Stephen Colbert continues to rack up high-profile tech guests for The Late Show and the latest is none other than Apple CEO Tim Cook. Of course, Colbert announced it in the most new-Colbert way possible: Smiling for the camera, talking into his Apple Watch in a Twitter photo and asking Siri to pencil the Cupertino boss in for next Tuesday, September 15th. It probably isn't a far cry to expect the iPhone 6S and iPad Pro will be major points of conversation, but anything's possible. Set your DVRs, folks.

The Nevada Transportation Authority approved new regulations for Uber, Lyft and other ride-hailing services today, but don't expect a flood of for-hire drivers on the Las Vegas Strip this weekend. These companies can't open shop in Nevada quite yet -- regulators approved new rules, including the imposition of an administrative fee and requiring decals on cars, but Uber and Lyft still don't have permission to operate in the state.

There are a lot of GoPro footage you can watch online, but this one has quite the backstory. In June 2013, Bryan Chan and his friends attached a 3D-printed chassis housing a GoPro, a Sony camcorder and a Samsung Galaxy Note 2 to a weather balloon. They set it free near the Grand Canyon, expecting their AT&T phone to text them its location (using an app) once it lands. According to the story Chan posted on Reddit, that message never came, and it wasn't until this year when they managed to get their hands on their devices and the photos and videos they captured.

A lot of games are about wish fulfilment, but what if your dream is to make Nintendo games? Well, now there's a game for that, too: Super Mario Maker -- a video game creation suite that's exactly what it sounds like. Nintendo's been hyping this game for over a year, and it hits shelves today. How is it? We're about to find out. Join me and Tim Seppala for an ad hoc remodelling of the Mushroom Kingdom, starting at 6PM ET (3PM PT) on Twitch.tv/Joystiq, on the Engadget gaming homepage or right here in this post.

Even if you're a task-killing ninja, there are still plenty of apps that somehow bite into your battery life. And that problem can be even worse when your phone is asleep, when you can't even tell which apps are being battery hogs. A new tool called Hush, which was developed by Purdue researchers, aims to solve that dilemma for Android phones by intelligently stopping apps that run in the background while your phone is asleep. It prioritizes the apps you use a lot and stops apps that you rarely use from gumming up the works. Researchers say it can save around 16 percent of battery life -- that's not huge, but it could be very useful if a similar tool were embedded with phones. You can test out Hush for yourself via its Github page, but it'll likely be a while before it's available in a more polished form.

NASA may have started posting UHD content on its YouTube page earlier this summer, but that's not where the agency's 4K aspirations stop. Today, NASA announced that it's teaming up with Harmonic to launch 4K content on NASA TV starting November 1st. The channel will not only serve up the latest high-resolution images and video from the ISS and other NASA missions, but "historical missions" will be remastered as well. Eager to watch? Harmonic is currently in talks with pay TV providers to broadcast the channel via cable, satellite and optical networks. It'll also stream over the web too, so long as you have a 13 MBps connection to handle all of those detailed visuals.

[Image credit: Aubrey Gemignani/NASA via Getty Images]

Tumblr has launched its own clothing endeavor, featuring shirts, sweaters, dresses, accessories and other items adorned with patterns created by popular Tumblr artists. The clothing line is a celebration of Tumblr's 10th year participating in New York Fashion Week, and all items will go on sale through PAOM starting September 14th. The first pieces feature prints from community members Brian Vu, Andrew B. Myers, John Karel, John McLaughlin, Lauren Pelc-McArthur, Luca Mainini, Monica Ramos and others, and they're priced from $30 to $250.

Former Philips Healthcare CEO Deborah DiSanzo is the new General Manager of IBM's Watson Health unit, which aims to provide the company's cognitive computer system to health care professionals and patients. At IBM, DiSanzo leads more than 2,000 employees and is charged with scaling Watson Health globally and expanding IBM's Watson Health Cloud initiative. The Watson Health Cloud attempts to collect large amounts of patient data and make it easier for doctors and companies to make health decisions. IBM has teamed up with Apple (specifically, ResearchKit and HealthKit), Johnson & Johnson, Medtronic and other companies for the Cloud initiative.

Taking the idea of "automatic updates" to the extreme, Microsoft has confirmed that it's downloading Windows 10 installation files on PCs just in case you might want to upgrade, The Inquirer reports. As a Microsoft rep tells it, the company is placing the files on computers that have opted into automatic updates through Windows Update. Normally that just entails getting a few security fixes every few weeks, but the Windows 10 installer can take up around 3.5GB and 6GB on your system. That's a lot of precious hard drive space for something you might not even want (though it's definitely worth upgrading). Microsoft probably figures it's worth preloading files to make the Windows 10 installation faster, but it seems like a boneheaded move when storage is scarce on some machines (especially if you're stuck with flash memory or a small SSD). It makes more sense for Microsoft only to preload the files after you've decided to "reserve" the free upgrade.

