Just over a month ago, the Rubik's Cube world record was smashed by Mats Valk, a Dutch speedcuber, during the Jawa Timur Open 2016. Valk was able to shave 0.16 seconds off the previous record of 4.90 seconds, which was a pretty impressive feat.
If there's one thing you'd never think to play music on, it's probably a coffee stirrer, right? But that didn't stop this guy from playing one of my favorite theme songs on one — "Darth Vader's Theme," aka "The Imperial March."
At the WinHEC Shenzen 2016 Keynote, Microsoft showed off a system running Windows 10 smoothly on an ARM processor. This could be great news for developers of mixed reality software.
If you really want to end your next big guitar solo with a bang, consider giving this shotgun guitar a try.
Regular HoloLens developer and YouTuber Sky Zhou, a founding member of mixed reality studio Matrix Inception, has done it again. With an Xbox One controller in hand, watch as he makes these Pokémon battle it out Super Smash Brothers-style in his HoloLens app.
China's e-commerce site Alibaba has been making heavy investments in augmented and mixed reality startups. In February of this year, they led a $793 million round of Series C financing of Magic Leap. And now they've just invested in Israeli-based InfinityAR, which acquired $18 million in its Series C financing.
If we learned anything from Mulan, it's that "the flower that blooms in adversity is the most rare and beautiful of them all." Well, these have been a trying couple of weeks in the US, hence the need for a blooming marshmallow flower.
When we talk about augmenting our reality, we often first think about vision instead of our other senses—but there's more to an immersive experience than what you see. One inventor figured out how to utilize sound and touch to create a simple, upgraded version of laser tag that you can play with your smartphone.
Apple announced their new iPhones today, and the 7 Plus features two camera lenses on its backside. That could push smartphone photography ahead in a major way. It may also serve as the basis for their foray into virtual, augmented, and mixed reality.
Tricking your eyes into seeing 3D images isn't all that hard in movies or even in virtual reality, but when you start projecting holograms into the physical world, you run into some difficult problems. Microsoft obviously figured them out with their HoloLens, but how? The process is pretty amazing.
You've likely seen some impressive art carved out of a bush or tree before that looked like it required a lot of work and skill to create. While that may have been the case in the past, software engineer Javier Davalos used the Microsoft HoloLens to turn a bush into a perfect topiarian sphere with no training whatsoever.
Opioids, or narcotic painkillers, serve as our primary method for alleviating physical distress. They also happen to be a leading cause of death due to their addictive nature. AppliedVR hopes to introduce a safer alternative: virtual reality gaming. They utilize the existing Samsung Gear VR for the hardware, but provides specialized software that offers up a distracting experience that fosters greater pain ignorance.
The mysterious Magic Leap just partnered up with Lucasfilm's ILM xLAB to bring Star Wars to their mixed reality headsets. Based on the video demo making its way around the internet, it looks pretty impressive.
Not content with bringing the first untethered mixed reality headset to market, Microsoft wants to expand their Windows Holographic operating system beyond HoloLens into vastly more robust technologies.
If you've ever found yourself staring at intricately woven pastries at your local bakery and wondered how they do it, you'd be surprised to know it's not all that difficult. Those pastries with differing shapes and lovely lattice work may scream endless preparation and meticulous attention to detail, but they're actually quite easy to make at home.
LG literally rolled out a prototype of its cutting-edge flexible display at CES 2016 in Las Vegas. The company showed off an 18-inch screen with 1,200 x 800 pixel resolution that you can roll up like a magazine or newspaper and take with you. And while an 18-inch HD screen that rolls up is already pretty impressive, LG plans to build them up to 55 inches and beyond, with 4K resolution.
A fire snake, also referred to as a black snake or sugar snake, is a classic science experiment you can do right in your own kitchen using a baking soda and sugar mixture and a fuel to ignite the reaction.
When I first heard about the Thermomix, an all-in-one kitchen appliance from Australia, it sounded like an old SNL commercial parody: It slices! It dices! It heats! It kneads! Is there ANYTHING this machine CAN'T do?
One thing Apple users universally complain about is battery life, whether it's on an iPad, iPhone, or Apple Watch. Apple did include a Battery Usage feature in iOS 8 to help us monitor which apps suck up the most energy, but it's too big a pain to deal with. Now, in iOS 9, there gave us something that actually matters—Low Power Mode.
With the first wave of Apple Watches being received today, you're probably busy setting yours up and playing with all its features.
One of the latest home-improvement gadgets out there today, smart lighting, has become more popular as prices come down. That being said, its still quite a penny to shell out. In this article, I'll go through a few of the top products out there today, including the Philips Hue, Belkin WeMo, and Lifx.
The 13-megapixel camera on the OnePlus One is capable of taking some pretty impressive shots, but the stock CameraNext app doesn't do the hardware justice. When compared to the camera app that ships on the ColorOS version of the One, you can immediately see an increase in clarity and low light performance.
