Robot developer tmsuk has unveiled a remote-control robot that will give you a new way to shop from the comfort of your posterior. It’s a prototype of the telerobotic shopper, which is a modified TMSUK-4 humanoid robot that has a variety of cellphone communications technology. They had a demonstration on July 10 at the Izutsuya department store in the city of Kitakyushu, Japan, where it probably made the male robot wait while it tried on clothes and asked if each one made it’s ass look fat.

In the demonstration scenario, a grandmother unable to go shopping with her granddaughter sent the robot to do it for her. Using an NTT DoCoMo video-capable cellphone, the grandmother controlled the robot and did some shopping through the robot’s camera eyes. Surely this is a hoax. A grandmother who can use a cell phone AND a robot? The woman maneuvered the robot to the hat section, eyed what was available, and had her granddaughter model a few for her before deciding which one to purchase.

I don’t care who you are, it doesn’t get much funnier then the elderly treating their wheelchair like a hot-rod and just gunning it. Previously, if you wanted to see the geriatric in racing form, you had to play slot car racing grannies.

Thankfully, someone has expanded the premise to include an old woman in a grocery store, with slippery floors and plenty of canned goods to crash into. The handicap ramp should provide some airborn Dukes Of Hazard moments too. It will cost you about $36. Good fun. It will give you something to think about the next time you’re in line behind an old woman with a change purse.

While no one can accurately predict how the Zune will fare this holiday season, one can guarantee that it will take a piece of the considerable market share now enjoyed by the iPod.

Microsoft is currently in the midst of celebrating the U.S. launch of the Zune digital media player and Zune Marketplace music service. The celebration consists of six free concerts in public parks and plazas in urban centers across the country.

At the inaugural concert in Seattle, Gates outlined the Zune vision of creating new ways for people to connect, discover and …