Awesome Tech

It was just yesterday that we paid our respects to Floppotron 2.0. As we hoped, Paweł Zadrożniak was at work building an even bigger and better electromechanical band. Floppotron 3.0 has 512 floppy disk drives, 16 hard disks, and four flatbed scanners for a richer and fuller sound than its predecessors.

Paweł Zadrożniak’s electromechanical orchestra has entertained millions with over 120 covers of popular songs. Now, the Floppotron 2.0 is being retired, and Paweł is sending it off with a performance of Andrea Bocelli’s Con Te Partirò, and there’s not a dry eye in the house. We’re hoping he’s just making room for Floppotron 3.0.

Loupedeck takes on the Elgato Stream Deck with their own programmable streaming controller. The Live S console has 15 touch-sensitive LCD buttons, four tactile buttons, and two push-button analog dials, all of which can be used to control popular streaming and creative apps.

Engineer James Bruton is fascinated with omni-directional wheels. For this video, he set out to make a vehicle that rolls on three split-hemisphere balls which can move in any direction. He’s since added a seat to it, resulting in what is basically the world’s most powerful office chair.

This powerful Android gaming system is perfect for emulator fanatics. Its 8-core Dimensity 1200 chip is fast enough to run upscaled PS2 games at 60 fps. What really sets it apart is its magnetic controller modules, which provide separate FPS, MOBA, and Xbox-style layouts. ETA Prime has a great hands-on review.

Soldering surface-mounted components on circuit boards can be challenging without industrial soldering equipment. But maker.moekoe shows off a method for soldering multiple components using soldering paste and a temperature-controlled clothes iron to melt all of the solder into place at once.

This miniaturized version of the classic Fender Tone-Master amplifier is perfect for practice sessions. Its vintage styling includes metal amp corners, a brown grille cloth, and white knobs for adjusting gain, volume, and tone. It packs a 1-watt amp and a pair of 2″ full-range speakers, and runs on a single 9-volt battery.

This series of online courses will get you up and running with four popular technologies for building web applications. You’ll learn the basics of programming back-end code in Python and Java, along with front-end technologies like the Tailwind CSS framework and SASS/SCSS. Another great deal from The Awesomer Shop.

This camera from Sionyx is engineered to improve nighttime safety for boaters. Its ultra-low-light BSI CMOS sensor reveals hidden obstacles even on a moonless night. Its waterproof enclosure can withstand heavy splashing, and it can output video to your boat’s multifunction display or wirelessly on your mobile device.

We always figured if you were going to upgrade the plastic case on a handheld game system, you’d want to go for aluminum or maybe carbon fiber. But Peter Knetter is a bit of a contrarian, so he downgraded his GameBoy Advance SP by building it a case, buttons, and D-pad out of cardboard.

Improve your eating habits and health with Dietmaster’s meal planning app. mDiet provides access to numerous meal plans and grocery lists created by professional nutritionists and clinical experts. It can also track your caloric intake, progress against goals, and more. Grab a deal on a 5-year subscription in The Awesomer Shop.

Shargeek’s adorable USB-C charger pays tribute to the classic Apple Macintosh computer. The palm-sized charger looks like a tiny Mac and cranks out up to 35-watts for charging laptops and other gadgets. Its screen displays a Happy Mac icon with color backlighting to indicate charging status.

This augmented reality app from Signal-to-Noise lets you visualize the sounds that vinyl records produce. Aim your iOS device’s camera at a spinning record, and turn up the volume. Sonic analysis software generates a real-time graph of the waveforms overlaid on each disc as it turns.

Trettitre’s Bluetooth speaker is designed to produce immersive audio from a single unit. Its conical design offers visual interest while optimizing driver positions for the best sound. It packs a Class-D amp, two 1.25″ neodymium magnetic tweeters, two 2.25″ neodymium magnetic full-range speakers, and a 5.25″ subwoofer.

Arcade1up brings 10 classic Atari arcade games to your TV screen, along with an arcade-quality controller you can enjoy from the comfort of your couch. Its base station plugs into your TV’s HDMI port, and the wireless controller has real arcade buttons, a trackball, a spinner, a soft bean bag bottom, and a built-in carrying handle.

Mechanical engineer Kuroki Yuto and his collaborators came up with a novel use for a 3D printer mechanism – using the 3-axis machine to manipulate and assemble parts. In this video, they show how the system can be used to put together a sandwich. They used the same technique to assemble a toy car and to fold a shirt.

This industrial-style wristwatch packs a pair of vintage IN16 Nixie tubes for its display. It features a scratch- and fingerprint-resistant sapphire crystal and comes with a wireless charging base. Its case is made from aluminum oxide, and a blue LED accent light differentiates between hour and minute displays.

This compact device combines a USB-C DAC, pre-amp, and a powerful amplifier. It offers hi-res audio with 32-bit/384kHz PCM, native DSD, and full MQA decoding. Digital filters let you customize its sound profile. In addition to the alloy model, there’s a limited Anniversary Edition with a copper chassis plated in 18ct gold.

Two Minute Papers shows off a computer graphics tech that can create 3D objects from 2D images. Developed by NVIDIA, the University of Toronto, and the Vector Institute, the tech can work with as little as a single reference photo to produce a 3D model, materials, and lighting. The longer the AI runs, the more detail it extracts.

LCDs and LEDs are everywhere, from smartphones to watches to TVs, to headlights. Musician and tech enthusiast Posy dives deep into one specific use of these technologies – displays which use segments to create numbers and letters. After a little history, he shows off some concepts for his own segmented designs.

Want to see what a website looked like on a specific date? You can always go to the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine and type in a URL to find out. Or, you could do what The Science Elf did and build a box that runs the Wayback Proxy and lets him dial in a specific date to surf old versions of websites on vintage web browsers.

This convenient accessory from Bluelounge converts standard 1-gang outlet plates into a shelf for charging your phone or other small gadgets. It can hold up to three pounds and has a hidden channel for winding excess cord underneath. Includes faceplates for traditional and modern US outlets.

“My spreadsheet doesn’t do that!” This 1992 promo spot for Microsoft Excel 4.0 seems like it was directed and performed by a team that wished they were doing more meaningful work. Instead, they ended up pimping the ubiquitous productivity software with a level of gravitas typically reserved for serious TV dramas.