Bowers & Wilkins, an audio gear brand that has been familiar to millions for decades, has been bought out by EVA Automation, a two-year-old company that has never released a product. Yet the old company’s name and CEO will remain. You’re not going to hear about a weirder deal today. EVA Automation is the company […]
A “mini-brain” infected with Zika. The red dye indicates vulnerable progenitor cells. What are you planning on doing this summer? Probably not designing a revolutionary new bioreactor with which a thousand “mini-brains” can undergo testing. You’re probably not designing a bioreactor at all! But New York high schooler Christopher Hadiono did just that, and his […]
London-based SAM Labs just announced that it raised £3.2M ($4.5M) from a group of investors led by Imperial Ventures. In addition to the institutional investor specializing in commercial spin-outs from academic institutions, the round was padded out with smart money from a number of angels specializing in high growth education technology. The investment will help the company continue its mission to […]
I’ve spent the last week trying to pretend the new Kindle Oasis is the same as reading a real book. It’s not. I love books. I love Kindle’s e-readers and was hoping this was the melding of the two. That real book feel was part of the inspiration for the latest Kindle in the family […]
Samsung worries about your child. Are they sleeping well? Do they miss you when you’re away on business? Can they put on a VR headset without their parents’ help? That last one is pretty important. Because Samsung wants your kids to experience the joy of VR just before bed instead of a regular bedtime story […]
Two and a half years ago Bitlock set out to crowdfund a smart bike lock at a time when hype around connected devices was surging and goodwill in crowdfunding platforms was buoyant. Since then both categories have taken some confidence knocks and served up disappointments aplenty. So what happened to Bitlock? Did it ship, and […]
Somewhere, Elon Musk is bored; you can tell because he starts tweeting like crazy about colonizing the solar system. “Planning to send Dragon to Mars as soon as 2018,” SpaceX tweeted this morning, apropos of nothing. More details followed, in typical Musk style. Dragon 2 is designed to be able to land anywhere in the […]
Have you ever tried to capture close-up video of yourself or others with a traditional drone? It’s nearly impossible. To solve this problem China-based Zero Zero Robotics has raised $25M to build Hover, a small self-flying drone. The funding is composed mainly of a $23M Series A round from IDG, and China-focused firms GSR Ventures, ZhenFund, ZUIG. While this is […]
Pique Cold Brew Coffee Maker GE’s gadget-invention partner FirstBuild is launching Pique, a cold-brew coffee maker for the home. Coffee has turned from a daily routine into somewhat of an art form in the last few years, with drip makers, the French press, single-serve cups, pour-over and an endless supply of the latest hi-tech machines that will whip […]
Swarms of drones flying in terrifyingly perfect formation could be one step closer, thanks to a control algorithm being developed at MIT. The complexities involved in controlling teams of moving robots so they don’t crash into each other, or indeed wipe out other objects/entities that cross their path, is a hard problem that continues to keep roboticists […]