Vizio to release the Via Tablet and Via Phone

Vizio, one of the biggest HDTV retailers in the world, is planning on releasing two more new products with the Via series, which include the Via Phone and Via Tablet.

These Via products are designed to be remotes for Vizio’s Google TVs. This Via experience combines “content consumption from one device and seamlessly transition the content to another device allowing entertainment to be continuously enjoyed anywhere and anyplace without interruption”.

The Via Plus Phone and Tablet will be on the Android operating system, and have a built-in IR blaster along with a universal remote control app, HD playback, with HDMI output. Both devices will feature access to the thousands of Apps in Android.

The Via Phone has a 4-inch screen, a 5 Megapixel rear facing camera, front facing camera, as well as an HDMI port. The Tablet has an 8-inch screen, front-facing camera, as well as 3 separate speakers.

The release of the Via Phone and Via Tablet comes just in time for CES 2011 in Las Vegas. It doesn’t look like Vizio has any booth on display, which is no real surprise. Their pattern is to rent out some space at the Wynn Hotel and allow people to come to them. If I have time, I’ll visit them myself.

Charles the GPS robot can read a driver’s expressions

This week, we are going to be at CES 2011 in Vegas, and we will be covering a lot of brand spanking new technology from a lot of real companies. I thought that I would get this conceptual product out of the way before I head down to Vegas tomorrow.

This is Charles, a GPS unit that is not a small box that suction cups to your dashboard. As you can see from the picture, Charles has a head along with shoulders. (He is the one on the right, by the way.)

Charles is designed from scientists at Cambridge, and it can read the user’s facial expression, voice tone, as other behavioral hints so it is “more sympathetic to your mood”.

I’m not certain what that means. Does this mean it says things like “it’s okay, you’re not lost” in a sensitive voice so I don’t feel too bad about not being there by now? By the way, my Source says that Charles is “70 percent accurate at gauging the emotional state of the driver”. I had no idea that our technology was that accurate.

I guess that I wouldn’t mind having a GPS that is a little more human, but this is a little too human. It reminds me of the Johnny Cab from Total Recall, only Charles is the passenger and not the driver.

The Scooba 230 and Roomba 700 series updates by iRobot

I’m sure a lot of you probably can’t live without those circular robot discs that clean up our floors while we sit back and do what we want to do: not clean.

You’ll be pleased to know that iRobot, the company that makes the Roomba, has come up with some upgrades to the 700 series that include the 760, 770, and 780. You can see an image of one of them on the left.

The company has also come out with the Scooba 230, which is the tiny disc that you see on the right. The 230 is 3.5 inches tall and 6.5 inches in diameter, and it is a terrific cleaner for places you don’t want to clean.

For example, it is able to squeeze between the toilet and the wall, and it is able to mop around chair legs as well. It can be filled up with water right from the faucet, and it keeps dirty water and cleaning solution separate for washing, scrubbing, and squeegee jobs. It can then beep and flash when the job is done.

I don’t have a date of their release, but I’m sure these devices will make an appearance at CES. You should be able to get the Scooba 230 for $300, the Roomba 760 for $450, the Roomba 770 for $500, and the Roomba 780 for $550.

Cool NASA Gadgets and other artifacts go up for auction

A piece of NASA's historic technology goes up for sale ...

If you’re like me, growing up, you never got the space program out of your blood. I remember watching Neil Armstrong take that one small step on a grainy black and white TV and thinking I’d graduate college on Mars. Alas, my martian education wasn’t meant to be, but if I could afford it, I’d definitely be springing for some of the coolest NASA gadgets that are currently up for auction …

Included in the auction,certified and run by RR Auctions, is the headset that astronaut and capcom Charlie Duke used to communicate with Apollo 11 when Neil and Buzz set foot on the moon. You may recall his infamous retort upon landing – “Tranquility, we copy you on the ground. You got a bunch of guys about to turn blue. We’re breathing again. Thanks a lot!”. And with a few adapters, I know I could do a skypecast with it on my laptop!

Also up for grabs is an official, pre flown, Apollo command module control panel, a page torn from the original Apollo 11 flight plan and signed by Neil and Buzz, maps used by the astronauts on the lunar surface during Apollo 17, and a curiously entertaining photo of Playboy’s Playmate of the Month which was hidden inside the cockpit of the Apollo 12 command module for astronaut Richard Gordon to find.

There are also a host of autographed photographs and other artifacts which are up for bids as well. The auction begins January 13th.