Cooking rice, pasta, and other grains in water is so boring. There is a much better way to guarantee they will have your mouth chewing something seriously tasty: cook them in something that isn't water. Alternative liquids such as stock, milk, juice, or even tea will give bland dishes a fresh new flavor boost. If you're not sure how your dishes might taste, never fear: we tested them out. Before getting started, be sure to read this article first so that you know why it's important to rinse y...
Korean electronics giant LG maintained a large presence at CES 2015. While their TVs and home appliances were heavily showcased, my interest was primarily on one device—the new LG G Flex 2 Android phone.
You have to give Amazon credit where it's due. Aside from being a retail powerhouse, they're not averse to dipping their feet in new and sometimes strange areas. Take Fresh, the first major effort at bringing your local goods directly to you in same-day fashion. Or Amazon Dash, which aimed to make adding items to your cart a breeze by allowing for scanning goods or speaking them into a small, hand-held device. Along these lines, the company has now introduced an invite-only product, the Amazo...
Automated tattoos are now a reality, with 3D printers being hacked into tattoo machines. Multiple people have posted videos of their 3D printer that can "print" tattoos, with one of the more impressive ones shown in the two videos below.
If you're studying human anatomy (or have ever visited a doctor's office), you're no doubt familiar with those plastic anatomical models with removable pieces meant to teach the different parts of the body. Before those, there were illustrated pop-up books. If you need to know the difference between the latissimus dorsi and the multifidus, you're probably better off sticking with your textbook diagrams. But if you prefer a more artful approach (and have a lot of time one your hands), this pap...
A new leak from GSM Israel on March 6th shows some telling screenshots of the U.S. variant of the upcoming Samsung Galaxy S4, some of which confirm features seen in the leaked 4.2.1 ROM for the Galaxy S3.
I've had this idea in my head for almost a year now. I knew what I wanted to do, but wasn't sure if it would work. After a long time of armchair-engineering, I decided that the best way to test my idea was with a soldering iron and a screwdriver.
The upcoming web series "Crypto-Historians" does for cryptohistory what Indiana Jones did for archaeology. For those who don't know, cryptohistory is the study of supernatural or alien elements throughout history, and yes—it's a "real" field.
Taking photos in the dark or in low-light settings can be tricky. Just using your normal flash can make your subject look washed out, but not using it can result in a totally dark photo with no subject at all.
There are some pretty incredible camera techniques out there, but the biggest problem that amateur photographers run into is that they don't have the equipment to try them. You can still get some great shots, but there are some things that are really hard to do if you don't have the money to drop on expensive lenses and accessories.
There are plenty of tank robots out there, but how many of them can recognize 3D objects and map their environment? Tanky, the tracked mobile robot, can do all that and more while rolling around on his bicycle chain treads. Created as a Master's thesis project, Tanky is made almost entirely of parts you can find at your local hardware store. It was built in two "layers" with the motors, electronics, and batteries on bottom and the processing unit, a laptop, on top. The motors came from cordle...
There are plenty of things you can use at home to make your own rocket, like sugar, matchsticks, or even trash. They may not be as impressive as a real rocket, but they can still be a lot of fun. In this video, How To Lou shows how he made a high-flying water rocket out of some basic materials like PVC and a soda bottle. As Lou points out, the bigger your soda bottle, the further it will go. He used 1/2" PVC pipe, valves, and connectors, as well as some brass adapters. He added an air compres...
A couple of months ago at the Black Hat security conference, hacker Cody Brocious gave the hotel industry a nasty surprise when he figured out how to hack the locks made by Onity that are used in millions of hotels worldwide.
You can take some absolutely gorgeous photos using the natural reflection that appears in people's and animals' eyes. With the right angle and lighting, you can even see a detailed picture of what the subject was looking at when the photo was taken. Photo by Martin Cathrae
Want to build your own life-sized, working replica of WALL-E? Be prepared to take on a second job! Mike Senna spent two years perfecting his own version, working 25 hours a week and totaling somewhere around 3,800 hours for the whole project. He had no blueprints to go by, so he spent a lot of time watching the movie over and over to get everything just right. The video below shows some of the construction; skip to about the one minute mark to see WALL-E in action.
If you played with K'Nex as a kid (or still do), you know that it can take a lot of those tiny little pieces to build something. Just imagine how many it must have taken to make this full-sized, fully functional, coin-operated skeeball machine with a mechanical score counter. Instructables user Shadowman39 (aka Kyle) spent an entire year building this masterpiece. It's the same size as the ones you see in arcades, and it's coin operated, too. But don't try to feed it your pennies, it knows th...
In a survival situation, one of the most vital pieces of gear you can have is a fire starting kit. If you aren't adept at starting fire and want to be prepared for a disaster, watch this video for a guide to assembling a basic waterproof fire starting kit that will start a fire for you in a wide variety of survival situations.
Wanting to start seeds indoors? From Growing Wisdom, learn from Dave about some great tips on starting seeds indoors. Get that garden started, and started right with help from this video.
