TechEBlog -

Project Suncatcher Flies Google AI Chips Into Orbit to Learn If Compute Can Live on Sunlight

By Jackson Chung September 24, 2026

Google will send its first AI chips into space next week as the opening flight of Project Suncatcher, a long-term research effort to find out whether machine learning hardware can run in low Earth orbit on solar power. A refrigerator-sized prototype named MVP, built with Planet Labs and carrying four Tensor Processing Units, is booked on SpaceX’s Transporter-18 Falcon 9 rideshare from Vandenberg, with a target date of October 1. The satellite is not a working orbital data center. It exists to measure what launch vibration, radiation, and vacuum heat do to Google’s chips once they leave the ground.

JBL Live Buds 3 Boasts a Color Screen on the Case So You Can Leave the Phone in Your Pocket

By Bill Smith September 24, 2026

Most charging cases only hold a charge and a pair of buds. JBL Live Buds 3, priced at $129.95 (was $200), add a 1.45-inch color touchscreen that turns the case into a control panel you can use with a laptop, tablet, TV, or phone without opening an app. Swipe to play, pause, or skip, raise or lower volume, flip between adaptive noise cancelling, Ambient Aware, and TalkThru, pick an equalizer preset, or set spatial sound for music, movies, or games. Incoming texts and call alerts can flash across the same display, battery levels for both buds and the case sit along the top, and you can load a photo from your phone as a lock wallpaper. A lanyard loop on the case makes it easier to keep that little screen within reach.

Muse Charm Puts Meta’s New AI Agent on a Keychain You Can Talk To

By Jackson Chung September 24, 2026

Mark Zuckerberg closed Meta Connect 2026 with a gadget small enough to clip to a bag. On September 23 in Menlo Park he held up a puck about the size of an AirPods case, tapped a fingerprint sensor in the corner, and started a conversation with Muse without unlocking a phone or opening an app. He called the unit Muse Charm and said Meta had packed the whole Muse experience, including the real-time voice model and the animated avatar, into something that stays on a keychain and is always ready to talk.

Tamura Lumitime Clock Turns 1970s Mains Power Into Glowing Seven Segment Numbers With Gears and Contacts Alone

By Jackson Chung September 24, 2026

Japanese company Tamura Electric sold the Lumitime as a stylish desk or wall clock throughout the mid to late 1970s, giving buyers the futuristic look of digital numerals when affordable LED and LCD panels were still dim, tiny, or simply not ready for living rooms. Mark Furneaux opened one of these machines and found no counters, no decoder chips, and no real-time clock module. A synchronous motor tied directly to the 60 hertz household line supplies both power and timing, spinning at a fixed rate so the clock stays accurate as long as the grid stays stable.

Nikon Z5IIC Leaves the Viewfinder Off and Brings Full Frame Down to Fourteen Hundred Dollars

By Jackson Chung September 24, 2026

Nikon used the same 24.5-megapixel backside-illuminated full-frame sensor and EXPEED 7 processor found in the Z5II, then cut the electronic viewfinder so the body could sit flatter, weigh less, and sell for $1,399.95. That price is $450 under the current Z5II list, and a kit with the NIKKOR Z 24-50mm f/4-6.3 lands at $1,699.95. Shipping is set for mid-October, with pre-orders already open and B&H listing an October 15 date. Black and silver finishes are both available, the silver version pairing a light top plate with a dark body.