The internet connection on the International Space Station and other platforms in orbit is getting a serious upgrade that will double its capacity, NASA announced today. But they aren’t sending up a new router or satellite; the improvements are mainly terrestrial. The ISS and dozens of satellites rely on the Space Network, a more or less unified architecture for sending large amounts of… Read More
During the supreme madness of the Pokémon GO season this summer, it wasn’t uncommon to hear people talk about how the insanely popular game was boosting activity levels and making people walk miles more than they did before. That effect appears to have been significantly overstated, according to research published in the British Medical Journal. Read More
It’s getting nigh on Holiday Season and how better to celebrate the old Yule log than with a nice herbal vaporizer. The Firefly 2 is a very clever and very well-built convection vape that creates a smooth, flavorful draw and can extract the maximum in herbal pleasure out of a little bit of material. Like Pax the Firefly 2 is foremost about function. The system heats herbs to 400… Read More
Serious motion capture setups often involve dozens of optical markers, inertial sensors or both, making them a pain to set up and tear down, and producing a ton of data. This Disney Research project produces high-quality results from just a handful of sensors by making some smart assumptions about how the body works. Read More
Droughts, climate change and deforestation are putting forests at risk worldwide, so studying these ecosystems closely is more important than ever — but it’s a hell of a lot of work to climb every tree in the Sierra Nevada. Drones and advanced imaging, however, present an increasingly practical alternative to that, as a UC Berkeley project shows. Read More
Open source laptops — ones not running any commercial software whatsoever — have been the holy grail for free software fans for years. Now, with the introduction of libreboot, a truly open source boot firmware, the dream is close to fruition. The 0 laptop is a bog standard piece of hardware but it contains only open source software. The OS, Debian, is completely open source;… Read More
Smart contact lenses have been the stuff of science fiction for a long time, but as with jetpacks and faster-than-light travel, we’re still waiting on them. Research is ongoing, though, and a project at the University of Ghent shows promise not just in advancing the technology but providing some therapeutic value, as well. Read More
We’re all curious to see whether Light’s crazy 16-lens camera can live up to its own hype, but it looks like we’ll have to wait just a little bit longer for the already-delayed gadget. On the bright side, so to speak, the camera is getting a significant improvement to its many lenses’ apertures. Read More
Boosted Board, long considered the de facto electric skateboard, finally has some competition from a rival that is also based in California. Price as reviewed: $1,399 at Inboard The Inboard M1 brings a new take to the category, with hubless motors that are planted into the rear wheels of the board. This means that the motors, batteries and wires are hidden, and there’s no resistance in… Read More
If you were thinking of getting your kid a little doll or robot that they can talk to — and, critically, that responds — you should probably hold off for a few years. A complaint to the FTC filed by consumer watchdog groups highlights ongoing privacy and security concerns with this creepy class of toy. Read More
