Awesome Tech

The YARA Birkeland will be the world’s first autonomous and zero-emission container ship. It will be manned when it launches in 2018, but is expected to launch, sail and dock on its own by 2020. It will reduce YARA’s diesel truck haulage by up to 40,000 trips a year.

It needs some serious rebranding, but the Phoozy phone case could save your smartphone and other gadgets from an untimely death. It shields whatever’s inside from impact as well as extreme heat and cold, and it floats on water too.

Privatix’s free service lets you generate dummy email accounts for anonymity and security. It has apps for iOS and Android plus browser extensions for Chrome, Firefox and Opera. The only downside is that you have to go to their site to check your dummy inbox.

Perfect for viewing just about anything from a distance, this long-range monocular can zoom from 40x to 60x. It comes with a handy flexible tripod, as well as a mount to attach it to your smartphone for long zoom photos.

An awesome tech time capsule from the 1987 Summer Consumer Electronics Show in Chicago. Art Vuolo of Videoholic Returns posted this 4 part video which shows us just how far we’ve come in 30 years. That remote control was insane. And that bar code VCR LOL.

This handy charging pack has a 5,000 mAh battery inside, along with a solar panel to help keep it topped off on sunny days. It’s got both 1A and 2.1A USB ports, and is both waterproof and shockproof. Save 72% off the original price in The Awesomer Shop.

Neorb Lab’s AirLink is a multifunctional Bluetooth adapter. Aside from connecting your headphones or speakers to your phone or other Bluetooth-enabled device, it also has dedicated buttons for your phone’s camera shutter and virtual assistant.

Trakk’s modern, yet rugged backpacks are designed to hold all of your devices and everyday gear in a shockproof and waterproof shell, and come with either a colorful LED safety light, or a built-in bluetooth speaker and battery pack. Save up to 55% in The Awesomer Shop.

Sparkfun founder Nate Seidle loves to create robots and is a genius with electronics. So for the fun of it, his wife gifted him a small safe that was locked, and provided no combination to open it. It was then up to Nathan to build a robot that could open it.

Singapore-based Autobahn Motors turned its showroom into a 15-story luxury car vending machine. Even though it’s more of a marketing and space-saving stunt, the delivery system actually works, and is controlled through a mobile app.

Previously exclusive to group buy sites like Massdrop, Input Club are now gearing up to mass produce its popular WhiteFox keyboard. The keyboard is known for its exceptional build quality, durable and comfortable keycaps, and fully programmable keys.

Palo Alto Innovation’s Sandman Doppler has stereo speakers, six USB charging ports and is Alexa-enabled. It also has shortcut buttons for your favorite Alexa commands and macros, and an auto-dimming RGB LED display.

Fender’s new Bluetooth speakers were inspired by the company’s beloved ’68 Custom amplifiers. The Monterey is a 120W speaker with 3.5mm and RCA inputs. The Newport on the other hand is a portable 30W speaker that with 3.5mm input and a USB charging port.

Dream Arcades’ retro console comes with emulators for more than 24 classic systems, from the Atari 2600 to the N64. But since it’s actually a custom mini Windows 10 PC, you can also use it to stream media, play games from Steam and GOG, and more.

Mike Boyd is an engineer, but he swears he’s never used a 3D printer until he made this video. It’s heartening to see that you can go from knowing nothing about the technology to making model rockets in just a few hours.

A compact interchangeable lens camera with 4K support. Works with a variety of Micro Four-Thirds lenses from Lumix, Sigma, Olympus, and Leica. It supports both automatic and manual focus, and is small enough to be mounted on a drone gimbal. Sample video content here.

Chase Cobb’s prototype handheld PC only has a Core i3 6300 U with Intel HD 520 integrated graphics (the same CPU in these laptops), but it’s good enough to play many modern games such as Overwatch and Rocket League, and handles Xbox One streaming really well.

NetSpot’s application can show you signal strength by area for wi-fi networks using a heat map. This helps you identify the strongest signals, dead spots, and the closest access points. Save 72% off the MSRP in The Awesomer Shop.

An action camera designed for divers. It has large buttons with haptic feedback, automatic color correction based on your depth, and lets you overlay the time, depth and temperature in your videos. It uses a 140º lens with LDC, and shoots 720p/1080p/4K videos and 8MP stills.

Designed by Studio FA Porsche, the PDS 1080p IPS LED monitor is extremely lean and clean. It has a nearly bezel-less display and a stand that hides a mini-HDMI cable, which connects to a power and HDMI brick. It also has 100% sRGB color gamut. Available in 24″ or 27″.

This compact drone folds up small enough to pack in a bag, thanks to its vertical design. It’s also got a 720p camera on board with a stabilization gimbal, and can be remotely viewed via Wi-Fi. Flight range is appx. 400 ft., with an 8 to 10 minute flight time.

These pocket-sized stands are perfect for watching TV shows and movies on the go. They fold down small enough to fit in your pocket, but are sturdy enough to hold any smartphone or tablet up to 11″. Grab a 3-pack for 33% off in The Awesomer Shop.

A look at some of the presentations coming to SIGGRAPH, the annual computer graphics conference. This glimpse at the future of animation includes a synthesized voice that can be edited using text, and facial animation that copies styles from drawings in real-time.