Sunday 31 July 2016

BBC: And then we strapped a helicopter rig to an elephant

20160726-Elephant Rig Imagine being part of the BBC’s natural history unit, traveling the world to create some of the world’s most beautiful documentaries. Sounds like a dream job, right? I sat down with Huw Cordey, the producer on a ton of the Beeb’s best-loved shows, to find out more about the technology and gadgets the team deploys to capture the beasties in action. Read More

Saturday 30 July 2016

The Freewrite is the ultimate distraction-free writing tool

IMG_5820 riting on a computer is awful. Without discipline – in my case, at least – an effort to get out 1,000 words of non-fiction usually ends up consisting of thirty minutes of web browsing before writing, intermittent Facebook trips while tapping out a few hundred words, and a nice jaunt through Hacker News at the 750 word mark. I get the job done, but I know my brain isn’t doing… Read More

Ticwatch 2 is a slick smartwatch that raised $500K on Kickstarter in just 3 days

mobvoi ticwatch 3 If you haven’t been tempted to buy a smartwatch yet, or have been disappointed by your purchase of an Apple Watch, one of Samsung’s (many) Gear wearables or others, there may yet be salvation for you. Read More

Make your commute suck less

12-pannier-1280 Everything you do to make your commute better is like an early-stage investment in your success at work. Start earning dividends early by borrowing some of our hundreds of hours of research and picking up the best devices and accessories for commuters. They make your twice-daily trek by car, rail or bike worry-free, comfortable, and sometimes even fun. Read More

Friday 29 July 2016

Apple hires founder of QNX Software Systems for automotive project

BEIJING, CHINA - JUNE 3:  Citizens walk into an Apple Store on June 3, 2016 in Beijing, China. Apple Inc. was recently listed as an enterprise of serious dishonesty and fined 50,000 yuan (about 7,612 USD dollar) by the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Statistics due to some discrepancies in their financial status and retail status in 2014. (Photo by VCG/VCG via Getty Images) Apple is adding an experienced automotive software developer to its ranks and perhaps changing the focus of its secretive automotive division. Bloomberg is reporting Apple hired former BlackBerry employee and co-founder of QNX Dan Dodge, who will work in the software team of Apple’s automotive project. Dodge brings considerable experience to Apple. The company he co-founded developed… Read More

TSA key cracker Johnny Xmas tells us how to stay safe while traveling

Screen Shot 2016-07-29 at 10.56.30 AM A few days ago we reported that a group of hackers at the HOPE Conference in New York told the world that they had cloned the last TSA Master Key. These keys, which were leaked in a Washington Post article, are a bit of security theatre coupled with a lot of poor engineering. Xmas believes, however, that personal security is important and he wanted to tell us how they cracked the keys and how… Read More

Genovation’s GXE breaks the land speed record for a street-legal all-electric car

maxresdefault-2 You probably aren’t trying to set a land speed record for an all-electric, street legal car, but if you are, I have bad news: The goalposts just got moved further out. Genovation‘s Extreme Electric (GXE) car, which uses a Corvette Z06 chassis with a custom electric drive under the hood, broke its previous record of 186.8 mph by a margin of nearly 20 mph. The new record now stands… Read More

Thursday 28 July 2016

LivBlends renames itself Replenish and gives us a first look at its futuristic smoothie machine

open_unblended_revised_e_deck Nearly two years ago LivBlends was a Y Combinator smoothie delivery startup. The company has evolved since then, raised $3.8 million in seed from various investors and switched its name to Replenish. It’s also moved away from delivery and into manufacturing a line of Keurig-like self-cleaning smoothie machines. Replenish is still in the testing phase of the product, but… Read More

Security experts have cloned all seven TSA master keys

tsa-master_keys-travelsentry_xmas-100673377-primary.idge_-906x603@2x Key escrow — the process of keeping a set of keys for yourself “just in case” — has always been the U.S. government’s modus operandi when it comes to security. From the disastrous Clipper chip to today, the government has always wanted a back door into encryption and security. That plan backfired for the TSA. The TSA, as you’ll remember, offers a set of… Read More

Scuro’s titanium dive watch hits on all cylinders

77c24e7632b5ef6e63ec134ef2353d1d_original As TC’s resident watch hound I like to try to find you all a few interesting crowdfunded timepieces. What’s important to me, however, is the quality and the uniqueness of the piece. That’s why I like the perfect storm of crowdfunded watch magic called the Scuro. It is a massive dive watch with a unique design, titanium case, and automatic movement. Plus you can get it for… Read More

Wednesday 27 July 2016

Facebook open sources Surround 360 camera with Ikea-style instructions

Facebook 360 Surround build gif Facebook needs you to fill its News Feed, Oculus Rift, and Gear VR with 360 content. So today it put all the hardware and software designs of its Surround 360 camera on Github, after announcing the plan in April. Thanks to cheeky instruction manual inspired by Ikea’s manuals, you can learn how to buy the parts, assemble the camera, load the image-stitching software, and start shooting… Read More

Some last-minute thoughts about Apple’s earnings

shutterstock apple shanghai china In about an hour, Apple will announce its quarterly earnings. So you’ll soon be able to read all about it on TechCrunch as we have a team ready to look at all these numbers and find out if they’re moving up or down. But I’m going to use this opportunity to give you a few thoughts about what’s going to happen and what you should look for. Read More

Program your own self-driving racer with FormulaPi

giphy-1-1 Self-driving race cars are a few years away but why not simulate the roar of robotic Formula 1 cars with a little Raspberry Pi magic? The folks at Piborg are offering the opportunity for hackers and makers to try and drive their own autonomous car brain in a centralized race. They’ve launched a Kickstarter and they’re looking for folks to download the autonomous racing code, modify… Read More