A spool of filament rests calmly on a shelf, looking exactly like the usual orange Prusament roll found in numerous 3D printers, yet it hides a little secret. Prusa wanted a one-of-a-kind gift and asked Matt Denton to transform a regular 2kg spool of filament into an out-of-the-ordinary remote-controlled robot dubbed SpoolBot, which you’d be hard-pressed to tell is actually a robot going for a little roll on its own power.
Mobile phones had long been an integral part of our daily lives when April 2000 arrived. People took them everywhere because they were a must-have for younger users. Reporter Lindsey Fallow looked closely at how these phones were on the verge of becoming something major, such as having continual access to email and the internet right in the palm of your hand.
Mori3, a modular robot developed by the bright minds at EPFL in Lausanne, Switzerland, is made up of four triangular modules stacked in an origami-inspired pattern that is actually pretty ingenious. Each module communicates with its neighbors, establishing a little team that can change shape, move about, and be useful in a variety of ways.
Photo credit: Kakooli98
A Samsung Galaxy S26 Plus production prototype appeared on Craigslist this week, and the seller is asking a whopping $1650 for it. It’s unusual that someone outside of Samsung would have access to it this early, given that Samsung plans to publicly announce the entire Galaxy S26 series, including the normal model, the Plus, and the Ultra, on February 25th at its next Unpacked event.
Portable monitors used to be a bit of a compromise, since you’d have to haul around some clunky device, deal with unstable connections, and cross your fingers that the picture would hold up under hotel lighting, but AOC has turned that experience on its head with the 16T20, priced at $49.99 (was $59.99). This 15.6-inch monitor easily fits into a backpack and has enough power to make working on it for hours or binge-watching TV shows a breeze.
Dooglehead’s DIY VR headset is reminiscent of the past, a purposeful step back in time. Modern VR headsets are all about blazing fast pixels and brilliant colors, but dooglehead’s design manages to get by with small old CRTs rescued from 1990s Sony Watchman pocket TVs, and it’s still good enough for virtual reality. Coming in at a mere 544 grams, nearly the same weight as an HTC Vive, you have the unmistakable mass and charm of old electronics slumped over your face.
Chinese New Year 2026 brought the Year of the Fire Horse, the ideal opportunity for Beijing-based Robotera to showcase their humanoid L7 robot in a full-fledged sword dance routine. Robotera engineers have been working with Tsinghua University on the L7 since its debut in mid-2025, and they’ve programmed it to capture the spirit of legendary swordplay, drawing heavily from the fictional Dugu Nine Swords style, which Chinese outlets have nicknamed the robot after wuxia hero Linghu Chong.
Jamie from Jamie’s Brick Jams chose to get back to basics, thus no fancy motors for him. He’d previously made some sophisticated motors, but for this one, he wanted to go back to simplicity. That’s exactly what he got: simple, easy mechanicals built with basic electromagnetic principles and a few non-LEGO components. Almost all of the pieces can be assembled using regular LEGO pieces.
Apple’s Mac Mini has been sitting quietly on desks all across the world, pushing through daily business and creative chores with the simplicity of a small powerhouse. In spirit, if not in design, it is right next to an equally little, yet quite different, machine known popularly as the Mini Mac, or Wondermac in some circles. This little device began life as a Maclock, a desk clock that looks exactly like the original 1984 Macintosh, complete with the instantly identifiable beige shell, a teeny-tiny screen bezel, and even a false floppy disk port, but what occurs next adds a lot of complexity to what was once a simple gimmick.
Opt! created a tiny digital camera that resembles a classic film canister. The OPT100 Neo Film measures 47mm x 25mm x 25mm and weighs only 25 grams, making it ideal for sliding into a pocket or attaching to a keychain without drawing attention to itself. Available in multiple variants of the original Kodak style, including the iconic black and yellow combo, white with a bright orange flash of color, and some eye-catching multi-colored patterns reminiscent of vintage film packaging.