Awesome Tech

The 8-bit NES offered family-friendly games like Super Mario Bros. and The Legend of Zelda. But in the hands of Aussie builder Electrosync, the console is now a killer robot. After ripping out the console’s innards, he installed a remote-controlled drivetrain and a spinning sawblade to take down other beetleweight combat robots.

In 2011, Vagabond Works created a skateboard like no other. The Land Crawler eXXtreme is a robotic skateboard that walks using a mechanism based on Theo Janssen’s Strandbeests. It uses two motors and 24 legs to scurry along and has a load capacity of 300 kg or about 661 lb. We imagine its battery doesn’t last long.

The latest version of Sony’s Spatial Reality Display has a 4K screen that can show realistic 3-dimensional content without glasses or a VR headset. Its 27″ screen is much larger than the first model and has an upgraded vision sensor and improved depth of field and resolution. Now we need a version for gaming.

This pair of light bars add vibrant colors to your room – mounted behind your TV or as standalone accent lights. They can sync with music and offer app-based, Google, and Alexa voice color control. They also sell a Pro version that detects the images on your TV screen with a camera and matches colors in real-time.

A while back, Fletcher from Everything Is Hacked came up with a way to control a computer with his face with your face. Now he’s created an input method to get his cardiovascular system going. He used a computer vision algorithm to detect the positions of his arms and legs to type letters and numbers using semaphore.

Veho’s gaming headset cranks out high-quality, immersive sound. It has a futuristic style and offers comfort for marathon gaming sessions. Its noise-canceling mic is great for co-op strategy or taunting enemies. Compatible with PlayStation, Xbox, PC, and Nintendo Switch.

A normal bike uses a set of gears to influence the amount of torque sent to its rear wheel. Tom Stanton wanted to see if it was possible to create a bike transmission that uses magnets to turn its wheel and create resistance. Put your thinking caps on for this brainy video that incorporates physics, math, and engineering.

Locking up your bicycle to a rack or pulling your car into a marked space seem like nice, low-tech approaches to parking. Tom Scott explains why some locations in Japan have adopted a much more complicated system, using underground garages and massive, robotically-controlled systems for parking bikes and cars.

Upgrade your tabletop gaming with this digital display board from Crafty Kobolds. It features a 43″ Samsung 4K display wrapped in a handmade wooden frame and protected by clear plexiglass. Load it up with digital maps and animations, which can be easily found online. Choose from black walnut, oak, or cherry wood.

This neat little gadget is a sampler and looper with a chromatic keyboard. The Chompi has 7-voice polyphony, records up to 6 hours, and has knobs for selecting start and end points, pitch, attack and decay, and effects like reverb, filters, and saturation. Its tape-style looping engine is truly magical.

The One Hacker Band is a robotic musical group that plays electromechanically-controlled instruments. They recently added a new member – a head that can sing. Here’s the latest line-up of the band performing the Tears for Fears hit Everybody Wants to Rule the World. Need more? Enjoy a little Radiohead.

Ironside’s unique, limited-edition PC features a stained glass side panel decorated with Yggdrasil, a sacred tree from Norse mythology that was said to support the universe with its roots. LED backlighting brings the colorful scene to life. On the front, you’ll find a Celtic hammer medallion, and inside choose from four different levels of PC performance.

We’ve seen an engineer build a robot that can paint giant wall murals. JBV Creative’s robotic painter is decidedly less precise in its approach to creating art, though its abstract paint splatters could still land its entirely randomized works in a modern art museum.

Mayku’s FormBox brings the power of vacu-forming to your desktop. It connects to an ordinary vacuum cleaner and heats thermoplastic sheets to create objects and molds. Its can mold objects up to 150mm x 150mm (~5.9″ x 5.9″) and can mold objects up to 130mm tall (~5.11″). It works with a various plastics in from 0.25 – 1.5mm thick.

Dust off your CD collection and enjoy the early days of digital music once more. NINM Lab’s portable CD player can transmit audio to modern headsets and speakers via Bluetooth. Its clear cover lets you watch discs spin, while the snap-on cover adds a pair of speakers. It’s also got a magnetic back for sticking it to metal surfaces.

To celebrate 40 years of G-SHOCK watches, Casio has rolled out this limited series of stainless steel timepieces. They’re made using a recrystallization and deep-layer hardening process, which gives them a unique, crackled finish. Choose from the full-metal GMW-B5000PG in silver or gold, or the DW-5040PG in a mottled matte black.

These magnetic 3″ cube lights can display numbers, letters, animations, and fields of color. There are three kinds to connect: a dot-matrix, a diffused color panel, and a spotlight projector. They can react to games, music, and video, and can be programmed using mobile or desktop apps and are Matter compatible.

Flux aims to steal some thunder from the Finalmouse Centerpiece with their own under-keyboard display. Clear maglev keys float above a full HD screen, which can display key shortcuts, colors, patterns, and animations. Its keyframe can be removed for use as a touchscreen, and add-on modules include dials and media buttons.

Give your Mac a visual upgrade with Softorino’s Folder Colorizer. The app lets you combine images, icons, and colors on your Mac’s folders to help identify their contents. It can even suggest relevant images on your system based on the folder’s name. It’s also available as part of Softorino’s 15-app Universal License.

The Nintendo Gamecube hasn’t been produced since 2007, but it still can play some pretty great games. Maker and modder Peter Knetter took it upon himself to design and build a LEGO Gamecube. After sifting through a sea of blue building blocks, he filled the case with the console’s guts and built a matching LEGO controller.

Most DoorDash and GrubHub deliveries are made using gas-guzzling cars sitting in traffic. Zipline hopes to change that with drones that hover 400 feet up, then lower a small delivery unit to quietly and safely drop off small packages. Mark Rober explains the tech and how Zipline has been saving lives with their existing drones.

Huion’s displays are created for artists and designers, with built-in pen support for drawing and painting on screen. The 24″ displays come in QHD (2560 x 1440) and 4K UHD (3840 x 2160) resolutions, and are Windows/MacOS compatible. Their battery-free pens have a 5080 LPI resolution, 8192-level pressure, and 60º tilt sensitivity.

One of the best pieces of gear to bring with you hiking, camping, fishing, or hunting is a GPS-capable device. And when you’re traveling light, a GPS watch is ideal. Everyday Carry picked eight of their favorite models, each capable of tracking your location and activity, with some packing weather, altitude, and health sensors.