This robot is designed to test the iPad 2’s camera app in place of human fingers. Image: Pheromone Labs

There’s no better way to handle a boring, repetitive task than to let a robot do it for you.

Except, of course, if it’s a Lego robot. How much cooler can you get than that? (Answer: Not much.)

That’s exactly what Pheromone Labs did when they were tasked with manually testing the iPad 2’s camera app 10,000-15,000 times. They used a Lego Mindstorms kit to build what essentially boils down to an automated poking machine.

It works using a capacitive touch iPad stylus as a giant finger, driven by a set of motors. The finger pokes the iPad’s on-screen photo capture button over and over in what amounts to an infinite loop (so to speak). The robot setup uses a cardboard box placed on a desk with an iPad 2 secured inside, almost like a little photographic robo-cinema.

It’s a win-win situation. Developers get to work on less mundane tasks, while an unemployed robot gets put to work.

Thank goodness Pheromone Labs didn’t decide to just hire a poor intern to do this job.

The Robot (English version) from Pheromone Lab on Vimeo.

TUAW via TechCrunch

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While other carriers gear up for the upcoming iPhone 5, T-Mobile today introduced a trifecta of 4G products poised to take advantage of the carrier’s 20 Mbps-plus network speeds.

Two smartphones, the Android Gingerbread-running HTC Amaze 4G and the Samsung Galaxy S II, along with a hotspot, the Sonic 4G Mobile HotSpot, were introduced at the Mobilize 2011 conference.

The HTC Amaze 4G is all about the camera. It has 8 megapixels, 1080p HD video recording capabilities, a backside illuminated sensor and a dual LED flash. Touting zero shutter lag, it also comes with some proprietary digital camera features like SmartShot, which takes five photos and creates a composite for the “best” shot and PerfectPics, which creates a separate album of best photos based on qualities such as general picture sharpness and the presence of faces.

And we know all about the Samsung Galaxy S II, but the T-Mobile flavor is slightly different than Sprint’s Epic 4G Touch version. T-Mobile’s Galaxy S II will be NFC enabled, with a 1.5 GHz dual core Snapdragon processor. The 4.52-inch display, HDMI out and most other features remain largely unchanged.

T-Mobile’s Sonic 4G Mobile HotSpot, built by Huawei, can support up to five Wi-Fi devices and is small, weighing in at only 3.88 ounces. It has an SD card slot so you can share photo and video content with anyone who is also connected to the hotspot. An OLED screen on the device displays stats like network strength and battery level.

T-Mobile could soon be the only carrier not to offer Apple’s iPhone, so the company has instead decided to boost its 4G and Android offerings. It’s a smart move, as Android is iOS’s biggest competitor for now. In March, AT&T announced intentions to buy T-Mobile and merge their networks into one conglomerate. The move was recently blocked by the Justice Department, much to the joy of competing carriers (and many T-Mobile subscribers).

As the “anti-iPhone” carrier, it could also be smart of T-Mobile to embrace Windows Phone 7 and its upcoming Mango update. With Nokia’s hardware and software teams firmly behind Microsoft and a slew of new devices in the works, the critically acclaimed fledgling OS could take off come 2012. But so far it seems that AT&T has embraced that role a bit more, offering three Mango-specific smartphones that will debut this fall.

The HTC Amaze 4G will be available starting Oct. 10 and will cost $260 with a two-year contract. The Galaxy S II will run you $230 when it lands Oct. 12. The Sonic 4G Mobile HotSpot hasn’t been officially priced yet, but it will also be available in October.

Image: T-Mobile

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The Samsung Galaxy S II Epic 4G Touch, pictured, features a bright 4.52-inch Super AMOLED display. Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired

Samsung’s flagship smartphone, the Galaxy S II, has had a tremendously successful run with consumers since landing on U.S. shores, a prime example of Android’s continued success in the smartphone market at large.

Sales of the Samsung Galaxy S II have reached 10 million worldwide, doubling from 5 million sales in only eight weeks. The Galaxy S II first went on sale in the United States in late August, launching with versions for Sprint, AT&T and T-Mobile. The smartphone had debuted internationally in April.

There’s a good reason sales are going so well — it’s a solid phone. It’s got all the specs of an A-plus smartphone in 2011: a 1.2 GHz dual-core processor, an 8-megapixel camera that can shoot HD video and a large, bright 4.52-inch Super AMOLED display. We reviewed the Sprint version, the Epic 4G Touch.

