Among their plasticky robotic things, WowWee introduced their new Alive line of cubs.  The panda, white tiger, polar bear and lion cubs are actually articulated robots with sensors that detect the angle at which they are being held and where they are being touched.  The Alive Cubs will be available this Spring at an MSRP of $59.

On the plasticky side of things, in addition to the Mr. Personality robot just released, WowWee has three robots on deck: the Tribot, the Rovio, and the Bladestar.  The Tribot is a remote controlled, 3-wheeled robot which features an alarm clock and can move in almost any direction.  Tribot will be available this spring for an estimated $99.  The Rovio is a roving robotic video and audio recorder which can be controlled remotely through its own website.  The website also broadcasts Rovio’s video and audio feeds.  Rovio will be available in the fourth quarter of 2008 for an estimated $299.  The Bladestar is the next generation Dragonfly - a super capacitor powers the wings, and an infrared signal bounces off obstacles (walls, ceilings, exceptionally large headed friends) to make sure Bladestar stays on an unobstructed flight path.  Bladestar will be available in February for an estimated $49.

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It’s 10:00.  Do you know where your dog is?  Or your car, or the loved one who is responsible for the car?  Zoombak is aiming to make sure you never have to look far to get the answer to that question.  Their advanced GPS locators come in two sizes, one perfect for placing in an auto and one made to clip on to the collar of a dog weighing 12 pounds or more.

Both versions of Zoombak offer the ability to set up “safety zones,”  via the Zoombak website.  When the auto or dog that is wearing the Zoombak GPS unit leaves the safety zone, Zoombak will send a text message or an email with the location of the unit, and the location can be tracked live on Zoombak’s website.

Dog and Auto units retail for $200 and $250 respectively, and Zoombak’s monthly service starts at $9.99 a month.

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Cordless extension cords?  Powerbeam has it covered.  Right now, Powerbeam is perfecting a wireless, laser-based power transfer system that can act as an extension cord to power devices using a line-of-sight system that will send power as far as you need it to go.  The lasers are about the size of pepper flakes, and will transfer tens of watts of power, and in the future could transfer more.

Powerbeam has patented a battery powered safety system on the back end of the product that will stop the laser (which creates a warm feeling where it comes into contact with a person, nothing ray gun-esque here) when someone crosses its path.

Powerbeam estimates that their power transfer system is 12 months out to the consumer market.

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We gave you the details on how to jailbreak your 1.1.3 iPhone on OS X, but don’t think we forgot about people running the trusty Windows OS.

Luckily, we have a special edition of iBrickr, which will allow you to jailbreak your iPhone very easily, all you need is a little patience. In case you missed it, check out our iPhone 1.1.3 video tour.

By the way, if you are looking for an excellent program to create custom ringtones for your iPhone, check out iPhone RingToneMaker.

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Now that we know that the iPhone 1.1.3 jailbreak method has been released, we figured it would be good of us to give you a video tutorial showing you how to get it done. After all, you all enjoyed our old-school 1.1.1 jailbreak video, right?

In this video, we provide step-by-step instructions that will help anyone upgrade their iPhone to a jailbreaked version of the 1.1.3 firmware. This should keep you tided over until that pesky SDK is released, right?

By the way, if you are looking for an excellent program to create custom ringtones for your iPhone, check out iPhone RingToneMaker, who sponsored this episode.

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One of this year’s hottest topics is storage.  It seems like we’re about two steps away from getting flash drives as prizes in cereal boxes.  With the release of OSX Leopard and its Time Machine app, backing up computers has become easier than ever.  Enter Data Robotics’ Drobo storage robot.

As easy to use as a flash drive, the Drobo has four slots to accommodate 3.5” SATA I or II hard drives, and automatically makes redundant copies of data in order to protect from single drive failure.  Drobo uses USB 2.0 to make backing up quickly, and is fully operable with OSX and Windows 2000 and up.

Retailing at $499, Drobo comes with everything you need to get started except the hard drives.  It’s available now from online retailers.

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Bowers and Wilkins has long been known for their stunning audiophile loudspeaker and home theater equipment so it’s no surprise that their foray into the iPod/iPhone speaker dock territory is an impressive one. The new Zeppelin dock features a subwoofer and two midrange/tweeters all in a single compact unit. The odd football shape does indeed bring to mind it’s airship namesake with a look that is sure to draw a second look for passers by. The downside - it’s $600; or $200 more than you spent on the iPhone that goes in it.

In the video we show off the product, and even demonstrate how it handles an iPhone taking a call while in use. Amazingly, there is no GSM interference to be found. Definitely a plus.

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Outback hikers and urban explorers alike are often faced with a common problem: how to grab some juice on the go for power-hungry devices. These new backpacks and soon to be briefcases offer a potential solution by pairing next generation solar cells with a battery to enable on the go charging. While the charging might be slow (all day to charge a laptop) it’s certainly a great option in the face of an otherwise completely drained cell phone or laptop.

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We chat with Neuros’ Joe Born about what Neuros has in store in the near future and about their approach to making their media players open source. We also discuss how they’re the only embedded media device company open sourcing their software for the devices and what that means to them. They’ve seen a great deal of tech community involvement and more from bringing their devices into open source. See the video, recorded from Showstoppers at CES 2008.

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Home automation is becoming a big theme at consumer electronics trade shows like CES. Many companies have been promising the ‘smart house’ for years – a house that automatically anticipates and responds to its inhabitants wants and needs. HawkingTech was showing off some preliminary tech which could help hearken the days of the smart house with a variety of available now products – check out the video for a demonstration of what is to come.

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