MIT Electrofluidic Fiber Muscles robots

Thin Tubes Full of Fluid That Flex Like Living Muscle Are Ready for Robots

By

MIT Electrofluidic Fiber Muscles robots
A pair of soft white tubes no thicker than a couple of strands of spaghetti rest in a researcher’s hands. They look almost fragile, yet these fibers can pull with the strength of real muscle, stay completely silent while they work, and run for hours on nothing more than a small battery pack. Researchers at the MIT Media Lab and Politecnico di Bari just published the full details of this system in Science Robotics, and the results feel like a genuine step change for anyone building humanoid robots or wearable machines.

Read More
Google Pixel Watch 5 Leak Render

Google’s Pixel Watch 5 Steps Into the Light With Four Sharp New Finishes

By

Google Pixel Watch 5 Leak Render
Photo credit: The Tide Chart | OnLeaks
Fresh official-looking renders of Google’s next smartwatch have appeared online this morning, and they show the Pixel Watch 5 looking every bit as polished as the phones set to join it later this summer. The images come courtesy of longtime leaker OnLeaks working with a new site called The Tide Chart, and they lay out the full color lineup in clean, high-resolution detail that feels ready for a product page.

Read More
General Magic Apple Spinoff iPhone iPad 90s

General Magic was the Company Apple Spun Off That Later Built Its Future

By

General Magic Apple Spinoff iPhone iPad 90s
Marc Porat sat with a red notebook in 1989, drawing what no one else could see. A little rectangular piece of glass with a touch screen, phone, fax, messages, video, games, ticket purchases, and apps delivered over the air. He named it the Pocket Crystal. It would feel like a piece of jewelry you carried every day, something with the comfort of a seashell and the pull of a crystal. At Apple, where he worked, the idea landed with John Sculley. Resources stayed scarce. So in May 1990 the project left Cupertino and became its own company. Bill Atkinson and Andy Hertzfeld, two of the original Macintosh wizards, signed on. General Magic was born.

Read More
SpaceX Starship Critical Path Documentary

The Critical Path Forward, How SpaceX Engineers Battle Time, Trouble, and Tiny Details to Launch Starship Version 3

By

SpaceX Starship Critical Path Documentary
SpaceX just released a new documentary that drops straight into the control rooms and launch site during the final stretch before its biggest rocket flew again. Titled Critical Path, the 34-minute film follows engineers at Starbase in Texas through the intense days leading up to Flight 12 on May 22. It is the second episode in their ongoing series and stays tightly focused on the real work required to get the first Version 3 Starship and Super Heavy off the ground.

Read More