HIKING FOR EMAILS from Clemens Purner on Vimeo.
This is Mahabir Pun. Fed up with the fact that he had to hike for two days whenever he wanted to check his email, he decided to connect his home town of Nangi to the Internet. This video explains how he did it. READ MORE: Watch How One Man Took the Internet to 60,000 People in Rural Nepal | Gizmodo
We spend a lot of time on our digital devices and we should be able to express ourselves through them. Unfortunately it’s all beige and brushed aluminum these days. We at Qwerkytoys are about to shake things up with our first product, the Qwerkywriter. Qwerkywriter connects wirelessly via Bluetooth to iPhones, iPads, iMacs, MacPros, Macbooks, Android Tablets Devices, Windows Tablets, and more. MORE: QWERKYWRITER | Typewriter-Inspired Mechanical Keyboard
Related: Qwerkywriter’s retro iPad keyboard is a flawed masterpiece | Engadget
As a comparison, my Apple Airport Extreme is sleek, minimalistic, functional and costs CAD$249.
[T]he company is launching a new device called the OnHub, in partnership with router-maker TP-Link. For $199, it promises to make your Wi-Fi faster and more reliable, and to give you the ability to update and fix your connection. (You know, for the rare times unplugging it and plugging it back in just won’t do.) The most striking thing about the OnHub is the way it looks. It’s not your average router, with wires and antennas poking out from every side; it’s a large cylindrical device with a blinking light on the top…Its outer shell is removable, and comes in either blue or black (more colors are coming…). READ MORE: Rejoice: Google Just Created a Stupidly Simple Wi-Fi Router | WIRED.
There’s no question that the Raspberry Pi is successful among the homebrew computing crowd. However, it’s not what you’d call consumer-friendly — the bare circuit board you normally get is clearly intended for tinkerers who plan to put the mini PC inside their own projects. Mercifully, you won’t have to devise a shell for it (or run it exposed) for much longer. READ MORE: At last, the Raspberry Pi mini PC has an official case | Engadget
Well, here’s a fun surprise! Parrot has just revealed a pile of inexpensive new minidrones, 13 in all, including one that tackles a new medium: water. That hybrid UAV/Boat is called the Hydrofoil Drone, and is joined by a couple of new ‘Jumping’ drones and a new flying model, the ‘Airborne.’ Parrot chose to reveal all these new models, which cost a maximum of €200, on its French site and nowhere else, though it recently scheduled a UK event to launch them on July 2nd. We have all the details (and videos) for the new products now, however, so let’s, um, dive in! READ MORE: Parrot unveils 13 new minidrones to tackle air, sea and land | Engadget
Launched on Kickstarter this morning, Holus is a tabletop device that converts digital content into a 3D hologram. Created by H+ Technologies out of Vancouver, the campaign has nearly doubled its goal of $40,000 in its first 2 hours.
Don’t expect to use this to summon Obiwan with a seven-inch image of Princess Leia. Objects aren’t 3D in any sense we’re used to. Instead, the device is a square tabletop platform which encases a glass pyramid upon which media is projected from below. The result is an ostensibly 3D image which can be viewed from 360 degrees around the machine.
READ MORE: Holus Is A Tabletop Device That Turns Digital Media Into A 3D Hologram | TechCrunch.
WE’VE LONG KNOWN there’s a market out there for robotic buddies. One compelling piece of evidence: The original Furby sold more than 40 million units, and it didn’t really do anything.
17 years later, an A.I. and machine-learning company is making a robot pal that will do way more than its fuzzy predecessor. It’s called Musio, and it houses a pretty impressive A.I. engine developed by a company called AKA.
The robot remembers details from prior conversations, asks follow-up questions based on that info, and can be used as a smart-home controller. But its main goal is to be your friend: Asking you questions, actually listening to your answers, and learning what you’re all about
READ MORE: This Little Robot Wants to Be Your Best Friend | WIRED
Which has the most apps? Which has the coolest features? Which one is the best? The most popular media streamers all have their merits, so we’ll help you decide which box is right for you. READ MORE: Chromecast vs. Apple TV vs. Roku vs. Amazon Fire TV | CNET.
We’re one step closer to biodegradable gadgets. These computer chips are made almost entirely out of wood. Scientists at the University of Wisconsin, Madison teamed up with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Forest Products Laboratory to fashion the new semiconductor chip. The paper was published today in Nature Communications.
See, most of a computer chip is composed of a “support” layer that cradles the actual chip. The research team replaced that support layer’s non-biodegradable material with something called cellulose nanofibril (CNF), which is flexible, wood-based, biodegradable—all things that can make a device way less hazardous.
Image credit: University of Wisconsin
READ MORE: We Can Now Make Computer Chips Out of Wood | Gizmodo
On a trip to India, entrepreneur Matt Dalio noticed something about the country’s emerging middle class: While many families owned TVs, few could also afford to have a computer. He had an epiphany. Why not make TV screens double as the monitor for a low-cost, but fully-functioning PC?
For the next three years, he worked with a team to develop Endless, a $169 computer designed for the burgeoning middle class in the developing world. It’s loaded with around 150 apps—from health and farming to Wikipedia—that can work offline, so if someone has a spotty Wi-Fi connection, they can keep working.
READ MORE: This $169 Computer Is Designed For The World’s Emerging Middle Class | Co.Exist | ideas + impact.
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