The first robot I remember is Rosie from The Jetsons, soon followed by the urbane C-3PO and his faithful sidekick R2-D2 in The Empire Strikes Back. But my first disembodied AI was Joshua, the computer in WarGames who tried to start a nuclear war – until it learned about mutually assured destruction and chose to play chess instead.

Continue Reading

Category: AI & Humanoids, Technology

Tags: LLM (Large Language Model), Robots, Soft Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Intelligence, Human Enhancement, Future Robot, Features

Dutch e-mobility outfit Urban Arrow has announced the US launch of its latest front-loader cargo ebike, one that the company says is a viable alternative to the family's second car for the school run or weekly shop.

Continue Reading

Category: Bicycles, Transport

Tags: cargo bike, ebikes, Pedal-assisted, Bosch

The evolutionary ladder is meant to be climbed one rung at a time with an organism shedding some traits and gaining others on the way up. However, in a very surprising twist, some tomatoes on the Galapagos islands are inching back down the ladder.

Continue Reading

Category: Biology, Science

Tags: Plants, Evolution, UC Riverside, Genetics

An electric motorcycle bearing a Honda badge is bound to attract serious attention – and lately, the rumor mill has been buzzing. Has Honda finally launched its first fully functional electric motorcycle? You might’ve seen headlines suggesting as much, but there’s more to the story than meets the eye.

Continue Reading

Category: Motorcycles, Transport

Tags: Honda, Honda Motorcycles, China, Electric Motorcycles, cafe racer

Nope, we're not talking about a Tesla Robotaxi we’re talking about. This is the self-driving ID. Buzz, a fully autonomous van created and engineered by Volkswagen’s mobility-focused sub-brand, MOIA. Unlike retrofitted cars, the ID. Buzz has been built from the ground up specifically for mobility services.

Continue Reading

Category: Automotive, Transport

Tags: Volkswagen, Van, Electric Vehicles, Mobility, Autonomous Vehicles, Self-Driving, Taxi, Tesla, Waymo

After years of watching highway-touring RVs and off-road expedition vehicles get more and more expensive to the point of rivaling a lifetime's worth of luxury resort vacations, the past few years have seen a concerted effort to roll back pricing and unnecessary features. Joining some of the barebones teardrop-size trailers that have led the trend, the new M1 Lite camping topper maintains some of the best attributes of Tune Outdoors' popular M1 topper while shaving off unnecessary bulk and expense to create a smart, fast and light Toyota Tacoma-ready truck camping solution with eyes on the backcountry.

Continue Reading

Category: Pickup Campers, Adventure Vehicles, Outdoors

Tags: Camping, Off-road, RV, Outdoors and Camping, Pickup, Truck, Overland Expo

InMotion sent me its flagship long-distance scooter made for big-n-tall folk – such as myself – for a review, and I have to say, after my first ride, I'm actually kind of shocked. While I haven't ridden a whole slew of makes and models, I do have well over 1,000 miles (1,600 km) of scooting about in recent times.

Continue Reading

Category: Urban Transport, Transport

Tags: Segway, Scooter, Electric Vehicles, Electric

In what seems like HAL 9000 come to malevolent life, a recent study appeared to demonstrate that AI is perfectly willing to indulge in blackmail, or worse, as much as 89% of the time if it doesn't get its way or thinks it's being switched off. Or does it?

Continue Reading

Category: Computers, Consumer Tech, Technology

Tags: Artificial Intelligence, LLM (Large Language Model)

After more than two decades of planning and building, the world's largest digital camera at the heart of the Vera C. Rubin Observatory on the summit of Cerro Pachón in Chile has snapped its first imagery – from test observations spanning a 10-hour window.

Continue Reading

Category: Space, Science

Tags: Telescope, Observatory, SLAC, Cameras, Astrophotography, Astronomy, Imaging

ESA has found a way to make its own solar eclipses more or less on demand and all it took was a pair of robotic spacecraft flying in a formation precise to within a millimeter of each other thousands of miles from Earth. Simple.

Continue Reading

Category: Space, Science

Tags: ESA, Sun, ECLIPSE

The Fairphone Gen 6 is here, and in addition to being repairable at home, it packs a neat little trick. A bright lime green physical slider instantly activates a dumbphone mode so you can focus on more important things than doomscrolling.

Continue Reading

Category: Mobile Technology, Consumer Tech, Technology

Tags: Phone, Fairphone, smartphones, Repair, Modular, sustainable design

United Kingdom-based Enola Gaye has nearly 30 years of experience selling a multi-colored array of smoke and paint grenades for use in sports like paintball and airsoft, as well as for celebrations and special effects. The company has spun off a survival branch that applies smoke grenade-inspired design to products like the Ultimate Match, a powerful, weather-resistant firestarter that shoots out a mini inferno to spark flammable material into a warming fire. Simply pull the pin and get 'er burning.

Continue Reading

Category: Gear, Outdoors

Tags: Outdoors and Camping, Camping, Survival, Emergency, Backpacking

As our personal devices get smaller and are expected to do more stuff – whether that's your phone, a smartwatch, or a wearable AI assistant – they also tend to get hotter on the inside. That means it can be hard for them to deliver consistently fast performance, fit more components inside, or avoid getting too warm to handle.

Continue Reading

Category: Technology

Tags: Cooling, MEMS, Solid-state, Silicon

In an effort to supercharge the development of military drones, DARPA will this year fast track flight testing of five advanced Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) prototypes as part of the agency's Early VTOL Aircraft Demonstration (EVADE) project.

Continue Reading

Category: Military, Technology

Tags: DARPA, drones

Canister-shaped lifestyle projectors are great for quick and easy wall-filling viewing in a small space without the room being dominated by a huge TV. Yaber's T1 Pro also serves up mood lighting, and rocks the house with TurboSonic sound.

Continue Reading

Category: Home Entertainment, Consumer Tech, Technology

Tags: Projectors, HD, Portable, LED, Pico projector, Lighting

A team of chemists has developed a new type of magnetic molecule that could be the key to storing vast amounts of data on absolutely miniscule drives.

Continue Reading

Category: Technology

Tags: Chemistry, Data Storage, University of Manchester, Australian National University, Magnetic, Molecules

Tiny houses are not just for living in, and we've seen the towable dwellings turned into everything from a wedding chapel to a pub. Dragon Tiny Homes recently came up with yet another use for them in the form of a mobile sauna.

Continue Reading

Category: Tiny Houses, Outdoors

Tags: Building and Construction, Tiny Footprint, Micro-House, Sauna

From home-building micro-factories to wall-building excavators, robotic construction workers are coming on strong. Civ Robotics now brings bot benefits to the surveying stage of the construction process, and they've just secured some serious cash.

Continue Reading

Category: Robotics, Technology

Tags: Construction, Robotic construction, Building and Construction, Automation

What will the orbital spacecraft of tomorrow look like? If Dassault Aviation has its way, it could be similar to its Véhicule Orbital Réutilisable de Transport et d’Exploration (VORTEX) reusable spaceplane unveiled at the recent Paris Air Show.

Continue Reading

Category: Space, Science

Tags: Spaceplane, France, Dassault Aviation

For the first time, scientists have unraveled just how high levels of fructose affect the body, flipping a genetic switch as it's broken down – one that primes your immune system to overreact to things it would normally ignore. In this "trigger happy" state, certain immune cells are less discerning, resulting in inflammation, more severe infections and even new food intolerances or sensitivities.

Continue Reading

Category: Diet & Nutrition, Wellness & Healthy Living, Body & Mind

Tags: Inflammation, Diet, University of Vienna