I'm working through John Brooks' "Telephone: The First Hundred Years," pulling out information about the early structure of the Bell system for my Better Bell Chart, and thought this was great.

Page 52, describing some of the first public demonstrations of Bell and Watson's telephone prototypes:

The demonstration that seems most to have astonished the people of Boston occurred in January 1877, when a Japanese student of Bell's and two of his countrymen who were Harvard students tried Bell's equipment at Exeter Place and found that it worked. Yankee Boston was thereby convinced that the telephone was no trick—it could speak Japanese.

Yesterday, iRobot showed off two of its latest robots. The first, a $100 gutter cleaning robot called the "Looj" was leaked last month. The second, called the "ConnectR," is a $500 telepresence robot designed to allow a person to communicate with their family, pet, or perhaps thieves. It includes a built-in movable camera as well as speakers and microphones.

Also on display was the Erector Spykee, a treaded, humanoid robot with very similar functionality. When I wrote about the Spykee, I mentioned how it might be nice to give a friend access to the Spykee to let them wander around the house while you chatted as an adjunct to a traditional voice conversation.

So why is it that giving control of a Spykee to a friend seems appealing, while giving them access to the toilet-bowl-shaped ConnectR is not? I see two possible factors at work: The Spykee is humanoid and has a distinct first-impression visual personality. Letting a friend remotely incarnate in the Spykee seems non-threatening and even humorous. The ConnectR, on the other hand, looks impersonal and inhuman—a mobile surveillance platform and nothing more. I'd almost think that my instinct would be the opposite, that by being more generic the ConnectR would be a blank slate.

The other reason could be the way that iRobot presented the ConnectR at its unveiling, displaying it in a sterile home, punctuated by the strange turns of phrase from iRobot CEO Colin Angle's speech, such as the suggestion of engaging a young boy with action figures in "fantasy play." Perhaps the ConnectR feels less human than the Spykee because its creators seem disconnected and—yup—robotic.

The Spykee will be available this Christmas. The ConnectR will be available next year, although a few will be sold in an early $200 beta pilot program.

ConnectR Product Page [iRobot]

I took a short jaunt through the Digital Life Expo yesterday, held at the Javits Center in Manhattan. A short jaunt was all one really needed; it seemed even smaller than last year. As expected, there weren't really many stand-out products, but I did notice this pair of booth babes dressed as Alyx Vance from the Half-Life 2 series.

Notably, the creators of Half-Life 2 have mentioned in the past how the Alyx Vance character was given a variety of ethnic characteristics, the better to make her subconsciously sympathetic to a wide variety of players. That women of almost any racial make-up could convincingly look the part in real life was probably an unforeseen side-effect.

I love the Alyx character for two reasons: She's one of the most convincing and emotionally resonant characters in any videogame ever*; she's dressed fittingly for alien invasion, in a warm (if stylish!) jacket and blue jeans.

* See: The introduction of Dog; the joke she plays on you in the dark in Episode 1.

Here's a clever little trick for Photoshop nerds: Ironic Sans presented the image on the left as a puzzle for their readers. Turns out the histogram (on the right) displays the skyline of New York City.

Yes, I felt a little guilty resizing it with bicubic instead of nearest neighbor, but otherwise the fonts looked screwy.

Idea: The Histogram as the Image [IronicSans.com via Daring Fireball]

The design of the upcoming Aptera car will provoke binary reactions—I for one think it's lovely. And unlike a lot of crazy electric cars, chances are decent that the Aptera will be produced. You can reserve one now for a fully-refundable $500 that goes towards the purchase price, which varies depending on your choice of all-electric or gas/electric hybrid, but still remains under $30k.

I want one badly, coupled with a natty suit and a tour through the leaf-strewn roads of New England. (And yes, this would be the post where you guys thrash me for wanting to buy something wholly new and wildly unnecessary since I live in New York and don't need a car. But look at her. Space egg calls to me.)

Aptera Electric/Hybrid Car On Pre-Order for $500 [Oh!Gizmo]

These "Mini-Robots" developed at Sandia National Labs are powered by three watch batteries, use a tank-like track for locomotion, and can be built to include microphones, cameras, or heat and chemical sensors. The bodies are chassis are built from a rapid-prototyping rig. They are available in Regular and Cool Ranch.

