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Aibo owners can recycle their aging robotic dogs thanks to Sony's new adoption program
Sony’s heart-tugging strategy for preloved robo-pets
In the last couple decades, robots have evolved from mere machines into entities resembling life. Among these, Sony’s Aibo robot dogs stand out, not just for their technical prowess but also for their emotional appeal. With their gleaming eyes and playful digital antics, they've woven themselves into the tapestry of modern tech culture, offering a blend of innovative technology and heartwarming interaction. Today, these endearing robots are poised to embark on a fresh journey.
Front Mission is coming to mobile, and there's already a concept trailer
Pre-registration is now open on the game's website
Front Mission is a tactical RPG series from Square Enix that dates back to 1995 as a Super Famicom release, which eventually made its way West as a Nintendo DS title. Over the years, the series has seen many entries, including a couple of mobile games released exclusively in Japan under the 2089 moniker. Well, it would appear that Square isn't done with the 2089 mobile offshoots and is bringing the series West, and so the company has released an official concept trailer for a new game known as Front Mission 2089: Borderscape, along with a handful of social media accounts and a website that already offers pre-registration.
Toy robot manufacturer Sphero has stopped making its Disney and Marvel licensed products after deciding that the return on the investment isn't strong enough. Products currently on shelves will continue to be sold and supported, but once they're gone, that's it.
Sphero is known for creating both educational and recreational robots in a variety of different forms. The original Sphero was a robotic ball, and the company has since released movie tie-ins and numerous upgrades. Bolt is something of a modern-day reimagining of the company's very first product.
In late 2016, San Francisco-based robotics company Anki released Cozmo, a robotic toy brimming with personality. The little guy looked like something out of Wall-E, with its curious animation and expressive digital eyes. Now, Anki's back at it with a new tiny robot named Vector that clearly shares Cozmo's DNA, but promises more functionality.
Amazon is working in earnest on domestic robots, Bloomberg reports. The project is being called Vesta, after the goddess of home and family in Roman mythology. Amazon apparently hopes to begin testing the robots by the end of this year, and is targeting a 2019 launch date.
Cleaning your own home is so tedious and unpleasant, but paying people to do it can get expensive over time. If only there were some way to enslave a small robot and make it clean up after you. Actually, that's been a thing for years. The Neato Botvac D7 is new, though. This robot vacuum comes with voice assistant integrations and smart features most enslaved robots can only dream about.
Anki's first foray into consumer AI toys was Anki Drive (later Overdrive), and earlier this year the company announced a new AI product. It's a robot called Cozmo, and it's available today. Unlike some of the other consumer robots, Cozmo doesn't pretend to be a personal assistant or household helper. It's a toy, but a smart toy with personality.Cozmo is small enough to fit in your hand—it looks a bit like Wall-E if he was a forklift instead of a trash compactor. Cozmo can learn faces, and the more you interact with him, the smarter he becomes. The screen on the front serves as Cozmo's face, and it can display hundreds of facial expressions. Anki points out Cozmo has more processing power than all the Mars rovers combined. Although, I don't know that's a fair comparison; Cozmo's CPU would be fried by radiation on Mars.[EMBED_YT]https://youtu.be/tyyXfgrcoZ4[/EMBED_YT]You'll need an Android (or iOS) device to pair with Cozmo. He comes with a charging dock and three interactive "power cubes," or as they are better known, blocks. You can order Cozmo from Anki, Amazon, Best Buy, Toys R Us, and more. Not all the listings are live or showing as in-stock, but they should update throughout the day.Source: Anki
Physics games are thick on the ground on mobile platforms. And to be honest, Off Bot Out from developer Martin Magni doesn't seem to offer much in the way of new ideas... at least at the start. But building on the basic tools introduced in the first few levels and expanding on them with a surprisingly rich physics engine, the game gets much more complex very quickly. Before long Odd Bot Out becomes something that is, if not wholly unique, then certainly special.
