i-SOBOT, World's Smallest Humanoid Robot, Hits US Next Month

Takara Tomy's 6.5-inch, Guinness-certified "smallest humanoid robot in production," i-SOBOT, is finally making its way to our primitive shores next month. The English website and price are still "coming soon," but since this dancing, push-upping wunderbot runs about $300 in Japan, we can pretty safely guess it'll be thereabouts. Hopefully we'll have our meatpuppet mitts on one soon to tell you if it's worth it. [i-SOBOT]

www.gizmodo.com

BlackBerry Storm to Appear On November 14

According to a tipster working at Verizon, the BlackBerry Storm—Research In Motion clickity-touchscreen rival against AT&T's iPhone and T-Mobile's G1— will appear on Friday next week, November 14. This is the reason of the new Verizon's $30 data plans, which will be obligatory starting on that date:

I work for Verizon wireless. Your post was correct: We are putting in forced data packs on the 14th. The reason is that this is the Storm's release date from every memo that we have been given access to, it will be released that morning at all Verizon Corporate stores. Second tier resellers, like Wireless Zone, will get it at the end of the month.

gizmodo.com

China goes after tainted feed producers

BEIJING, Nov. 1 (UPI) -- Chinese authorities say they're cracking down on producers of animal feed after finding the chemical melamine in eggs.

Producers found dealing in tainted feed will lose their business licenses and face criminal prosecution, the China Daily newspaper reported Saturday.

Melamine-tainted eggs found last week in Hong Kong were produced in the northeastern port city of Dalian and the central Hubei province, RIA Novosti reported.

In the last two months, China has closed 238 animal feed companies for melamine-related violations and destroyed an estimated 3,682 tons of substandard feed, RIA Novosti reported.

The melamine scare began last year with tainted pet-food products and has since spread to animal feed and milk products. Several babies have died and thousands more have fallen ill from drinking melamine-tainted milk, say Chinese health officials.

© 2008 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Acer Netbook Shipments to Beat Asus's Eee PC

Acer, the world's third-largest PC vendor, said shipments of its Aspire one netbook could reach 6 million units this year, which would edge out Asustek Computer's popular Eee PC at the top of the market.

Asus has set a target for Eee PC shipments this year of 5 million, which would be a million shy of the lead if Acer meets its target.

The defeat may not be easy for Asus to accept since the company has largely been responsible for popularizing the netbook idea commercially with the Eee PC.

Asus launched the Eee PC late last year to great fanfare at its small size and price. The least expensive Eee PC at the time came with a 7-inch screen and an NT$7999 (US$240) price tag.

Acer is gaining ground fast with its Aspire one, which it announced in June this year.

Netbooks are mini-laptop PCs designed for mobility, typically sporting 7-inch to 10-inch screens and weighing less than 2 kilograms. Most netbook components, including the microprocessor, are less powerful than those of full-fledged laptops so batteries last longer. Netbooks aer designed for dealing with e-mail, browsing the Internet and working on word processor or spreadsheet documents, not for heavy duty gaming, video editing or other multimedia work.

On Thursday, Asus forecast fourth-quarter shipments of the Eee PC at between 1.6 million and 1.8 million units, compared to 1.7 million units in the third quarter. Acer, by comparison, said its Aspire one shipments reached 2.4 million units in the third quarter and it expects fourth quarter shipments to exceed that amount.

"The netbook segment is growing very nicely," said Acer CEO Gianfranco Lanci during the company's third quarter investors' conference in Taipei on Friday.

Next year, Acer will ship 12 million to 15 million Aspire ones, he said. Asustek declined to comment on 2009 Eee PC shipments.

The main difference between the two Taiwanese companies is size. Acer's revenue in the third quarter was NT$159.2 billion, more than twice the NT$78.3 billion revenue at Asus. Acer ranks behind only Hewlett-Packard and Dell in the global PC market.

Acer's bigger size gives it the ability to launch products in most markets across the globe simultaneously, while Asustek has been building its marketing and sales channels throughout the year.

www.pcworld.com