BotJunkie has a video of the little stinkahs in action.

Sandia Mini-Robot Turns On Dime, Parks On Nickel [BotJunkie.com]

This new EV-DO interfaces from Novatel—this is the Sprint model, but Verizon got one, too—replace the bulbous lumps precipitously dangling from a laptop's USB port with slim little things no bigger than the average flash drive. And then to make it better, they add a microSD slot for an optional 4GB of memory, just for kicks. I think EV-DO and its other high-speed wireless counterparts to be one of the wonders of the modern computing age, but this is the first USB solution that I would consider using instead of a PCMCIA or ExpressCard version.

The U727 will be available for $280, or less with a new subscription.

Press Release [Sprint.com]

Image: Early prototype of the Atari CX2600 Video Computer System

Retro Thing has been celebrating the 30-year anniversary of the Atari 2600 this week with a series of articles looking back at its often not-so-illustrious history.

Rob Fulop was a 1981 Atari staffer who managed to shoehorn the game mechanic of Missile Command into the meager computing resources of the 2600.  The game became a killer app, selling 2.5 million copies - shattering all previous sales records.  Fulop hoped that his bosses would show their appreciation via a fat Christmas bonus envelope, or perhaps the keys to a new car.  After all, his programming chops made Atari millions.

Fulop's Christmas bonus was the same as every other Atari employee received in that year of historic profits; a gift certificate for a free Armor Star turkey.  After framing his turkey ticket (it hangs on his office wall to this day), he helped form Imagic; the second independent publisher of Atari games.  Two of his games have become Atari classics; Cosmic Ark & Demon Attack.  After a period of phenomenal growth, his company went down in the video game crash of the mid 80's and Activision picked up the rights to their 24 classic games.

I've got a 2600 sitting in a gym bag that I bought several years ago and never really play. (Emulators > *). I was going to toss it out, but now that I'm reminded it's almost exactly the same age as I am, perhaps I'll keep it around and see if they'll bury me with it when I go to that great big game of Combat in the sky.

Video Game Tag Index [RetroThing.com]

Music Thing has the goods on the latest album from Batch Totem, released exclusively on 3.5-inch floppy disk:

The audio is encoded in the GSM 6.10 WAV format [used to compress speech in GSM mobile phones] at various bitrates the disk holds 74 minutes of audio, that can be played on a computer with standard audio-players like Winamp, Windows Media Player and Itunes without any external codec installed." The music has been created specially for the format, (or as he put is "composed directly in the spectral domain") He says: "On certain tracks the amplitude and low bitrates produce 'ghost' frequencies according to the Nyquist theorem, and the algorithm of the audio codec meaning that very high frequencies and white noise can occur at very low bitrates. Using listening equipment with a subwoofer is recommended."

There's even a free sample track that I look forward to listening to once my brain chemistry finds a place where low bit-rate music sounds appealing.

Dude releases 74-minute album on a single floppy disk [Music Thing]

Print's Akiko Busch reflects on the tendency to hide extravagance in "minimalism," hiding complex and expensive new projects behind a mask of simplicity.

To minimize surface clutter, everything was sheathed in lacquered white fiberboard. Even the refrigerator and dishwasher were behind flat cabinet doors.
This clean aesthetic was, in fact, a blatant subversion of the very idea of minimalism--a study in extravagance disguised as pure economy. Twice the amount of surfacing material had been used on the appliances than was needed, and twice the amount of effort would be required to open them every time they were used.

We touched on similar issues earlier this week after the U.N. Climate Change Summit, which underlined for me the importance of being always mindful that old, wasteful, inefficient things aren't always worth replacing. The total lifetime cost has to be balanced, including the materials cost for the new, more efficient—or in this case more cleanly-designed—product.

Busch again:

Take the VivaTerra catalog, which comes from an eco-friendly retailer that donates a dollar per $75 order to the Trust for Public Land. But the friend of mine who gets its catalog has received two in the past month, and wouldn't it make more sense anyway, she asks, to donate her $225 to the Trust rather than spend that amount on a handbag made from candy wrappers "headed for landfill"?

