Technology

The winners of the sixth annual Minimalist Photography Awards have been announced. These stunning images span 12 categories that capture the beauty, wonder and mystery of simplicity. Enjoy a selection of our favorites!

Though smartphone cameras can snap stunning images, most pros will haul a dedicated camera to assignments. Space inside camera bags is at a premium, but a nifty lens from Samyang could lighten the load by allowing optical elements to be swapped out.

The Centenary Institute has announced the winner of its When Art Meets Science competition, showcasing the intersection between ground-breaking medical research and stunning images. But you can cast your vote for the best image in the People’s Choice Awards.

Scaled Composites' Model 437 Vanguard Loyal Wingman prototype has taken to the air for the first time. On August 29, 2024, the aircraft took off from Mojave Air and Space Port in California with test pilot Brian Maisler at the controls.

The US Air Force has released video of a ship getting ripped in half, to demonstrate its new Quicksink weapon, which turns an inexpensive dumb bomb into a precision anti-ship missile – and lives up to its name in spectacular fashion.

Nobody wants to go anywhere near chemical or biological weapons, so the US Army is testing a robotic Autonomous Equipment Decontamination System that can decontaminate military vehicles exposed to such nastiness without putting soldiers at risk.

We were mighty impressed by the reMarkarble 2 e-note tablet for our review in 2020, but the E Ink world has been moving to color in the years since. Now the Norwegian company has joined the productivity party with the 11.8-inch Paper Pro.

While E Ink readers and tablets are great for long-battery, eye-friendly consumption of text in grayscale, color performance can be somewhat disappointing. Taiwan's Hannspree has introduced a paper-like e-note that aims to do better.

Viwoods has cooked AI smarts into its 10-inch e-note tablet to help users get the most from ePaper productivity on the go. Voice interaction is available, the AI can summarize blocks of text or take meeting minutes, and can even correct grammar.

If you're looking to enter the drone market without needing a pilot license or even knowing how to actually fly a drone, DJI now has a palm-sized, inexpensive, simple, yet incredibly capable drone for you that doesn't even require a controller.

ZeroZero Robotics' HOVERAir X1 Pro and X1 ProMax are set to become the standard in prosumer camera drones. Both models pack a truly impressive list of features into a small package that starts at less than $500.

Following successful trials last year at a UK wind farm, Denmark's Ørsted has now put heavy lift drones to work at a 94-turbine offshore wind farm in the North Sea – completing resupply missions up to 15 times faster while also reducing costs.

XGIMI has announced the launch of the next generation of its Aura ultra-short-throw 4K laser projector. The Aura 2 boasts a new light engine, can throw 100-inch visuals from just 7 inches away, and sports a nifty dust cover to protect the optics.

The budget-friendly projector company that successfully crowdfunded a phone-sized movie thrower in 2022 has landed at IFA 2024 to launch the flagship K3 Pro. The smart entertainment hub features Google TV and a sound system with satisfying low end.

Europe's biggest consumer tech show is just around the corner, and Dangbei is flying in to launch its first ultra-portable projector. The Freedo is a lot like Samsung's Freestyle model, but with one important difference.

Upgrading your computer on a budget doesn’t mean you have to compromise functionality. If you want to boost your productivity and get more out of your machine, consider two key upgrades: Microsoft Office Professional 2021 and Windows 11 Pro.

TL;DR: Replace your cloud storage subscription with a 512GB USB-A/USB-C flash drive for $47.99.

TL;DR: Get lifetime access to Rosetta Stone and 1,000+ courses on StackSkills Unlimited for $179.97.

The 3D printing of certain items could soon get a lot faster, simpler and more eco-friendly. That's because scientists have developed a new 3D printing ink which is easily extruded as a liquid, then solidifies on contact with a saltwater solution.

A recently developed system could revolutionize the world of 3D printing, by streamlining the adoption of new print media. Such materials could include ones made from all-renewable ingredients, or that are more recyclable than current options.

Scientists have developed a new "ink" that allows objects to be 3D-printed out of wood. The material could reduce the amount of wood that gets wasted in the manufacturing of various products, plus it could utilize existing wood waste.

The brain-machine interface race is on. While Elon Musk's Neuralink has garnered most of the headlines in this field, a new small and thin chip out of Switzerland makes it look downright clunky by comparison. It also works impressively well.

You may have seen this video doing the rounds; it peers through the lens of a microscope at a smartphone chip and starts zooming in, giving you a visceral sense of just how insanely tiny today's transistors have become.

