Anyone for Wiff-Waf

It's the rise of the machines!

If you didn't know, Wiff-Waff was the original name for table tennis, and is, surprise surprise, another sport invented by Great Britain as far back as the 1880's. Made popular as Ping-Pong, table tennis requires incredible hand eye co-ordination, tremendously fast reflexes, the ability to predict where the ball will be from a millisecond's worth of seeing where the ball is in relation to the table, fantastic athleticism and flexibility to be able to stretch and reach for those apparently impossible to reach for balls, and finally unbelievable sense of touch, knowing when to hit the ball hard or change the pace by hitting it softly so it just falls over the net.  In short not something you would associate with robots.  But you'd be wrong!

The video shows an epic match between Timo Boll, the best player in Germany, and a Kuka robot. Apparently the fastest robot around. While Timo is pretty good - I'm sure you could all give him a good game - what the robot does is amazing.  It must have motion detectors (cameras) to give it vision, incredibly fast processing power to handle all the calculations necessary to predict where the ball will be, fantastically quick motors to get the bat into the right position in time and sensitive touch sensors to be able to control the ball.

While Timo wins, just, what sport or activity do you think you can do better than robots? Chess, Snooker perhaps.  When do you think robots will take over the world?

Man, Machine in Perfect Harmony

Forget 'One Direction', forget the latest X factor favourite, Justin Bieber or any other talentless wannabee.  Do yourself a favour and watch the movie below.

It may seem humdrum at first, but watch how it develops.  It shows true creativity and technology in action.  All you need is coupla' of robots, cameras, a computer, fancy software, shed loads of talent, together with that extra something that makes all the difference: Imagination.

So don't bother with ridiculous haircuts, throw away those Voi Jeans - they're so last year -, dump the Ugg boots, if you want to be sub-zero COOL, grab yourself a computer, embrace your inner nerd and start creatin'.

What you you make?

Nominate your best tech or gadget!

Santa is just around the corner.  He knows where you live, and like stealthy ninja, is checking out best entrances and exits to your home!

We want your nominations for what you think is the best tech of the year and what you would like to see most under the Christmas tree.  It can be any kind of gadget you like, phone, camera, tablet, gaming machine etc. But you have to say why you think is so cool and briefly describe what it does so much better than any other kind of its class.

Or if you don't think anything worthwhile has been produced in 2012, offer suggestions for the kind of gadget you would like to see in 2013.  For example, I'm pretty keen to see what the Surface Pro can do.  And I would nominate the Surface RT for the gadget of the year in 2012.  Its a big departure for Microsoft and I think the new interface is very quick to use.  Plus, I think the keyboard in the cover lifts the tablet from just a fancy internet browsing and emailing device into a proper computing alternative to a laptop or desktop.

So come on.  Give us your nominations!