Gadgets

Hardware is hard at the best of times. But software developer Patrick Morris-Suzuki set himself the ambitious challenge of creating a blink-detecting system for hands-free typing during an overnight hackathon here at TechCrunch Disrupt New York 2017. The hack was inspired by Facebook’s demo at F8 last month, when the company revealed it’s ...

When is the last time you used your landline phone? Chances are that your smartphone is the one and only device you need. Old-fashioned phones have been fading away from most living rooms. But it doesn’t mean that landline phones aren’t useful. Amazon is well aware of that. The company ...

Apple just released a dozen of videos on its website (and some of them on YouTube) about the camera on the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus. At first I thought it would be a step-by-step three-minute tutorial explaining all the buttons in the Camera app. But it focuses more ...

The Urban-X investors showcase is a closed-door event that shows off eight different incubated startups to potential investors and press. I stopped by earlier this week to see what the fuss was about. Of the eight companies in Urban-X’s 02 cohort, I picked four that tackled problems relating to pollution, the ...

It’s truly amazing, the wealth of information we all have at our fingertips — that is, of course, unless your fingertips are how you have to access that information. An innovative new tablet that uses magnetically configurable bumps may prove to be a powerful tool for translating information like maps ...

I don’t think anyone was expecting this punch. According to a new report from Bloomberg, Qualcomm is thinking about asking the International Trade Commission (a U.S. trade agency despite the misleading name) to ban imports of iPhones into the U.S. This is the latest twist in the ongoing conflict between ...

Trust Apple to be courageous enough to strip away all the old-fashioned USB ports. And trust the rest of us to realize that 90 percent of our peripherals still run on the old standard. Apple’s retort is to sell you a one-way ticket to dongle hell. Then Homey comes along with ...

Most 3D printers have a fairly small build envelope. The Makerbot, which is one of the biggest for home use, offers 29.5 L X 19.5 W X 16.5 H CM and others hover around that range. The $499 OverLord ProPlus, on the other hand, has a cylindrical build volume of ...

Yahoo Finance has nabbed a couple of photos reported to show Fitbit’s upcoming smartwatch, along with a handful of reports that make the whole undertaking sound like one big fiasco. Sources are talking complaints about design, production delays, antenna issues and software problems. The device looks to share design language ...

The Wynd smart air purifier is designed to create “bubbles” of fresh air — small, one-person respites from pollution, allergens and other detrimental particles floating in the ether. It feels almost dystopian, a world in which we’re required to arm ourselves against the air around us, but the product clearly ...