Asteroid mining is coming soon to a planet near you: this planet, and in 2021, to be specific. But NASA’s Asteroid Redirect Mission has lots of work to do before that point. Today the space-faring organization issued an official “request for proposals” from four partners on how they would go about creating the robotic spacecraft that would perform the actual asteroid… Read More
Google just sent out invites for an event in San Francisco on October 4th. Rumor has it that the company will reveal its next smartphones at the event. While the invite itself only features Google’s own logo, the company also just posted a teaser video and site that both strongly hint at a new phone. The URL for the teaser site is madeby.google.com, and unless something has… Read More
When you see or hear something happen, you can instantly describe it: “a girl in a blue shirt caught a ball thrown by a baseball player,” or “a dog runs along the beach.” It’s a simple task for us, but an immensely hard one for computers — fortunately, IBM and MIT are partnering up to see what they can do about making it a little easier. Read More
Apple just released not one, not two but three new ads for its new devices — the iPhone 7 and the Apple Watch Series 2. They all tout new features, such as water resistance, low light camera performance and new fitness features. Let’s start with my favorite one. In “Midnight”, a young man goes for a night ride on his skateboard. He rides in the suburbs, sees a deer (!) at… Read More
Like most small products with a cult following, SCiO has its fans and detractors. Those detractors took to the Internet recently to complain that the handheld molecular scanner, which raised $2.5 million in 2014, still hasn’t shipped. The result? Negative press and plenty of Tweets. I asked SCiO’s creator, Dror Sharon, what was going on with the device and when it would ship and,… Read More
I walked into a store and bought two today (there were plenty more around) so chances are you won’t have to resort to overpaying on eBay for a pre-order slot. After only a few hours playing with the Go, I already feel like it has a good chance of pulling me back into the game, at least for a little while, and the entire experience of using it is pretty painless. The Go Plus was easy to… Read More
In the world of MAME cabinetry – essentially a subculture of arcade lovers who build amazing cabinets for their emulators – the goal is usually to either recreate the arcade games of yore or build something really wild. Adafruit built something really wild. Originally a weekend project, this MAME cabinet is a few inches tall and uses a screen about as big as a thumbnail. The kit is… Read More
With side-hustles being all the rage these days, the new Shaper Origin makes it easier than ever to start building and selling cool gadgets in your free time. While you might not be able to build yourself a homemade Falcon 9 rocket with the company’s handheld CNC machine, you just might be able to build yourself a successful shop on Etsy. CNC machining is not a new concept, but it… Read More
The flaming train wreck that is the Galaxy Note 7 recall finally has its official stamp of approval from the Consumer Product Safety Commission, and there’s now a hard date for when you can swap your phone for a new one: September 21. Read More
We all suspected the Echo’s purpose was – at least in part – to drive more Amazon sales. And that’s exactly what’s happening, according to a new study by NPD Group. The research company found that owners of the Echo spent around 10 percent more after they bought the voice-powered smart speaker than they did before. The NPD Group’s Checkout Tracking… Read More
