The Kodak MC3 debuted in 2001 as a compact little box that couldn’t pick which hat to wear. Kodak advertised it as the MC3 Portable Multimedia Device, which accurately characterized the device’s lofty but rather erratic purpose. This tiny box contained digital photos, short video clips, and MP3 tracks, all in one neat little package, years before only the most daring gadget users would even consider merging those functions.
AYANEO’s NEXT 2 is a mobile gaming powerhouse that’s about the size of an ultraslim laptop that has been slightly shrunk down. This Windows-powered machine features AMD’s newest Strix Halo processor, a significant piece of hardware, as well as an eye-catching 9.06-inch OLED screen and a price tag to match its ambitions. Those early bird bookings start at $1,799, but the top build goes all the way up to $3,499 during crowdfunding, then to a staggering $4,299 when it hits the regular retail circuit.
The Mophie 3-in-1 Travel Charger with MagSafe, priced at $40 (was $150), sits quietly on your nightstand, desk, or kitchen counter, charging three devices simultaneously without taking up too much space. People who use this charger frequently reach for it, even when they are not on a trip. A few days in, it’s easy to see why: it just makes sense to have one compact accessory that can handle all of your gadgets rather than a mess of cables and individual pads scattered about.
The final trailer for Project Hail Mary lands just before the big game, Super Bowl LX, and it hits the ground running, literally. Ryan Gosling plays Ryland Grace, a former middle school science teacher who awakens on a spaceship alone and with amnesia. The stakes are evident from the start: Earth is on the verge of annihilation due to a dimming sun, and this long-shot mission is the last chance to reverse the damage.
Auto enthusiast Nathan Paykin purchased a 2006 Suzuki Swift for the bargain price of AU$500 (approximately US$350) and converted it into a full-size replica of the vintage Little Tikes Cozy Coupe toy vehicle that many children most likely played with. This classic red-and-yellow Cozy Coupe now appears as a real-life car that adults can drive, complete with flames.
Photo credit: Jose-Luis Olivares, MIT
MIT engineers have come up with some ingenious work: they’ve created tiny silicon structures that can crunch numbers using heat that would otherwise be wasted rather than energy. It’s a game changer for dealing with heat in electronics, and a team of MIT researchers lead by undergraduate physics wiz Caio Silva has proved that it truly works. In a study published in Physical Review Applied, they show off the results of their simulation work, demonstrating that these small devices can do some rather important math operations with surprising accuracy.
Boston Dynamics is finishing up a long chapter in the Atlas robot’s existence before shifting its focus to the electric production model that will be used on the factory floor. The company collaborated with the Robotics & AI Institute to push this robot’s full-body movement and control capabilities one last time.
The Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics torch, dubbed “Essential,” is a quiet game changer in an object that has been passing the flame around the world for decades. Carlo Ratti, the architect, approached the project with a question in mind: how does an object transmit emotion? His instruction was to pare down to the bare essentials and let the flame do the talking.
On January 26, 2026, an astronaut on the International Space Station looked earthward and captured a view of the Grand Canyon that few people have ever seen. A fresh layer of snow from a few days of flurries clings to the canyon’s rim, framing the huge abyss in stark white against the deep red-brown rock below. The Colorado Plateau looks like a flat canvas sprinkled with dust, while the canyon itself, carved out by the Colorado River over millions of years, plunges into darkness.
This project takes regular door sensors and amps them up a few notches, providing a brilliant way to keep your smart house smart without having a single gadget attached to the frame. Dillan Stock of The Stock Pot got his hands on those cheap Aqara T1 touch sensors and decided to rebuild their housings from scratch, effectively stuffing everything inside the door and frame.