Today and going forward, billions of tiny devices will act as an extension of our brains, feelings and emotions as a natural extension of everyday life.
Open source hardware
The holiday season is here again, touting all sorts of kids’ toys that pledge to pack ‘STEM smarts’ in the box, not just the usual battery-based fun. Educational playthings are nothing new, of course. But, in recent years, long time toymakers and a flurry of new market entrants have piggybacked on the popularity of smartphones […]
The ultimate guide to gifting STEM toys: tons of ideas ...
Last week Arduino AG, the holding company for the open source Arduino project, announced that CEO Federico Musto stepped down, to be replaced with Mr. Massimo Banzi as new Chairman and CTO of Arduino and Dr. Fabio Violante as CEO. The move comes after the maker community found troubling discrepancies in Musto’s educational claims. “This is the beginning of a new era for Arduino… Read MoreFederico Musto is out as Arduino CEO
I’m not a fan of educational toys. They’re usually either too educational or too toy-like and, in the end, kids get little education and little fun. The Code Kit from LittleBits has changed my mind.
The Code Kit is very specifically targeted at classroom learning for grades 3-8 and costs $299. Why? Because it’s a bit more robust than the other coding kit LittleBits overs.… Read MoreThe LittleBits Code Kit is an easy way to play ...
You can hack your IKEA furniture to be more awesome. You can hack video games to make your fellow gamers hate your guts. And with the help of Macchina — now on Kickstarter — you can teach your car a few new tricks, too. What could possibly go wrong? Read MoreWanna hack your car? Macchina is a plug-and-vroom solution
Pulling a 3D print out of your printer is usually a process fraught with conflict. Who will do it? Can you hire someone? Why does it have to be so painful? Has the deity abandoned us Earth people, leaving us to fend for ourselves in a cold, unfeeling universe? Probably not, but it’s still a pain in the butt. You see, normal 3D printers extrude onto a smooth build plate treated with either… Read MoreFleks3D Lets You Pull Your 3D Prints Out Of Your ...
Trident is a remote-controlled, camera-equipped underwater drone – and it’s the fastest machine yet from underwater robotics startup OpenROV. Trident can go “as fast as Michael Phelps,” according to co-founders David Lang and Eric Stackpole. For reference, Phelps clocks in at 4.4 mph if you factor his record for 50.77 seconds in the 100 m. So that’s faster than… Read More