New, advanced ASIMO

On December 11 Honda announced advancements to the ASIMO humanoid robot's intelligence technologies that enables two ASIMOs to work together. The company says its humanoids are now ready to work in pairs performing tasks in coordination with one another, as Honda has developed a system to link the robots together so they can share information about where each one is and what each is doing.

Honda also developed an intelligence technology that enhances smooth movement by enabling ASIMO to choose between stepping back and yielding the right-of-way or continuing to walk based on the predicted movement of oncoming people. Another newly added function enables ASIMO to automatically charge its battery when its remaining battery level falls below a certain level. But here’s the best part: ASIMO, thanks to upgrades that allow it to do more tasks without human help, can recognize drink choices and carry a tray with the requested drink to the person who placed the order!

So, ASIMO - "Shaken, not stirred"! Cheers!

The Vringo-WeeMee alliance

WeeWorld™, home of the popular WeeMee social network, and Vringo, the pioneer in video ringtone sharing, decided to fully integrate WeeWorld avatars into Vringo’s video ringtone service.

Vringo users worldwide can now load their WeeMee avatars onto their mobile handsets for free. When a call is placed, the caller’s animated WeeMee appears on the recipient’s phone screen as a video ringtone (full list of Vringo-compliant handsets available here). Users will also be able to personalize their mobile handsets by selecting WeeMee avatars as wallpaper that appears on handset screens when idle.

Male SL hotties of 2007

Iris Ophelia published her Top 10 male Second Life avatars for '07, exclusive to New World News. The stimulus to this was the alleged “death of beautiful men of Second Life”. But, as Ophelia explains, the truth is they're only recently getting the same kind of attention female avatars have been enjoying from Second Life’s fashion community since the world's beginning. But despite this, there are gorgeous male avatars with great style out there, and it’s time to give them some recognition (and some credit) for the work they’ve put into themselves!

As you may see from her list, hot avatars in SL can be either:

Stylish

Cool
Or... well, interesting.
So what’s coming up next? Miss and Mister Second Life contests? Will we see SL avatars claiming that their dream is world peace and being crowned for their beauty? That’s probable...