Tech

Curious Sound Objects’ Bitty is a tiny drum machine and synthesizer. You can use it to create beats, melodies, or noise. It has four buttons, a time knob, a pitch knob, two function buttons, headphone in and out ports and an aluminum speaker often used in car door panels.

Simplify was created by Michael Leggett, who used to be the lead designer for Gmail. It’s a browser extension for Chrome and Firefox that rids Gmail of the colors, lines and other distracting clutter. It still lets you use images as backgrounds as well as use a dark theme.

Samsung’s Sero is a 43″ QLED HDTV that comes with a stand. The TV is mounted on the stand such that you can rotate it to a vertical position. Pair this with its NFC support and it becomes a great way to mirror your smartphone’s content. It’s headed to Korea first for about $1600.

Bulk Handling Systems shows off the Max-AI AQC-C, a robot designed to sort items on recycling lines, safely alongside humans, performing similar tasks to their living, breathing co-workers. For some reason, its gangly looking arms remind us of those air dancer guys in front of car dealerships.

We’ve seen industrial machines that can bend wires into shapes, but thanks to 3D printing and low-cost controllers like Arduino, you can make your own desktop machine now. How to Mechatronics shows us exactly how. Grab the full instructions, models, code, and schematics here.

YouTube’s premiere mechanic ChrisFix shows us how to make a hidden kill switch for your vehicle. When switched on, it interrupts the flow of electricity to the vehicle’s fuel pump relay, preventing it from starting, even with a key. It takes a bit of fiddling, but it costs only $10 in parts.

The Tronex is a dual LED flashlight that has a built-in and retractable body strap, so you can use it handsfree. Its LEDs are mounted on flexible arms. It has several lighting modes, and provides up to 4500 lumens of light and up to 24h of use per charge. It also has a USB charging port.

One of the more entertaining science experiments involves slapping neodymium magnets on a AA battery, and placing it into an length of copper wire. Mr. Michal plays with the idea, using a loop of wire to see how long batteries last, then drag races them to see which is most energetic.

Drop – formerly Massdrop – collaborated with NuForce to create affordable yet audiophile-quality wireless earphones. The Move are equipped with Knowles full-range armatures, have an IPX5 waterproof rating, and last for 6h per charge. The charging case provides 18h of charging.

The Q show off another one of their awesome low-budget builds, a robot arm that’s made primarily from cardboard and popsicle sticks, and controlled by plastic syringes filled with colored liquid. If there’s anyone we’d want to be stranded on a desert island with, it’s these guys.

Sony’s Master Grade Series Z9G is an Android Smart TV with 8K resolution. It features detail upscaling and full-array local dimming for optimal contrast. It also has four speakers and can be used as a center speaker in a surround sound setup. Comes in 85″ and 98″ models.

Samsung’s LED signage division shows off insanely large LED displays designed not just for viewing TV, but to turn walls into moving works of art. Displays measure from 109″ to 219″ diagonal. There’s no pricing info on their site, but we’re certain such things are only for the uber-rich.

Business Casual shares the meteoric rise of Dell, thanks to its crafty founder Michael Dell. Even at a young age, Michael knew that targeting customers directly would lead to success. His tactic of direct selling is now followed by big and small companies alike.

One of the more compelling gadgets we spotted at the IFA 2019 Global Press Conference. Wear this band around your chest at night, and it sends out subtle, non-disruptive vibrations to make you change positions, improving sleep and health for you and your bed partner. Coming soon.

The 2019 version of the Razer Blade Pro is 25% smaller than its predecessor, rocking a 17.3″ 144Hz 1080p display in a 15″ body. It’s equipped with Intel’s Core i9 CPU and NVIDIA’s 2080 Max-Q GPU. It also has a Thunderbolt 3 USB-C port and upgradeable M.2 and RAM slots.

Mighty’s tiny and one-of-a-kind offline Spotify player has received a couple of much needed upgrades. It’s battery now lasts over 5h per charge, and its Bluetooth antenna has been improved for longer range and stronger connectivity. Save 10% in The Awesomer Shop.

Retro-Bit’s Tribute64 is a modern take on the Nintendo 64 controller. The third handle is gone, and the D-pad and analog stick have been switched places. It also has dual Z-triggers and a centered Start button. It comes in Nintendo 64 and USB variants.

Sennheiser aims for the top with its first-ever speaker. The Ambeo soundbar has 13 drivers, including six 4″ woofers. It mimics a 5.1.4 surround sound system with Dolby Atmos and DTS:X support. We went ears-on with the soundbar at the IFA Global Press Conference, and it sounded spectacular.

FPlife’s Lockbook is the first notebook to have a built-in biometric fingerprint sensor. Its cover is water-resistant and scratchproof. It also has lots of spaces for passports, sticky notes and cards. Its paper is refillable too. Amazon has it in a few colors, but the black one is in stock here.

WorkspacePro lets you launch and close multiple apps at once from the Menu Bar. It lets you create and edit groups of apps, set a group to launch on startup, open another instance of an app, hide or force close launched apps, and more.

The Acer ConceptD 9 laptop is made for creators. It features a Pantone-validated color accurate 4K touchscreen that can be tilted, flipped and flattened, and works with a Wacom pressure-sensitive stylus. The laptop maxes out with a core i9 CPU and an NVIDIA GTX 2080 GPU.

A droolworthy tool for any musician’s arsenal, Headrush’s looper pedal on steroids features a 7″ touchscreen UI, an onboard mixer and effects, and up to 9 hours of internal recording time. It offers numerous inputs and outputs, and comes pre-loaded with 300 percussion loops.

Love Hulten’s Yesterday Vision is an HDMI monitor with an enclosure that looks like it was made in the 1960s or 1970s. It has a built-in Raspberry Pi that’s loaded with a retro video game emulator. By default, it comes with a 19″ 1280×1024 display, but you can commission larger builds.

LEGO Technic expert Yoshihito ISOGAWA created a couple of neat little drawing machines, which spin around while holding an Apple Pencil, resulting in Spirograph-style drawings on an iPad screen. He also made a rig that does pointilist drawings.

The Luci Immers is a 1080p video headset that is small and weighs just 6.35oz. It works with both 2D and 3D content and simulates viewing a massive 85 ft diagonal screen viewed from about 65 ft away. It has USB-C and HDMI inputs. It’s available in three strap variants.

The Aukey PA-X07 is a wall power strip that has an independent 180º rotating plug, so you can move it out of the way of the remaining sockets in your wall outlet, and fit it into tricky spots. It has a single outlet and three USB charging ports.

Cord cutters, add local over-the-air channels to your TV viewing with this slimline indoor antenna that can grab high-def digital signals from up to 30 miles away. It measures just 0.02″ thick, and sticks on your wall. Save 51% in The Awesomer Shop.

The Nemuix Biölite is a reading light that’s as thin and small as a bookmark. Its low-blue light LED is designed to minimize effect on your sleep cycle, and is mounted on a flexible conductive film. You can clip it to the top of a book or use it freestanding. It lasts up to 4h on a coin cell battery.

GAEMS’ flagship portable gaming case is good enough to be used as a primary setup. It has a built-in 24″ 1440p 60Hz monitor, HDMI 1.4 and USB 3.0 inputs and outputs, and two 3.5mm jacks. It can house an Xbox One, PS4 or a micro ATX PC.

During Japan’s RoboCon 2018, high school students presented their designs for single-purpose robots made specifically to toss bottles filled with liquid, and land them perfectly with way more consistency than most humans could. There’s bottle-flipping action here.