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By Chris Scott Barr

I have a cat, and like most other felines she loves laser pointers. I generally spend a little bit each day using it to drive her crazy. It really doesn’t take much effort, and it entertains me almost as much as it does her. However, if you don’t feel like putting all of the effort into waving you wrist around, you can get a device to do it for you.

The Frolicat Bolt is a laser pointer that moves around on its own. You can set it on a table (or any other surface really) and have it move the laser in a random pattern for 15 minutes, after which time it will automatically turn off. You can also put it on manual mode and use it like an ordinary pointer. If you’re too busy to keep up with your cat, you can pick one of these up for just $20.

[ Frolicat ] VIA [ CoolestGadgets ]

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By Evan Ackerman

You don’t generally expect much from a cell phone that costs less than sixty bucks, and with the Samsung E1107, you don’t get much. It’s got a 128 x 128 display, an FM radio, and a built-in flashlight. The reason that you’d buy it is the solar panel the takes up the entire back of the phone, promising up to 10 minutes of call time per hour in the sun. While not the most efficient way of charging your phone, it’s a million times better than an iPhone 3GS at out of power performance, and at least gives you an option for mobile charging.

The other reason to get this phone is that it’s good for the Earth: it helps reduce global warming. Not in the way you’re thinking, that would be too obvious. No, I’m talking about how having a solar panel out in the sun absorbs photons, preventing them from imparting their horrible energy into the ground and making everything just a little bit cooler. If everybody was using solar powered cell phones, not only would we be saving energy charging them, but charging them would actually cool the planet by some fraction of a degree that I’m just going to go ahead and call significant and important! Yay solar power!

So far, the E1107 is available pretty much everywhere except the US. Why must they taunt us so?

[ Newswire ] VIA [ Samsung Hub ]

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Yes, KIRF number two hundred is a special affair. The HiPhone Nano N3 is one of those knockoffs that transcends the category and is just plain awesome all on its own. We can’t vouch for its performance or build of course, but the N3 clamshell is part iPhone, part RAZR, and part iPod, with a little bit of Star Trek: TNG attitude thrown in for good measure. Seriously, though guys: we weren’t kidding when we hinted (told you) that this would be a perfect birthday gift. June 15th. Think about it. Oh, and Happy 200th KIRFday, Engadget! One more glorious shot after the break.

[Via PMP Today]

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Oh Probo, you’ve come so far. Just a few years back you were an cute little green fuzzy thing trying to make a name for yourself by partying the night away with geek celebrities. Now you’re out in the wild, looking tired, sporting a wrinkled flannel covering, proboscis hanging dangerously low, and a pair of eyes that truly tell the tale of all you’ve been through. Those eyes and that schnoz are fully movable and programmable, and that touchscreen on the belly can be made to show children’s tales of all sorts, but sadly Probo still can’t give the one thing he was made for: hugs. Maybe in his quest for fame he lost a little bit of his purpose along the way — maybe it’s for the best.
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• iRobot says its Warrior bot is more human than ASIMO (0)

Is a humanoid robot inherently more human than your average task-specific bot? iRobot apparently doesn’t think so, and it’s taken square aim at one of the most popular humanoid bots around to make its point. That argument arose in a recent interview with CNET News, where iRobot CEO Colin Angle responded to a question about humanoid robots by flatly asking, “why would you want to make a humanoid robot?,” adding that they might be good for movies or those looking for a robot companion, “but other than that, most tasks are best tackled by designs that are not constrained by trying to look like a person.” He then goes on to note that Honda’s ASIMO “requires a team of 10 or 15 people to maintain it, it can walk about, maybe, half a meter per second and in some situations climb stairs over the course of a few minutes, and if it ever falls down, it’s a paperweight.” On the other hand, iRobot’s Warrior bot, he says, “can take a 10-foot drop onto concrete, drive 20 miles an hour, drive up stairs without stopping at full speed, carry 200 pounds of payload and has, maybe, five motors,” which means it can “go nearly everywhere a human can.” So, Angle says, “you look at these things and say, which one of these is a robot human? The answer is, Warrior.” Is it? Or, deep down, is there a little bit of ASIMO in all of us?

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By Evan Ackerman

I’m sure that some of you are stalwart, law abiding citizens who always drive at 5 mph under the speed limit. That’s great, but you should know that you really, really annoy the rest of us who actually have places to go and people to see and need to drive damn fast. Outrunning cops is usually not a problem, but outrunning speed cameras is a little bit trickier (although not technically impossible). What to do?

The MicroGO, from RoadPilot, is a tiny little GPS system that knows the location of every speed camera everywhere. In, um, the UK and Europe. The MicroGO also knows the speed limit, and it’s smart enough to only alert you if you’re going too fast and in the right direction to get tagged by a camera. As new cameras are installed, the MicroGO can be synced with an online database to keep it up to date. Plus, the screen can be changed to 64 different colors, awesome!

The MicroGO costs the equivalent of about $120, with an update subscription cost of less than $6 a month.

[ MicroGO ] VIA [ Navigadget ]

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Mysterious music man A.J. Gannon’s put together this wild Rock Band guitar / Speak n’ Spell hybrid for use on his upcoming album. Calling it the Speak n’ Spellbinder, the letters are individually mapped to the buttons on the neck of the axe and it boasts tons of really insane effects. The result is something a little grating, if totally, randomly awesome. Just further debunks that myth about video games making you lazy, doesn’t it? Check out the video demonstration after the break, and be sure to hit the read link for many, many more insane instruments made by Gannon.

[Via Make]

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Taking global climate change as seriously as anyone is these days, Samsung has trotted out a pair of new SyncMaster 70 series monitors, on the green tip. Coming in at your choice of either 20- or 23-inches, the displays sport a 50000:1 contrast ration, 2ms response time, and consume thirty-three percent less energy than previous Sammy outings. No word yet on screen resolution, release date, or price. Don’t tell us that you’re not a little bit excited. Just a little?

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After a little bit of suspense-free rumoring, the 11.6-inch Acer Aspire One is now official — and pretty lovable. It’s an inch thick, boasts a LED backlit screen with WXGA resolution, and runs the usual netbook internals like an Intel Atom processor, 160GB HDD and 802.11 b/g WiFi. On top of that there’s Bluetooth, 3G, Dolby Pro Logic Sound and a multicard reader. It’s also got a 8-hour lifespan with a 6 cell 5200mAh battery. Build quality is top-notch for its class, and we’d say Acer’s doing good by the Aspire One name — though they’re messing with any sort of tight definition of “netbook” in the process. No word yet on price or availability.
Gallery: Acer Aspire One 11.6-inch hands-on