Last year, Ember Technologies, Inc. ran a crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo to build a mug that keeps hot drinks at the perfect sipping temperature. By now, it’s sold 4,000 of these devices. And in something of a coup for the startup, Starbucks Corp. has begun selling Ember Temperature Control Mugs in its stores across most of the U.S. and online for $149.95. Whether it’s… Read More
The latest in soft robotics and shrinking sensors enables limbs and digits with ever-increasing levels of sensation and realism. At the same time, 3D printing is making it possible to bring sophisticated designs to the underprivileged and geographically isolated. Po is a company pursuing the latter goal, making custom prostheses for people who might otherwise have never gotten anything at all. Read More
Say what you will about the merits of Facebook’s Internet.org and Free Basics — it’s pretty cool that they’re building a huge, solar-powered, laser-shooting drone to deliver it. But a “structural failure” that occurred on the Aquila’s first test flight may be more serious than Facebook made it out to be: The NTSB is conducting an investigation,… Read More
Not even 24 hours after we got the last Snapchat Spectacle vending machine location, there’s a new one: near the Grand Canyon in Arizona, closest to the small town of Meadview. The new spot is striking distance from Las Vegas, and should provide a beautiful road trip for anyone adventurous enough to make the drive. The Grand Canyon location follows hot on the heels of the Rose Bowl… Read More
There’s a general malaise growing around IoT. After years of hype, more hype and even more hype, people are now starting to wonder: Where is this shiny, artificially intelligent, fully connected future of things we were promised? Read More
Another day, another Spectacles vending machine location. This is the fifth place the Snapbot has appeared, to sell its first-person video capturing sunglasses to droves of willing Snapchat fans (or at least people hoping to turn a tidy profit by reselling them on eBay). Today’s spot is in Pasadena, at the Rose Bowl Stadium where there’s a USC/UCLA game later today.
The previous… Read More
The Skyscraper Art Deco Watch is a new crowdfunded piece by horologist Mark Carson and designer Richard Paige. Based on Art Deco skyscraper decoration – think the Empire State Building’s handsome arches or the swooping buttresses of Gotham city – this watch is interesting for a few reasons. First, this team has made some nice watches before. Their DouFace dual face watch… Read More
Play-Doh has come to the iPad. With the newly launched toy set for kids, Play-Doh Touch Shape to Life Studio, Hasbro has made a solid attempt at bringing the joy of Play-Doh to digital through an iOS app that brings kids’ creations to life. But the combination of physical play and digital is not a skill set that’s easily mastered even by top kids’ brands — just ask… Read More
This fall saw Google introduce its Pixels, the Chromecast Ultra and the Daydream View VR headset, and to help sell those devices and show customers what they can do, the company is launching a store-within-a-store debuting in North America at select Best Buy locations in Canada. When it launched the Pixel at an event that also gave the first look at Google Wifi, Google Home and Daydream… Read More
President Obama awarded the country’s highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, to a batch of 21 deserving recipients, among them computing pioneers Grace Hopper and Margaret Hamilton. Read More
