Okay, the future is officially here. A few days ago, the team from Mountain View-based startup Anybots swung by TechCrunch headquarters to deliver a special new addition to our office: Anybots robot model QB, which stands around five feet tall and can zip around the office at 3.5 miles per hour on a pair of sturdy wheels. It looks like a cross between a Segway and E.T., with some optical sensors and cameras making up its ‘face’. Oh, and it’s currently being controlled by my boss, Michael Arrington, who has been using it to remotely roam the TechCrunch office to make sure we’re working hard while he’s up in Seattle. At least, that’s what he’s supposed to be doing — he’s spending most of the time gleefully running over our feet as he blinds us with a green laser beam. The future really is amazing. In the video above, Mike takes control of QB via an internet browser to help me interview Anybots robotics engineer Daniel Casner .  And by help, I mean he shows us what happens when you drive the robot directly into a wall and repeatedly bump into Daniel in an attempt to get him to spill Anybots secrets (it didn’t work). Note that the little wire hanging down from the robot’s head is actually a wireless microphone we hooked up to our camera. The Anybots robot has been in development for years — the company was started back in 2001 by Trevor Blackwell (who is also a Y Combinator partner), and the growing team has since iterated through several models. The flagship model QB, which is slated for release this fall, will sell for $15,000 per unit. That may sound a little steep, but keep in mind that the robot can be used by multiple people, though only one can be logged in at a time. And no, we don’t get to keep this one — it’s on loan for a week. Using the robot is actually remarkably easy: after creating account, you install a Firefox plugin and head over to the Anybots homepage, where you’ll see a list of the Anybots you’re authorized to control. Click on one, and you’re in the pilot’s seat — QB will stream a video feed of what it “sees” to your monitor, and it features a microphone and speaker so you can talk with people around the office. Moving around is intuitive, too: the up arrow moves the robot forward, left and right arrows to the side, and so on. You can also click anywhere on the video stream to activate and point a built in laser pointer. It took Mike all of two minutes to figure out how to weave between our office desks. Some other key stats: Anybots says that the robot lasts 6-8 hours on a single charge. When it dies or is powered off manually, a little kickstand will pop out of its rear to hold it upright. And the device only weighs 35 pounds, so it isn’t going to hurt anyone. CrunchBase Information Anybots Information provided by CrunchBase

You’ve seen our review of the WarMouse Meta mouse (once more infamously known as the Open Office mouse ), and it looks like you’ll soon be able to get your hands on all eighteen of those buttons yourself — the company has just announced that the mouse will finally start shipping on June 28th. As expected, it will set you back $79.99, and give you an analog joystick and a 5600-CPI laser sensor to go along with all those buttons and endless configuration options. It doesn’t exactly look like it’ll be widely available just yet, though — especially considering that the WarMouse website still requires that you fill out a .doc file and send it in to place your order. 18-button WarMouse Meta mouse shipping June 28th originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 26 Jun 2010 04:36:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink    |  WarMouse  |  Email this  |  Comments

It’s probably not a coincidence that Google is making a significant upgrade to Docs the same week that Microsoft rolls out Office 2010 to the public. Not to be left out, the search giant has modified sharing, visibility and the interface for Google Docs, which is also part of its Office 2010-competitor, Google Apps. Google is now giving users more clear cut options for sharing documents: private; anyone with a link; or public on the web. All documents start out as private, with the creator as the sole administrator. You can then share your document by setting it as “Anyone with the link,” which allows anyone who knows the web address or URL of that doc to view it. You can set your document as ‘public on the web,’ which allows anyone to find the document on the web. Google says that Public docs are automatically indexed by search engines so they may appear in search results. Google is also enhancing the visibility options for docs, making it fairly clear to the administrator which document is set to private, semi-private or public. The options now appear next to every doc title and in the docs list. You can also see the full list of editors and viewers by clicking on the ‘visibility option’ next to the doc’s title or on the Share button. And Google has improved the sharing interface and allows you to reset any link you’ve shared, so that you can move a document back to private even if you’ve shared the document. It’s probably wise that Google has improved its sharing options, considering that Microsoft is now attacking Google in the cloud with the web-version of Office 2010. It should be interesting to see if the use of Word will gain traction in the cloud as Office 2010 is rolled out more widely. CrunchBase Information Google Information provided by CrunchBase

