The Axis Vidius is a quadcopter that fits in the palm of your hand — it's roughly 1.5 inches square — yet it's able to livestream and record video in 420p. Axis says its Vidius model is the smallest-ever camera-equipped drone, and it's so tiny that…
Technical
Researchers use the Force (in an Apple Watch) to fly a drone
Taiwanese tech researchers at PVD+ created an app for the Apple Watch that remotely controls a drone with arm movements, briefly turning pilots into Jedi. Reuters caught the motion-controlled drone in action and you can check it out in the video belo…
‘Final Fantasy XV’ hits the road in 2016
Final Fantasy XV has been in development for what seems like an eternity. But being New Year's Eve (or Day, depending on where you live), changes are afoot: Final Fantasy XV and its all-dude bro'd-trip will release in 2016. The news comes by way of a…
’46 years’ Facebook glitch is a New Year’s gift from Unix
Don't worry, you're not living out a 13 Going on 30 scenario — you're only "celebrating" 46 years of Facebook friendship with someone right now because of a glitch. A Unix-based glitch, that is. (That said, sorry to burst your bubble if you woke up…
Microsoft will warn users targeted by government hackers
Microsoft promises to notify its users if it believes that the government's targeting their account. In its announcement post, the company says it already notifies subscribers if an unauthorized person's trying to access their Outlook email and OneDr…
Theranos blood test tech supposedly went unchecked for years
The saga of startup lab Theranos continues to get increasingly complicated. The firm, known for its proprietary tests that only need a finger-prick's worth of blood for analysis, has recently faced accusations that its technology was faulty and inacc…
Yeah, there’s another rumor about Apple and an OLED iPhone
It's the rumor that simply won't die: Apple will use OLED screens in a future round of iPhones. The latest report comes via Reuters citing unnamed sources from South Korea's Electronic Times (Korean). Also cited was last month's report from Nikkei th…
Derby the dog gets better 3D-printed paw prosthetics
Derby, the dog with 3D-printed legs, can walk straight and sit like any other pooch now, thanks to a new set of prosthetics. If you recall, South Carolina company 3D Systems created his initial pair to be close to the ground so he could get used to t…
Marines send its ‘AlphaDog’ robot to the farm
The Legged Squad Support System (LS3, or AlphaDog) won't be part of the near-future Marine corps. Following years of development and improvements through DARPA and Boston Dynamics, the robot was deemed too loud and difficult for deployment. The robo…
Samsung has an all-in-one health chip for wearables
Samsung's already wide product family is getting even bigger thanks to its new chip dubbed the "Samsung Bio-Processor." As the company tells it, it's already in mass production and is "specifically designed to allow accelerated development of innovat…
Virtual art gallery mimics and defies reality
Digital artists don't typically have many choices for where they can exhibit their work: they either have to ground their pieces in the real world or else put it in a fantastical virtual space that may be a little too strange. Cameron Buckley and Da…
Homemade laser lightsaber is as risky as it looks
It's clear that there are a lot of Star Wars fans these days, but one of them just took that adoration to a decidedly geeky new level. Styropyro (he of laser shotgun fame) has built a lightsaber using a heavily upgraded 7W blue laser — it's several…
Pluto gets rainbow-hued in NASA’s latest images
Pluto may have been imaged six ways from Sunday, but it's clear that the New Horizons probe still has a few surprises up its sleeve. NASA has posted both a photo and a video showing how the spacecraft can produce vibrant colors from the seemingly dr…
Columbia House hopes you’ll come back for vinyl records
To put it mildly, Columbia House has seen better days. The mail-order service went bankrupt this summer, and it's hard to see the allure of regularly buying movie discs when downloads and streaming are within easy reach. The company thinks it has a…
Samsung execs said to blame struggles on lack of software expertise
It would be unfair to say that Samsung alone is struggling in mobile: There's evidence that the smartphone industry in general is suffering a slowdown. That said, despite being a huge name in tech, the Korean giant has certainly seen its share of cha…