NYC

You might think yourself too grown-up to be wowed by shiny, glittery things, but we doubt many will be able to watch NVIDIA's new Glow Ball tech demo without a smidgen of childlike glee. Built to run on the company's quad-core Kal-El processor, it shows us the first example of true dynamic lighting on mobile devices and also throws in some impressive physics calculations like fully modeled cloth motion. Instead of the pre-canned, static lights that we see on mobile games today, NVIDIA's new hardware will make it possible to create lighting that moves, fluctuates in intensity, and responds realistically to its environment -- all rendered in real time. The titular glow ball can be skinned with different textures, each one allowing a different amount and hue of illumination to escape to surrounding objects, and is directed around the screen using the accelerometer in your tablet or smartphone. NVIDIA demoed the new goodness on a Honeycomb slate with 1280 x 800 resolution an...

A tiny robotic ball able to be controlled by a smartphone doesn't exactly need any more selling points, but Orbotix's Sphero now has an extra one nonetheless. It's been outfitted with a chariot that can be used for FaceTime sessions or low-level surveillance -- or chariot races around your office, naturally. Of course, this is strictly a DIY affair, but we're guessing this is one project you will actually want to do yourself once you see the video after the break.  Orbotix