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Bill Gates was on hand for TechEd down in Orlando where he let loose some interesting surprises.  Announcing beta releases of IE8 and Silverlight 2, Gates says IE8 will come in August (meeting their forecast) and Silverlight 2 beta will show up at weeks end (early!).  As Gates is somewhat prone to do as of late, he credited developers as Microsoft’s savior.

In a more bizarre step, Microsoft thought it would be funny to build a robot with Steve Ballmer’s face (as if we didn’t have our doubts about the real one).  The Steve-Bot 3000 (my name, not theirs) rolled out to showcase Microsofts advancements in robotics.  Apparently an egg was thrown.

It is good to hear a real investment being made on IE, it has been a bit since we’ve seen some real advancements to the browser and Silverlight is touted by many as a real credible cross browser interesting.

Read [The Register]

The future of humanoid robotics has arrived with the introduction of Robosapien V2 from WowWee Robotics. Just like his predecessor Robosapien, Robosapien V2 (RoboV2) is a mind blowing fusion of technology and personality. RoboV2 sees, hears and even speaks 160 phrases! If he was any more realistic he would be human!

This super-intelligent robot responds accordingly to just about anything you do. For example, if you surprise him and put your hand in front of his face in a ‘stop’ motion, he’ll flinch and say, ‘whoa.’

Eight inches taller than the original Robosapien, the 22-inch Robosapien V2 is packed with even more advanced dynamic motion, interactive sensors, and 100 new preprogrammed functions and speech capability. Robosapien V2 has a multi-sensory, interactive personality, fluid biomechanical agility, and attitude. Advanced agility allows Robosapien V2 to move like a human. His articulated waist, shoulders, wrists and hands give him a full range of motion that allow him to pick up, drop and throw objects; sit, twist from side to side, bend, lie down, sit up and stand up again.

Read [Product Page]

Gadgetell would like to welcome Chris to the gadge. He is a computer wiz who loves to talk and write about tech. Watch out, his posts may go all crazy digital 0101010101110000 on us.

Ever get that eerie feeling that the furniture in your room is alive and moving around? No? I am really the only one? Well you will after watching this Dynamic Art project.

Max Dean, Raffaello D’Andrea and Matt Donovan have created a chair that breaks apart and then reassembles itself. Though not much information can be gathered from the video as to whether the chair is being controlled by remote or using artificial intelligence to get back together, it’s still cool.

Via [Make]
Watch video [D’Andrea Group Interactive & Dynamic Art]