DIY
Latest
Welcome to Engadget's Adult Week
None of us are in much of a rush to grow up. But, eventually, the day comes when you need to give up the slovenly ways of your college years and hard partying habits of your early 20s. It's time for you to become an adult. That means ditching the pajama pants and ratty band T-shirts for some big boy and big girl clothes. It means protecting your data from hackers and scammers. Oh, and it means making some pretty big life decisions -- like do you need to buy a car and whether you should post photos of your child on the internet. All this week Engadget will be bringing you stories about how to use technology to become a better grownup and how to navigate our tech-saturated world in a manner befitting a real deal adult. The web is a great resource for fashion advice and a solid place to start if you want to turn your deeply held political views into serious activism. It can also help you find love and companionship once hanging out at the bar until 4am loses its appeal. It's time to become an independent and constructive member of society. Check out all of Engadget's "Adult Week" coverage right here.
Ben Heck's Nintendo Switch teardown
Nintendo has a new console out, which means Ben, Karen and Felix are responding exactly as you'd expect them to: by tearing down the new Switch console and Joy Con controllers. How does it compare to a laptop or tablet computer? Is it designed for easy maintenance and upgradeability? Share your take over on the element14 Community.
A sly Now TV update is culling sideloaded apps like Plex
Ever since the launch of the first Now TV box for just £10 in 2013, some buyers have been using the little streaming pucks in ways Sky hadn't originally intended. Cut through the branding, and Now TV boxes are just Rokus in disguise, complete with a developer mode that lets users sideload apps not available in the sparse Now TV store. But no longer, as Sky has quietly begun issuing an update to Now TV boxes that disables developer mode and purges any apps that've been installed on them using the loophole.
Moogfest celebrates music and the machines that make it
The synth-heavy Moogfest at SXSW (the main event is in May) is scheduled during the overlap of the festival's Interactive and Music tracks. That makes sense, because it's the perfect combination of music and technology. The pulsing tones of a synthesizer are born of musicians hunched over circuit boards and schematics, soldering and cutting, trying to get a sound that's just right. At the Austin club Cheer Up Charlies, Moogfest (rhymes with vogue) booked not only some amazing bands but also some folks who have taken their love of sine waves and created a business.
Lowe's is using AR and VR to make how-to easier
Last year home improvement chain Lowe's teased what it was doing with Google's Tango augmented-reality technology, and now the company is ready to debut the next wave of its high-tech initiatives. First up is the outfit's new In-Store Navigation app, which it says is Tango's first retail indoor-mapping application. To use it, you'll need to snag a Lenovo Phab 2 Pro from an employee. Then you can use the slate to navigate around the store and hopefully find exactly what you're looking for in no time flat. It's something Lowe's showed off recently in tandem with a VR project to illustrate how tech can make DIY easier.
Ben Heck's next three builds are meant to be shipping products
You asked for bigger, better, longer-term builds, so the team is going to design three things that can be brought to market or to a crowdfunding site like Kickstarter. First up: Logic Bomb, a refactoring of the Hackmanji board game. How can it be made durable, smaller and help make digital logic as easy to learn as using a Speak & Spell? Next up is the Super Glue Gun, which is great because Ben has an obsession with such things. Finally, our viewers' top choice: a mini pinball machine. Can this build be made into a kit? is 3D printing suitable? Follow the team as they work on these builds and have your say in guiding the projects over on the element14 Community!
Semen, centrifuges and a personal journey in male fertility
In August 2012, I came into a neon-pink shot glass. Nine months later, a baby was born. I'd never planned on having a child of my own -- and to be clear, I still don't -- but when two of my best friends started looking for a donor, I jumped on the opportunity. For those of us who can't have children with our partners through good old-fashioned sex, the path to pregnancy is complicated and expensive. After careful consideration, my friends decided on what's commonly referred to as the Turkey Baster Method. I would masturbate into a sterile collection cup and pass the resulting semen to my friend who would draw it into a syringe and deliver it to his wife. She would then plunge it into her vagina.
Bring out your inner 'Calvin and Hobbes' at Alt.Ctrl.GDC
Ah, the Alt.Ctrl.GDC booth. It's the real reason thousands of people flock to downtown San Francisco every year, under the guise of attending panels, networking and showing off their work at the annual Game Developers Conference. Alt.Ctrl.GDC is a collection of games that use experimental controls -- that means no keyboards, no mice and no gamepads. Instead, the booth is filled with things like laser harps, spaceship control panels, giant inflatable dark rooms, DIY bookcases, record players, furry cat hats, cardboard boxes and waist-high, carpeted treadmills.
Netflix becomes your personal trainer with its new DIY device
Working out can be tough, but inversely, watching Netflix is super easy. The streaming giant doesn't want to distract you from your fitness goals, though. Netflix would much rather be your workout buddy, which is why it posted instructions for making a DIY personal trainer gadget.
