Technology and Computing
The Smart Tire Company Inflatable rubber tires would not fare well on the surface of the Moon or Mars. The terrain is treacherous, and there’s no one there to throw on a spare if you get a flat. That’s why rovers typically use tires made of metal alloys that can endure the punishment that comes from puttering around on alien soil. Now, the Smart Tire Company is preparing to offer its airless alloy METL tires adapted from NASA rover tech…
Wireless charging has been growing in popularity over the past few years, but it is still quite limited. The main convenience offered is no longer having to plug a cable into the device that needs charging, but you still need to position each device accurately on a charging pad and a bigger or multiple pads are required for charging more devices. Energous is hoping to relax the rules of wireless charging with the WattUp Mid Field transmitter. As Liliputing reports, the transmitter…
At CES next week, expect booth after booth of smart devices — and a host of approaches to their security. You know, locks, cameras, appliances, doorbells, electrical outlets — anything you can put a sensor on. Many of these will be made by brand-new companies, hoping to capitalize on the mania for devices that can talk with each other. The chatter between all those gadgets — known collectively as the internet of things — is going to be cacophonous. Machina…
A hard drive is a hard drive, unless it gets a makeover from a French industrial designer, in which case it becomes an expensive work of art that just happens to store data. It’s a strategy that LaCie has been pursuing since the 1990s, and now Western Digital is doing it, too. The new My Passport and My Book drives will come in six bright colors chosen by the designer and brand strategist Yves Béhar (Okay, he’s Swiss, not French).…
Are you ready for a hurricane situation or other emergency weather? Looking for the perfect camping radio that will last for years? Be the prepared one in your group with this no-hassle, sure-fire emergency radio and flashlight. Two minutes of cranking nets you at least 20 minutes of lights on or radio. With its compact design, 3-LED flashlight, and 5-way charging (hand crank, solar, USB, AC and DC), and retractable antennae, you’ll never be left in the dark. The high-quality…
Verizon buys Fleetmatics for $2.4B in cash to step up in telematics Panaray. Panaromic and array. Made by Bose, the $3,700 optional Panaray audio system puts 34 tiny speakers around the Cadillac CT6’s cabin with the goal of creating an immersive soundstage. This is more than creating a surround sound system. It’s about creating an environment of sound. And it works. Turn on the radio and the sound envelops the driver and passengers and, sometimes, with the right audio, the music…
Pop quiz, hot shot : You’re a delivery drone with a flight duration of 20 minutes with your current payload, but because of delays (use your imagination) you’re never going to make it in time. What do you do, hot shot? What do you do? You land on a street light that’s been converted into a drone charger! Thank goodness Amazon patented those. Yes, the patent was granted today for a “Multi-use UAV docking station system” that lives at the…
Basis Peak, a fitness watch tracking your health and sleep habits, is now being recalled by the company after reports of overheating. The Intel subsidiary first sent a statement about the overheating issues mid-June and is now asking customers to stop wearing their watches and is shutting down service “immediately.” “We had hoped to update the software on your watch to address the problem,” the company said in a statement. “Unfortunately, despite our best efforts, we aren’t able to develop such a solution without completely…
We’ll be live at today’s big Samsung reveal — and you can be, too, kind of, sort of. The electronics giant has offered up a few clues that today’s event will include a reveal of the latest Galaxy Note (including all of the above S Pens), a few weeks ahead of the phablet’s traditional IFA unveiling. There have been plenty of rumors and leaks about what appears to be the Galaxy Note 7 , an update that finds the…
The team beyond Ticwatch 2 , the Chinese smartwatch project that has crossed $1.5 million on Kickstarter , has confirmed which apps and services its wearable device will initially support. Mobvoi, the Google-backed company behind the project , uses its own modified version of Android to power the $139 watch rather than Android Wear. That means that it cannot support all the regular apps you might expect from an Android watch, despite the company initially saying it would offer full Android Wear support. On…
It’s in the country’s best interests to stay at (or at least near) the forefront of advanced computing techniques, and the National Science Foundation has just put $110 million down to make sure that happens. XSEDE , or the Extreme Science and Engineering Discovery Environment, is a “virtual organization” established in 2011 and composed of members from many universities and research organizations. It organizes and improves resources like supercomputers that need to be shared by research efforts all over the…
As an avid non-fisher it’s hard for me to quite grasp the depths of depravity associated with a fishing trip. Waking up at 4am? Swinging a pole at some water? Drinking beers all morning in a hot boat? Catching and eating a squirming live thing? Not for me. The folks at Anglr want to change my mind . Their product, the Anglr Tracker, is an activity tracker for fishing. You attach it to your rod and it senses your casts,…