The UE Roll 2 speakers bring rugged Bluetooth audio poolside

 The UE Roll 2 is fun. How do I know it’s fun? Look at all the press images on the side of the box. It’s gone skiing, bike riding, mountain climbing and rolling around in the mud with a bunch of attractive product models. Even more telling, the product ships with its very own miniature inner tube, which is a pretty fun thing to do. Also inside the box is a bright yellow USB cable and… Read More

Apple prepping Siri SDK and Echo-like home assistant gadget

 Apple is preparing an SDK that would allow developers much greater access to Siri — and the improved assistant will power a stationary hub device like Amazon’s Echo. A report from The Information tallies with what we’ve heard over the last few weeks; expect an announcement, if not the device itself, at WWDC in June. Read More

Gulülu turns drinking water into a game for kids

 Through the power of smart sensors and the magic of the cloud, parched children is on its way to become a thing of the past — at least, if the Gulülu team have anything to say in the matter. The company’s bottle, launching on Kickstarter today, is the newest, most high-tech weapon in the battle to get their kids to imbibe enough liquids throughout the day. Read More

Google’s ATAP is bringing its Project Soli radar sensor to smartwatches and speakers

 Every year at I/O, Google’s ATAP division, which is responsible for turning some of the company’s crazier ideas into products, organizes its own small keynote. This year, the company offered updates on a number of projects, including Project Soli, its attempt at building a very small radar sensor that can translate hand movements into digital signals for building new user… Read More

ForcePhone adds pressure sensitivity to any phone using ultrasonics

 Force touch may be a feature exclusive to the latest iPhones, but something like it is now possible on pretty much any phone out there, thanks to research from engineers at the University of Michigan. Read More

This algorithm could make DNA origami as simple as 3D printing

 If you want to print something a few inches tall, extruded plastic is a good medium. But when you need something at the nanometer scale, DNA is a better bet — but who has the time to design and assemble it base by base? New research lets would-be DNA origami masters design the shape — while an algorithm determines where to put our friends A, T, G, and C. Read More

Google quietly discontinues the Nexus Player

 The Nexus Player may have been the best TV media player no one ever bought. Google and Asus introduced the Nexus Player back in November 2014. It was one of the first Android TV devices, and a more-than-capable device. And yet, despite Google’s weight behind this device, it hasn’t been a mainstream success, especially when you compare it with the Chromecast. Read More

Heavy Internet use leads to school burnout in teens

 As if you didn’t need more proof that your darn kids need to get off the computer and into the back yard, researchers at the University of Helsinki and Department of Psychology have found that excessive Internet use — essentially bordering on addiction — leads to school burnout in teens. There isn’t much detail on the definition of excessive use (you’ll know it… Read More

Terrapattern is reverse image search for maps, powered by a neural network

 Terrapattern is a visual search engine that, from the moment you first use it, you wonder: Why didn’t Google come up with this 10 years ago? Click on a feature on the map — a baseball diamond, a marina, a roundabout — and it immediately highlights everything its algorithm thinks looks like it. It’s remarkably fast, simple to use and potentially very powerful. Read More

Nuheara’s IQbuds are somewhere between wireless headphones and a hearing aid

 I went into the Nuheara demo not knowing what to expect. Not in the sense of, “How good will these be?” so much as, “I’m not exactly sure what these things do.” Like, are they headphones? Are they hearing aids? The answer, interestingly enough, is a little bit of both. The IQbuds are, ostensibly, Bluetooth earbuds. That they’re completely wireless is enough… Read More

Dish ships the HopperGo, a tiny little cloud player for TV on the run

 Originally announced at CES in January, the minuscule HopperGo is a 64GB USB drive with a built in wireless access point. The little device connects to your Dish Hopper 3 or Hopper 2 – essentially Dish’s DVR – and sucks down up to 100 hours of TV. You can then unplug the little bugger and watch for four hours on one charge through the Dish Anywhere app. When I first pulled… Read More

Netatmo launches new platform to make smart objects talk to each other

 French startup Netatmo just introduced a new developer platform called Netatmo Connect so that developers can build software and hardware integrations with Netatmo products. Netatmo sells weather stations, thermostats, indoor and outdoor cameras. The startup raised $32 million in November 2015. It's interesting Read More

How ready is the Internet for IoT?

 We’re currently witnessing rapidly expanding product launches and sky-high elevated expectations from the emerging deployment of the Internet of Things in both personal and commercial domains. Stakeholders — ranging from hardware manufacturers and service providers to cloud platforms — are vigorously weighing in to position their offerings in anticipation of windfall rewards… Read More