Meet Jazz, Europe’s Telepresent Answer to the Anybot

Gostai, Europe’s long time maker of robotic software has decided to take a stab at developing its own telepresence robots. Meet Jazz, a line of robots that includes “Jazz Connect” technology for telepresence in the office or anywhere in the world, “Jazz Icon” for companies who want to promote their image and “Jazz Security” for surveillance and security.

Measuring just 1-meter tall, Jazz robots are mobile, fitted with a camera and connected to the Internet via WiFi. Users can connect to the robot via any web browser to take part in a meeting or check in on employees in an interactive way by talking though Jazz’s embedded loudspeaker while controlling the robot’s moves via an intuitive interface.

Jazz looks and acts a lot like on of my favorite Silicon Valley robots, the Anybot QB, which made our list of Robots that Rocked in 2010 and recently started shipping out to customers. Anybot and Jazz are both part of an ongoing trend into telepresence robotics. Commuting may soon become a thing of the past.

Jazz Connect and Icon are available now, for sale starting at €7900. The security bot runs a bit higher, retailing at €8400, which is still quite a bit cheaper than Anybot’s US $15,000 price tag.

Watch a video of Jazz in action here.

Viewsonic gTab, the little Android tablet that could

Gather round children and let us tell you the story of the little best android tablet that could, the Viewsonic gTablet .

Once upon a time (November 2010), in the midst of a slew of terrible Android tablets assaulting the senses of techies the world over, the powerful gTablet (affectionately known as the gTab) came along with specs that wouldn’t be seen on competitors for months to come (a 10.1 screen, Tegra 2 processor and half a gig of RAM). It also sported a full-size USB, mini-USB and micoSD card slot, all of which are also sought after by consumers that want to move their media and files on and off their slates.

Price-wise, it started out in the $400 range – so even when new, it was less than the iPad – but competition and a pretty horrendous screen if you’re not looking at it head-on (the viewing angle is something like 30 degrees, compared to the iPad’s 178 degrees), led to consistent price drops over the first six months of 2011, and as recently as a two weeks ago, the vigilant were able to snag one for only $249. But even at this low price, you might guess that this product that doesn’t have GPS, a compass, a gyroscope or HDMI-out wouldn’t be winning out over more fully featured Android tablets like the Motorola Xoom, Asus Transformer, Acer Iconia and Galaxy Tab 10.1, right?

Well, with the exception of the Transformer, you’d be wrong. Even with all of the competition, the Viewsonic gTab is still selling like hotcakes on sites like TigerDirect (where is the #2 selling tablet, right between the 16gb and 32gb versions of the Transformer) and Woot , which recently sold 10,000 of them in a day. How could that be?

Well, again, price is certainly a large, if not the largest factor – at $249 with free shipping (and no sales tax) that’s half the price of the iPad 2 and $150 less than the $399 16gb Transformer (which, for those of you that don’t want to bother with custom ROMs is certainly the best buy on the market). The price point, however, isn’t what has made this seemingly average-at-best Android tablet a consistent seller over the last eight months.

Nope, the secret to the gTab’s success has been that Viewsonic made it extremely easy to root, hack and virtually unbrickable, all of which has made it a darling of the Android ROM developer community.

One of the lead advocates/developers for the gTablet is “Roebeet” (here’s his SlateDroid profile , need to be signed in to view) whom has not only been writing up guides on how to navigate the rooting/modding of the gTablet, but has ported Honeycomb to it, with his Bottle of Smoke ROM (remember, Google hasn’t open sourced Honeycomb yet, so all unofficial Honeycomb ROMs are that much more impressive), which works on the gTab like a charm.

When you install the latest alpha version of Bottle of Smoke, Roebeet explicitly thanks his gTab, saying “it loves to be flashed” – and that is the key. The gTablet is exactly what has made Android phones so popular, and more manufacturers should pay attention. Other popular custom ROMs for the gTab include VEGAn, Cyanongen Mod 7 and others.

So what can learn from the story of the gTab kids? Well…

Of course, the lack of dedicated apps is still a huge problem for all Android tablets vs the iPad, but frankly, that was a problem for the Android phones that took on the iPhone once upon a time as well. What led to the ridiculous popularity of Android phones was that they were cheap, had great hardware, were on all carriers and because they were rootable (after some work on the part of devs). If a tablet could come to the market hitting all of these points, it could really drive innovation and adoption, and – dare we say it? – maybe even take on the iPad.

Let’s just hope it has a nice screen too.

The End.

You’ll want this: “The Prop”, a smart, portable laptop stand

You might need a laptop stand for a number of reasons. It can help with ventilation and protect your MacBook from overheating. It can put you and your computer in a more ergonomically correct position, giving your shoulders, neck and wrists a rest. Also, for those who eat and drink at their desk, a laptop stand elevates the computer, protecting it from accidental drink spillage.

But most laptop stands are either really expensive or their bulky and ridiculously ugly . Enter The Prop , a portable and affordable laptop stand designed by Lincoln, Nebraska’s Justin Brouillette & Nicholas Pajerski of the MAKE Collaboration . The flexible, plastic stand features a super sleek design that accommodates most 13″ to 17″ laptops.

To prove it smart design, the Prop recently won the 2011 Apartment Therapy Design Showcase; now it just needs to get made. Justin and Nicholas have designed it to feel like a natural part of your computer but in order to afford the manufacturing of the injection molding form to create Props, they need to raise $18,000. Fortunately, The Prop was recently awarded a Kickstarter campaign to help raise funding. It’s portable, affordable and looks good. I just donated $18. Go here if you want to too.

What should you expect in the mail when you order a Prop? Watch this video below: