Tablet booming this holiday season

Despite the gloomy economy, shoppers are expected to shell out for tablet computers this December, making them about as popular as candy canes and twinkling lights.

The glossy-screened gadgets are the most-desired electronic devices this holiday season. And, of all the gifts people are craving, tablets are second only to clothing, according to the Consumer Electronics Association. The industry group expects U.S. consumers to spend an average of $246 on electronic gifts, including tablets.

With help from his three siblings, Bob Cardina, 26, plans to purchase an iPad for his parents for Christmas. Cardina and his sister live in Washington. His parents live in Tampa, Florida. So he's excited to be able to video chat with his parents — them on the new iPad, him on his iPhone. He thinks his mother will be especially happy with the gift. One of her friends has an iPad and she's "definitely taken a liking to it," he said.

To be sure, tablets were on some wish lists last year, but they were mostly prized by gadget geeks. In the past year, they have become more mainstream. Consumers have become comfortable using touch screens, especially as smartphones continue to proliferate. Tablets are popping up in unexpected places, too. Apple Inc.'s iPad in particular is being used as a learning tool in schools, a digital cash register in shops and a menu at restaurants.

In 2010, people were "trying to figure out what the whole tablet thing was about," says Gartner analyst Carolina Milanesi. "Now, people know what to do with a tablet."

For some people, the device has become indispensable for playing and working. While you can surf the Web, send emails and watch movies on a laptop or smartphone, consumers are gravitating to tablets because they can be more convenient.

The iPad is still expected to far outsell other tablets this year. According to Gartner Inc., nearly 64 million tablets will be sold worldwide by the end of the year. Some 73 percent of them will be iPads. By Gartner's estimate, Apple will sell 47 million iPads this year — a figure it could certainly achieve, given that it sold 25 million of them by the end of September.

But while many think of the iPad as synonymous with the word "tablet," plenty of shoppers will be looking for a more affordable tablet to give this year.

Two of the most promising competitors come from online retailer Amazon.com Inc. and book seller Barnes & Noble Inc. The companies, major players in the e-reader market, recently released tablets of their own that undercut the iPad's $499 base price: Amazon's Kindle Fire, which costs $199, and Barnes & Noble's Nook Tablet, which costs $249. The Fire, which uses a heavily modified version of Google Inc.'s Android tablet software, is expected to be particularly popular with gift givers in part because of its low price.

"When you get below $200, sales go up dramatically," says technology analyst Rob Enderle.

Enderle thinks the Fire will be a popular gift, especially for kids. To him, it seems sturdier than the iPad with a display built from scratch- and crack-resistant Gorilla Glass, and it's cheap enough that parents won't be upset if a child manages to break it.

Tom Mainelli, an analyst at research group IDC, expects the Fire and Nook Tablet to take the second- and third-place spots, respectively, behind the iPad during the last three months of the year.

Rather than hurting Apple, he believes the success of newer tablets will help grow the entire tablet market.

"I don't think Apple loses just because Amazon wins," he says.

One of these Kindle Fire buyers is 24-year-old Ximena Beltran Quan Kiu, who purchased the device for her mother as a Christmas gift. Beltran Quan Kiu says her mom bought a Samsung Galaxy Tab for herself about a month ago, but didn't like it and returned it. She's hoping her mom warms up to the Fire, though, which she can use for reading, surfing the Web and watching movies.

To help make sure her mom likes it, Beltran Quan Kiu is also giving a year's membership to Amazon's express shipping program, Amazon Prime, which includes free streaming of more than 10,000 movies and TV shows and the ability to borrow certain books from Amazon's Kindle Owners' Lending Library.

Robot ostrich spy outpaces world’s fastest sprinters

Researchers are building a prototype design that would enable a two-legged robot modeled on an ostrich to run at around 50mph. In simulations, it can already outpace human sprinters.

Dubbed FastRunner – presumably to counter any “neep, neep” Road Runner jokes – the robot is being developed by teams at the Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition (IHMC) and MIT. The task, set by DARPA, is to build a bipedal robot capable of operating independently of human control, which can run at 20 mph on a flat, unobstructed surface or 10mph on broken or sloping ground.

The IHMC team, under the leadership of research scientist and bipedal-robot specialist Jerry Pratt, looked at naturally occurring examples of running and settled on the ostrich as the most likely candidate – although it was clear that replicating all the function of its legs would be impossible. The idea’s originator and official ostrich investigator Jonhny Godowski examined footage of the flightless bird’s motion and devised a more efficient mechanical system.

“One of the innovations comes from using one actuator per leg, not one per joint as has been seen in previous examples of robotics,” Sebastien Cotton, who leads the modeling, simulation, and control efforts, told The Register. “There’s very little mechanical below the knee.