There are two sides to every story, but this email exchange between Mahalo founder and CEO Jason Calacanis and one of his (now former) employees is a lesson in how not to handle a resignation. Jason says this was a private exchange and that he was just being honest with Evan. Evan says Jason can’t control his emotions. If you’re going to trash your employee, do it verbally so that there isn’t a record of it on the Internet later. Or, don’t trash them at all and organize drinks with the team to see them off so that the rest of your employees know you care. Read from the bottom up. April 20, 2010 Resignation Jason Calacanis at his finest. I should note, that instead of responding, he instead removed my email account. Real pro of him. Good thing I forwarded it to myself first Begin forwarded message: ———- Forwarded message ———- From: Evan Culver Date: Tue, Apr 20, 2010 at 10:53 PM Subject: Re: Resignation To: jason@calacanis.com Really? What is your deal? I will ultimately *have* to come back to Mahalo to pick up my things. Why so rash, what is your rationale? This seems really unprofessional and when other developers and employees see this, it just makes them want to leave ASAP. Is it really that big of a deal that people find better things for them than Mahalo? On Tue, Apr 20, 2010 at 10:19 PM, wrote: Evan, Don’t come back to the office, do not email the team list. Elliot will send you paperwork tomorrow. Today was your last day. Good luck being employee 4,367 at a dying company. Horribly disappointed in you. J Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile From: Evan Culver Date: Tue, 20 Apr 2010 21:48:37 -0700 To: Jason Calacanis; Jacob Burch; Jeff Ammons Subject: Resignation Hey guys, This isn’t an easy email to write, but as the subject suggests, this email is to inform you of my resignation from Mahalo effective in 2 weeks. An amazing opportunity came out of nowhere that I just couldn’t say no to. I’ll be writing code as a UI engineer at and contributing to the open-source project on a full-time basis. I’ve never worked with such a great team and learned so much in such a short period of time. I owe all of it to the opportunity you’ve given me, Jason and I thank you immensely for that. Jeff and Jacob, you guys are amazingly brave for tackling such a great undertaking. I’m impressed you do it with seemingly such ease. Many people would fail quickly in your shoes and I applaud you for your leadership in such a fast-paced environment and against such great odds. I certainly won’t be going far (), so I hope to continue a lasting relationship and hope that we all can work together sometime in the future. Thanks again, CrunchBase Information Mahalo Jason Calacanis Information provided by CrunchBase

Could IBM be prepping more of its own location-aware technology and devices? According to a recent patent filing, it looks like it. On Thursday, Big Blue filed for a patent for a “method and system for location-aware authorization.” The inventors appear to be IBM engineers based in Rome, Italy. According to the filing, the technology would provide a method and technology to control access to a device based on the location of that device. IBM gave the example of a company that only wanted employees to use a particular device in the office or their home and believe that their technology would allow the employer to control where the particular device can be accessed. Here’s an excerpt from the filing: The invention provides a method and system for location-aware authorization such as for electronic devices (e.g., mobile electronic devices). One embodiment involves authorizing access to a standalone system such as a mobile device, by collecting user credentials on the device for authentication, obtaining location information (e.g., geographical position) for the device from a locating module such as a satellite navigation module attached to the device, accessing profile authorization information for authenticating the user based on the user credentials and device location information (localization), authorizing access to the device by the user if the profiled authorization settings match the credentials and the position of the device. Talk about GPS-lockdown.  In an age of mobile workers and telecommuters, such a product might be more of a hindrance than a help for most organizations.  But I could see putting something like that on servers or machines with super-sensitive data that are not supposed to leave the premises.  The big question looms: what will Big Blue, which reported strong earnings for 2009 this past week, do with this technology? Thanks for the tip Anand S. CrunchBase Information IBM Information provided by CrunchBase