Awesome Tech

Following up on their giant round of Jenga, Caterpillar shows off the durability of their rugged Cat B15 smartphone by first dropping them in a vat of water, then running over 600 of them with a 4.6-ton multi-terrain loader.

The pages of The Drinkable Book contains tips on proper sanitation & hygiene, but more importantly, they’re function as water filters. Each book can provide clean water for up to four years and costs just pennies to make.

The Nomad 883 is a compact and user-friendly CNC mill. It lets you engrave, cut and carve wood, brass, aluminum, plastics and more. It plugs into computers via USB and can be controlled on-the-fly or use 3D files as templates.

We’ve teamed up with Gear Diary to give away this awesome prize pack worth $900+: a booq Boa Nerve Messenger Bag, a Braven 855S speaker, V-Moda Crossfade M100 headphones and a PowerPot portable generator! (Ends 5/19)

Hugh Herr and his colleagues at MIT’s Biomechatronics group develop artificial limbs that complete or augment the human body. His presentation is amazing, but if you’re short on time skip to 13:40. Really, watch the whole thing.

The Sony SRS-X9 is a high-end compact wireless speaker. It connects via NFC, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and also has Ethernet, USB and 3.5mm inputs. It has 4 tweeters, 2 mid drivers and a subwoofer, and has a total output of 154W.

CleverPet helps entertain your dog even when you’re not around. It employs lights and durable rubber touch pads to give your pet increasingly complex puzzles to solve, and automatically rewards them with a treat.

This fun iOS app makes creating music easy and fun. It combines a digital sample looper, effects processor, and can even simulate three-part vocal harmonies from just one voice. Record and share tracks in a jiffy too. More here.

Lechal makes Bluetooth-enabled shoes and insoles with GPS and fitness tracking capabilities. They guide you to the right direction by vibrating. Together with a mobile app, they also let you save destinations and share your location.

This tiny sensor is like a Tricorder in real life. It will identify the composition of foods, plants and objects by scanning their molecular fingerprint, checking an online database, then displaying their chemical makeup on your mobile device.

Tzukuri are sunglasses with a Bluetooth chip that alerts you via a mobile app if you’ve forgotten them. A small solar cell on the frame charges the chip. Coming soon in six stylish designs. Sign up to be reminded when they’re available.

Inspired by classic 8mm film cameras, Chinon’s forthcoming Bellami HD-1 camera is all digital, capturing full HD 1080/30p video, offering interchangeable lenses, and a comfortable and stable pistol grip. Sample footage here.

Formerly called Lernstift (“learning pen”) VibeWrite is a refillable pen that helps you learn English. Currently, it vibrates to point out spelling errors. Future updates will enable it to help improve your handwriting and grammar.

Sony revamps its popular α77 24.3mp DSLR with more accurate and flexible autofocus, a fast new Bionz X processor, 100-25600 ISO range, a sharp 1228k dot LCD display, Wi-Fi and NFC connectivity, and 4K still image output.

Like the 3Doodler, Lix is a handheld PLA/ABS 3D printer that makes creating objects as simple as writing or drawing. It’s main advantage is its compact size, making it more comfortable to hold. Hey Lix guys, the camera is over here.

TapPainter is an iPad app that virtually repaints walls. It accounts for the lighting conditions in your room and lets you try out different paint brands. There’s also a Kickstarter for an Android and iPhone version.

Boost the storage of your Mac laptop or Mac Mini with the Transcend JetDrive. It comes with all the tools you need to replace your computer’s current SSD. It even has an enclosure so you can reuse your old SSD as an external drive.

The Python Cord is a rubber accessory that absorbs and distributes the stress on the charging cable of laptops and other gadgets, preventing it from being frayed or torn. It doesn’t do anything for the other end of the cable though.

In their endless desire for clean design, Apple neglected to put any USB ports on the front or side of its slim iMacs. BlueLounge fixes that with this J-shaped port extender, which moves a USB port up front. We’d like one in silver though.

A 6,000mAh external battery pack that can also jump start car batteries. Aside from its 5V 2.1A USB charging port, Jumpr also has a 12V 150A-350A output that can be connected to a car battery. It comes with proprietary jumper cables.

The Buoyant Air Turbine or BAT from Altaeros Energies is made of a helium-filled, inflatable shell that ascends to high altitudes where it harnesses the energy of stronger, more consistent winds to provide power to remote areas and microgrids.

These unique speakers have enclosures made from glass-fiber reinforced concrete. Each one has a titanium cone full-range speaker, and can handle 50w max. We’re not sure of the acoustic properties of concrete, but they sure look good.

Here’s another funny testament to the power of virtual reality and the Oculus Rift headset. While trying out the roller coaster demo, this guy didn’t even get the chance to enjoy the experience. He “fell.” Skip to 1:15.