As the robot moves its upper leg forward, the lower leg articulates at the knee and swings far forward, before planting its foot on the ground and beginning the next step. It can also stand vertically using no power at all. The team has around 70 per cent of the prototype's first leg completed, and computer simulations show no reason why is should not exceed expectations.

“Having just two legs, the robot is lighter and simpler,” Cotton explained. “There’s also more flexibility – a two-legged robot can get through narrower spaces than a four-legged machine. That said, the same leg design could work for robots with four legs or more.”

The biggest problem with a bipedal design is stability. The team has now cracked this problem with software that shifts the legs frequently to ensure the body stays upright at all times, while using the minimum power.

The goal is to build the FastRunners to be about 1.4 meters high and weighing no more than 30kg, including the central processing unit. These can be used for reconnaissance, but also for search and rescue missions, where risking a human under fire could be dangerous, although the lifting capacity of the device would have to be improved

Scientists launch international competition to create the heaviest element ever

While much of the world spends its evenings watching dancers, singers, and trivia junkies battle it out in front of live studio audiences, teams of scientists from all corners of the earth are engaged in a much more heated competition. Their goal? To be the first to create the heaviest elements in the universe — and gain all the scientific fame and fortune that such a discovery brings.

The two weighty elements in question are numbers 119 and 120 on the periodic table, with those numeric values equalling the number of protons their atoms contain. It may sound like a complicated task, and while the science behind creating new elements is complex, the basic concept is rather straightforward. In order to create element 119, researchers are slamming a titanium metal plate with atoms of the element berkelium, hoping that titanium's 22 protons and berkelium's 97 protons will combine to create an atom with 119 protons.

The two frontrunners in the competition are a team comprised of scientists from the United States, Japan, Norway, and several Western European countries and a team of American and Russian researchers working out of a lab in Russia. Unfortunately, even if a single atom of a new super-heavy element is created, the procedure must be verified by an independent laboratory before a winner is declare — a process that could take decades. But for the bright minds working day and night to get their names in the history books, the wait is probably worth it.

Government closes mortgage scams tied to Google

The federal government has shut down dozens of Internet scam artists who had been paying Google to run ads making bogus promises to help desperate homeowners scrambling to avoid foreclosures.

The crackdown announced Wednesday renews questions about the role that Google's massive advertising network plays in enabling online misconduct. It may also increase the pressure on the company to be more vigilant about screening the marketing pitches that appear alongside its Internet search results and other Web content.

The criminal investigation into alleged mortgage swindlers comes three months after Google agreed to pay $500 million to avoid prosecution in Rhode Island for profiting from online ads from Canadian pharmacies that illegally sold drugs in the U.S.

A spokesman for the U.S. Treasury Department division overseeing the probe into online mortgage scams declined to comment on its scope other to say it's still ongoing.

Google Inc. also declined to comment Wednesday.

No company wants to be tainted by a criminal investigation, but the prospect is even more nettlesome for Google because it has embraced "don't be evil" as its corporate motto.

That commitment may make it difficult for Google to fend off a call by Consumer Watchdog to donate the revenue from fraudulent mortgage ads to legitimate organizations that help people ease their credit problems. Consumer Watchdog is an activist group that released a report in February asserting that Google was profiting from ads bought by mortgage swindlers.

"Google should never have published these ads, but its executives turned a blind eye to these fraudsters for far too long because of the substantial revenue such advertising generates," said Consumer Watchdog's John M. Simpson, a frequent critic of the company.

To fight future abuse, Google has suspended its business ties with more than 500 advertiser and agencies connected to the alleged scams, according to the U.S. Treasury Department's Office of the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program.

The evidence collected in the current investigation led to the government's closure of 85 alleged mortgage scams. The identities of the businesses and people involved in the scams weren't disclosed Wednesday.

The con artists are accused of duping people into believing they could help lower their home loan payments under a government-backed mortgage modification program created to reduce the foreclosures that have made it more difficult for the slumping real estate market to recover. The alleged rip-offs typically relied on collecting upfront fees or getting victims to transfer their monthly mortgage payments to the scam artists, according to the Office of the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program.

In some cases, the swindlers passed themselves off as being affiliated with the government.

Google's name popped up because the scam artists relied on the company's vast advertising network to bait their victims. About two out of every three Internet search requests are made through Google, making its ad network a prime outlet for finding people hoping to save their homes, according to Christy Romero, deputy special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program.

"The first place many homeowners turn for help in lowering their mortgage is the Internet through online search engines, and that's precisely where they are being taken advantage of and targeted," she said.

In its February report on the problem, Consumer Watchdog found that Google processed more than 74,000 monthly searches using the term, "stop foreclosure." An ad running alongside the results for that query cost an average of $8.29 per click at the time of the Consumer Watchdog study. The report couldn't determine how much money Google was making from the ads offering bogus mortgage modifications.

