Kung fu crash! Humanoid robot hilarious slips during martial arts showcase
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Gizmodo
an hour ago
- Gizmodo
You Can Buy This Cartwheeling Humanoid Robot for Less Than Two Apple Vision Pros
'Dance for me, robot,' you scream at your mechanical servant from your gilded throne. 'Now flip for me, robot. Fight for me, robot.' That's the future that China-based robotics maker Unitree is offering with surprisingly dexterous bots like the new R1 model. It is nearly as tall as a human, has decals and a mask that remind me of a scaled-up Power Rangers action figure, and is built with AI voice recognition and the ability to do flips. Even with all that, the real surprise is the cost. The Unitree R1 is only $5,900. If that still seems expensive, know that it's actually less than the cost of two $3,500 Apple Vision Pros. The R1 is built with both image and voice recognition AI, according to Unitree. Beyond that, the model is built with a 'movement-first design' for 'dynamic, lifelike mobility.' You can witness the robot's dexterity in a video posted by the company on Friday. The machine can do handstands and cartwheels, punch at the air, and sprint over level ground. It's enough to make me envious of the machine's athleticism, although it doesn't seem to come with any fine finger dexterity, so at least the robots won't be taking my number one spot as king of the high-fives. We've seen other Unitree humanoid and dog-shaped robots in the field, though only in carefully contained demos controlled by an engineer sitting somewhere off to the side. The R1 costs nearly half of the company's previous consumer-end human-shaped bot, the G1. The new design is also far lighter than the previous model, clocking in at 25 kilograms, or 55 pounds, compared to the G1's 77 pounds. If you're looking for specifics, Unitree told us the robot has 26 total joints, with six in each leg, two in the waist, five in each arm, and two in the head. Despite that, the R1 isn't built to become your robo butler. The device is still mostly there for prototyping and testing. That certainly won't stop people from forming their own robot boxing leagues to try and reenact the 2011 movie Real Steel starring Hugh Jackman. Untiree already hosted a fisticuffs tournament with its G1 models earlier this year. Perhaps we won't have to wait long for a bot with a screw loose after taking a shiner to the silicon. There's no R1 listing on the company's store page just yet, so maybe you should cool your jets before dropping close to $6,000 on a new robot. More than pushing a future where the robots fight off the inevitable return of Rita Repulsa, it establishes how far ahead Unitree is compared to the U.S.-based competition. Elon Musk's Tesla is still working to pump out a consumer-end humanoid robot called Optimus. Tesla has tried to promote its bot as a real-life Rosey from the Jetsons. They've had the bot pouring drinks and cleaning dishware, though at a very slow pace and with a human controller standing off-screen. Tesla claimed it plans to produce 5,000 Optimus bots by the end of 2025, but that's looking less likely every day. A new report from The Information states that more than halfway into the year, Tesla has only created a few hundred bots after reportedly halting production in mid-June. Musk recently claimed Tesla will have Optimus gen 3 prototypes available by the end of the year, and then it will scale production. Even if it follows through—which seems less likely considering ongoing staffing and resource issues cited by Fast Company—the robot will likely be nowhere near as cheap as Unitree's bot and its cartwheeling, karate-chop action.
