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Essential is trying to build Android for the smart home

Andy Rubin’s appearance at the Code Conference last night went a ways toward answering some lingering questions about his new company, Essential. But the conversation primarily centered around the startup’s upcoming phone — Rubin left the dialogue around the company’s take on a smart phone hub, Home, intentionally vague. But the CEO did take the opportunity to… Read More

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The Turing Tumble lets you and your kids build real mechanical computers

When the lights go out and the entire world is thrust into the technological nether, we’ll need board games like Turing Tumble. Created programmer Paul Boswell – he’s well known for programming complex games for Texas Instruments calculators – and maker Alyssa Boswell, the Turing Tumble lets you use small parts to create logic flows in order to solve puzzles.
Boswell… Read More

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Intel’s super portable Compute Card could be your real pocket PC

Smartphones are already computers in our pockets, but Intel’s new Compute Card turns an actual PC into something you can take with you wherever you go. Equipped with a range of processor options, including an ultra-efficient Celeron, and notebook-class Core i5s, this slab that looks like a USB backup battery is attracting a range of interest from Intel OEM partners hoping to use it… Read More

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Asus skips robots at this year’s Computex event and flaunts super-thin laptops instead

Remember Zenbo, the cute humanoid robot that stole the show at Asus’ Computex press conference last year? Zenbo was absent from the stage this year, as were ZenFones. Instead, in an unusual departure for the event, which took place today in Taipei, Taiwan, the focus was solely on Asus’ new laptops, with the spotlight shining on the newest additions to its ZenBook line: the ZenBook… Read More

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The Marc Newson Hourglass For Hodinkee shows us time is a nanoball

 “Can anyone tell me what this is?” the teacher asked. Outside the rust rains had come again and the building reacted by assembling a nano sphere shield. They would be inside until it stopped. None of the children were old enough for the skin adaptation. She might as well keep them busy.
She held up half of a glass object, the top edge crude and sharp.
“A cup?” asked… Read More

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Feast your eyes on this 600-DPI e-paper screen

 I have to say, I really like e-paper. And it’s come a long way since the crude early Kindles — nowadays you have e-readers that are as high-resolution as the best phones and iPads. And they’re set to get even better if E-Ink’s latest screens make it into a few products, as I hope they do. Read More

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This ultra-twee soft robotic gripper was inspired by Venus flytraps

The problem with tiny robots, if there can really be said to be one, is that you can’t put enough stuff on them. Cameras and motors don’t shrink down very well, meaning if you want your robot to grab something, you’d better come up with a new way to see it and hold onto it. And that’s just what Finnish researchers have done with this bio-inspired, super-small gripper! Read More