The Galaxy S II’s precursor, the Samsung Galaxy S, was also a big seller, reaching the 10 million sales mark six months from its debut. The Motorola Droid Bionic, which landed in stores earlier this month, is another heavily anticipated Android smartphone that may hit some record sales numbers, but it’s a bit early to tell.

The success of the Galaxy S II comes on the heels of the growing popularity of the entire Android platform. Over the past three months, over half (56 percent) of smartphone sales were Android, according to stats from Nielsen, and 43 percent of all smartphone owners have an Android (up from 38 percent in June). Google’s OS has a strong lead over its competitors: Apple currently has a 28 percent market share, with RIM in third with 18 percent.

The Android platform has strength in numbers. Android phones are available on every major carrier, and there are 170 models on the market, ranging from high-end flagship models like the Galaxy S II or the Nexus S to budget models like the Samsung Vitality or the Huawei Impulse 4G. There seems to be a perfect phone for just about everyone, whether you prefer a hardware QWERTY keyboard, a lusciously large display, 4G, NFC, a gaming pad or a host of other specifications.

And Android is winning out over Apple’s one-size fits all approach.

Android began overtaking iOS in 2010, and knocked Nokia’s Symbian OS off of its spot as top smartphone platform in January of this year. The platform has since been bolstered by Nokia’s switch from Symbian to Windows Phone, currently a small player in the smartphone scene, and by RIM’s hold on the market continuing to slip as BlackBerry users jump ship to Android or iOS.

It’s unclear if the Android market share will hold up after the iPhone 5 debuts next month, especially if Apple reaches out to the prepaid, budget phone market with the rumored cheaper iPhone 4S and broadened availability on additional carriers like Sprint. Many people have been holding out for Apple’s next release.

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To promote yet another release of Star Wars, Tokyo trains have had their handles turned into lightsabers

Debate still rages as to whether George Lucas should be banned from touching the original Star Wars movies. The latest Blu-ray release further ruins his once-great movies. Take these examples, from Wikipedia’s list of changes:

The Ewoks’ eyes now have CG eyelids, allowing them to blink

Darth Vader now says “No” while Luke is tortured by the Emperor’s Force Lightning attack, and then immediately screams “Nooooo!” as he picks Palpatine up and hurls him into the Death Star’s reactor core

Almost impossible to believe, I know, but even this insensitive tinkering doesn’t lessen the greatness of the Japanese publicity campaign for the Blu-ray release. Advertisers have turned the grab-bars on the Tokyo subway into lightsabers.

Using stickers with built-in buttons and LED lights, the promo isn’t only smart, it’s also a great opportunity for stealing Star Wars memorabilia. I imagine that these stick-in ’sabers are going to disappear very quickly indeed.

Commuters Hold Onto Lightsabers in Speeding Trains [PSFK via Neatorama]

See Also:

• Lucas: Star Wars on Blu-ray in 2011
• Operation Star Wars Puts R2D2 On The Slab
• Star Wars Lightsaber Bookends
• Star Wars Lightsaber Is a Hacked Flashgun Battery Pack

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The Freedom earbuds won’t fall out, no matter how hard an unnoticed car might hit you

Ever since I broke a leg during a bike polo game, I have stopped wearing headphones while riding. My podcast-listening has dropped off, but my concentration is surely up. Which is why I won’t be buying these Bluetooth sports headphones from JayBird, despite the fact that they’ll probably never distract the wearer by falling out of the ears.

The Bluetooth headphones actually have a cable joining them together, which runs behind your neck. the units themselves come with a flat, Paisley-shaped (or sperm-shaped) hook, made from a squashable, honeycomb material. These squeeze inside your ears and grab onto the nooks and crannies therein, securing them against the most violently head-shaking of sports.

The buds, which double up as a microphone headset for your phone, are also water-sealed against dripping sweat, the downfall of many a pair of earbuds in my home. They’re even reasonably priced, at $100. I’d also like to see a wired version with the same ear-grabbing tech.

Freedom Earbuds product page [JayBird via Werd]

See Also:

• Waterproof Headphones Fear No Puny Washing Machine
• Elecom's Clever 'Wireless' Headphones for iPod Shuffle

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Just $16k will buy you this ridiculous piece of over-compensating jewelry for the short man in your life

It’s said that if you squeeze this Rogue Breacher Bracelet, testosterone will drip freely from the beautifully-engineered gaps between its links. These links are fashioned from suitably tough-sounding titanium. “Mil-spec G-5 aerospace-grade titanium,” to be precise.

