Drones are fairly off-the-shelf affairs for most people; there’s a wide range of companies making them for both commercial and consumer uses, but ultimately these are all remarkably similar. They tend to favor a quadcopter structure, and are often configured with photography in mind as a primary use. But MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence lab has come up with a… Read More
Sometimes you see a gadget and think simultaneously, “that’s insanely clever,” but also just “that’s insane.” The RokBlok was one of those situations for me: Who but a mad genius would have thought of a record player that propels itself along the groove like a little remote control car? Read More
Jolted into existence with a $500,000 Indiegogo campaign back in 2013, followed by a version 2 that was sold in Apple Stores all over the world, Beddit is back with a third generation of its popular addition to the Quantified Self movement: sleep tracking. The product went on sale in September and immediately sold out, and the company is still selling Beddit 3 faster than it can make them. Read More
Lost and stolen iOS devices could be at risk if ne’er-do-wells learn of this blunt-force method of getting past Activation Lock. No special equipment or technical know-how is required, which means any geek off the streets can do it. Fortunately, it’s easily fixed — but until that happens, you might want to be a little extra careful about leaving your phone unattended. Read More
Phantom limb pain is a mysterious ailment: people with amputations experience aches and acute pains in an arm or leg that isn’t there — making the problem notoriously difficult to treat. But a new type of therapy using augmented reality is surprisingly effective at reducing even the most intractable phantom pain. Read More
Say you’re at a party, and someone wants to get a silent disco going. Everyone opens their phone, someone yells “play,” and hopefully everyone gets it started at the same time.
Well, that works, but it could be better. So at the TechCrunch Disrupt London 2016 Hackathon, a few developers in the United Kingdom built an app to make sure everyone’s at the same part in the song. Read More
The GoPro Karma Grip is now available. The camera maker announced today that the handheld stabilizer is for sale in select stores and GoPro.com for $299. This is the same handheld grip that shipped with the Karma drone — at least before the drone was recalled for battery issues. The Karma Grip competes directly with the DJI Osmo though both offer distinct advantages as I and.… Read More
GoPro today announced the company will cut 200 jobs, about 15% of its global workforce. The company says this will reduce its 2017 non-GAAP operating expenses to about $650 million and will help the company fulfill CEO Nick Woodman’s stated goal of returning the company to profitability in 2017. Company president Tony Bates is stepping down from his position at the end of 2016, saying in… Read More
Over the past few months, Samsung has been understandably manic, trying to get replacement phones in the hands of former Note 7 owners. According to the company’s public-facing numbers, its bids have been pretty successful, convincing customers to stick with the brand by way of the S7 and S7 Edge, even as confidence in the brand has been deeply shaken. There are, of course, plenty of… Read More
Ditching frills for focus The Headphone doesn’t offer activity tracking or fancy gesture controls – instead, it promises Bluetooth audio, with physical buttons on the right earbud to control playback and volume. The case for The Headphone just holds the buds for charging; unlike The Dash, the storage container does not also hold backup charge for the headset. Despite everything… Read More
Welcome to the 2016 TechCrunch Holiday Gift Guide! We’ll be rolling out a bunch of guides leading up to Christmas, hopefully making your holiday shopping a little easier. Looking for gifts for others on your list? Check out our full 2016 Gift Guide Hub. Read More
Once, long ago when magazines still existed, I bought a copy of Popular Mechanics. Inside was a guide on how to build a robotic lawnmower. Now this was back in the 1980s so it wasn’t a very complex machine – it basically backed up when it hit stuff – but I was amazed. Being only ten at the time I was unable to build the thing and, now that I’m 40, I still… Read More
Robotic arms seem like they belong in Sci-Fi movies, car factories and the dreams of DIY nerds. Dobot wants to change that, with a shiny new Kickstarter campaign bringing entry-level robotics to the desktop. The robot is extendable and can be equipped to deal with any number of tasks, including cutting, moving, printing, picking-upping, soldering and a ton of other -ings. Dobot M1 costs $1,399. Read More
