CNET reports on a new robot kit from IdeaLab. One of their demos involves teaching the robot to fetch a beer from a fridge:

The key to making an ER1-equipped laptop perform useful tasks is the software, which includes a point-and-click interface for creating behavior routines that tell the robot what to do.

"That's how you train the robot to do things," says their Chief Marketing Weasel. "The beer-fetching application took a string of 35 linked behaviors."

[Reaching a bit more, another possible use includes] remote security and monitoring. "You could go to work, leave your laptop on and connected to the Internet, and make sure (a visiting) contractor arrived on time," the marketeer added. "We got that idea from a Dilbert strip."

"It's not a product that solves any burning customer need." continued the marketeer. "Actually, this product makes no sense whatsoever. Around the office we joke that it's basically just a waste of a good domain name. Why can't I work for a company that actually does something?"