Tuesday, 29 March 2016

Rythm raises $11M to pursue sleep-improving neurotechnology

product_lifestyle_indoor French startup Rythm, which makes a tech-infused headset it claims improves sleep quality, announced Tuesday that it’s raised over $11 million from private investors and public grants. Read More

The Fluance Fi70 speaker is worth the money, but maybe not the space

fluance2x I own a lot of Bluetooth speakers. And I’ve played with even more. From powerful models from Bose and Libratone down to your basic Jawbone and the Amazon Echo. While each has its own specific strengths and weaknesses, they all have one thing in common: they’re pretty small and relatively portable. The Fluance Fi70 does not fit into this category. Though the Fluance Fi70 is an… Read More

AnkerBox launches charging-as-a-service

AnkerBox_Cafe Screen sizes on smartphones are getting bigger and bigger, but battery tech is lagging behind. As a heavy user of your smartphone, you’ll know that dreaded feeling of your battery marching towards extinction. The most common solution to the problem is to carry a charger or a USB battery pack, but both have downsides — AnkerBox is here to try make life a little bit easier when… Read More

E-books are more than just digital facsimiles, and publishers need to realize that, pronto

beach-reading-kindle The Kindle is great for linear fiction, but my biggest frustration is trying to consume content that isn’t meant to be enjoyed from first to last page. Travel books are terrible for that, for example: You’ll forever find yourself flipping between overview and local maps, the “what to do” section for where you are and the “where to stay” section for where… Read More

Sunday, 27 March 2016

DARPA kicks off $2m Grand Challenge focused on intelligently splitting up radio spectrum

january_2016_spectrum_wall_chart DARPA has a new Grand Challenge underway, but it’s not an automation moonshot like the self-driving car challenges of the early 2000s or the recent Robotics Challenge. The Defense Department’s R&D wing wants to revolutionize something with a bit less sex appeal, but plenty of real-world applications: radio frequency spectrum splitting. Read More

Face-plant into this airplane tray table pillow

Woollip You don’t have to be a circus freak contortionist to sleep on a plane thanks to Woollip. Now you can dive face-first into an inflatable travel pillow that’s made to sit atop your tray table. Woollip just hit Kickstarter for $30 and plans to ship in July. Most travel pillows sit behind your head or around your neck. But when you’re sitting upright, that makes you more likely… Read More

Apple unveils a new smaller iPad Pro, Apple’s vision of the future of computers

0059 Apple just announced the successor to the iPad Air 2 during its press conference in Cupertino. This isn’t a new iPad Air, it’s a smaller iPad Pro. And the company is calling it the iPad Pro. “We believe that iPad is the perfect expression of the future of computing,” Tim Cook said on stage. The iPad Air 2 was released in October 2014 so today’s new iPad is a… Read More