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ASUS lifted the veil over its long-awaited redesigned 9.2mm thin PadFone at the MWC. Sporting a 4.3-inch Super AMOLED qHD display, Snapdragon S4 with the new Adreno 225 GPU, and 8MP camera with LED flash and f/2.2 aperture, as well as 16-64GB of internal storage plus microSD slot, it has what we would expect from a modern high-end. Connectivity is taken care of 42Mbps HSPA+ radio, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0, HDMI and A-GPS, while a 1,520mAh battery unit is included as a juicer. The Padfone can get inserted into an optional tablet frame, whose 10.1 inch screen then gets powered by the phone itself, and can extend your battery life significantly. There is another dock, which allows you to add a detachable keyboard accessory, like on the Transformer Pad series. This one also comes with a stylus that except for doodling can be used to receive your phone calls as well, considering that the phone is inserted in the mothership.

Mini-bots

map out building interiors

The rolling droids are being developed by Georgia Institute of Technology, the University of Pennsylvania, and the California Institute of Technology/Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). Equipped with two cameras and laser scanners, they can autonomously explore hallways in an unfamiliar building, detecting doors and windows, and create a map for users such as soldiers or firefighters. The project is part of the Micro Autonomous Systems and Technology (MAST) program and is being sponsored by the Army Research Laboratory. The program is aimed at developing palm-size machines that can hover in place, enter buildings, and perform other insect-like stunts while gathering data and relaying it to human controllers.