Beginning this fall, journalism students at the University of Missouri, Columbia will need to add an iPhone or an iPod touch to their already expensive shopping carts. It seems ridiculous, but there is a method to this madness.

Brian Brooks, associate dean of the journalism school, told the Columbia Missourian that the requirement “will not be enforced, however, and there will not be a penalty for students who chose not to buy an iPod touch or iPhone.”

It’s Friday. That means it’s time to take a look at the week that was in robotics news. We saw all of the usual suspects over at Botropolis this week. Those that can kill us, those that can’t kill us but want to, those that clean up after us and those who plan to clean up after the last of us are dead. Here’s just some of what we covered this week.

DustCar Garbage Robot: He’s no Wall-E, but it’s a start.

RX-64: Servos that break bones.

KASPAR: Helping Kids With Autism.

Robot Sheep shearing: Do androids dream of shearing electric sheep?

Dospara has released the Prime Note Albireo JL, a notebook that will have you thinking twice about buying a netbook, with the affordable €640 price and the fact that you are basically getting a real PC. Some specs are: 13.3” WXGA display, Intel Core 2 Duo T8100 processor, 4GB RAM, 320GB hard drive, DVD Super Multi drive, Intel GM965 Express video chipset, and Wi-Fi connectivity.

It’s not too heavy either, at 1.98kgs. Sure, it’s twice the price of some entry-level netbooks, but you are getting an actual quality computer under the hood.

Dell’s 4310WX DLP projector is now available. It will deliver 1,280 x 800 resolution in a 16:10 aspect ratio. It’s great for your living room and can also be used for business presentations or in the classroom. You’ll get 3,500 lumens brightness and a 2,000:1 contrast ratio.

Some other features include a remote control with an integrated laser pointer, VGA input, two component/analog D-sub inputs, an HDMI 1.3 and DisplayPort input and Ethernet jacks. The 5W speakers won’t deafen anyone, but they will get the job done.

Elecom of Japan has just introduced a few USB switches that will come with a 2- and 7-port USB hub. It allows you to share anywhere from two to seven USB-connected devices over a couple of computers without installing a private network.

Perfect if you and your wife want to share or for room mate situations, though you most likely would still want to set up a private network as their are more benefits. It’s a nice option to have though.

PC gamers are a picky lot that eschew traditional keyboards and mice for products catering to the specific needs of gamers. Typically gaming mice offer high levels of sensitivity, lots of buttons, macro capabilities, and a high price tag. Microsoft has added a new low price gaming mouse to its SideWinder line up called the SideWinder X3. Today we are going to take a hands on look at the SideWinder X3 and see is low price means low performance. Read on for more details on the Microsoft SideWinder X3.

Let me just get this confession out of the way. When I shop for stuff that goes with my PC, I prefer it to look like the high tech gear that it is. What I don’t want is tech gear for my PC that looks like say a cookie or another food item.

As you can imagine this three port USB hub shaped like grapes isn’t something you are likely to find on my desk. I guess if you really like fruit or wine or just like weird stuff, the grape USB hub may be perfect for you.

Netbooks continue to be the hottest segment of the computer industry. Netbook growth is impressive given that most other computer segments are dropping significantly. Dell has proven to be one of the few computer makers to offer a successful Linux-based netbook with its Mini line.

Dell has now announced new Ubuntu options for its Mini 10 netbook. Dell started offering the Mini 10 running Ubuntu Linux this week along with some new storage options including 32GB and 64GB HDDs. The storage options will cost $75 and $125 respectively and are not offered on XP-based Mini 10 netbooks.

The global computer market is down thanks to the poor economy around the world. When the computer market goes down the market for other tech that goes along with the computers drops as well. That means companies providing software and hardware needed for PCs are having a tough time.

NVIDIA is traditionally a very profitable company, but with the global recession, the GPU maker is struggling to get back to profitability. The firm has announced the financial numbers for Q1 fiscal 2010. The GPU maker reports revenue for the quarter was $664.2 million compared to $1.2 billion for the same quarter a year ago.

Typically, when you buy a monitor for your PC you can get silver or black colors. That works just fine for most people, but some want a bit more bling for their desktop and want different colors. Samsung first pioneered its subtle Touch of Color design on its flat screen TVs.

The company has now announced a line of Touch of Color PC LCDs that include two full HD capable models. The line includes the P2070, P2370, and P2370HD LCDs. Both the P2370 models have 1920 x 1080 resolutions for full 1080p content.

Re-enact 1920′s gangland crime in glorious beer with this Sub-Machine gun beer bong. It’s modeled after the 1927 A1 sub-machine gun, which I believe is the Tommy-gun. We don’t need no stinkin’ prohibition. This bad boy is 18″ tall and holds about 22oz of liquid.

The perfect beer bong for Chicago gangland drunkenness. Go on an epic drinking spree while G-man Elliot Ness tries his best to catch you and it will only end when he brings you down using the Tax code. But man, what a ride.

Acer entered the smartphone market just a few months ago, but sadly they’re now having problems with several U.S. carriers, which means we most likely won’t see any smartphones in the U.S. from the company until next year.

According to Acer’s PR people, they don’t have any phones planned for the U.S. until 2010 now. It sucks for those of us in the states because other countries are already getting their hands on the devices.

Pentax has released the Pentax K20D Titanium Limited Edition which features a 2.8-inch LCD screen, image stabilization and dust proofing. The original version of the Pentax K20D is available for $700, while the limited edition Titanium version costs a stunning $1199.

So you’ll be paying for that sexy sleek look. It also has a cool metal-wrapped battery grip that can hold some extra batteries. The 14.6MP DSLR will be available in Japan at the end of April 2009. Only 1000 units will be available.

Thinkgeek has done the math and it turns out that a baby is 4.65 Terabytes in size and on a T1 it takes about 40 weeks to download. This t-shirt will show the progress to the world.

A great shirt for that geek mother to be this Mother’s day. These are maternity shirts, 100% cotton combed ringspun jersey in black. Available at ThinkGeek for only $22.99 and comes in several sizes.

Giant snakes powering homes? What is this, the Flintstones? Are we to play our non-vinyl granite records with bird beaks? Man, I hope not. But as it turns out, reptiles are a good source of energy. Not real ones. Fake snakes. A company called Checkmate is using these creatures to help provide cheap and clean power for up to 50,000 UK homes within five years.

The company is testing 200m long rubber devices which would be tethered to the sea bed and are designed to swim against the current and produce up to 1MW of power each. The waves cause a bulge to ripple down the length of the snakes and power turbines at the tails.