Here’s the deal. If you have these Transformers shoes lying around your house, then somehow the gentle caress of a woman has escaped you all your life. If that doesn’t bother you, you can get Optimus Toejam here and share in the foul smelling adventure to get the All-spark and save the world from the Decepti-clogs. They come in blue or yellow for $27 a pair.

[Geek Alerts] VIA [Slipperybrick]

NXT Mindstorms hacker, BlueToothWiki loves Wall-E and he also loves to have a robot clean up after himself. Who doesn’t? Based on a leaked picture alone, the bot won one of the NXTLog building challenges last year and was made entirely out of one NXT retail kit and one 2007 TECHNIC Bulldozer kit. Yes, it actually works and with an ultrasonic sensor it will scoop up trash and clean up. Just don’t leave him alone forever. Video below.
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CURI-4 is a robotic platform with the aim of prioritizing certain behavior traits in robots. CURI-4’s primary mission is to find a ball, pick it up and hide it. Once it hides it, it wipes it’s memory in order to repeat the process again. Higher priority behavior includes avoiding obstacles, hiding when loud sounds are heard, and following moving objects when a whistle is heard. These are given priority and the prime behavior of searching for the ball is suspended and resumed later. All very interesting stuff. This allows it to think more human.

[Gizmowatch]

Members of the “Looks Like A Robot” photo pool on Flickr, and fellow citizens of Botropolis starting now, post pictures of stuff that look like robots, but aren’t. I know the feeling. I also see them everywhere.

Photo by Le Fromagier extraordinaire.

[Looks Like A Robot]

WowWee’s Tri-Bot is still listed at eToys for official US release on August 21st, but a sharp-eyed visitor to a Radio Shack near San Francisco spotted the robot on the shelves. Interesting, because there’s no sign of Tri-Bot on Radio Shack’s online store, and it’s still listed for pre-order at WowWee.

Either Radio Shack got a secured a pre-launch window to sell the Tri-bot, or this store is shooting their wad early. Could also be that the robot is playing games with us.

[Robot Community]

The Mars Phoenix Lander got all uppity and shut its robotic arm down over the weekend, refusing to follow NASA’s orders when it “realized” those actions would have damaged it’s wrist. NASA programmers sent new code to bring the arm back to life, and are now messing with the original code to try and get the task done. Apparently NASA is pleased with the bot thinking for itself. They described the process as “pretty neat.”

Real neat. When this thing strikes a bargain with alien life to wipe us out that will be neat too.

[PCworld]

Literally full of flashes, sometimes showing us actual scenes from the movie too. All I can say is that is the nastiest Terminator I’ve ever seen. They’re gonna need bigger guns. Hit the link to watch the trailer.

[io9]

With the infrared controller, U-Command Wall-E comes to life with animated movements, voice, sound, and light effects as you maneuver him forward, turn in reverse–or make him dance. Program options enable over 1,000 action combos. What’s cuter then Wall-E?

[Amazon]