The optimal scenario would be for every thing we take out of the planet to be recycled. It's daunting, but we live in a closed system. (At least until we start farming asteroids.) It's also unrealistic to expect that we won't create any waste at all, but I am sure that we as individuals have more incentive not to buy things than companies have—even "green" companies. In thirty years our landfills and junkyards are going to be heaped with "green" trash and non-functional Priuses. Perhaps there are ways we can stop building disposable goods and can start building and buying artifacts, items that can be used for generations.

Probably not!

Excess Disguised as Less [BusinessWeek.com]

• 200 Verbatim CD-R Discs for $29 after $11 rebate. Not a crazy good deal, but some people prefer name brand discs. [Nifty News]

• HP Pavilion m8100y Intel Core 2 Quad 2.4GHz Desktop PC with HDTV Tuner for $650, shipped. Hefty home theater PC that would easily pull double duty as a game rig with the addition of a decent 3D card. [Dealnews]

• Today's Woot!: Refurbished Dyson DC15 The Ball All Floors Bagless Upright Vacuum for $295, shipped.

Adam writes:

I know that you guys are conscious of providing accurate and good info, particularly when it involves your readers purchasing products recommended by the Gadgets section. Back in late August, I purchased a 37 inch HD Westinghouse video monitor as a result of the heads up on Gadgets, to replace my 19 inch old timey tv. The new monitor arrived, but without a manual and speakers and god knows what else...

I called the company to get the missing stuff, but they instructed me to return it all, after they send me a "return label" by snail mail. It never came. It's been a month of endless, frustrating calls. They will never put on a manager or supervisor. And they won't reply to emails except with form letters.

I now suspect that they will never send this return label, and I'm stuck with a fully paid-for partial device. Just don't know what to do to handle this. Do you have any suggestions?

The TV is a refurbished set, but eCost's product page clearly lists "2 Detachable 20 Watt Speakers" as one of the bullet point features. When you buy a refurbished product, it's reasonable to expect some things to be different—minor scuffs, generic packaging—but unless it is specifically noted, you should expect all the same accessories that were included in the original, especially if they are specifically listed. Otherwise it would be an "open box."

(The lack of manual is sort of a borderline thing. I'd expect a manual with most refurbs, but I wouldn't be surprised not to get one.)

This is a real bummer for me. I'm a fan of Westinghouse's inexpensive LCD TVs and have had generally good luck buying refurbished items. (All my Macs except the most recent one I bought have been refurbs.) I'm about to head out to the Create Digital Music/Etsy/MAKE event, but we can dig into it tomorrow and see why eCost wants you to ship back a whole HDTV just so they can send you the missing pair of speakers.

The guard on the top of this "Executive Edition" toaster from Siemens—for that upwardly mobile middle manager for whom only the finest toasts will do—allows it to push bread up farther than normal toasters, preventing those awful times when you have to reach in to the grill to fetch an errant piece. Single-slot, but it's a big one.

Germany-only for now; it runs about €35.

Product Page (German) [Siemens-Hausgeraete.de via Appliancist.com]

Today's Oobject collection is "DIY Lamps." I especially love the one that's currently at number two, made entirely of latex gloves. (And a lamp, of course.)

19 great diy lighting ideas [Oobject]

There's a little bit of everything in this scan from a 1948 Popular Science article, whether you're a fan of user-serviceable modular electronics or just misogynist condescension. Titled "Mother Could Fix This Radio," it shows off the first production model radio from Cosmo Electronics Corporation in New York City, built to allow each of the five different parts of the radio to be replaced with easy color-coded "tubes." (I think it's interesting that the physical form of vacuum tubes implied modernity at the time, although maybe that's just a reflection of the way that made the most sense to organize all the parts.)

I've written for both of the Popular * at one point. I get a kick out of thinking I could pitch an article titled "Even Vagina-Saddled Womb Beasts Could Buy This HDTV!" and then point furiously to their own back-issues as they escort me out of the lobby.

Mother Could Fix This Radio [Modern Mechanix]

The "Graffiti Your Own Train" from Suck.uk is a clean white train car designed to be covered with included graffiti decals. Which makes it lame, of course—cutting and pasting someone else's wyldstylez onto a toy train isn't a "blank canvas for your creativity." Of course what would be truly creative would be to paint actual tiny graffiti on the side of a toy train, but you could just run to the hobby shop and buy any ol' box car for that.

