Ronaldinho Customized

FIFA 08 cover athlete Ronaldinho, will become the first professional football player to appear as a customized character exclusively for the Wii. According to Electronic Arts, the Wii-exclusive Ronaldinho will host a game mode called “Footii Party with Ronaldinho.” With this mode, EA introduces unique party games — including Shoot Off — where you can play as your self-created Mii character to unlock Ronaldinho and take on the champ. Each Footii Party game is designed to be a multiplayer, social experience.

“My character looks like he enjoys playing football and shares my passion for the game. This is important to me,” commented Ronaldinho about the character. “Whether you are playing football on the pitch or my party games in FIFA 08 on the Wii, it should be a fun and enjoyable experience.”

The game’s FreeMotion controls help level the playing field for all players and turns FIFA 08 on the Wii into a physical, social activity. It also provides gamers with a truly authentic football experience with more control. It’s easy to pick-up and play, and with the in-game Football Academy you can learn basic and advanced controls in more than 30 interactive tutorials. Each lesson teaches you how to master the FreeMotion controls and perform all the necessary movements to dominate on the pitch.

FIFA 08 is scheduled for worldwide release this fall on a variety of gaming platforms.

Strongest Robot

There are robots that clean the floor and robots that spot weld cars. Now there’s a robot on steroids. The KUKA KR 1000 titan 6-axis robot was recently certified by the Guinness Book of Records as the strongest robot in the world. Manufactured by KUKA Robotics, the KUKA KR 1000 titan 6-axis robot has a payload capacity of 1,000kg and a reach of 3200mm and is designed to handle extremely heavy lifting and manipulation applications.

The KUKA KR 1000 titan 6-axis robot has a total of nine motors, which together deliver the power of a mid-sized car. It features a steel base frame and a new drive concept. In axes 1 and 3, two motors feed into a single gear unit. Axis 2 is powered by two motors, each with its own gear unit. The KUKA titan can withstand a static torque of 60,000 newton meters. The robot is ideally suited for industries requiring a heavyweight robot including the building materials, automotive and foundry industries.

Climate Savers Initiative

Intel and Google have joined with Dell, HP, IBM, Lenovo, Microsoft and more than 30 others in the Climate Savers Computing Initiative (www.climatesaverscomputing.org). The goal of the new broad-based environmental effort is to save energy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by setting aggressive new targets for energy-efficient computers and components, and promoting the adoption of energy-efficient computers and power management tools worldwide.

“Today, the average desktop PC wastes nearly half of its power, and the average server wastes one-third of its power,” said Urs Holzle, senior vice president, Operations & Google Fellow. “The Climate Savers Computing Initiative is setting a new 90 percent efficiency target for power supplies, which if achieved, will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 54 million tons per year — and save more than $5.5 billion in energy costs. We are asking businesses and individuals throughout the world to join with us to institute better power management of their computing equipment and purchase energy-efficient computers.”

“By 2010, the Climate Savers Computing Initiative will cut greenhouse gas emissions in an amount equal to removing more than 11 million cars from the road or shutting down twenty 500-megawatt coal-fired power plants — a significant step in reducing the emissions affecting our planet,” said Pat Gelsinger, senior vice president and GM of Intel’s Digital Enterprise Group.

“Computers have helped us make huge strides toward a more efficient world today, with reduced travel, more productivity, online transactions and more,” Gelsinger added. “But with today’s latest energy-efficient technologies, we can do even more.”

Individual consumers can support the Climate Savers Computing Initiative by signing up at www.climatesaverscomputing.org, where they will be able to pledge to purchase an initiative-certified system. The website will help consumers learn how to take advantage of their existing computer’s power-saving capabilities such as sleep and hibernate modes, which can reduce the amount of energy consumed by up to 60 percent.

The Climate Savers Computing Initiative’s energy efficiency benchmarks will initially follow the US Environmental Protection Agency’s Energy Star guidelines; but with increasing requirements during the next several years. For example, 2007 Energy Star specifications require that PC power supplies meet at least 80 percent minimum efficiency. The initiative would require a minimum of 90 percent by 2010. In addition, the initiative sets a higher efficiency target in the power supply for volume servers (1U and 2U single-socket and dual-socket systems): An increase from 85 percent to 92 percent efficiency by 2010.

Last Tuesday, Google and Intel along with several global corporations and environmental groups hosted a press conference to discuss computing and climate change. Watch the archived webcast at www.google.com/press/podium.html.