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The Venus Project. Googlelabs.com. Evolta robot to tackle grueling Ironman triathlon | Crave. Panasonic's Evolta robot doesn't look like your typical top athlete. The little green and white guy can stand on the palm of your hand. He runs on rechargeable batteries. The 7-inch-tall humanoid is also very ambitious. He is taking on Hawaii's famous Ironman Triathlon course, a competition that leaves many human athletes in the dust.

The athletic Evolta already climbed the Grand Canyon, survived 24 hours of Le Mans , and walked from Toyko to Kyoto . Three specialized bodies powered by three AA batteries each are required to get through the event, which Panasonic conceived of to promote its Evolta line of rechargeable batteries. "Their biggest hurdle is the swim," Evolta developer Tomotaka Takahashi says in a press video.

A forward-crawl swimming style was chosen to get the plucky little machine through the challenge. The biking version of the bot rides a little bike with training wheels while the running robot has what looks like a hamster wheel. Apple vs. Google: Inside an Android patent violation. Steve Jobs claimed that Google "stole" this Apple innovation. Last week, the ITC agreed. When an iPhone receives a message that contains a phone number or an address -- e-mail, Web or street -- those bits of data are automatically highlighted, underlined and turned into clickable links.

Click on the phone number, and the iPhone asks if you want to dial it. Click on the Web address, and it opens in Safari. Any Android phone will do the same. Unfortunately for the three dozen companies that make Android devices, Apple (AAPL) filed for a patent on the underlying system and method that performs these actions in 1996. Competition is "healthy," Steve Jobs said at the time. On Friday, a judge at the U.S. This could be a big one.

HTC has appealed the decision, which could be overruled by a six-member panel. As FOSS Patents' Florian Mueller puts it: "Standing in front of the Great Wall of China, you can also vow to walk around it.