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While it’s always bittersweet to report on the latest advancements in autonomous military killbots, the one upside to Foster-Miller’s most recent heavily-armed robotic platform is that it possesses enhanced safeguards to minimize incidences of friendly fire or civilian casualties. That being said, QinetiQ’s SWORDS-smith is still touting the improved “lethality” of its new MAARS chassis (Modular Advanced Armed Robotic System), a 350-pound PackBot-type unit that, unlike its predecessor, was built from the ground up with murder in its heart. Its M240B Medium Machine Gun is more powerful than SWORDS’ M249, although redesigned software and a mechanical range fan are said to bolster safety by delineating live fire zones and keeping barrels pointed away from allied positions, respectively. A final precaution precludes the bots from firing directly at their control units — a feature that will provide little solace to the MAARS controller whose charge has just pulled a 180 after being hacked by enemy forces. For a short video of the new bot still under friendly control, keep reading after the break…

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Last week in Tokyo was pretty amazing, but this Wednesday’s reader event in San Francisco promises to be possibly our most amazing yet. Here’s a bit about what you can expect:

• We’re giving away literally tens of thousands of dollars in gear, including…
• A free Sandisk Sansa Connect (4GB with WiFi) to the first 200 people!
• We’ll also have free food and drinks
• Live Q&A session with Engadget
• The event is ALL AGES and FREE ADMISSION
• As well as giveaways from: Drobo, Motorola, Nokia, OQO, Plantronics, Samsung, SanDisk, Sling, and others!

When: Wednesday, October 10th, 7:00PM - 10:00PM
Please note, however, that we have changed our event location! We are no longer holding the event at Mighty, the event is now at the Mission Bay Conference Center at UCSF.

Also, a note to the local hackers in the audience! We’d like to try out the “lightning talks” round here in the US — let us know if you have something interesting and electronic that you might want to show off! (Email event att engadget dawt com.)

We’d also like to thank the premium event sponsor of our San Francisco event, the Bluetooth SIG, who’ve been instrumental in getting this thing off the ground!

Oh, and please leave us a comment if you’re thinking of attending so we can at least try to estimate how many to expect. See you there! (Map, directions, and full list of companies at the event after the break.)

Continue reading San Francisco reader meetup details, note: location has changed!

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

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Just in case you missed the tidbit near the end of Sony’s official 40GB PS3 announcement last Friday, the 60GB PlayStation 3 will indeed be no more once European stock runs out. If you’ll recall, Sony already pulled the plug on the 60 gigger here in the US, and now it seems that it will face a similar fate across the pond. According to Nick Sharples, director of corporate communications for Sony in Europe, “anyone who wants to buy a 60GB PS3 for Christmas is not going to have a problem,” so those desperately needing an extra bit of HDD space (and / or backwards compatibility for PS2 titles) should be alright through the end of the year.

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