Awesome Tech

Developed by TinyCircuits, the Thumby is basically the world’s smallest Game Boy. It measures just 1.2″ x 0.7″ x 0.3″, and packs a Raspberry Pi RP2040 processor and a tiny 72×40 OLED screen. The system comes pre-loaded with five retro games, and players can upload their own custom games. Launches on Kickstarter 9.28.2021 for $19.

Improve your mobile gaming accuracy with Razer’s fingertip sleeves. They’re designed to improve aim and control while keeping fingers dry and cool. They’re made from stretchy nylon and spandex, woven with conductive silver fiber to ensure contact with capacitive touchscreens.

Protect yourself and your car with this bargain-priced windshield camera. It shoots crisp 1080p footage, triggering when it detects motion. It has a wide 140º viewing angle, and can continuously record on a loop. In the event of a collision, it automatically locks the current recording.

Teamwolf’s real stainless steel keycaps give your keyboard a slick and modern look while increasing the durability of its most-used keys. The set includes all 26 letters of the English alphabet, with laser-cut characters to allow backlighting to shine through. Compatible with Cherry MX switches and clones.

LEGO machine master Akiyuki shows some fascinating and unusual mechanisms. The designs were inspired by a “mangle rack,” which converts circular motion into rectilinear motion by moving a gear along the outside of a set of pins. He uses the method to smoothly move shapes around a track and to create a clock display.

Apple’s iPhone 13 has dropped. Before you drop that fragile $1000 phone put it in a protective case that means business. Pelican’s clear, four-layer Voyager case is tested to military standards to protect against impact, dust, shocks, and 18-foot drops. Comes with a swivel-clipped holster that converts to a kickstand.

Rather than go with an off-the-shelf synthesizer, Edward Black Rose built his own from scrap wood. Its wooden keys make strings vibrate between a laser and a photocell, then send that signal to a software synthesizer. It’s not ideal for creating polyphonic sounds, but it’s a clever design nonetheless.

The 2021 GoPro model has the most powerful processor yet, a GP2 chip that can shoot 5.3K video at 60fps, 4K at 120fps, and 2.7K at 240fps (8x slow-mo). HyperSmooth 4.0 ensures stable video in all modes, and it can shoot 23 megapixel still images too. A removable lens cover beads water and reduces unwanted lens flare.

Marshall’s mid-size wireless speaker kicks out extraordinary sound, and looks great doing it. It packs two 15W and one 50W Class D amplifier wrapped up in a wooden cabinet with Marshall’s iconic styling. Save 10% with coupon code MARSHALL10 at checkout in The Awesomer Shop.

Numeric displays typically have seven segments. Artist and engineer Chris Combs linked together 288 four-digit displays for a total 7200 segments once you factor in the colons. It can be programmed to show large digits or other moving images. It’s on display at VisArts’ Concourse Gallery in Rockville, MD through 10.17.21.

LG giant DVLED screens have millions of individual self-illuminating LEDs for vibrant, high-contrast images. The screens will come in 2K, 4K, and 8K resolutions in sizes from 108″ to 325″ diagonal, and both 16:9 and ultrawide 32:9 configurations. The high-end displays are available only via custom installers.

This tabletop speaker features iconic Marshall amp styling, with the usefulness of a built-in Amazon Alexa voice assistant. It has a 30-watt class-D amplifier, Airplay 2, Bluetooth, and Spotify Connect capability, and you use them to create a multi-room audio system. A Google Assistant version is also in the works.

Artist Love Hultén is a genius at designing and building retro-modernist technology. His EC1 is a custom analog synthesizer and beat making machine that folds up briefcase style when not in use. Someday, we hope to commission Love to build us something for The Awesomer HQ.

The TAU battery pack is small enough to fit on your keychain or hang from your belt loop. It packs a 1400 mAh battery and has integrated USB-C, Micro-USB, and Lightning connectors, so you can charge any phone without carrying around a cable. It comes with a charging dock that can sit on a desk or mount on a wall.

This bit of geeky fun comes courtesy of builder JohnO3, who created a machine which works like a giant dot-matrix printer. Except in this case, it deposits colorful and tangy Skittles to create its prints instead of droplets of ink. He provided the full build details on Instructables, should you want to build your own candy printer.

Maker Ivan Miranda lives in a beautiful place in Spain. But he hates when it rains there, and he doesn’t like carrying an umbrella. So he set about the task of engineering a motorized helmet that uses a powerful motor and a turbine to blow the rain away from his body. And yes, it works in real rain.