Archive for January, 2008

LabVIEW on the Mac is alive and well - Macworld Expo 2008

Published by Michael Aivaliotis on January 24, 2008 in Macworld Expo 2008 and labview. 5 Comments


Quicktime Version


National Instruments had a very small booth at Macworld Expo this year. They were there nonetheless and I asked them a few questions about the current state of LabVIEW on the Mac. I also wanted to find out how, and if, a current Windows user like myself could use a Mac exclusively and still manage to satisfy Windows based LabVIEW project clients. According to Mike Neil, LabVIEW product manager, you can have your cake, er… Mac and eat it too. With the use of virtual machines (vmware fusion, parallels) or bootcamp (which boots the whole machine into Windows), you can now run your windows development environment on a Mac and satisfy any Windows project requirements. Which leaves me asking myself, why am I still on a PC?

Are you working with LabVIEW on the Mac? Tell us about your experiences in the comments.

iLidz - Coolest iPhone accessory Macworld Expo 2008

Published by Michael Aivaliotis on January 19, 2008 in Macworld Expo 2008. 0 Comments


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I came a cross this inventor at Macworld Expo 2008. His name is Matthew Michaels and has come up with this awesome iPhone\iPod touch accessory for hands-free movie watching called iLidz. The idea is simple but the results are huge. Just the idea of not having to hold the player in your hands is great on its own, but add a 4x magnification and the results are hard to believe.

Interview with SBMS Teen Press at Macworld Expo

Published by Michael Aivaliotis on January 17, 2008 in Macworld Expo 2008. 0 Comments



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I went to Macworld Expo this year to learn about new technology and instead stumbled across three inspirational teens from Santa Barbara Middle School. They are part of a team of students that are involved with the school Teen Press program. They are currently covering Macworld Expo and in about a week or so will be covering the Santa Barbara International Film Festival.

Check out all their great videos at: sbmsteenpress.org

uBot-5 - Laboratory for Perceptual Robotics

Published by Michael Aivaliotis on January 12, 2008 in Robo Development 2007 and Robotics. 0 Comments


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In building the uBot-5, the team decided to go with Microsoft Robotics Studio.
Additional Resources:
Laboratory for Perceptual Robotics

Bug Labs Announces Pricing

Published by Michael Aivaliotis on January 5, 2008 in Gadget. 0 Comments

We’ve mentioned Bug Labs before. They’ve finally announced pricing. Keeping the peripherals under $100 is a smart move. Of course I wish they used the discounted price as the final price. The BUGbase is still a bit pricey even after discount. I would have preferred $249 myself.

From Bug Blogger:

The company has a lot to announce today, and I’ll start with the topic that gets the most questions: pricing. But, before I get there, I want to take a moment to introduce a new concept in pricing for consumer electronics devices: the Early Adopter Discount.

Just as it sounds, the BUG Early Adopter Discount is going take a shift away from tradition, and actually reward the first wave of customers with a 13% (or greater) discount on products for the first 60 days of sales. Retail pricing for the first run of products is as follows:

    * BUGbase $349 ($299 w/discount)
    * LCD module $119 ($99 w/discount)
    * GPS module $99 ($79 w/discount)
    * Camera module $79 ($69 w/discount)
    * Motion detector / Accelerometer $59 ($49 w/discount)

There will be an additional discount to customers who purchase the base plus all four modules, which we’ll announce on the 21st.

In addition to the Early Adopter Discount, we are announcing a second pricing program called BUG+EDU. BUG+EDU is actually a series of programs and promotions aimed at introducing BUG to the education market. Different programs will be established for primary, secondary, and post-secondary institutions, as well as for individual students. We believe the BUG is a great platform for aspiring engineering students as well as kids who just like to tinker. BUG+EDU will hopefully get more units into the hands of those who will really use their imagination to drive the next generation of cool gadgets.

Also important, the Bug Labs online store will be open for business starting Monday, January 21st. At this point we will begin taking pre-orders for the BUGbase and all four BUGmodules. We will begin fulfilling orders on or before March 17th, and will ship based on the dates the orders were originally received. Our initial rollout will only include domestic orders, but we aim to fulfill internationally later in the year.

They also announced a new module called the Von Hippel module. This “adds an interface of inputs and outputs”. I’m hoping they mean digital IO and DAQ.

Lastly, because we want to encourage users to make the most of their BUG, we are pleased to announce the Von Hippel module, a new addition to the collection of BUGmodules. Named after MIT professor and “Democratizing Innovation” author Eric Von Hippel, the Von Hippel BUGmodule adds an interface of inputs and outputs to the BUG, allowing users to “hack” their BUG even further. Professor Von Hippel’s book was a big inspiration for the foundation of Bug Labs, so having his name associated with our products is an exciting accomplishment. Final pricing and timing for the Von Hippel BUGmodule is not yet set, but we are targeting the first quarter as well.

Source: Bug Blogger
Related: Bug Labs - The long tail of gadgets?

CoroWare’s CoroBot

Published by Michael Aivaliotis on January 2, 2008 in Robo Development 2007 and Robotics. 0 Comments


In this video from RoboDevelopment 2007, we see the CoroBot in action.

CoroBot was created to minimize the complexity of robot development. By combining a powerful PC-class platform with a robust, object-oriented software development system, the CoroBot empowers you to rapidly deploy and develop robotics solutions. The CoroBot also assists the hardware developer with additional physical mounting space, ports, sensors and communication devices.