Awesome Tech

The BANG!CASE’s best feature is nearly upstaged by its outlandish visual flourish. It has a shortcut button similar to the iPhone 15 Pro’s Action button, except it also works with the iPhone 14 Pro and 14 Pro Max. It lets you have quick access to up to three shortcuts or iOS settings at once, thanks to its single-tap, double-tap, and long-press options.

The loud and long-lasting Bluetooth speaker is now in its fourth generation. The Soundboks 4 maxes out at a brain melting 126dB, is rated IP65 for water and dust resistance, and lasts up to 40 hours per charge. Its bass has been turned up even more, while still retaining clarity at max volume. It also has a new grill that snaps off for easy customization.

There are lots of awful things that happen in the wasteland of Fallout, but it’s the gigantic mutant cockroaches that freak us out the most. With some sponsorship bucks from Prime Video, The Hacksmith set out to create a life-size robotic Radroach. Or five. Two of the remote-controlled creepy crawlers roll on wheels, and they’re all filled with nasty green goo.

The Insta360 X4 dual-lens action camera can take 360° videos at up to 8K at 30fps. Combine this with all of its user-friendly features, such as the selfie stick remover, image stabilization, and HDR mode, and you get a truly versatile outdoor shooter. It can also act as a 4K camera that can capture angles you simply cannot take on single lens cameras.

Robotics company Boston Dynamics just bid farewell to its oddly lovable ATLAS robot, only to reveal a new, more capable version of their humanoid droid. The new ATLAS can stand itself up from lying down and spin its arms, legs, and head around like some possessed demon. It’s awe-inspiring tech but also nightmare fuel.

Luma AI’s mobile app makes it easy to capture spatial 3D models of objects and even landscapes using your smartphone. You can share or embed the scan as a 3D video or export it as a 3D object. It’s fairly low-fidelity at the moment, but it’s enough to be useful. You can check out user-created 3D videos on Luma AI’s website.

Beaverlab’s digital telephoto camera has a 400mm lens and can shoot distant objects at 36x optical/200x digital magnification. Its 48mp sensor can capture craters on the moon and animals in motion. It works with a smartphone app for monitoring and tweaking your shots. It can also capture 4K video and HDR. There’s also a 40mm version for closer subjects.

Generative AI can be used for good or evil. In the case of Adobe Premiere Pro, we’re excited about the potential of its AI tools to improve video editing workflows with the ability to add or remove objects with just a couple of clicks and extend scenes if they don’t fit your timeline. They also are testing integration with models like Sora AI to generate entire scenes.

A faction of the computer graphic Demoscene prides itself on creating visuals with the least code possible. Programmer Alcatraz turned up at the Revision 2024 demo party with this surreal scene – a post-apocalyptic black-and-white city created with just 256 bytes of Gopher code running on DOS. Revision posted some competing 256-byte demos here.

Bluetti’s portable AC240 is a 2400W power pack with an IP65 rating for water and dust resistance. That protection includes its power outlets. Speaking of which, it has three AC sockets, two DC ports, and four USB charging ports. It also acts as a UPS, kicking in within 15ms of a power outage. Multiple units can be connected to store more power.

Logitech’s Pro X 60 may be marketed to competitive gamers, but this 60% keyboard has some genuinely practical features. It has an easy-to-reach volume dial on the side, factory-lubed optical switches, and a battery that lasts up to 65 hours per charge when connected via the 2.4 GHz wireless dongle. It comes with either tactile or linear switches.

In its default mode, LG’s 32GS95UE is a premium OLED gaming monitor. 4K and a 240Hz refresh rate is more than enough for daily use and for most games. But it’s also got you covered if you’re into shooters and other fast-paced games, thanks to its ability to switch to a 1080p 480Hz display at the press of a button. See it in action in Optimum’s video.

Switzerland’s I’m Back teamed up with Yashica to create “the smallest mirrorless camera ever invented.” The ultra-compact digital camera fits in the palm of your hand and offers interchangeable lenses. It packs a 1/2.33 inch Sony IMX117 12-megapixel sensor that can also shoot 4K video, a flip-out 2-inch display, an HDMI output, and a flash hot shoe.

Mangazi Music has an awesome way of showing off his guitar-playing skills: the neck of his electric guitar shows lyrics and animations in sync with his performance. It appears that he uses a green screen and motion tracking to superimpose perfectly timed graphics onto the guitar, and the results are impressive.

This 5.5-foot-tall glass clock from Urwerk and Nixie expert Dalibor Farny contains eight large Nixie tubes and a total of 1445 parts. In addition to displaying the time and date, it can show how many kilometers the Earth has revolved around the Sun on a given day or year-to-date. Just 33 clocks will be produced, with a retail price of 55,000 CHF (~ USD 60,700).

The A1 Thanos from FroggysFogFluid and TopCat is a portable fog machine built to look like a blaster gun. The high-output fogger uses theatrical fog fluid and runs on rechargeable batteries. It looks fantastic with that LED lighting, though at 31 pounds, it’s not the easiest thing to carry around on stage.

Don’t just leave your good headphones lying on your desk. Put them in a place of honor with this handcrafted headphone stand from Oakywood. It features a faceted geometric wood base and a sturdy painted steel holder. Plus, its base has a built-in wireless phone charger with 15-watt fast charging. Choose from oak, walnut, or black-stained oak.

This might look like abstract art, but it’s based entirely on data from Wikipedia. Developer adumb wrote code to graph the relationships between content on the crowdsourced encyclopedia. The image maps over 6.3 million Wikipedia articles and 195 million links between them. adumb explains some interesting things he observed along the way.

Customizing is the point of modern mechanical keyboards. But Wired In’s Protagonist takes it to a different level. This 60% keyboard has a swappable hybrid faceplate and case top called a keyframe. Not only does the keyframe come in a ton of colors and material options, it also comes in Winkey, Winkeyless and HHKB layouts.

This versatile laptop sleeve transforms into a desktop work pad once you pull out your computer. Its smooth synthetic leather surface makes a great mouse pad, while its side flap has dual wireless charging pads – one for a phone and one for AirPods. It comes in black or dove grey in 13-14″ or 15-16″ sizes.

Samsung made a little brother for the Frame TV. Behind the Music Frame’s 8″ x 10″ photo holder is a surprisingly punchy Dolby Atmos speaker. It has two tweeters, two mid-range drivers, and two subwoofers. It can stream music from most services including Spotify and Chromecast, as well as via Bluetooth.

There are plenty of headphones tuned for pop and dance music, but Heavys H1H wireless headphones are engineered for listening to heavy metal and rock music. Their big cans pack eight drivers for exceptional frequency response and “Hell Blocker” active noise cancellation. Dress them up with artist shells to celebrate your favorite musicians.

Artist Herschel Shapiro makes amazing geometric wall art. He starts by 3D printing petal-like shapes from sustainably sourced bioplastic, then sands and paints each piece to produce color gradients before attaching them. The sculptures are available for purchase on the artist’s Etsy shop in various patterns and colors. His limited-edition Maelstrom is our fave.