Awesome Tech

Jet packs might seem like a novelty, but this video from Gravity shows how their jet suits could save lives. With poor visibility that would ground helicopters, Company founder Richard Browning flew to the summit of a 3100-foot mountain to simulate a rescue mission, getting a medic on the scene in less than 4 minutes.

The updated Turtlebox Bluetooth speaker is more rugged than ever. It has a durable new nylon handle, a new grill pattern that improves strength and sound, a stainless steel tie-down, and a better position for its controls. It’s 100% waterproof and loud as hell, pumping out 120dB of volume. Pair two together for stereo sound.

It doesn’t matter if you’ve got the most expensive display you can buy, gradients of color in dark scenes often look like a blocky mess. Tom Scott offers a great explanation of the technological limitations that cause these issues, and the visual mechanisms that make them less noticeable in brighter scenes.

Getting your laptop up off your desk is good for your posture. This smartly-designed desk accessory from Fluidstance combines a 9″ tall laptop riser with a dry-erase whiteboard. It’s made from powder-coated steel so you can stick magnets to it and has silicone feet to keep it from sliding around. It comes in white or slate grey.

Sony’s updated wireless cans offer a great balance of audio quality and active noise cancellation. The WH-1000XM5 has a sleek new design, though they no longer fold like the M4. They have smaller but more accurate drivers, eight microphones to eliminate unwanted background noise, and run for up to 30 hours per charge.

This compact soundbar from Sonos produces room-filling sound despite its size. It packs four Class-D amps, two full-range mid-woofers with a bass reflex system for punchy lows, and two tweeters with waveguides for a wide soundstage. It connects to any TV with an optical output and supports streaming audio via WiFi.

This interactive educational system helps students learn about the physical properties of structures. It combines a set of beams, levers, pivot points, and other parts that attach to a backboard which work in concert with augmented reality projections to show the physics at play when forces are applied.

Geeky pillow maker Throwboy teamed up with the Mineola Knitting Company to create a colorful series of throw blankets inspired by classic Apple Macintosh imagery. The 50″ X 60″ throws are woven from recycled cotton and polyester, and feature images of the MacOS startup face, the iMac G3, and the 5th-gen iPod.

Artist Lorenzo Drago created this life-like environment using Unreal Engine 5 and Lumen for the lighting. The location is based on Etchū-Daimon Station and is a dead ringer for the real deal. In order to capture the greatest detail, he rendered it at 7fps then sped it up, but it can be rendered in real time with less detail.

These days, we’re used to whipping our phones out and connecting instantly to the internet. But back in the 1990s, it was a much slower task. Gough Lui dusted off an old PC running Windows 98 to walk us slowly down memory lane to surf the web using a 31.2k baud dial-up modem and some vintage web browsers.

Attending Zoom calls without pants is a common occurrence. It’s fine if you stay put, but you run the risk of exposure if you move around. Fletcher at Everything Is Hacked has the solution. He used OpenCV, MediaPipe, and pyvirtualcam to create a video filter that adds pants or blurs your naughty bits if you’re letting it all hang out.

We’re geeking out over Reekon’s pro measuring gadget: a tape measure with a digital readout and laser alignment for precise measurements. Its OLED display shows the current measurement in real-time, while an E-ink screen in its handle shows the last few at a glance. Data is also synced to your smartphone via Bluetooth.

Engineers from China’s Zhejiang University have programmed a swarm of drones to autonomously avoid notoriously difficult obstacles without pre-mapping the area. In this video, the swarm flies through a densely-packed bamboo forest, and then show off their ability to follow a human target. More here.

Want to know how long that gadget you’re about to buy is gonna last? ExitReviews offers crowdsourced product reviews on longevity, descriptions of what went wrong, and encourages other users to post fixes. Most of the items posted to date are consumer electronics, but there are some wearables and household items too.

Engineers from MIT have developed an incredibly thin and lightweight speaker that flexes like a sheet of paper. The piezoelectric speaker’s volume increases when it comes into contact with other surfaces, so theoretically, it could be used to turn entire walls into immersive, room-size loudspeakers.

The MagStick is a pro-quality tripod designed for iPhones and other phones with the addition of a metallic ring. A powerful magnet holds phones in place firmly, while a clamp adds security. It works as both a selfie stick and a tripod, has mounts for a light and a microphone, and has a Bluetooth remote in its handle.