Gadgets

By Darrell Etherington Apple has a new patent application that describes a pop-up home button which can work as an analog joystick. The patent, uncovered by Patently Apple, describes how the button goes from recessed standard mode to extended gameplay-readiness based on specific types of pressure input. The patent acknowledges that touch screens may not…

By Josh Constine “In five years, the notion of a drone crashing will be a weird, foreign thing” says Adam Bry, co-founder of drone auto-pilot startup Skydio and founding member of Google’s Project Wing drone delivery project. Skydio connects a drone’s cameras to its flight computer so it can avoid obstacles and maneuver on its…

By Jordan Crook Sense360 is still in a quiet beta period, but the company has just picked up $2.75 million in seed funding from FirstMark Capital, with participation by Founder Collective, Qualcomm Ventures, Metamorphic Ventures, Double M Capital, Telenav, David Tisch, and more. Sense360 is looking to leverage the power of smartphone sensors for developers.…

By Darrell Etherington Apple has a new patent published by the USPTO today (via AppleInsider) that shows off a system through which Touch ID information could be collected on a primary device, and then transferred via iCloud to a secondary device for use in authentication, or to set up said device presumably without repeating the…

By Matt Swider There’s an older generation that still prefers to say they’re capturing a “Kodak Moment” and wouldn’t even know what “Instagram it” means, and for them there’s the Kodak IM5. Kodak IM5 is an extremely simplistic Android smartphone from the rebounding photography brand and mobile device manufacturer Bullitt. It’s nothing special, but that’s…

By Matt Swider There’s an older generation that still prefers to say they’re capturing a “Kodak Moment” and wouldn’t even know what “Instagram it” means, and for them there’s the Kodak IM5. Kodak IM5 is an extremely simplistic Android smartphone from the rebounding photography brand and mobile device manufacturer Bullitt. It’s nothing special, but that’s…

By Sarah Buhr Last summer, Skully, the motorcycle helmet with a heads-up display, became the fourth-most popular Indiegogo campaign in history. According to an SEC filing, it’s raised another $1.5 million. The financing, which took the form of convertible securities, was added to existing cash that Skully had raised through its crowdfunding campaign and previous…

By Greg Kumparak “Whose phone charger is that sticking out of the wall? Oh. It must be Ben’s. Ben always leaves his charger at work. Classic Ben!” Alas, it’s not Ben’s charger. Hell, it’s not a charger at all. It’s actually a little spy device disguised as a phone charger, capable of sniffing out every…

By Sarah Buhr The Internet of Things has entered the kitchen space. Everything from an app to turn on your coffee maker to a pan that monitors heat on your iPhone to cook the perfect steak is so close we can (almost literally) taste it. Here are some of the top tech gadgets making their…

By Darrell Etherington Samsung has approached BlackBerry with potential takeover offers, according to a report from Reuters today. The Korean company offered as much as $7.5 billion for the Canadian company, with an interest specifically in the smaller company’s patent portfolio. The offer by Samsung ranges between $13.35 and $15.49 per share, which would represent…

By Darrell Etherington The virtual reality space is pretty much Oculus Rift, and then everyone else. Even Sony’s Morpheus VR project was conspicuously absent from CES 2015, but one startup stood up and made sure that there was more to VR at the event than just the excellent Crescent Bay demo: Sulon Technologies were showing…

By John Biggs As a representative of M.U.S.C.L.E., I find artificial muscles a bit unseemly. However, researchers at Duke University have been able to grow their own twitching tissue, a first that could allow researchers to test drugs on working muscle without damaging a live host. Read More …read more Source: TechCrunch Gadgets

By Jordan Crook GoPro has forged a partnership with Vislink to bring live HD broadcasting to the GoPro line of portable, rugged HD cameras. The companies have been working together to build a small live transmitter that can be attached to GoPro Hero4 cameras, taking the professional use of the GoPro camera line to a…

By Jordan Crook Meet Charlie and Billy, the most adorable little robots in all the land. Billy, the first iteration, is a combination of 3D-printed parts, an Arduino Leonardo, and dual DC motors to form a hexapod robot. Billy is controlled through a simple joystick app on the phone, and can handle various types of…

By Darrell Etherington The education potential of VR and the Oculus Rift is already well-established, but this year at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, Toyota showed off TeenDrive365, a driver education simulation to teach new drivers about the risks of distracted driving. The simulator puts drivers in the cockpit of a Toyota…