I haven't had breakfast yet, so these breakfast robots from Korea are looking all the more attractive. KIST has developed two 'bots which can operate a microwave, serving tea with toast and carrying it to the hungry person.

In the video below, Mahru-Z (the boy robot with two legs, who took two years to create) carries a cup of something hot from the microwave, which he opens, picks the toast up from the toaster, and places them both in a basket. That's when his ladyfriend Mahru-M comes in, who's equipped with a nice round wheely bottom. She picks up the basket, and serves it to the human member of their breakfast party.

KIST is hoping to develop Mahru-Z and Mahru-M to the point where they can aid families in household tasks, including washing the dishes and preparing food. Just make them a little faster so the toast is actually still warm when it reaches me, and I'm sold. [MT News via PlasticPals]

Here's why your mother always said never to put aluminum foil in the microwave. Can someone buy this Swedish guy a new kitchen, please? And a box o' wine, too? [YouTube] Thanks, Nightwheel!

After a quote that Google's Nexus One is his "favorite gadget" went around, Steve Wozniak took the time to leave us a note. Read on for his explanation of how everyone misunderstood him and why fanboy-style arguments are ridiculous.

This is the comment Woz left us in the on the post about his gadget preference:

Actually, everyone got it wrong. My favorite phones are my iPhones. When asked what my favorite gadgets were I took it to mean new gadgets I was playing with (that I considered good). I am not a switcher but I'm not going to tell people that the Nexus One is not a good gadget. Same for the Droid. I continually buy and play with new hot gadgets because I gets asked about them all the time. I have had prior Android phones that I didn't consider good. I usually have between 2 and 6 different cell phones on me, more when there are interesting product introductions.

I try mainly to make good comments but I'm honest about flaws too. I don't get into arguments trying to claim that there are objective reasons that make one person's phone better than another's. It's subjective. You can't win such arguments, only have a stressful life doing so. I have no problem praising and learning from non-Apple products as well as Apple products, when they are good.

I think this is yet another reminder of why we adore this brilliant man. Thanks for the follow up, Woz.

Shark with lasers are so aughts. Nipple lasers? So old they are the newest new. If anyone can please explain me what's going on here, feel free to talk in the comments or shut up forever.

Was this a promotional shot for an olympic aerodynamic bike? Why did the boobs fire lasers? Why was Geordi La Forge's sister doing neekeed pictures? Why I'm strangely aroused at the idea of nipples firing lasers? These are all questions that need urgent answers. [Thanks David]

Unconfirmed, but likely: Pricing for Verizon's first two WebOS devices has leaked, and it's looking like $150 (after $100 rebate) for the Pre Plus and $100 for the Pixi Plus. There'll probably be a buy-one-get-one deal along with that. [PhoneArena]

It's rough for robots in the armed services lately. Lack of funding is forcing the United States military to end the Army's Future Combat Systems program and eliminate many robotic soldiers, including autonomous helicopters and mine-sniffing transport vehicles.

The good news is that some of the remaining funds are being used to upgrade existing programs in an attempt to integrate the technology "in a fiscally responsible manner." I say we just plain need to start working on a way to call some Autobots in for help. [The Hill via Wired via PopSci]

You can easily render these wicked images—which look warped on paper and straight when reflected on a metal cylinder—with a computer and a raytracing engine. But the fact that someone drew this blows my mind.

Absolutely nutters.

Nice try PCgadgets, but I know a plain old storage locker when I see one. I'm sure that branding it for the Xbox 360 is the difference between a $40 price tag and $15 price tag.