Raspberry Pi Zero W is a $10 computer with WiFi and Bluetooth
Although major Raspberry Pi announcements are very few and far between, you know that when there is one, it's worth paying attention. Take for example the Raspberry Pi Zero -- the $5 (£4) board that apparently came out of nowhere in October 2015 and offered 40 percent more computing power than the original Pi. It's been a year since the last major unveiling, when we met the Raspberry Pi 3, but the Foundation is back today with a brand new product that nestles neatly between its credit-card sized computer and its flagship board. It's called the Raspberry Pi Zero W.
Ben Heck makes a Zelda lamp by upcycling laptop screens
Humans by nature can be a little bit wasteful. Recycling helps, of course, but some things are too good to throw away. That's where upcycling comes in. Karen has the idea to repurpose laptop screens to create a Legend of Zelda-inspired lamp. However, not just any laptop screen will do. As the team rips apart old hardware they soon discover the different types of panels that have been used in various laptops over the years. With the optimal screens identified, Karen gets down to business with Adobe Illustrator and designs suitable laser-cut frames. Watch the episode to find out tips and tricks to make the perfect design. Have you upcycled any old hardware? Think you could enter your project in a design competition? Find out more on the element14 Community.
ICYMI: Bulletproof origami shields and hoverbikes
Today on In Case You Missed It: Finally, the best part of Return of the Jedi is becoming a reality. Hoversurf Inc. is building actual hoverbikes for folks to ride. Well, not right away. It'll be a few years before you can buy one. But at least we can start saving all your nickels and dimes for a time when we can go barreling through the Redwoods like Luke and Leia.
SodaStream recalls 51,000 bottles because they might explode
Your greatest SodaStream fears have been realized: tens of thousands of SodaStream's plastic bottles may not be able to withstand quite as much pressure as the company thought, causing the United States Consumer Product Safety Commission to issue a recall because they pose an injury risk to carbonation-happy consumers. Some 51,000 bottles sold in the US and another 7,600 bottles sold in Canada are included in the recall because they could potentially explode under pressure -- either while pumping them full of CO2 or simply by shaking a full, carbonated bottle.
IBM and Indiegogo are bringing Watson's smarts to the masses
IBM sees a big future in the Internet of Things. The company unveiled its $200 million IoT headquarters in Munich this week as part of its planned $3 billion investment in the connected devices industry. So far, however, the tech behemoth has mostly lent Watson's brains to larger companies and research projects. That's about to change thanks to a new partnership from IBM, Indiegogo and Arrow Electronics that promises to give independent developers and entrepreneurs access to those same machine learning tools.
3Doodler's new kits help kids craft their own robots
It used to be that if you gave a 3Doodler Start to a child, you'd have to throw them some stencils or otherwise pray they were creative enough to make something neat. Not so anymore. Eager to empower a new generation of Boston Dynamics engineers, 3Doodler is releasing a new robotics kit that lets kids — what else? — create their own moving machines out of melted plastic and sheer moxie.
ICYMI: Transient luminous events and bipedal robots
Today on In Case You Missed It: We get a much closer look at electrical discharge phenomena courtesy of a video filmed from the International Space Station. Called "Transient Luminous Events", the phenomena are notoriously hard to study as they occur 25-60 miles above thunderstorms. Even satellites have had little luck at capturing images of the upper-atmosphere lighting. However, viewing angles were less of a challenge for ESA astronaut Andreas Mogensen who was able to a highly-sensitive camera to snag video footage of 245 flashes of blue lightning while he was stationed on the ISS in 2015.
An unofficial ACLU Dash Button offers one-touch donations
Amazon's Dash Buttons offer one-click ordering for items your purchase through that Prime membership on a regular basis. In fact, there are over 250 of the buttons from a range of different brands. Last May, the online retailer revealed a $20 IoT version that can be programmed to help with other tasks besides just buying products. Designer and programmer Nathan Pryor is using the handy connected button to provide some relief every time he reads a tweet from President Trump or a headline about the latest happenings at the White House.
This tiny hackable synth will only cost you $39
When you're new to making music, affordable gadgets provide a nice introduction without a hefty investment. As far as tiny synths go, Teenage Engineering's $59 Pocket Operators are an easy sell, but Zeppelin Design Labs may have a compelling option as well. The company's Macchiato Mini Synth starts at just $39 if you're willing to assemble it yourself. If you'd rather not, you can pay $96 for one that's already built. It's also small enough to fit in the palm of your hand.
Lego launches a safe social network for kids to share their creations
If your child is a budding Lego genius yearning to show off her creative constructions to the world, then Lego has just the place for her to do it. The company behind the iconic bricks has just launched a new social network made for kids under 13. Called Lego Life, it's designed to let kids connect with a community of their peers. They can look at what other children have created and also share what they've built. Lego Life is made for tablets, with iOS and Amazon Kindle Fire versions available today in the US, UK, France and Germany.
