This week, Avram Piltch discusses some of the fascinating new robots and toys coming to the market for the holidays this year. First is the Ozobot Evo, and enhancement on their existing robotic sphere, which adds smartphone control to the list of existing features. Next was the Anki OVERDRIVE, a modern smartphone take on the slot car. From the same company is the Cozmo, which is like a robotic pet with a forklift and can play games and even recognize faces. Lastly, we discusses the mCookie, an Arduino kit that is entirely magnetic snaps.
Scott is a developer who has worked on projects of varying sizes, including all of the PLUGHITZ Corporation properties. He is also known in the gaming world for his time supporting the rhythm game community, through DDRLover and hosting tournaments throughout the Tampa Bay Area. Currently, when he is not working on software projects or hosting F5 Live: Refreshing Technology, Scott can often be found returning to his high school days working with the Foundation for Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST), mentoring teams and helping with ROBOTICON Tampa Bay. He has also helped found a student software learning group, the ASCII Warriors, currently housed at AMRoC Fab Lab.
Avram's been in love with PCs since he played original Castle Wolfenstein on an Apple II+. Before joining Tom's Hardware, for 10 years, he served as Online Editorial Director for sister sites Tom's Guide and Laptop Mag, where he programmed the CMS and many of the benchmarks. When he's not editing, writing or stumbling around trade show halls, you'll find him building Arduino robots with his son and watching every single superhero show on the CW.