If you're looking to get your mitts on those handmade goods purchased on Etsy the same day, you might soon be in luck. The company is teaming up with Postmates to test same-day and next-day deliveries in parts of New York City. As a refresher, the delivery company already handles packages and food orders from the likes of Apple, Starbucks, McDonald's and Chipotle. As Re/code notes, its partnerships with online shopping outfits (like Everlane) give its couriers work at times of the day when there isn't too much takeout being ordered. Etsy's service, labeled "Etsy ASAP," will be available for sellers in Manhattan and parts of Brooklyn and Queens based on Postmates coverage of the area.

Translogic heads to the Motorcity for some head-to-head racing, only these vehicles have four motors and fly through the air. Detroit Drone hosts first-person view, or FPV, races for multicopter enthusiasts throughout the area. Watch as Translogic host Jonathon Buckley pops on a headset and takes the controls of his own drone for a high-speed race around Detroit's Russell Industrial Center.Translogic heads to the Motorcity for some head-to-head racing, only these vehicles have four motors and fly through the air. Detroit Drone hosts first-person view, or FPV, races for multicopter enthusiasts throughout the area.

Is there anything 3D printers can't do? A 54-year-old Spanish man, who had a cancerous tumor in his chest wall, was recently fitted with a 3D printed sternum and rib cage. While the first-of-its-kind implant seems like a Marvel Comics experiment with Adamantium, in reality, it was an ingenious, life saving medical solution that used lightweight yet sturdy, Titanium. The metal printing technique gave the surgeons at the Salamanca University Hospital in Spain the flexibility they needed to customize the complex and unique anatomy of their patient's chest wall.

Between 2010 and 2014 the US Department of Energy was hit by hackers over 150 times. Just pause and think about that for a moment. In the span of four years, the federal organization that helps regulate our power grid, energy labs and nuclear weapons was successfully infiltrated 159 times. Almost as terrifying, the department was constantly under attack according to records obtained by USA Today. During that time there were 1,131 attempts made to break into the DOE's systems.

Sepsis is a mysterious condition. It's the body's life-threatening response to an infection and it's usually tied to a weakened immune system, but it can be triggered by just a cut or routine surgery. Each year in the United States, Sepsis affects more than 1 million people and kills up to half, according to the National Institutes of Health. There's no treatment for Sepsis or septic shock, the deadly full-body inflammatory response, but scientists at Harvard's Wyss Institute are working on a new dialysis system that cleans the blood of poisonous pathogens, Reuters reports.

This post was done in partnership with The Wirecutter, a buyer's guide to the best technology. Read the full article here.

After three weeks of research, plus hands-on testing of a half-dozen finalists, we found that the QNAP TS-251 is the best network-attached storage device (NAS) for people who need one. It has a faster processor and more memory than most NAS near its price, and it has flexible, powerful software that does everything most NAS users need and more.

If you head on over to Sony's website today, the company will warn you not to use its Xperia smartphones while underwater. That might come as a surprise, especially as Sony has repeatedly touted the waterproof capabilities of its devices in the past. But really, you shouldn't be doing it. XperiaBlog points out that the handset maker is now taking additional measures to discourage the practice, and has updated its website to help customers avoid making a costly mistake while at the pool.

It's tough to be a college student these days, what with new sources of procrastination popping up everywhere. Philo's streaming television platform, which gives students access to live TV and DVR functionality across a variety of devices, is one of the more recent entries. Now, it's covering 15 more schools, including Harvard University, Brown University, and the University of Alabama. Altogether, Philo is bringing the joy of television to more than 40 schools. The startup works together with cable and satellite providers to bring live TV to its private network -- it's not the sort of thing just anyone can access. Along with the expansion news, Philo is also updating its Roku app to make searching for TV shows simpler. Yes, giving college kids access to TV service isn't anything new, but Philo's multi-device lets schools offer TV in a way younger folks are more used to.

Uber's biggest Chinese rival, Didi Kuaidi, has invested an undisclosed amount in Lyft, according to The Wall Street Journal. It's still unclear how the pink mustache-loving firm will use the money, but it's already begun discussions with its Chinese investors. Didi Kuaidi is a joint venture between Kuaidi Dache and Didi Dache, two of China's former biggest taxi-hailing services, which joined forces earlier this year to stave off Uber's growth in their home country. Turns out part of the merger's strategy is to force the American ride-sharing firm to focus on other markets, including the US, by helping fellow Uber competitors grow. Back in August, it also agreed to back GrabTaxi -- another fellow competitor operating in Singapore, Malaysia and the Philippines.

United Launch Associates (ULA), the rocket enterprise from Boeing and Lockheed, has ramped up its commitment to Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin rocket engines. The two companies agreed to expand production capability of Origin's BE-4 rocket motor, "an important step toward building (them) at the production rate needed for the Vulcan launch vehicle," said Bezos. Last year, the two companies formed a pact to develop an engine that that can replace the Russian-built RD-180 engines originally planned for Vulcan -- ULA's successor to the Atlas V. Due to a US congressional ban on Russian products, ULA can no longer purchase RD-180s.