By now, you're no doubt well acquainted with the Albert Hubo Einstein robot developed by the mad scientists at KAIST, but some researchers at the University of California, San Diego has also been working on their own Einstein bot for the past little while, and they've now managed to teach it some new tricks. While the bot has previously been able to display a full range of expressions through some pre-programmed facial movements, it's now able to teach itself how to smile or display other emotions thanks to a new trial-and-error technique dubbed "body babble." That apparently works by comparing Einstein's attempts at an expression with some facial recognition software, which provides Al with some positive feedback each time he manages an actual expression. Did we mention there's a video? Check it out after the break.

[Via Switched]

You don't have to look far past Palm's Synergy tech for webOS and smaller-scale operations like INQ to understand that social internetworking -- an intelligent aggregation of every corner of your life -- is the wave of the mobile future, and Google's going on record saying that it understands. At a T-Mobile- and Google-sponsored event in San Francisco earlier today, Andy Rubin (you know, the Android dude) discussed upcoming releases in Android's pipeline starting with Donut, which we've already heard mentioned, but then progressing to "Eclair" and "Flan" without mentioning specific timelines. He didn't bust out any comprehensive roadmaps, but he waxed poetic about some of the social-centric possibilities -- for example, being kept abreast of a contact's Facebook photo and latest update every time they call -- and mentioned that developers will soon have additional options for charging for apps (presently, Google Checkout is the only way to handle it, but carrier billing is coming soon).

He also reiterated that the hardware pipeline for Android is staggeringly massive, with 15 to 20 phones coming this year alone. One manufacturer actually had the stones to show him eighteen Android-powered devices in a recent meeting -- sounds like a very Samsung-esque thing to do, but whether it's Samsung, HTC, or someone else, we're happy to hear once again that the Magic, Hero, Dream, and Galaxy won't be the only games in town for long.

[Via Phone Scoop]

So as it turns out, Intel isn't just casually accepting of Google's new OS initiative, it's actually been privy to the project for some time now, according to a spokesperson for the chipmaker. The two have apparently also worked together (and are potentially still working together) on portions of Chrome OS, he says, which really makes it all the more curious that the company isn't mentioned among Google's first partners while Qualcomm, Freescale, and Texas Instruments are. Then again, said inclusion might make the Moblin team more than a little bit upset, and either way, let's not forget that Atom chips will be sold regardless of which OS is on the system -- it's really kind of a win-win situation that we reckon the hardware division isn't complaining about.

Better late than never, we suppose. Our friends at Mobile Crunch have it on word from a HTC spokesperson that a "vast majority of devices we launch after Hero" are gonna be including a 3.5mm headphone jack as a standard feature. The rep also added that devices already announced would "not necessarily be part of this change," which while not ruling it out entirely, doesn't get our hopes up. Still, it's refreshing to know the future generations won't be beholden to the adapter-laden shackles of its ancestors -- so Lancaster, where will you fall in all this mess?

[Via Smartphone Thoughts]

If you're particularly attuned to tech gossip, you'll know that Google's Chrome OS announcement has prompted a lot of whispers about something called "Gazelle" being cooked up in Microsoft's labs. Part browser, part OS, the word on the street is that Gazelle will be announced soon, and ultimately compete in some way with either Chrome (the browser) or Chrome (the OS). As usual, most of this is just based on hopes and fairytales, but the scholarly folks at Ars Technica have done some digging and come up with a white paper from Microsoft Research that details some of what Gazelle is all about -- and surprise surprise, although it shares some similarities with Chrome, it's actually quite different.

At the most general level, Gazelle is an experiment in building an ultrasecure browser. Like Chrome, it breaks tasks up into different processes, but instead of separating at the page level, Gazelle breaks individual page elements into different processes, allowing content from different servers to be isolated and ultimately providing fine-grained security controls. To manage all these different processes, there's a central "kernel," which is where all the OS talk stems from -- it's all still running on Windows, and the rendering engine is still IE's Trident engine, but Gazelle manages all those separate processes independently, kind of like a virtualized OS. It's certainly interesting stuff, but it's still all just a research project for now -- Chrome OS is still vapor, but it's clear that Google intends to ship something, while Gazelle seems more suited to inspire future versions of IE. Still, it's interesting reading if you're into it, so hit the read link for more.

Read - Ars Technica analysis
Read - Microsoft Gazelle white paper [Warning: PDF]

[Image courtesy of Robert Scoble]

The other day, whilst sitting in the waiting room of a doctor's office, awaiting the inevitable bad news to come down the pipeline (you're dead, you're dying, no that rash can't be treated), I attempted to do something daring with my iPhone 3GS. I attempted to work. I say attempted, because what dawned on me -- separated from my laptop, a netbook, or any viable computing system -- was that I couldn't really get much of my work done on Apple's bundle of joy. It wasn't the first time I tried to get work done on my phone, but it was one of the first times that I really thought about how frustrating the experience is. What follows is my heartbreaking tale of staggering lameness. Or staggering tale of heartbreaking lameness. Your pick.

