A team from the University of Michigan and Shanghai Jiao Tong University created a soft robot that defies all expectations, crawling across floors and climbing walls like a caterpillar. SPARC (Soft, Proprioceptive, Agile Robot for 3D Climbing) is a soft robot that uses origami-inspired designs to move as precisely as rigid robots while carrying loads more than twice as heavy.
Photo credit: Dan DeLong for Microsoft
Cooling computer chips is a quiet war in the tech world; as AI pushes silicon to the limit, they are hotter than ever and traditional cooling is failing to keep up. Microsoft’s new discovery, microfluidics, can change the game by cooling from within.
Photo credit: SpawnPoiint
Preorders for Microsoft’s new portable gaming push began today, along with the prices for the ROG Xbox Ally and ROG Xbox Ally X. Both will be available on October 16, but the pricing has already sparked some concerns. These handhelds, priced at $599 for the base model and $999 for the X, are more comparable to high-end laptops than the consoles that many gamers are accustomed to.
For nearly 40 years, the Casio F-91W has been a global standard, with its boxy resin case and 7 segment LCD display representing simple reliability. It costs around $20 and tells the time, counts seconds and glows in the dark. But in a world of smartwatches that buzz with notifications and fitness data, the F-91W can feel ancient. Enter the Ollee Watch One, a brilliant hack that replaces the F-91W’s original circuit board with one full of modern features.
GE Aerospace has done something amazing at Kennedy Space Center. Their Atmospheric Test of Launched Airbreathing System (ATLAS) Flight Test Vehicle, powered by a solid-fuel ramjet (SFRJ), flew earlier this month on an F-104 Starfighter. This is a stripped down, beautiful piece of engineering with zero moving parts designed to go beyond Mach 5.
Kirk Mihelakos, a filmmaker with an eye for detail, took the iPhone 17 Pro and turned San Francisco into a visual poem. His short 4.2K video, shot using the phone’s new Open Gate feature, captures the city’s foggy hills, vibrant markets and sunlit bay with a clarity that’s almost too good for a phone.
As the leaves change and the evenings get longer, the need to beef up your doorstep gets stronger. Holiday packages pile up on the porch and unexpected visitors notice your string lights. Meet Blink Outdoor 4, priced at $34.99 (was $79.99), Amazon’s latest wireless security camera that pairs with the Sync Core for the simplest setup ever.
Google DeepMind’s Gemini Robotics 1.5 models are a huge step toward robots that think, plan, and act intelligently, potentially changing how machines interact with our world.
