R2-D2 always seemed to have the right tool for any odd job, whether it be projecting a message of distress or opening up a blast door. Now, thanks to Popular Science reader Brian De Vitis (and PAX attendee, from the look of it), Artoo will also be able to play video games from a long time ago in living rooms far, far away.

From those rows of controllers strewn out on the floor, it looks like Artoo is packing an NES, SNES, Nintendo 64, Genesis, Dreamcast, Playstation, Xbox and — just a guess — PlayStation 2.

The sweetest part? It’s also got a built-in projector for playing the games, which shines out of the same spot it did when Leia popped up and told Obi-Wan he was her only hope. There has been no greater legacy console mod than this, to be sure.

It can be seen in a recent copy of Popular Science, as pictured below.

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Intel’s been dabbling in its Moblin (get it? Mobile + Linux = Moblin?) operating system for a couple of years now. Aimed at netbooks and mobile internet devices running Intel’s Atom processors, Moblin’s already gone through a couple of versions. Now, the company is touting version 2.1, and it looks like it’s about ready to show up in Atom-running cellphones someday soon.

Moblin 2.1 does some neat tricks, including displaying numerous widgets for plenty of social networking, and multiple applications that can all run the same time in a panels-based user interface. One of the best features is its nearly instant boot time.

This micro Linux distribution running the Gecko browser is still early in its prototype stage, and Intel’s not talking about when it might actually see the light of day. When it debuts, there will be even more competition in the mobile operating system arena.

Via MidMoves

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Apparently it all started as a bet. A coworker challenged Shoebox artist Chris Grines that he wouldn’t be able to draw three robots a week, and he reckoned he could. The result? “165 Bots With Stuff,” which, as the name implies, is a gallery of robots with — well — stuff.

So far, the 55-week-long project has seen said stuff from all kinds of geeky sources. There are references to movies, games and more with callbacks to Star Wars (didn’t see any Trek, though), Transformers, Princess Bride, Zelda, and even some out-there stuff such as nods to fast food and Saturday Night Live. There are also plenty of designs where the stuff is just stuff, but humorous nonetheless.

Check out some of our favorites down below.

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Well glory be. Google has enabled push e-mail for the iPhone. Ever since we started using the iPhone, we wished for this, and in the meantime used GPush, which was off to a rocky start but now works perfectly. Anyway, now there’s no third-party app necessary, because Google worked around Apple and modified Google Sync, working through the Microsoft Exchange account on the iPhone to bring your e-mail messages instantly.

Now, those e-mails are updated in the same way you could previously sync your calendar and contacts. No more waiting around for those messages to be pulled at preselected intervals, or manually checking your e-mail — hooray! There’s one catch: You can only use one Exchange client at a time, so if you use Microsoft Exchange at work, you can’t use Exchange for push Gmail.

Nice, Google. Now if you can just figure out how to work around Apple’s mulish refusal to approve a Google Voice dialer for the iPhone, justice will be done. I’m hearing a few people say GPush is faster than push Gmail over the Microsoft Exchange client, so I’m thinking I’ll stick with GPush for now. Let us know about your experiences and comparisons in the comments.

Via TechCrunch

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This looks like a lot more fun than air hockey: Four players use joysticks to control tiny wireless robots in MaruBot Football League, where each of the little guys seems to have a personality. Their LED eyes indicate happiness after a goal is scored, or sadness after a loss. Aww.

The game’s makers also have a heart, claiming the MaruBot game inspires “cooperation and partnership, minimizing individualism, isolation, violence of online games.” If a four-player game sounds like too much togetherness for you, there’s also a two-player version. Now a big hit in Korea, the game could someday show up at an arcade near you.

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Babies have a lot of needs and no way to tell you what they are specifically at any given time. Instead they just cry, and parents have to figure it out.

This Baby Cry Analyzer looks to change that, analyzing the frequency of your baby’s crying to determine whether the little tyke is hungry, bored, annoyed, sleepy or stressed. Is it accurate? Who knows, but I’d be surprised if it can beat a parent’s intuition.

Amazon, via Book of Joe

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In the days when Ronnie was in the White House, penis envy ruled the superpowers’ nuclear arms race and David Hasslehoff was the west’s epitome of “cooool,” one car kept communist Europe running…

The Trabant. There was nothing this little runabout wouldn’t do to be cheap.

Its engine, a 600cc two stroke, would outperform your neighbour’s lawnmower… just. The fuel tank was *in* the engine; to refuel you opened the hood and splashed petrol around right next to a red-hot carburetor.

Even the bodywork was superior: the Trabant was made predominantly of plastic… it may not take an impact as well as metal, but at least is didn’t rust!

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You’d be forgiven if you thought former computer giant SGI (Silicon Graphics, Inc.) had gone extinct. But the California company responsible for the computing engines behind such special effects flicks as Jurassic Park and other 90s blockbusters is still alive and kicking, and proves it’s still a T-Rex with its Octane III Personal Supercomputer.

