CELEBRATE 10 YEARS HONDA'S ASIMO

Honda has rolled out a new website dedicated to the life and times of its humanoid robot. There are baby pictures, adorable stories and even a video or two to sink your teeth into, if you’re into that sort of robotic love. Honda’s ASIMO is already 10 years old.

ASIMO is the result of over a quarter of century of research and prototyping, and Honda hopes that one day it’ll be a huge aid in human mobility, in any field. Additionally, the Japanese company wants ASIMO to evolve into a robot that can help people in their everyday lives, potentially taking over household chores. i-Robot anyone?

If you want to check out the Honda ASIMO festivities, head over to the company’s robot-themed site. There’s even an iPhone app available for download.

ACER LIQUID METAL GETS OFFICIAL IN UK

Here's Acer just made their Liquid Metal handset official. It’s a 3.6-inch baby phone running on Android 2.2 (too bad no Android 3.0) with a powerplant of an 800MHz Qualcomm MSM7230 processor.

Inside that midget there’s 802.11n WiFi, support for 14.4Mbps HSDPA, DLNA/UPnP streaming support, Dolby Surround technology, and an image stabilized 5 megapixel autofocus camera with LED flash capable of recording video at 720p (30fps). Acer’s new handset also features a new Breeze UI and SocialJogger app that collects Twitter and Facebook feeds. Look for it to land in brownish form in the UK starting mid-November for £299. A silver version should arrive in early December.

72 M VISITORS TO SHANGHAI EXPO IN SIX MONTHS

The Shanghai Expo declared by the international Expo body as an astounding success, as the lights of the Shanghai World Expo went out for the last time yesterday after serving some 72 million visitors to a panoply of cultures and technologies intended to illustrate ideas for urban sustainability. The scale of the Expo was awe-inspiring, attracting 246 participating countries and international organisations. The number of visitors to the Expo in China’s richest city is more than 10 times the number who travelled to the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Both figures are records in the history of world fairs or expos, the first of which was held in London in 1851. China spent 28.6 billion Yuan or approx. €3 billion on the event and many billions more on improving surrounding subways, roads, tunnels, airports and other public facilities to smooth transportations for rural folks and foreign visitors alike.

United Nations secretary general Ban Ki-moon said the Expo had been a “remarkable, even historic event”. He looked forward to working closely with China on the sustainable development agenda.

Premier Wen Jiabao, who was made numerous calls for reform in recent months, told a forum on the sidelines of the event that the success of the Expo “has boosted China’s confidence and resolve to pursue reform and opening up”.

“The Expo has brought together the Chinese people wishing to learn more about the world and foreign friends wishing to know more about China,” said Mr Wen.

All but a handful of the more than 200 structures built for the Expo will now be dismantled. Some pavilions will be moved elsewhere to serve as museums or landmarks. Shanghai done, next up would be South Korea!