Are those Playstation games in there? That's right—don't be fooled. This locker isn't just for the 360. And nothing spells "security" like a tiny brass padlock and a compact, easy to carry form factor. [PCgadgets via Joystiq]

I wish this iPhone video app to get people naked in real time actually worked as perfectly as shown here. In fact, I wish it just existed, period. For now, I would just get amused by the perfect choreography. [Nomao]

Monsters are scary, but it appears that animatronics are far more frightening without all their makeup. See more shots in roboticist/director John Nolan's personal collection: [John Nolan Films via jwz via boingboing]

For the more fashionable readers at Gizmodo (someone? Anyone? Bueller?) comes these Marc Jacobs USB hubs, disguised as ye olde mixtapes. MIXTAPES. You remember them, right? [The Malcolm via Hypebeast]

This lengthy thread at the Playstation forums suggests that some combination of the 3.10 firmware and Modern Warfare 2 is killing PS3 Blu-ray drives. Maybe it's true, or maybe they're all just drinking the kool-aid.

Forum members have reportedly pinpointed several reproducible freezes in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 which they claim began only after installing the 3.10 firmware (the most recent release is 3.15). After experiencing this freezing, many members reported problems in other games, leading them to conclude that the firmware update adversely affected their Blu-ray drives.

Blu-ray diodes do have a finite life span, and it's hard to say if in these cases the drives have just run their course or if there is in fact something amiss with the new firmware. It's tricky. Sometimes, when an individual settles on an explanation for something, other people force themselves to find "evidence" corroborating that explanation. Sort of like how everyone started finding references to 2pac faking his own death in his music (those are real, though).

It could all just be a coincidence, or the Blu-ray diodes could be dying of old age, or there really could be some issue with the new firmware that is causing drives to crap out. If you have any insight, share it in the comments. [Playstation]

Your ordinary log cabin is laid out with lengthwise logs stacked to make its outer walls. Piet Hein Eek, charged with building a cozy recording studio for friend and musician Hans Liberg, did not make any ordinary log cabin.

This log cabin isn't even really that: the log facade just covers a plastic and steel frame. It isn't what you'd expect on the inside, either. Instead of dark, dingy room with a stove in the corner, Hein Eek's cabin conceals a clean, bright, and quiet modern recording studio.

Passers by might mistake the structure for a pile of logs, but they'll know something's up when Liberg props open all the unique, top-hinged windows on the sides of the pile. If they're still nonplussed, they won't be when the shack rolls away; it has wheels and can be hitched to an automobile for relocation, if Liberg ever gets tired of the view.

Check out a huge set of photos at the Thomas Mayer Archive. [Thomas Mayer Archive via Tree Hugger]

First Nokia sued Apple. Then Apple sued Nokia. Last week, Nokia went to the International Trade Commission and requested a ban on the import of infringing Apple products. Today, Apple asked ITC to ban the import of infringing Nokia products.

This game of patent-infringement ping pong dates back to October, when Nokia first sued Apple for violating 10 patents, including holdings related to GSM, UMTS and wireless LAN. About a month and a half later, Apple countersued, claiming that Nokia was attempting to steal their technology. Since then, both sides have filed further lawsuits claiming further patent violations of various sorts.

This week, the squabble's stage has moved to the International Trade Commission. A few days ago, Nokia requested that the ITC ban the importing of any and all Apple products, from MacBooks to iPhones, that make use of the patents in question. Today, Apple fired back, requesting the same ban on Nokia's mobile phone imports.

The ITC's evaluation process takes 15 months, so don't worry about these companies' products disappearing from shelves anytime soon. But Apple's latest filing reminds us that we shouldn't expect this this legal game of anything-you-can-do-I-can-do-better to go away anytime soon. [Bloomberg]

There's not a whole lot that's certain about these images, which popped up at Mobile01, showing Motorola's Shadow as a friendlier-looking Droid. But they're interesting.

These aren't the first rumors that have trickled out about the Motorola Shadow. One leak, a few weeks ago, pegged it as having a super-thin body and a 4.3-inch, 800 x 484 screen. These renders, of admittedly dubious provenance, suggest a more Droid-like form factor, except with a white keyboard and wrist strap.