Hey, nice Samsung Galaxy you got there! Whoa, whoa, wait... you sure you want to turn that thing on? Are you physically and emotionally prepared for what happens next? See, in a world where space travel knows no boundaries, Facebook has its own planet, and Samsung makes Android-powered phones, cute robots ride (yes, ride) i7500s from heavenly body to heavenly body in search of entertainment and friendship. Follow the break for the whole video, and watch really closely for the part at the end where the Galaxy collides with Earth and accidentally causes an extinction-level event.

[Via HDblog.it]

Looks like RIM's getting serious about optical trackballs -- first the Curve 8520 ditched the spinner and now it looks like the Onyx has been upgraded as well. That's pretty much just as we've all expected ever since we first laid eyes on this 3G mashup of the Bold and Curve 8900, and we're pretty stoked about it, since we find optical trackballs to be pretty great. Of course, there's no word on a ship date, but we're hoping it'll be soon.

[Via Boy Genius Report]

You might imagine that Cradlepoint's feeling a bit of heat since Novatel released its fantastic MiFi series, since the whole idea behind Cradlepoint's gear is to turn 3G modems into WiFi access points. It's cool, though, Cradlepoint managed to find a tricky angle: you can't charge the MiFi, use it as a USB modem, and have WiFi enabled at the same time! We still think we'd stare, point, and laugh if we were walking through an airport and saw some dude with these two cute little boxes tethered to one another, but we've got to admit that this is a pretty big Achilles' heel that Cradlepoint's managed to solve here; all it takes is a firmware update for your Cradlepoint, and voilà, you've now got MiFi compatibility.

The HTC Hero and T-Mobile myTouch 3G aren't the only Android phones making waves this week: the Samsung Galaxy GT-I7500 also launched on O2 Germany, and this is the first unboxing we've seen. Continuing the confusion over what handsets actually get the full Google blessing, this version of the I7500 runs pretty much bone-stock Android, but isn't a "Google Experience" phone, which in this case apparently means that firmware updates have to be loaded manually over USB instead of being pushed over the air. If you're keeping track, that's now a third axis of differentiation between Google-branded Android handsets and everything else, and we're starting to think no one really knows what all the rules and differences actually are -- hey, Eric, maybe you could set down that BlackBerry for a minute and sort all this out?

This whole global economic crisis, and its resulting massive loss of jobs got us thinking. We here at Engadget didn't want to stand helplessly by, announcing every new round of misery without giving anything back -- so we decided to take the opportunity to spread a little positivity. We'll be handing out a new gadget every day (except for weekends) to lucky readers until we run out of stuff or companies stop sending things. Today we've got a Joby Gorillapod SLR on offer, perfect for keeping your shiny new (or old, whatever) DSLR steady even in awkward situations. Read the rules below (no skimming -- we're omniscient and can tell when you've skimmed) and get commenting! Hooray for free stuff!

Major thanks to Joby for providing the gear!

The rules:

It's not the fabled GSM Pre, but PreCentral forum member Cleanser has apparently managed to unlock his Pre's CDMA radio and get voice and SMS service on Verizon -- data's still a no-go, but he's working on it. Other devices have been flashed between the networks for years, so we've no doubt that this is possible, but we doubt it'll ever be super-easy -- according to Cleanser, the hardest part was getting someone to add his device's MEID to the system, and that's always gonna be tough, regardless of VZW's big talk about open network access. Still, it's heartening to see a webOS device on another carrier -- Palm, you want to maybe do this up official sometime? Video after the break.

[Via PreCentral]

It's been a little while since we'd heard anything about the super-slim MSI X600 -- part of the X-Slim lineup they've unleashed upon the world. NewGadget's gotten their hands on one, and it's looking pretty sexy, we have to admit. We already know that there will supposedly be two offerings for this 15.6-incher -- one with a 1.4GHz Intel Core 2 Solo processor, 4GB of RAM, and a 500GB hard drive, and the other with a 1.2GHz Intel Celeron processor, 3GB of RAM, and a 320GB hard drive. We still don't have official word on US release or pricing, but the video's after the break.

Coming in today with no fewer than five new laptops -- the U50VG, K50AB, K70AB, K50IJ and F52Q -- the king of market segmentation is clearly still in good form. Announced in Italy today, the main attraction for Intel fans is the U50VG, which sports a 2.1GHz Core 2 Duo T6500 chip alongside 4GB of memory, 250GB storage, and a Geforce G 105M for a price of €943 or $1,320. A backlit chiclet keyboard, WiFi and a 16:9 display stretching to 15.6-inches fill out the spec sheet. The AMD-based AB variants are 15.6 (€793 / $1,107) and 17.3-inches (€868 / $1,212) respectively -- their main attraction being an ATI Mobility Radeon HD4570 purring inside -- whereas the latter two models are targeted at the budget-conscious crowd. Click through for exhaustive specs and info on each model.

[Via Slashgear]

It looks like at least one round of the battle between Funai and VIZIO is drawing to a close, and it's a big win for VIZIO. U.S. Customs has ruled that all current VIZIO TVs do not infringe on Funai's Patent 6,115,074 -- which was rejected by the Patent Office a few months ago. With the USPTO and US Customs now on the same page, all the bureaucratic checkmarks are in place and VIZIO TVs can freely enter the US on their immigrant-inspired journey to homes all across this fair land. Next up is VIZIO's countersuit against Funai -- with drama like this unfolding between TV manufacturers, who needs an actual TV for entertainment?