Come to think of it, that could be a nice cottage industry for someone: selling authentically tagged train cars to model railroaders.

Product Page [Suck.uk via Red Ferret]

If the ungainliness of solar panels have been holding you back from installing some rooftop modules on your home—or you have a home-owners association that prevent you from going green in any way that might affect surrounding property values—these panels from Sharp fit in alongside traditional shingles for a more integrated look. Of course, you won't be able to adjust your panels to take best advantage of varying angles throughout the year, but for some aesthetics trump efficiency.

Using the "EZ Calculator" on Sharp's site, a modest system would cost about $27k to install but only cost around $10k after rebates and tax credits.

Product Page [Solar.SharpUSA.com via LuxuryHousingTrends.com via Oh!Gizmo]

Today's announcement of Microsoft's beta streaming internet TV platform was a yawner for me—I'm fine with television over the internet, but TV is in the fractured age that music downloads were in for the last five years—but then I saw this: "full episodes of TV shows such as 'Arrested Development.'"

Hey, brother!

Most chefs kill lobster in one of two ways: they either put them in a pot of water then bring it to a boil, causing the steam to escape from the carapace with a horrible keen, or they give them a healthy hack with a knife, bisecting the tiny, primitive brain stem. Some people find both of these methods to be inhumane, which is ridiculous, because lobster are essentially large bugs. I have immense respect for phylum arthropoda, but they're nature's robots. In her wisdom, she made the mechanized terrors full of sweet, delicate meat.

(I espouse a Third Way to clean them, involving twisting their tails from their still-living bodies and then using bits of their own antenna to clean them. Seriously.)

But for those who can't conceptualize consciousness evolving on a sliding scale, there's the "CrustaStun," a two-thousand dollar device for restaurants that will electrocute any lobster placed in its briny death chamber in just five seconds.

Don't miss the "Continuous Flow Stunner" for meat packing facilities, should you need to implement humane genocide on an industrial scale.

Product Page [CrustaStun.com via Shiny Shiny]

Commissioned by a large soft drink manufacturer (I presume Coca-Cola, but I don't know), Artist Kosuke Tsumura created sets of armor and dresses out of plastic PET bottles, sewn together with transparant nylon thread. As Pink Tentacle points out, it may not be the strongest armor ever assembled, but it will last for many generations.

PET Bottle Armor [FinalHome.com]
PET Bottle Bustle Style [FinalHome.com]

[via Pink Tentacle]

The "Mini Animan" is pedometer for hamsters, designed to clip onto their wheel to measure rodent revolutions per minute. Although it was discovered by the glowing Lisa Katayama on Tokyo Mango, her site about Japanese ephemera, it wouldn't surprise me if someone had made a similar product in the West.

The Hamster Wheel Pedometer [TokyoMango.com]

Concept designs generally come in two flavors: Creative but overwrought (like this digital lap drum); or clever tweaks to simple solutions. These BasicKnives, by designer Caroline Noordijk, fall blessedly in the latter category, integrating commonly-used kitchen utensils into the unused portions of standard chef's and paring knives.

The only one that doesn't look immediately practical is the built-in grater—I've slashed myself far too many times before when using just a grater alone. I can only imagine the lost fingertips that would occur while trying to grate something as small and slippery as a clove of garlic.

The vegetable peeler and citrus zester, though? Make it happen!

Do It All Knife [YankoDesign.com]

Michelin's XDA5 tires are being promoted as "self-healing" or "regenerating," but that's a bit generous. Instead the tires reveal new grooves and tread was they wear down, extending the usable life of tires by 30% before they must be retreaded.

The XDA5 series is designed for big rigs and over over-the-road haulers; you won't be using these on your Prius for a while. (Unless you're building a Monster Prius.)

Press Release [TheAutoChannel.com via InventorSpot.com via Crave.CNET.com]

Sony's latest Walkman NW-A910 not only plays video on its 2.4-inch screen, but can record digital over-the-air broadcasts with its internal PVR software. (And claims to squeeze a near-miraculous 100 hours of video into 16GB of flash memory—that must be some serious compression.)

