A standard smartwatch packs its functions onto a small round face that stays fixed in place all day, yet Ping-Jhao Hsu and Shan-Yuan Teng at National Taiwan University have added a mechanical tentacle that stays coiled underneath until the moment it is needed. Their prototype, shown as a demo at UIST 2026 under the name Augmenting Smartwatch with a Rollable Tentacle, keeps the entire assembly inside a 50 mm rounded casing that matches the watch diameter.
Audi has confirmed the Nuvolari for the United States, locking in an allocation of 182 examples out of a worldwide run of just 499 cars. The starting price sits at $700,000 before destination charges, taxes, or options, with first customer deliveries expected in the first half of 2028. Orders are open now through authorized Audi dealerships, though the window will stay limited.
NASA confirmed this month that its nuclear-powered Polar Rover for Observation, Mapping, and In-Situ Exploration (PROMISE) will head to the Moon’s South Pole no earlier than late 2028. The six-wheeled vehicle, built at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory from a Curiosity test-bed body, electronics, and mobility system plus spare and test parts from both Curiosity and Perseverance, is meant to scout sites and check resources ahead of any permanent human outpost.
Five specialized racing machines met on a frozen lake in Eagle River, Wisconsin, where temperatures sat at minus 17 degrees Celsius and the ice stretched across 107 acres. Oracle Red Bull Racing brought its 2011 championship-winning RB7 Formula 1 car, the same machine Sebastian Vettel used to claim the title, and placed it against a KTM RC16 MotoGP bike, a Subaru WRX ARA rally car, a Pro 4 off-road truck, and a Ski-Doo 440 snowmobile. Red Bull built custom courses for each vehicle so that natural advantages in the cold would not decide the result before the start. Shorter inside lines favored the Formula 1 car and the motorcycle while the snowmobile, most at home on the surface, ran the longest route.
