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Here's what happened at Engadget Live Seattle
Engadget made another appearance in Seattle last Friday, again taking over the Showbox SoDo. This year's stop in the Emerald City was the second in our series of Engadget Live events, where readers can meet, mingle and try out all sorts of new tech. More than 1,000 folks did just that on a sunny day in the Pacific Northwest. Friends were made; photos were taken; and alcohol was... inhaled. Check out the gallery below for a few highlights.
Engadget Live Seattle is this Friday!
To all our wonderful friends in Seattle, let's make it clear: there's no better place to be this Friday (July 18th) at 7PM than the Showbox SODO for our second Engadget Live event of the year! Why is this a cant-miss event? Flip through the gallery below to find out.
What to expect at Engadget Live Seattle
We're bringing our Engadget Live event series to Seattle's Showbox SODO on Friday, July 18th, 7PM sharp! We also decided that we really enjoy making our readers happy, so effective immediately, all Engadget Live events this year will be free! (If you bought a ticket already, we'll pay it back).
Engadget Live heads to Seattle on July 18th!
Seattle, the always caffeinated, drone-building, Super Bowl-winning, beautiful city that coddles the Puget Sound. We had such a great time hanging with the locals last year that we're making a comeback. Join us at Showbox SODO on Friday, July 18th, 7PM sharp for our second Engadget Live event of the year. (If you happen to be in Austin, Texas, this coming Friday, join us at our first "Live" event there!) What's Engadget Live? Unlike trade shows and press-only events, we bring together gadget lovers with tech brands in an interactive environment. A bunch of great companies (mostly local ones!) will show off their newest products and get feedback directly from fans like you.
Don't miss LeVar Burton, Ben Heck, Adafruit and Planetary Resources at Expand NY!
We're getting more and more excited watching the Expand NY agenda come together. We've already announced our first set of speakers (by which we mean people on stage, not those kind of speakers) including legendary game designer Peter Molyneux, Pebble CEO Eric Migicovsky, io9 editor-in-chief Annalee Newitz and the man responsible for clogging the Internet's tubes with funny cats: Ben Huh. But wait, there's more! Joining us at Javits Center this November will be: LeVar Burton, Actor, Director, Educator, co-founder of RRKidz Chris Lewicki, President and Chief Engineer, Planetary Resources, Inc. Becky Stern, Director of Wearable Electronics, Adafruit Industries Ben Heck, Master Modder on element14's The Ben Heck Show
Planetary Resources shows off Arkyd-100 prototype, gives a tour of its workspace
We last heard about Planetary Resources back in April of last year, when the team formally announced plans to mine asteroids for things like water and precious metals like platinum. Chris Lewicki, who sports the unspeakably cool title of president and chief asteroid miner, assures us all that his team has been very hard at work in the interim. While he's not quite ready to show everything off just yet (due, in part, to intellectual property concerns), the space executive gave the internet a glimpse of the Arkyd-100 mechanical prototype, a space telescope and technology demonstrator packed into a dense 11 kilograms. In the below video, Lewicki give a quick walk around the lightweight, low-cost prototype. There's also a glimpse of the of the company's Class 10,000 clean room and Arkyd-100 manufacturing facility.
Planetary Resources reveals plan for prospecting asteroids, creating interstellar gas stations
The cat got let out of the bag a little early, but Planetary Resources has now officially announced its existence and mission. We already told you that the venture plans to mine asteroids for profit, and is backed by a bunch of bigwigs from Silicon Valley and Hollywood. But now we know a bit more about the company after watching its announcement webcast and speaking with co-founder Peter Diamandis. Turns out, the company sees itself not only as a business venture, but as an entity that will pave the way for extending human influence throughout the solar system. Read on after the break for more.
James Cameron-backed Planetary Resources to search the universe for Unobtainium
Planetary Resources will reportedly announce later today that it's developing and selling low-cost spacecraft to mine asteroids close to the Earth. The space exploration and natural resources venture is led by X-Prize creator Peter Diamandis, Eric Anderson and NASA's former Mars chief, Chris Lewicki -- with cash backing from James Cameron, Eric Schmidt and Larry Page amongst others. Within a decade, the company hopes to kickstart a 21st century gold rush by selling orbiting observation platforms to prospectors with significant rewards -- a 30-meter long asteroid could hold as much as $50 billion worth of platinum at today's prices. The company's own teaser materials promised that the project would add "trillions of dollars" to the world's GDP, which sounds like a film we saw recently.
