Author: Kyle VanHemert

Heartwarming: An elderly actor used the internet to recreate the Manhattan apartment he lived in as a youngster, item by item. Not so heartwarming: it was a stunt by the Swedish Postal Service to familiarize old people with e-commerce. More »

Though the championship match isn’t slated for a few more hours—we’ll be back with full coverage when it does—the division finals for the student-built robotics extravaganza are now streaming live from the Georgia Dome in Atlanta. These are the elimination matches, so there are sure to be some robot tears shed. Tune in to see America’s young engineers doing battle here. More »

Outside of the U.S., soccer is taken quite seriously. So seriously, it turns out, that members of England’s national team will soon sleep in oxygen-deprivation tents to prepare for their high-altitude matches at the upcoming World Cup in South Africa. More »

If a rugged cam is only as good as the places you can mount it, then the X170 Action Camera, which can be strapped to heads, latched to handlebars, and velcroed just about anywhere else, must be pretty damn good. More »

The great thing about cloud computing is that no matter where you are, your files are just there. It turns out they’re just there for law enforcement, too, as two Google Docs-using spammers recently found out. More »

Tomorrow, squads of rough and tumble robots will face off in an elaborate competition involving hard-hitting soccer in a robo-ready jungle gym arena. The craziest part: all the bots are built by high school students. More »

The internet’s newest, scariest trojan virus doesn’t just destroy your computer, it destroys the esteem in which you’re held by your loved ones and colleagues, too! By publishing your browser history unless you pay a $15 ransom, that is. More »

LOFAR, a network of 44 stations of antennae spread across Europe, is only half complete, yet it’s already giving researchers unparalleled images of distant black holes. Soon it’ll be used by SETI to search for aliens on rarely-explored superlow frequencies. More »

This is a picture of Steve Roberts, the “high-tech nomad,” aboard his Winnebiko II in 1988. It couldn’t be a more perfect distillation of his mantra: “art without engineering is dreaming; engineering without art is calculating.” More »

It’s a familiar situation: you’re halfway out the door when you realize the gadget you just pocketed is utterly out of juice. The FreePlay ZipCharge battery can give you precious extra hours of life with a mere 60 second charge. More »

Mind-controlled toys are one of those little things that remind you we’re sort of living in the future today (also: Disney FastPass). If you have some brain/computer schemes of your own, here’s a thorough guide to hacking those toys. More »

Just when you were starting to get the hang of all those crazy multitouch gestures designed for your fingers, a group of German researchers wants to put your other extremities to work. Multitoe (really) takes touch-based computing down a level. More »

The pocket cam’s claim to fame is being “good enough.” The Flip SlideHD strives to be a little more, adding a sliding touchscreen for watching videos on the camera itself. That’s biting off more than it can, or should, chew. More »

Steve Jobs, personal email replier he is these days, responded to a message from a developer regarding this week’s SDK kerfuffle. His (characteristically brief) take: “intermediate layers between the platform and the developer ultimately produces sub-standard apps.” More »

A great democratizing technology, the internet is supposed to let everyone fulfill their unique, individual potential. But some internet experiences are eerily universal. Like the way we forget we’re not listening to music. Or the way we respond to typos. More »

Variety recently talked to Jeffrey Katzenberg, CEO of DreamWorks Animation, about the state of 3D film making. Katzenberg promptly released the Kraken on Clash of the Titans. Here’s why he thinks it could spell the end of 3D. More »

If imitation is the most sincere form of flattery, then this new interactive sign from IBM really, truly wants to get on your good side. It changes its appearance based on what the viewer is wearing. More »

I don’t know exactly what people are buying novelty spy cameras for these days, but I guess babysitter surveillance is as timeless a concern as any. Brando’s newest motion-activated spy gizmo takes the shape of a small luxury automobile. More »

The iPad, like Steve Jobs himself, is confident in its vision and divisive because of it. Our friend Woody Allen Jang shot this beautiful video of the iPad and some of the formative experiences of the man who created it. More »

For many touch screen applications, fingers are your best bet. For others, the precision of a stylus is required. Microsoft shows how using both in conjunction might be the best option of all, delivering users to digital scrapbook nirvana. More »