Today is a really good day for giant robot enthusiasts on Android. In addition to the XCOM expansion Enemy Within, which features a ton of mechanized combat, Android gamers now have access to Strike Suit Zero, an indie PC game that's all about shooting robots in space. Unfortunately, you're only getting access to this game if you have a SHIELD Tablet. Sorry, giant robot fans: you're beholden to NVIDIA for your fix at the moment.
The truth is out there... and you can shoot it. XCOM: Enemy Unknown is one of the best turn-based strategy games in years, which is why we were thrilled to see it get a mobile re-release on Android (even if we did have a hefty wait behind iOS). You can now get the expansion pack to the original, Enemy Within, and surprisingly it's being released as a standalone game - that means that unlike the PC and console versions, you don't have to own the original to play it.
When it comes to toys you can control from your smartphone, few are quite as fun or inspiring as Sphero. Orbotix blew onto the scene a little over a year ago with an awesome choreographed display in Union Square. The company followed up on the original with an upgraded v2.0 of the robotic ball which began shipping in September, but that wasn't to be the end of the line. Orbotix is at it again with a completely redesigned robot, dubbed Sphero 2B.
Whether it's a "moonshot" or not, Google seems to be dedicating considerable resources to its new robotics initiative, both financial and human. Almost three months ago Romain Guy, a highly-visible part of Google's internal Android software engineering team (and a pretty spiffy photographer to boot), announced that he was leaving Android for another internal Google position. He has since confirmed that he's moved to the new Google robotics team, currently headed by ex-Android head honcho Andy Rubin.
When Android founder Andy Rubin announced that he was leaving the Android team back in May of this year, it was a shock to say the least. At the time Mr. Rubin confirmed that he was staying with Google itself, but declined to say what his new role would be. Six months later, a report from the New York Times seems to have the first information on what he's been doing. I'll give you a hint: it's robots.
Welcome to the latest entry in our Bonus Round series, wherein we tell you all about the new Android games of the day that we couldn't get to during our regular news rounds. Consider this a quick update for the dedicated gamers who can't wait for our bi-weekly roundups, and don't want to wade through a whole day's worth of news just to get their pixelated fix. Today we've got an interestingly complex mech fighter, a beat-em-up with a strange fixation on carnival workers, a turret shooter that takes a few liberties with Roman mythology, a kid-friendly platformer, and a match-3 puzzler from Disney. Without further ado:
When I was a kid, "robot" meant something that you had to wind up (or if you were rich, something you plugged into your Nintendo Entertainment System). Startup company Play-I wants to change that with Bo and Yana, a pair of toy robots that use a tablet or smartphone as both a controller and a programming tool. The company's crowdfunding campaign started yesterday and has already hit almost 80% of its quarter-million dollar goal.
Finally, Android is not a second-class citizen. LEGO has released three new apps (okay, one of them is a game) for the Mindstorms EV3 robotics set in Google Play, just as promised back at CES. It's fitting, too. We're all just a bunch of robots around here.
The original Sphero was an interesting idea, but it was a bit delicate and underpowered. Sphero 2.0 might be worth some consideration, though. Orbotix has made the new Sphero twice as fast (about 7 ft per second) and packed in a bunch of LEDs to make it three times brighter than Sphero 1.0. The company is also dropping an updated driving app to go with the new ball.
Pacific Rim comes to theaters tomorrow, and I'm already planning my route. Giant robots, Godzilla-style monsters, and a complete absence of Shia LaBeouf - what more could you want from a summer blockbuster? How about an official Android game... or two? The "full" Pacific Rim game comes from Reliance Games, a developer that tends to specialize in licensed titles. It's not to be confused with the other official game, which is more of an AR gimmick. Their current game library doesn't really inspire much confidence, but come on! Giant robots!
Cylons. The Terminator. Gort. Johnny 5. Science fiction seems more than a little obsessed with the idea of murderous automatons, and with good reason: it works. Newcomer developer Uppercut Games has taken the trope to mobile gaming with EPOCH, a post-apocalyptic shooter that does away with the humans altogether (to make room for more robots). The Unreal Engine powers this graphical beast, and it's available for $4.99 for all devices - or at least the ones that can handle it.