Ready or Not - The Future is Now...

How many times have you pondered what things might be like in the future? Do you envision space travel? Robots in the home? How about libraries without a single physical book?

In Robot and Frank, we are given a glimpse of a near future where a library is getting just such an upgrade: some rich, slick young guy is taking over the town library and is moving all of the books out and making the library a place more about "the library experience," about community, rather than about the books themselves, since you can now get books on a wireless device from the comfort of your home... or the beach. How far are we from such a "near future"? Will libraries ever actually do away with books?

Well, maybe not all libraries, but, for some libraries, that time has already come... and, for some, passed.

New library, called "BiblioTech," being built in Bexar County, Texas will provide special e-readers to patrons. The electronic version of the books to be loaned will be loaded onto these e-readers, which will become unusable after the loan period if not returned to the library. The look of the library will be fairly reminiscent of an Apple store.

Others have similarly abandoned print, as well. The University of Texas at San Antonio offered a bookless library in 2012. The Tucson-Pima Public Library System had a bookless library in 2002, but ended up adding actual books - at the community's request.

As for the robot side of things, the robot in Robot and Frank appears to be modeled after Honda's robot, Asimo. See some amazing footage of Asimo, as well as HPR-4 and NAO, two other amazing, real-world humanoid robots, in the YouTube video, below.

World's Top3 Humanoid Robots - Asimo vs HPR-4 vs NAO! - SupernovaAnnie

For more details:

• San Antonio to open first bookless public Library (Gizmag.com)
• Bexar set to turn the page on idea of books in libraries (My San Antonio.com)
• Official Asimo Website
• Official NAO Website

PLYR2 Unleashed - or - How a 3.5mm Gave Me Super Powers

Okay, well maybe not super powers, but a lot more to play with. While reviewing the Skullcandy PLYR 2, I noticed that the manual (actually, tri-fold quick setup guide) indicates that, in order to connect the PLYR 2 to a PC, you needed a 3.5mm audio cord, which was not included. This annoyed me quite a bit, at first; why would it list that it works with a PC on the front of the box, but then require an audio cable that you have to supply, yourself?

As it turns out, there is a quite decent built-in audio card in the PLYR 2, so all you truly have to do is plug it up to an available USB port and change your default audio playback and recording settings. For PS3 and 360, there's an included RCA piggyback pass-thru adapter.

However, with the addition of a 3.5mm cord, you can use the PLYR 2 to listen to music from your iPad, smart phone or Android device or even hold phone conversations on them. True, they're wireless, so you need to have a USB port to supply power for the transmitter wherever you put the device and you'd have to start and end calls at the device, but the wireless aspect will let you hold that call while walking around your house.

Or, if you're on-the-go, you could combine the PLYR 2 with the PowerBag to power the transmitter and you can use the PLYR 2 for your phone conversations while carrying your iPhone in the bag. I realize it's not intended for that and is a bit awkward to start and end calls, but I tested the PLYR 2 at a range of up to 100 feet; I could start a playlist or a podcast through the headphones and mow the front yard with that distance.

Check out my Review of the PLYR 2 Headset from Skullcandy