Snapchat’s Spectacles are arriving starting today, and they’ll be available to buy via pop-up vending machines that look almost trademark infringingly like Minions. The so-called Snapbots will dispense Spectacles in either Black, Coral or Teal starting today, letting you first try them on virtually via an integrated AR display. Snapbot accepts debit or credit cards, and will… Read More
A robot called the Sub1 Reloaded can unscramble a Rubik’s Cube in 637 milliseconds – considerably less than the fastest human time of 4.9 seconds. The robot, built by self-driving chipmaker Infineon, uses six motors to turn and twist the cube after another computer scans it, solves the puzzle virtually. The arms quickly begin to move the cube into a solved position. The robot is… Read More
The first thing you’ll notice about the Yale Real Living Assure Lock is that it has no keyhole. There is no backup key, no physical keypad, and it looks like something that you’d mount on the outside of the Enterprise so Chekov can get back in after attaching a “Shatner/Nimoy ’74” bumper sticker to the right rear engine. The $199 lock, which is Yale’s… Read More
Snapchat’s Spectacles are already causing huge lineups and mild millennial frenzy in LA now that they’re on sale via super-exclusive Snapbot vending machines. It’s almost inevitable that Facebook copies this, too, so gird your nose bridge for Facebook Frames. Here’s our exclusive (and very fake) early preview of their promo site copy, which unsurprisingly looks a lot… Read More
Snap’s Spectacles are having a spectacular debut today, with (at least) hundreds of people lining up at their first Snapbot pop-up vending machine location in Venice Beach. We got the chance to speak to a few of those lucky enough to have grabbed some today, and they told us what it’s like to use the clip capturing face wear.
Jameson Detweiler, co-founder and CEO of AR startup… Read More
I’ve resolved to take a lot more panorama images from now on, and Daydream View is the reason why. Google’s new mobile VR headset, which makes it possible to use Daydream VR in Android 7.1 on the Pixel and Pixel XL smartphones, is an easy and enjoyable way to try out virtual reality, and its most powerful feature might be your boring old photo library. We’ve already… Read More
CES is loud, obnoxious and just too big. It will shave years off your life. I love it. And if you’re a hardware startup, you probably love it too.
We’re looking for startups to compete in Hardware Battlefield, where 24 companies will battle for a $50,000 check, a robot trophy and the chance to rise above the noise as the champion of Hardware Battlefield. Apply here.
Hardware… Read More
Timing is everything. And for DJI, the timing for the Mavik Pro, the stars seemed to align perfectly. A couple of weeks after GoPro’s big unveil, the company had a folding drone of its own that was smaller and more feature packed that the Karma. And, in spite of being late to the announcement part, DJI announced that it would be first to market with its device – a decided bonus of… Read More
Take a Chapman Stick, add a lot of tech in its belly and jam a USB cable up its jacksie and you get something that looks vaguely like an INSTRUMENT 1. It’s a completely new type of musical instrument developed by Artiphon. Funded through a seven-figure Kickstarter campaign, the instrument is shipping now, and we can’t wait to see what people will be creating with it. Read More
This morning Samsung announced that it was issuing a voluntary recall to address some 700-plus reports of malfunctioning top-loading washing machines, including one very unfortunate case of a broken jaw. It was the cherry on top of what has already been a rough few months for the hardware giant, driven mostly by the prolonged saga of the Galaxy Note 7. Heading into the weekend, the… Read More
As the Internet of Things evolves toward becoming one of the fastest expanding sectors in the tech industry, a lot of focus is being given to greenfield development, the process of creating new devices from scratch. The greater potential lies in brownfield development, the integration of connectivity and data collection into things and designs that already exist. Read More
Need a teeny tiny computer that can run Android or Linux? Only have $20? Well you’re in luck. When we first met the Orange Pi (get it?) the company was selling a nice Raspberry Pi clone for $15. Now they’re selling a souped up version with all the trimmings. The board includes an Ethernet port and three USB ports. It has 1GB of memory, H5 High Performance Quad-core 64-bit… Read More
Robots — and the smart home in general — are a hot topic, and it’s one where an enormous amount of investment is happening right now. There are many companies like Nest and Ring that are trying to target segments of the home in the hopes of making everything smarter.
But it’s easy to forget that the home is still a physical space, and in order for everything to work… Read More
Robot vacuums may have once seemed an eccentricity, but they now represent a non-trivial portion of the overall vacuum market – 20 percent worldwide, according to iRobot CEO and co-founder Colin Angle, who I spoke to at TechCrunch Beijing 2016. And Roomba makes up 70 percent of that market, giving iRobot a commanding lead in the space. Exactly how many robots does that translate to? Over… Read More
One problem with 360° videos is that you usually see a tripod or a hand holding the camera. One exception is the throwable Panono camera, but obviously you’re limited to how long you can keep a ball hovering. Varavon has another alternative, with a three-axis-stabilized gimbal drone that can film a full 360° sphere without being visible in the picture itself. Read More
It was really just a matter of time before WiFi startup Luma added Alexa functionality to its bag of tricks. After all, the hardware startup counts Amazon as among its biggest backers – and distributors. The functionality arrives today for the simple WiFi range extenders, bringing with it the ability to “pause the internet” via a voice command when an Echo is hooked up to… Read More