Even after surrendering $500 million to settle the investigation into ads for illegal online pharmacies, Google is still expected to sell more than $35 billion in advertising this year.

YouTube Upgrades Its Android App

YouTube has just updated its Android app to version 2.3.4, and while the changes aren't exactly groundbreaking, they do add-in some pretty useful new functionality.

Regardless of if you're a big video watcher, or someone who's more into uploading your own clips, there should be something in this release to catch your interest.

The introduction of a "watch later" queue brings that feature from the web-based YouTube to its mobile app. As you discover videos you're interested in viewing, you can easily add them to your queue, and then watch them later at your leisure.

Uploaders should pay attention to the change in clip info editing features, letting you revise the metadata associated with a video while you're still in the middle of uploading it.

[More from Mashable: Google Leaves Trail of Clues to Mystery Musical Event]

Finally, the app gets a Google +1 button, giving you another tool to show your support for your favorite YouTube vids. The updated YouTube 2.3.4 is available in the Android Market now.

BMW new Hybrid car

In this image provided by BMW, form left, BMW i3 Concept and BMW i8 Concept are shown. BMW is showing off a pair of new hybrid and electric concept cars expected to reach dealer showrooms in the next few years. 

The German automaker gave journalists in New York a sneak peak of its i3 city car and i8 sports car Wednesday, Nov. 9, 2011. The cars will officially debut at the Los Angeles auto show next week. Both feature carbon fiber construction, which reduces the weight of the vehicle and the size of its frame. It also allows BMW to construct much of the exteriors out of tinted glass instead of metal, giving them a see-through quality.

Honda shows smarter robot, helps in nuclear crisis

Honda's human-shaped robot can now run faster, balance itself on uneven surfaces, hop on one foot, pour a drink and even almost "think" on its own.

Honda's demonstration of the revamped "Asimo" on Tuesday at its Tokyo suburban research facility was not only to prove that the bubble-headed childlike machine was more limber and a bit smarter.

It was a way to try to answer some critics that Asimo, first shown in 2000, had been of little practical use so far, proving to be nothing more than a glorified toy and cute showcase for the Honda Motor Co. brand.

Honda President Takanobu Ito told reporters some of Asimo's technology was used to develop a robotic arm in just six months with the intention of helping with the nuclear crisis in northeastern Japan.

The mechanical arm can open and close valves at Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant, which went into meltdown after the March tsunami, according to Honda. The automaker is working with the utility behind the problem plant, Tokyo Electric Power Co., to try to meet demands to bring the plant under control.

Ito acknowledged that the first idea was to send in Asimo to help out, but that was not possible because the robot cannot maneuver in rubble, and its delicate computer parts would malfunction in radiation.

But in Tuesday's demonstration, Asimo was able to walk without falling over 2 centimeter (0.8 inch) padded bumps on the floor.

It can also now jog faster than it did in 2005, at 9 kilometers per hour (5.6 mph), instead of the earlier 6 kph (3.7 mph), pushing better with its toes so its run was smoother and not as jerky.

Asimo was also able to distinguish the voices of three people spoken at once, using face recognition and analyzing sound, to figure out that one woman wanted hot coffee, another orange juice, and still another milk tea.

The new Asimo got improved hands as well, allowing individual movement of each finger, so it could do sign language.

"My name is Asimo," it said, making the signs of its words with stubby fingers.

It also opened a thermos bottle and gracefully poured juice into a paper cup.

Ito said Asimo had developed autonomous artificial intelligence so that it could potentially maneuver itself through crowds of people, without remote control or stopping each time to check on its programming.

But he acknowledged that making robotics into a practical business will take more time, meaning Asimo wasn't about to show up in any home soon.

"Maybe at the start this was a dream of engineers to make a machine that was close to a human being, like Astro Boy," he said. "We think Asimo is good."

Death of the Keyboard: Laser-Guided Typing

Here's a quick and easy way to decide if you're cut out to be a forensic scientist; flip over your keyboard and shake. If not immediately disgusted by the detritus and DNA that comes sprinkling down, congrats! CSI Milwaukee can use you!

And the rest of you? Take heart. Because revolting, bulky and breakable keyboards could soon be a quaint memory when the last vestige of the typewriter is replaced by lasers and sensors. The Celluon Magic Cube is among the first wave of virtual keyboards to hit the market, a device that projects keys of light on to any flat surface, interprets your finger-tapping and sends each p and q to any Bluetooth device.

Aatma studios in San Francisco took this new reality to an obvious fantasy with a video mock-up of a mythical iPhone 5, using laser projection to make keyboards AND thumb typing obsolete, so get right on that, Apple.

We also take a look at Panasonic's new shampoo robot and a revolutionary way for the weak and waterlogged to actually paddle out and catch a wave.