I’ve been following the multiple “easy” brewing systems available online for a while now and have never found one that truly spoke to me. Devices like the Minibrew seem great but price and shipping problems have always kept them out of my boozy little hands. So, rather than wait for the perfect automatic system, I decided to look at the Catalyst Fermentation System, a $199… Read More
If you’re anything like me, you spend a significant portion of the day wondering about the paths viruses take when they’re cruising around your internals. Luckily for us, a newly developed microscope from Duke researchers can show the exact path taken by the little critters (?), down to the micrometer. Read More
Today in odd apps I present Smell PGH, an app that lets you report weird smells in Pittsburgh. Why would you do this, you ask? Well hold on. “If you smell something bad in the air, chances are that air isn’t good to breathe,” said Beatrice Dias, project director for the Carnegie Mellon Robotics Institute’s CREATE Lab. “Smell PGH provides a way for citizens to… Read More
Researchers at the University of Calgary have released the latest version of their “Wearable Microsystem for Minimally Invasive, Pseudo-Continuous Blood Glucose Monitoring,” a watch-like wearable that “bites” you every few hours to draw blood and test your glucose levels. The system uses a shape memory alloy actuator which contracts when heated and then snaps back into… Read More
In a hole in your pants there lived a wallet. Not a nasty, dirty, wet wallet, filled with the receipts and cigarette papers and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, boring wallet that fit nothing and there nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a Baggizmo wallet, and that meant lots of gadgetry. It had a perfectly flat folder design, with a programmable NFC chip installed. The wallet… Read More
Dust off your Google Glasses, those who still have them — the $1,500 face computer is back in the spotlight today with a few updates. In its first update since September 2014, Google Glass got a “MyGlass” companion app update, some bug fixes and now supports Bluetooth. Read More
Watchmaker Robert Forsey, co-founder of Gruebel Forsey, isn’t worried. This plain-spoken creator of some of the most complex and beautiful watches in the world sees the Swiss Watch industry to be in turmoil but not in peril. “They made too many watches,” he said simply. And now they can’t sell them. When asked about the rise of the smartwatch, Forsey laughs. His… Read More
Swatch, the fashion watch for the masses, has created Swatch X You, a clever online watch “factory” that lets you pick a face, band, and extra doodads to truly customize your $65 to $85 watch. The service, available now, offers watches in two sizes 34mm and 41mm. I’ve asked the Swatch group for comment – I basically want to know who is buying Swatches these days… Read More
A new system by University of California, Santa Barbara researchers Yasamin Mostofi and Chitra R. Karanam uses two drones, a massive Wi-Fi antenna, and a little interpolation to literally see through solid walls. The system is two-fold. The one drone blasts Wi-Fi through the structure and another picks up the signal. Then, working in tandem, the two drones fly around the solid structure until… Read More
Elon Musk says that he’s had “promising conversations” with L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti, regarding the potential of a network of tunnels underneath the city that would allow for a high-speed transit network unburdened by surface traffic. That’s the vision Musk’s recently founded Boring Company hopes to make a reality, as illustrated by a concept video debuted by Musk… Read More