Each link, lubricated as it is with mythical man-juice, rotates in two axes allowing the bracelet to “flow freely” across the wrist and “constantly adapt to the natural movement of its wearer.” If James Dyson was commissioned to build a robot’s spine (and had his primary-colored paints confiscated), it would look like this.

According to the maker, these things take 100 hours of “machine time” to make, which explains the limited production run (just 20 are being made) and the price, a chest-beating $16,300. Part of that might be cost of materials: the titanium plates I carry in my leg cost a similar amount. The rest of it is clearly designed to make an otherwise pedestrian piece of jewelry attractive to a certain kind of man.

Rogue Breacher [Rogue Design via Uncrate]

See Also:

• Tyre Rings: Get a Grip
• Circuit Board Skull Bracelet: Puts the Eek in Geek
• Tenderizer Ring and Other Weaponized Jewelry
• Eye Watering Eye Jewelry Is Hard to Even Look At

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Watch 3-D movies or harass Ferris Bueller lookalikes in video game arcades — you decide

For a spectacle wearer, 3-D movies are a no-go zone. Even if the filthy, crappy 3-D glasses provided by the local movie-house were instead clean and awesome, they’d still be impossible to wear over your own specs. LG has come to the rescue with an updated version of that 1970s style staple — clip-on, flip-up shades.

The passive glasses use even more 1970s tech to do their work. Polarized lenses let differently polarized light into the left and right eyes. This passive 3-D was found in a recent study to be superior to active 3-D, in televisions at least.

The best thing about these glasses, apart from the fact that wearing them will inspire you to grow a mustache, is the price: At $20, you might just want to buy them and use them as actual clip-on sunglasses.

LG AG-F220 product page [LG via Engadget]

See Also:

• 2-D Glasses Remove Nausea from 3-D Movies
• Standardized Specs Make 3-D TV Viewing Easier, But Not Prettier …
• Youniversal 3D Glasses Tailor-Made for Your Eyes

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If you own a cat, there’s little reason not to buy it its own record player

Fact: Cats will scratch everything in your home except the expensive purpose-made scratching post you bought them. Shredding a sofa is always better than following the rules for these devil-creatures, but that doesn’t stop the Cat Scratch Turntable from being 100% awesome (and probably 100% tacky).

The flat-pack decks are made from cardboard, and ship complete with a “pose-able tonearm.” Not that everything is guaranteed to go smoothly: you’ll notice that in the photo the cat is standing on the wrong side of the turntable.

As somebody who has lived with both cats and record players, often simultaneously, I can report that cats do indeed love to chase a spinning record and scratch the needle across its delicate surface. So there’s a fair chance that kitty might relax her usual haughty rules and deign to play with this cat toy. And if not, who cares? The kit costs just £15 ($23), which is worth paying, just for the pun-tastic name.

Cat Scratch product page [Suck UK via Oh Gizmo]

See Also:

• Cat-Library, A Stairway to Feline Heaven
• Backyard Cat Weighs Odds Against Escape
• ZOMG You Can Has CatPaint for iPhone

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The Movie Maker’s Kit. Almost every Lensbaby, ever, in a plastic box

Lensbabys, with their dreamy blur, shifting sweet spots and weird out-of-focus highlights, would seem to be just about perfect for movie makers. The folks at Lensbaby seem to have thought the exact same thing, and have bundled just about everything they sell into a box and called it the Movie Maker’s Kit.

The kit has lenses for both Canon SLRs and for movie cameras using the Arri PL mount, and comes with a host of swap-in optics, including fisheye, soft focus, plastic (the original blurry Lensbaby) and pinhole. It also comes with wide and telephoto converters, aperture kits (the drop-in plates that change apertures) and a macro kit. Here are some samples:

All of this is stuffed into a Pelican case, rendering it practically bomb-proof.

The kit isn’t cheap. You get a lot for your money, but you’ll have to spend $2,900. Part of this is the cost of the PL-mount lens. The standard, entry-level Muse lens costs $150. For PL, it’s $400 (when bought separately). Then again, movie makers are used to spending a lot on their gear, so this might even be considered cheap.

Movie Maker’s Kit [Lensbaby. Thanks, Jessica!]

See Also:

• Lensbaby Composer Goes Pro
• Lensbaby Sweet 35 Adds Real Apertures, Wide-Angle Lens …
• Review: Lensbaby Composer Lets You Art Up Images Sans …
• Lensbaby Tilt Transformer Marries Nikon Lenses to Micro Four …

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