge, in which 26 teams controlled simulated, 3-D robots. Only seven of those tea

Mobile games giant Rovio continues its descent toward the Dark Side. The company announced it will launch  Angry Birds Star Wars II , the follow-up to the popular  Angry Birds Star Wars  title. It will be available September 19 through multiple app stores. The collaboration with Star Wars has been a huge success for Rovio. The first  Angry Birds Star Wars  game notched over 100 million downloads since launching last year. Characters from the second trilogy of  Star Wars  films will appear in  Angry Birds Star Wars II , including Anakin Skywalker, Mace Windu and Darth Maul. The game also introduces Telepods, physical toys players place near the smartphone or tablet to teleport them into a game, a function similar to games such as Activision's Skylanders  franchise and the upcoming  Disney Infinity . Over 30 toys will be available when the game launches. news source

                                                                                                                  STORY HIGHLIGHTS Pull a memory card out of a CD slot with tweezers Photo recovery programs can find hidden, deleted items on memory cards Chrome has a feature for private browsing In a perfect digital world, you could sit down at any computer or pick up any gadget and just use it. There wouldn't be a learning curve or workarounds. Unfortunately, that's never going to happen. With all due respect to the late Mr. Jobs, even Apple products don't always "just work." Little problems and annoyances will pop up when you least expect it. That's why I've rounded up these five tricks. Keep them in the back of your mind and they'll get you out of the eventual jam. 1. Retrieve a memory card from a CD slot Speaking of jams, let's start with one of my favorites. Slot-loaded CD/DVD/Blu-ray drives are sleek and stylish. Unfortu

This illustration shows a deep azure planet that astronomers found orbiting a star 63 light years away. STORY HIGHLIGHTS It is the first time astronomers have determined the color of an exoplanet The planet is 63 light years away Temperatures reach as high as 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit It possibly rains glass sideways in 4,500-mph winds Astronomers have found a deep azure blue planet orbiting a star 63 light years away -- the first time they've been able to determine the actual color of a planet outside our solar system, NASA and the European Space Agency said Thursday. The planet, known as HD 189733b, is a gas giant with a daytime temperature of 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit where it possibly rains liquid glass sideways amid 4,500 mph winds, NASA says. The blue color comes not from the reflection of an ocean, as on Earth, "but rather a hazy, blow-torched atmosphere containing high clouds laced with silicate particles," NASA says. "Silicates conde

NEW YORK — While demonstrating the remarkable photographic capabilities built inside its new Lumia 1020 Windows smartphone that will be hitting AT&T stores exclusively in the U.S. on July 26, Nokia showed how you could zoom in on a picture of a haystack and literally find the needle hiding inside. The eye of the needle in the picture was that sharp. Of course, finding a needle in a haystack is an apt metaphor for Nokia, the struggling Finnish cellphone giant that is trying to regain a footing in the U.S. market by selling Windows phones. But if the Lumia 1020 is any indication—and I have to add the caveat that I haven't actually tested the phone yet—Nokia may have something special, at least for avid photographers who want a higher-pedigree camera phone. AT&T is charging $299.99 for the device, with the customary two-year contract. The latest Lumia boasts a second-generation 41 megapixel-image sensor, Zeiss optics, xenon flash, manual shutter, and other photo

It appears that Google is ready to deliver the updated Android version of Google Maps that it previewed at its I/O developers conference in May. As spotted by  Android Police , a major update for the app has  appeared in the Google Play store , sporting an overhauled interface and new discovery features. The update doesn't seem to be appearing on devices yet, but Google promises it "will be gradually rolling out to  Android  4.0.3+ users over the next few weeks." Besides a cleaner design with more lively colors, the interface delivers enhanced navigational features, including "live traffic updates, incident reports, and dynamic rerouting." The update also includes an Foursquare-like Explore function designed to help users browse and discover local restaurants, bars, shops, and hotels. While the update sports features Google would have picked up with its $1.1 billion acquisition Waze last month, that deal is likely too recent to have allowed enginee