It's Japan only for the foreseeable future, but I am linking it primarily because I like things that have antennas.

Product Page (Machine Translated) [Sony.jp]

Around the gadget mines: Gadget Lab; Gizmodo; Engadget

• Magellan eXplorist 100 GPS for $59, shipped. A simple handheld GPS unit. [Dealnews]

• Refurb TomTom Go 510 In-Car GPS for $200, shipped. About $100-200 off the price of a new model. [Dealnews]

• Today's Woot!: Vivitar 8MP Digital Camera with 6x Optical Zoom for $125, shipped.

The Ultreo ultrasound toothbrush is positioned against the popular Philips Sonicare electric toothbrush. Unlike its rival, the Ultreo actually uses ultrasonic waves to loosen plaque and kill bacteria. The Sonicare, on the other hand, simply moves its bristles at a very quick pace.

I've been using an Ultreo for a few weeks in addition to my Sonicare Elite—"in addition to" because I have yet to discover how to get the same feeling of clean I get from my Sonicare with the Ultreo.

It could be because my mouth is too small. The Ultreo's brush head has a tiny ultrasound transducer inside which provides the cleaning action. It doesn't make for a huge brush head, but because the Ultreo's ultrasound only works when it is vibrating bubbles from your saliva, toothpaste, and water, I suspect that at certain teeth I'm not able to get the head at just the right angle while maintaining some "mouth juice" in between it and my teeth.

It's not been for lack of trying. The Ultreo, like the Sonicare, gives chirps every thirty seconds after its been turned on, marking out two minutes for you to brush all four quadrants of your mouth. I'd usually go rinse my mouth out, run my tongue along my teeth to find any rough spots, then give it another go. In a few spots I'd hold the Ultreo directly to the tooth and wait for its ultrasonic waves to shear off my tooth scum—no dice.

The "waveguide" portion of the head, which is used to channel the ultrasonic waves into the bubbles to produces the cleaning action, tends to squeak against my teeth when brushing if I'm not too careful.

The Ultreo is sold in a simple but attractive package, including a charger and a basic mobile case, but I can't recommend it over the Sonicare Elite series brushes. If you happen to be one of those who find the Sonicare too harsh or have problems with receding gums, the Ultreo might be a better option; its brushing action is far more gentle.

One final thing: Ultreo claims that its $160 brush will whiten teeth over time. I actually did see a noticeable amount of whitening over the first week, when I used the Ultreo exclusively. That's worth something, although perhaps not $160.

The Ultreo is available primarily from dentists but is also sold at Amazon.

Product Page [Ultreo.com]

I've smoked cigarettes for about a decade. There is much to recommend the habit—the instant air of rakishness a cigarette provides; the burst of nauseating head rush; the oily, smelly residue that covers my hair, clothes, teeth, and eyes—but I think it's about time to give it up. (My plan is to have a plan by the time I'm thirty, which is five months away.)

The patch has worked okay in the past. It's not breaking the addiction that's difficult for me, but the loss of a treasured habit, especially when I'm drinking, has eroded my long-term willpower in the past.

I haven't considered any of the electronic nicotine delivery systems in the past, because the ones I've seen before tend to look goofy and exhaling a puff of nicotine-laced water vapor isn't the same as letting that sweet cancer cloud waft from my nostrils. But perhaps I should give them a shot. At the least, it would give me something to keep my hands occupied during the transition period.

Crown7 manufacturers three products, all of which appear to share similar internals, but are contained within sleek plastic cases that reflect your nicotine vector of choice: cigarette, pipe, or cigar. Each unit comes with rechargeable lithium batteries, a case and pocket holder, and two replacement filter cartridges. Each cartridge can deliver the equivalent of about two packs of cigarettes and are quite reasonable at $2 apiece.

Of course buying into the system in the first place is the issue—the cigarette model costs $100. That's a good chunk, but considering the price of smokes in New York, it's less than the price of a couple of cartons. (Although these days I tend to roll my own.)

Has anyone had any luck with these? I'm sure they work fine—it's not terribly hard to heat up water vapor—but I'm curious if the action of "smoking" one is at all satisfying.