You can stuff 80 cores’ worth of Intel quad-core Xeon processor goodness into this beast, accompanied by advanced NVIDIA graphics and nearly a terabyte of memory. For more efficiency, you can slip 19 of those tiny, low-power single-socket dual-core Intel Atom processors inside. This 1×2-foot deskside workstation is said to be ultraquiet, too.

That $100,000-and-up pricing of the old SGI has also gone the way of the dinosaur — this hot box’s pricing starts at $7995. Sure, the 80-core version will cost a lot more than that, but it’ll still be a far cry from 100 grand. And it puts even the most powerful PC workstations to shame. Could this mean the old SGI is back?

SGI, via Oh Gizmo

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This debate has already taken so many faces, and been argued so many times, that I cannot hope to add much more to it.

But I’ll try anyway.

A new study published by the Journal of Consumer Research has found that many Hummer owners excuse their large, oft-unnecessary H1 and H2s by crying patriotism and quoting American ideals like individualism. So are Hummer owners the morally righteous in the debate of anti-consumerism versus over-consumption?

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You’re a patriot, aren’t you? You love your country? Of course you do. But if that’s the case, why are you waking up to some normal alarm clock that doesn’t start your day off with a dose of patriotism?

This American flag alarm clock does that, raising the flag, playing some patriotic music and setting off a cannon to wake you up in the morning. The only thing more patriotic to wake up to is AM talk radio.

Jump in Banana via Nerd Approved

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We’ve seen insane air hockey tables from the future, but what about foosball? Don’t worry, it’s not getting left out. Say hello to Space Foosball.

Sure, you could argue that turning foosball into a tabletop video game removes some of the charm of the game, what with the fun of spinning paddles to fling a real ball around the table. But this physics-powered game should still provide you with a decent time.

Space Foosball Project via Gizmodo

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The architectural marvels of Japan never cease to amaze as exampled with this latest structure found in Hiroshima, Japan that could easily double as one of the Sleestak temples in The Land Of The Lost.

Located in the city of Saijo, known for its many sake breweries, the home’s futurist design was based on the decidedly primitive style of ancient pit dwellings of Northern Japan that existed over 5,000 years ago. The Saijo project is just the latest innovation from the Suppose Design Office, you can see more of their unconventional work here.

Via Design Boom

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We’ve just had these beautiful photos and a lovely update from Mac’s happy owners.

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Mr Stringer has been through a lot recently and is hoping for a loving new home where he can curl up on his own special bed and enjoy life. He’s a little Shih Tzu who is somewhere over 8 and would make a fantastic companion for some lucky person.

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A bunch of Aeronautics and Astronautics students from Stanford has broken the altitude record with a self-piloted plane. Last September 11, at Edwards Airbase, the group made four attempts with a pair of one-pound balsa-and-foam battery-powered propeller aircraft they designed and built themselves. Although they crashed and burned on two occasions, their second flight reached the impressive height of 7,142 feet — not that the ground crew were impressed, as they thought that their $500 model planes could do better.

Their first throw, using a plane named Cero Suave, crashed and burned after a few seconds, due to a communication error. Second up was Blue Panther (no relation to this little beauty) whose textbook takeoff broke the altitude record before losing contact with Ground Control on the edge of the airbase. Thanks to a smooth landing in automatic mode, Blue Panther made it back down to earth safely — until its third flight of the day, during which it reached the heady heights of 8,169 feet, but was forced to crash land after it flew out of the airspace allocated it by NASA.

“The students got to do a fast-paced project in which they went from a blank sheet of paper to testing out what their objective was and then achieving it,” claimed one of the class teaching assistants. “The goal was to set a new altitude record and they did.” The project is likely to be of interest to both companies and government agencies, who realise that a bunch of sub-$1,000 planes fitted with cameras or environmental sensors, is a more interesting prospect than a handful of large, rather costly drones.

Stanford News Via Wired

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Tyler and Lincoln have lived together all their lives and would love a new home where that can continue. They’re 9 year old GSD/Akita crosses and love people, are fine with other dogs and could live with children over 9.

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Molly and Bobby would love a home where they can be together for the rest of their days. They are firm friends and love to play together. They’re lovely dogs and would be happy to live in a family where the children are over about 6.

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This handsome boy is Sultan, an 11 year old GSD. He loves affection and going for walks. He gets on well with other dogs and would be fine to live with children over 10.

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Sheba really needs a forever home with an experienced owner where she can recline on the sofa and watch the world go by. She will need an adult only home where she is the only dog.

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Heidi is an 8 year old Rottie who needs a loving, adult only home. She’s ok with other dogs and might even be able to live with a cat. She loves walks, toys and food, not necessarily in that order.

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