The new Onkyo HT-S9100THX combines a home theater receiver with a 7.1-channel home theater speaker system, all of which were designed to conform to THX’s Integrated System Plus certification protocols. It also boasts1080p capable HDMI v.1.3 connectivity, Faroudja DCDi video upscaling, Audyssey 2EQ and Dynamic EQ, and complete decoding for the latest high resolution audio formats. The system also includes the new THX Loudness Plus technology which compensates for the tonal and spatial shifts that occur when the volume level is reduced below the reference levels…

Tags:Audio, HDMI, iPod, MP3, Music, Onkyo, Speakers, Video

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We’ve shown you Jules the robotic head before, but now a team of scientists have added real-time human expression mimicking—and taken him marching right across uncanny valley. A team at the University of Bristol, UK, have combined Jules with some analytical software that looks at a person’s face and tweaks Jules’ 34 servos to copy their expression. The results are like a physical version of the software ‘bot Emily we showed you a few months ago…but combined with Jules’ real 3D rubber head it’s a scary, and I mean scary, taste of what our future robot masters servants will behave like. There’s another even scarier vid, just for Halloween.

“Researchers rarely shower!” Scary stuff indeed. Let’s hope that the ‘bots get better at smiling before we start incorporating them into healthcare or childcare environments, eh? [NewScientist]

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Filed under: Household

We’ve always thought our basement full of old Newtons and Amiga machines was pretty spooky, but we’d admit that we’ve been one-upped by Pennsylvania’s Halloween Park, which built an entire haunted mansion using off-the-shelf HAI home automation equipment. Designed by Digital Panacea, the system is “run by typical motion detectors, contacts, resets, and timers,” which trigger spooky sound effects and mechanical effects, including a leaping ghost nicknamed Dead Fred. That’s way more interesting than the usual home-automation setup, we’d say — any of you planning on re-rigging your systems at home before the kiddies come by?

Haunted house run using home automation gear originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 31 Oct 2008 13:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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In a previous article I explained how in the last year I’ve moved the majority of my data to the Cloud. By utilizing MobileMe’s syncing mechanisms, I’m able to do this without sacrificing the “comfort” and “safety” of having all my data local. This not only saves me from worrying what I’d do if all […]

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Filed under: Cellphones

Nokia’s North American N96 has already made an appearance at Best Buy Mobile locations but, if you’re the die hard type that prefers to keep things as Nokia-centric as possible, you’ll no doubt be pleased to know that Nokia’s flagship phone is now also available at Nokia’s two flagship stores in New York and Chicago. You will have to pay a slight premium for all that Nokia-ness, however, with the phone running a hefty $842 (unlocked, of course) at the stores compared to the $800 Best Buy is asking. Those with a bit more will power and slightly less affection for Nokia may want to think twice though, as Amazon now also has the phone listed for just $705.99, albeit with a promised ship date of November 9th.

[Via Symbian-Guru.com]

North American N96 hits Nokia flagship stores originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 31 Oct 2008 14:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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