Mobile01 also suggests that the Shadow could be a candidate for the next official Google Phone and thus the designation of Nexus Two. Maybe, but it seems a little too early for Google to be picking the Nexus One successor. And what of HTC? [Mobile01 via Engadget]

Jörg M. Colberg, an accomplished astrophysicist and photographer, created a series of images entitled "American Pixels" in which he applied a self-made compression algorithm to photographs, turning them into artworks of the digital age.

But Colberg's works aren't just commentaries on the state of images in an age of lossy file types. He designed his own compression algorithm that responds uniquely to the contents of each photograph.

For Colberg, the compression becomes part of the creative progress. He explains:

A computer that creates a jpeg does not know anything about the contents of the image: It does what it is told, in a uniform manner across the image.

My idea was to create a variant that followed in the footsteps of what jpegs do, but to have the final result depend on the original image...adaptive compression (acomp) is a new image algorithm where the focus is not on making its compression efficient but, rather, on making its result interesting...As computer technology has evolved to make artificial images look ever more real - so that the latest generation of shooter and war games will look as realistic as possible - acomp is intended to go the opposite way: Instead of creating an image artificially with the intent of making it look as photo-realistic as possible, it takes an image captured from life and transforms it into something that looks real and not real at the same time.

The American Pixel renders are intended for hanging on walls, allowing the viewer to study the different layers of pixelated detail by move closer and farther away from the work.

To see the whole set of these fascinating works, head over to Colberg's collection. [Jörg M. Colberg via Kottke]

We know that people are texting relief in record amounts and understand the challenges of rebuilding Haiti's infrastructure. But neither have the immediacy of this shot: a hand held monitor revealing a living, conscious person trapped under the rubble. [SFGate]

Back in November we saw FLO TV running on the iPhone and weren't sure what to make of it. Their partnership with Mophie makes it perfectly clear: new packs will bring live TV and extra juice to iPhones.

We thought that Mophie's Juice Packs—slide-on cases that double your iPhone's battery life—were a sound investment for a power user. Now, power TV watchers will be happy to hear, Mophie has partnered with FLO TV to develop a battery-extending, live TV-enabling pack for the iPhone and iPod Touch.

If extending battery life and watching live TV on your iPhone are two things that interest you, this is a match made in heaven. There's no pricing yet, but expect the doubled-up packs to roll out in the first half of year. [Ubergizmo]

Akamai released their quarterly State of the Internet report this week, along with this chart showing the fastest national networks in the world. From 2008 to 2009, on average, the world's internet got 13% faster. America's got 2.4% slower.

There are tons of interesting tidbits to be found in Akamai's State of the Internet report for Q3 2009. This particular chart shows the 10 countries with the fastest internet in the world. It also shows that they're not slowing down.

South Korea, already pumping at 14.6 Mbps, managed to improve 16% over last year. Ireland improved most dramatically of the top ten, improving their infrastructure to increase year over year speeds 73%.

But America, who has the 18th fastest internet in the world, slowed down ever so slightly to 3.9 Mbps in 2009. Though our nation as a whole didn't get any faster, some individual areas showed significant improvement, including a 20% bump in Massachusettes and a 17% jump in D.C. and Utah.

If America's megabit mediocrity depresses you, just be thankful you don't live on the Island of Mayotte, in the Indian Ocean: it was the slowest of the 203 nations tested. [cnet]

The electrode-equipped Galvanic Skin Response Bouquet doesn't give the couple much choice about wearing their hearts on their sleeves: a blue LED glows when they're calm but a white one turns on when they becomes nervous. But that's not all.

The bride and the groom—who met, appropriately, working on a corset that tightens with heart rate— implemented a variety of biofeedback gear to datalog their big day.

The bouquet is attached to two electrodes, one worn on the Bride's wedding finger, natch, via velcro strap, and the other in a wristband strapped to the groom. The information on their nerves, as well as their heartbeats, is recorded throughout the wedding on a 1GB SD card in the base of the bouquet.

The bride and groom are also equipped with devices to track them via infrared, so they can later check how often they were by one another side throughout the day. I think a photo album will do just fine for me. [GeekPhysical Biometrics via Make]