What’s happened? Led by robotics Ph.D. student Paul Nadan, a team at Carnegie Mellon University has been developing the extraordinary Loris robot for several years. The latest version of the robot, which can scale steep surfaces, features in a new video (top) released by IEEE Spectrum. Loris uses bio-inspired microspine grippers that latch onto small surface protrusions with a powerful grip, mimicking the climbing abilities of insects and reptiles. Nadan describes the microspines as “lots of sharp little hooks [that] catch all of the microscopic bumps in the rock surface.” The video shows Loris climbing various vertical surfaces, some far bumpier than others.
Why should I care? The Loris robot is one of the most advanced climbing robots out there, with its impressive technology potentially serving a myriad of uses. Discoveries made during its development could also inspire other robotics engineers to take the technology further, pushing the boundaries of what robots can do in real-world emergency and inspection scenarios, as well as in operations beyond Earth.
Acer’s Predator Atlas 8 finally has a US release date and price, several months after the company first showed off the handheld in May. The highlight is the Intel Arc G3 Extreme chip inside, which has been adopted by only a couple of other consoles besides the Atlas 8. This version will go on sale exclusively at Best Buy on November 1 for $1,299.99.
Acer originally said the Atlas 8 would arrive in North America in October, but left pricing open at the time. The launch came amid the ongoing DRAM crunch, which has made memory more expensive across the PC industry and complicated pricing for hardware makers.
Google DeepMind's AI world model Genie 4 can now build interactive worlds that you can explore and reshape as they run. It also generates ambient sounds, music, and dialogue that respond to your actions.
The new world model builds on Genie 3 with improved realism, more natural human movement, and better simulations of real-world physics. It could eventually help with everything from game development to training robots.
Apple has an incredible talent for making me admire its products while simultaneously questioning what on earth it's thinking with the pricing. This isn't even something as bizarre as a monitor stand, but the audacity for starting a new laptop lineup from $2,000 doesn't surprise me.
The newly announced 14-inch MacBook Pro with M6 is just the latest to showcase this. The funny thing is, I already know that it's going to be a reliable workstation. You get a powerful new 2nm M6 processor, a gorgeous Liquid Retina XDR display, and up to 24 hours of battery life. We were impressed by the M5 MacBook Air, so the high-end M6 powered MacBook Pro definitely won't let us down.