Engineer James Bruton likes to create everyday machines that would only exist in an alternate reality. His latest creation, the SnackSync PC, takes a standard gaming computer and turns it into a pasta cooker. It watches your game for those inevitable pauses, like when a level loads or a match ends, and gets dinner started in the background. By the time you catch your breath, a pot of steaming carbonara is ready, complete with a spork to dig in.
Pockets are typically full of keys, wallets and phones but gamepads never make the cut. They sprawl on desks, take up space in suitcases and make every journey a logistical nightmare. Then there’s the 8Bitdo Micro, priced at $14.67 (was $24.99), a Bluetooth controller so small it fits on a keychain. It’s less than an inch wide and 24.8g. It fits in your pants.
Handheld gaming PCs continue to appear in a variety of designs, which is what makes them so exciting…from ultra slim tablets that fit easily into your pocket to bulkier machines designed to keep you on the couch all-day. The 3D One, the latest model from Abxylute, is a unique blend of a tablet-style device similar to a Microsoft Surface Pro but with controllers that can be snapped on and off at will. It runs full Windows games and can display them to in 3D without the need for special glasses.
For five years, NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover has been kicking up red dust around Jezero Crater, cataloging everything from ancient riverbeds to those weird polka-dotted rocks you see everywhere. But during a routine checkup last month, the six-wheeled rover found something that didn’t belong. A single boulder called Phippsaksla poked out of the cracked bedrock like an unwanted guest at a family reunion. This 31-inch wide rock caught the rover’s cameras with its sharp edges and pockmarked surface, implying it came from farther away from those rusty Martian plains than you’d think.
For years, astronomers have recognized NGC 1068 as a prime example of a spiral galaxy with a secret engine at its core. This barred spiral, located in the constellation Cetus, is roughly 50 million light-years away and measures 100,000 light-years across. Its arms curve out from a bright center bar. A supermassive black hole resides in the core, weighing around 4 million solar masses, or twice the mass of our own Milky Way. That black hole isn’t quiet, as it powers an active galactic core that emits radiation in all directions.
Yaku Zeg, aka Jakub Zegzulka, has a feature that could change how we use our iPhones. His idea is the Lock Screen Mirror. It solves a common problem: the time consuming process of checking yourself out with the front camera. That currently involves unlocking the iPhone, launching the camera app, and switching to the front-facing camera, a seemingly excessive number of steps for such a simple task. Zegzulka’s solution is straightforward: a long press on the camera icon on the lock screen displays a mirror-like view from the front camera, allowing you to quickly check your hair, teeth, or overall appearance without having to browse through multiple screens.
Luke Maximo Bell and his father Mike spent months in a makeshift workshop building a drone that would rewrite the rules of airspeed. On June 22, 2025, the Peregreen 3 crossed the 360.4 mph barrier in Dubai’s Al Qudra desert, setting a new Guinness World Record for the fastest battery-powered remote controlled quadcopter. Outpacing the previous year’s milestone of 347 established by a Swiss team, it was a hard-fought victory that required seven crashes and a run of devastating setbacks to secure.
Late last week, Jeep officially revealed the all-new 2026 Recon, an all-electric SUV designed to transport its owner through dirt, bouncing over boulders, and splashing over streams without breaking a sweat. Production begins early next year at their Toluca plant in Mexico, with delivery to buyers in the United States and Canada starting in early 2026.
Amazon is known for sneaking everyday essentials into its lineup that end up exceeding expectations, and their Basics range of over-ear headphones with active noise cancellation is a prime example. Right now you can pick them up for just $24.99, down from $79.99, and you get a seriously impressive 20 hours of entertainment out of them if you turn on the noise cancellation. That jumps to 35 hours if you don’t bother with the cancellation.
