A small plastic figure sat untouched inside its original box for close to two decades. When Rayly Retro finally opened it this month, the i-Buddy looked exactly as it did on store shelves back in 2008. White body, translucent wings, a round head ready to glow, and a sturdy base that plugs straight into USB. Nothing about the hardware had changed. The real work began once the cable touched a computer.
Astronomers have released a striking new image of the Cigar Galaxy (M82) taken with NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope. Data for the portrait came from a dedicated 65-hour survey using the telescope’s Near-Infrared Camera. This extended observation time let Webb cut through dense dust clouds that normally hide the galaxy’s stellar population from view. Roughly 16.5 million individual stars now stand out clearly across the galactic disk in the resulting composite view. These stars show up as luminous blue-white specks scattered throughout the structure.
Meta just launched its own line of smart glasses built with EssilorLuxottica, the same partner behind the popular Ray-Ban Meta models, called Meta Glasses. These new frames skip the big designer branding on the temples and focus instead on lower prices, more style choices, and fit tweaks that should work for more face shapes. The base models start at $299, while a special collaboration with Kylie Jenner costs $399.
Matt received a broken Quasar VHS player from a family member who knew his habit of turning odd objects into computers. The unit arrived dusty, with a forgotten tape still inside and its mechanisms seized from years of disuse. On the workbench it looked like any other relic destined for the curb. After weeks of careful work it now runs modern games at 1440p and holds its own at 4K in several titles.
Xiaomi just sent its YU7 GT electric SUV around the Nürburgring Nordschleife with nobody behind the wheel and came away with an official time. The run wrapped up in 10 minutes and 29.483 seconds on June 8, establishing the first publicly validated autonomous lap on the 12.94-mile track that features 73 turns and more than 1,000 feet of elevation change.