Geek Tyrant
2 hours ago
- Geek Tyrant
While LILO & STITCH Hit $1 Billion, NE ZHA 2 Is the Real Box Office King of 2025 and Hollywood Should Pay Attention — GeekTyrant
As you may have heard, Disney's live-action Lilo & Stitch movie just joined the billion-dollar club, making it the first Motion Picture Association release of 2025 to hit that milestone. It's a major win for Disney, especially after a rough year of costly misfires. But, while Stitch is soaking up the spotlight, the truth is this film wasn't first across the line. That honor belongs to Ne Zha 2 , a Chinese animated sequel that didn't just cross $1 billion, it obliterated records and now sits at more than $2.2 billion, almost entirely from China alone. This didn't happen overnight. The first Ne Zha was a cultural phenomenon in 2019, earning over $726 million worldwide and becoming the second highest-grossing non-English language film ever, behind The Battle at Lake Changjin 's $902 million. Its domestic run was even more impressive: $719 million in China, breaking the record for the biggest animated hit in a single market, a record previously held by Incredibles 2 in North America with $608 million. That set the stage for a sequel with sky-high expectations, and Ne Zha 2 it crushed them. Released on January 29, 2025, during Chinese New Year, the film broke records instantly. It pulled in over 700 million yuan (about $96 million) on opening day, then became the fastest film in Chinese history to pass the 10 billion yuan ($1.38 billion) mark, doing so in just seven days. Today, Ne Zha 2 has earned an astonishing 15.44 billion yuan, or roughly $2.13 billion, making it the highest-grossing movie ever in a single country. For perspective, that's more than double what Star Wars: The Force Awakens made in North America. Globally, it's now the fifth highest-grossing movie of all time, topping Avengers: Infinity War and Star Wars: The Force Awakens and sitting behind only Titanic , Avatar: The Way of Water, Endgame , and Avatar . It's also the only non-American, non-English language film in that elite top ten. In the animation space, its dominance is even clearer. With $2.215 billion worldwide, Ne Zha 2 is now the highest-grossing animated film in history, far surpassing Disney's previous record holder, The Lion King (2019), at $1.66 billion. That's a $550 million gap, bigger than the total global gross of many Hollywood animated hits. What makes Ne Zha 2 's success even more striking is its profitability. Reportedly made for around $80 million, the movie pulled off an incredible 27-to-1 return on investment. Compare that to Avengers: Endgame , which made $2.79 billion on a $356 million budget, which is a ratio of less than 8-to-1. Meanwhile, Hollywood continues pumping out $200 million blockbusters like The Fantastic Four: First Steps and Superman that need $700 million just to break even. If Ne Zha 2 had stopped at $500 million, it still would have been a huge financial success. This is the real wake-up call: blockbuster filmmaking doesn't have to mean runaway budgets. Ne Zha 2 proves that audiences care more about story and cultural resonance than inflated VFX costs and endless reshoots. Ne Zha 2 had a budget of $80 million, which is far less than what Disney and Pixar spend on their animated films. Another lesson here is global market dynamics. China used to be Hollywood's safety net, the market that pushed tentpoles past the billion-dollar mark. Now, Chinese audiences are pouring money into homegrown stories that reflect their culture. Hollywood's old strategy of adding token representation and hoping for an easy box office boost is outdated. If studios want to win back international audiences, they need real cross-cultural storytelling and a smarter approach to budgets. For Disney, Lilo & Stitch 's billion-dollar run is a huge relief after a brutal year of failures. Marvel's Captain America: Brave New World ($415 million) and Thunderbolts ($381.9 million) underperformed, Snow White tanked at $205 million against a massive budget, and Pixar's Elio couldn't crack $150 million worldwide. Those losses make Stitch's success a rare bright spot in an otherwise bleak financial picture. Disney and the rest of Hollywood can't keep playing the same game. They need tighter budgets, stronger storytelling, and projects that can thrive beyond the U.S. market without relying on brand nostalgia. Lilo & Stitch is still in theaters, while the English-language dub of Ne Zha 2 hits U.S. theaters on August 22. Considering the global momentum, its reign is far from over.
Washington Post
2 hours ago
- Washington Post
How ‘KPop Demon Hunters' became a global phenomenon
Jeff Yang is the author of 'The Golden Screen: The Movies That Made Asian America.' My initiation into the 'KPop Demon Hunters' phenomenon came while traveling on vacation in Taiwan, courtesy of my 19-year-old niece, Sienna. 'Sorry, but you have to watch this if you want to stay part of my family,' she announced, before clicking the link at the top of her 'recently watched' list. Both I and my 21-year-old son feebly protested that we 'weren't really in the demo' for the movie, but to no avail.