Cigarette Starter Kit Page [Crown7 via Gizmag]

Katie Fehrenbacher sums up some of the more interesting bits from an Ernst & Young/Dow Jones VentureOne report released today. In part:

• In the U.S., solar investments are dominant, and accounted for 15 of 26 deals and $305 million of the $458 million raised in the energy generation segment.

• In the U.S., median cleantech valuations reached $30 million in the first half of this year -- up from $15.8 million in 2001.

• European investments had 19 deals and $80 million invested in the first six months of 2007. Biofuels are dominating, while wind power made up "a fair share" of the total amount invested.

A Global Cleantech Boom In The First Half Of 2007 [Earth2Tech.com]

Although it's not supposed to be revealed until tomorrow, shots of the new Gateway One computer, an all-in-one computer vaguely like an Apple iMac, have leaked onto the net. Features-wise it's a fairly typical machine, with a 19-inch screen, slot-loading drive, and FireWire in a case less than three inches thick. I think it's rather attractive.

Robert writes:

> I just came across an eBay listing for a Mellotron (actually it's the even rarer Chamberlin variant) that was allegedly built for Bobby Darrin and used on his recording of "Mack the Knife". The Mellotron used a row of tape loops with pre-recorded sounds (say, that of a violin), one for each note. It's considered to be the first sampling keyboard.

The write-up on the auction is actually pretty interesting, going into the history behinds this model's creation and its subsequent states of repair.

It's currently going for just over two grand.

CHAMBERLIN M-300 VINTAGE SYNTH MELLOTRON KEYBOARD RARE! [eBay]

The Red Ferret Journal is challenging everyone to list all the gadgets they have in their lives that don't work as they hoped or expected. Here's mine, culled from things that are just at arm's length:

• D-Link DGL-3420 Wi-Fi Bridge – Stopped working after I updated the firmware on my D-Link DGL-4300 router. Status: Unusable on my network.

• Dell 2001FP Monitor – While Dell replaced this broken monitor under warranty, I still have to ship it back to them. Not complaining, just saying. Status: Borked.

• eVGA GeForce 7900GT Video Card – Endless video errors forced me to replace this card. Waiting on RMA. Status: Busted.

• Epson CX7800 All-In-One Printer – Dust and pet hair inside the printer—despite that I always closed it up between uses—have rendered the print head irreparably crappy. Status: Only good as a scanner.

• Netgear HDX101 Powerline Ethernet Adapter – Died just after warranty expired. Died when I removed it from the socket. Status: Trash.

• Microsoft Xbox 360 – Works just great, but is as loud as a vacuum cleaner when in use. Status: Waiting for RROD.

All in all I'm actually pretty surprised—I'm not doing as badly as I might have thought. That said, I'm not counting any of the literally dozens of gadgets that sit in Tupperware tubs in my basement or have been donated or thrown away. I don't like keeping broken things around me, because they make me sad.

Red has followed up his much larger list with a "Gadget Manifesto," a salient list of all the crimes perpetrated against gadget buyers by gadget manufacturers. Too many products. Planned obsolescence. Shoddy build quality. Unengaged customer service. Devaluation of trusted brands.

Every issue is one that gadget owners have been saddled with before. I'm still not sure what we as the nerdy edge of the market can do to fix the problems, but it's obvious most of the manufacturers aren't going to do it on their own.

The Gadget Manifesto - or 25 reasons why we're getting tired of trashy Far East manufacturing... [RedFerret.net]

Au, the "stylish" division of Japan's KDDI wireless phone carrier, has updated their popular Infobar phones. The original Infobar was one of my favorite phone designs ever, especially the red model, which looks like it's wearing a natty plaid cardigan. The new models are more bulbous than their predecessors and include the requisite updated hardware inside.

Don't bother asking if you can import or unlock one, though, as the radios inside are not compatible with any other nation's cellular networks.

Even if you think the phones are frighteningly ugly, you have to concede that it would be nice if more electronics manufacturers would make an attempt at making truly stylish products instead of black lumps with chrome bits, followed shortly by a pink model.

KDDI Announces Infobar 2 [Gadget Lab]