AI may not be the dire existential threat that many make it out to be. According to a new study, Large Language Models (LLMs) can only follow instructions, can't develop new skills on their own and are inherently "controllable, predictable and safe."

Back in 1970, Sega introduced an arcade game that would pave the way for many of today's most popular video games. Known as Jet Rocket, the electromechanical marvel boasted three world-firsts – even though most folks today don't know it ever existed.

Have you ever wondered what all 1,000+ Pokémon smell like? Because we have. With the news of a weird AI smell-o-vision device called GameScent, we’ve rounded up a list of which game worlds we’re most curious to get a whiff of – for better or worse.

Atari's first three video arcade games tell a fascinating story of rapid evolution: the first ("Computer Space" - 1971), the game it inspired ("Pong" - 1972) and the sequel to Pong ("Space Race" - 1973) which introduced the arcade world to the joystick.

The laptop is still evolving, with dual screens shown to increase productivity by 40-50%. The new AceMagic X1 has an ingenious spiral folding mechanism, that enables two screens side-by-side or back-to-back, enabling face-to-face screen sharing and enormous collaboration potential

Elecrow has launched an interesting project on Kickstarter that has the look of a 14-inch laptop but isn't. It essentially brings a notebook experience to connected phones, single-board computers and handheld gaming consoles.

Around this time last year, tech startup Sightful invited a thousand productivity pioneers to be the first to experience the Spacetop system, a laptop that uses AR glasses for a display. Now the updated and refined Gen 1 product has gone up for sale.

Fender's original Mustang Micro was an impressive little headphone amplifier for silent practice and recording – but the brand-new Plus version is a remarkable upgrade that puts a ludicrous range of tone options at your fingertips.

The humble capo has graced the gig bags of performing musicians for decades, clamping down to change the overall key of a guitar in a single, swift motion. Now, a new take on the capo opens up whole new musical worlds of alternate tunings.

Join us on a trip through Fender's factory, Custom Shop, Master Builder department and head office, in celebration of a radically innovative instrument that continues to find new ways to move music forward, even seven decades after its launch.

Back in February, Norway's 1X showed off the progress it had made with its pick-and-place workplace humanoid, Eve. Now the OpenAI-backed company has released video footage of its latest prototype, a bipedal butlerbot named Neo Beta.

Autonomous vehicles are said to be safer than human drivers – but would you trust a mushroom behind the wheel? A new kind of “biohybrid” robot moves in response to signals from the nervous system of a fungus.

A 45-story office tower in New York has become the first in the world to deploy the Ozmo automated window cleaning system, where a platform dangled from the roof is home to robots that spritz the glass 3x faster than human cleaning crews.

If you want a wearable to track workouts, runs, sleep and plenty more, then there's no shortage of devices to pick from – and after a couple of weeks of testing we can tell you that the Coros PACE 2 has a few features that might make you choose it.

Google has promised big improvements for its Wear OS wearable platform later this year, but in the meantime Mobvoi has launched a new device that could be the best value smartwatch on the market right now: the TicWatch E3.

Google's Wear OS platform could certainly use some more actual smartwatches to run on, and Casio has obliged with the GSW-H1000 – the first G-Shock smartwatch from the brand to come with Wear OS on board.

The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced on February 8th that robocalls made using AI-generated voices are illegal, effective immediately. The announcement gives law enforcement agencies greater powers to deal with scammers.

Ordinarily, in order to establish communications at disaster sites, rescuers have to transport and set up relatively bulky, costly satellite dishes. Soon, however, a simple tubular antenna made of woven strips of material may get the job done.

Everybody wants a faster internet connection, and now engineers in Japan have shattered the record for data transmission. The team managed to transmit more than 20 times the global internet traffic per second through a single optical fiber.

If you've ever looked at your wrist and wished that you had a Cold War momento on it that costs as much as a hypercar, Urwerk has your back with its EMC SR-71 watch that includes material from an SR-71 Blackbird supersonic spy-plane.

Vuzix has been augmenting our reality with headsets and glasses for years, and has now launched an Extreme variant of its already widely adopted M400 wearable that's destined for use in "the harshest workplace environments."

If you're looking for a weird watch, you'd be hard pressed to find anything more unique than the MS1001-Ti. Currently the subject of a Kickstarter campaign, it uses two auger-like screws to tell time.

Shoes with motorized wheels could revolutionize the manner in which gamers walk through VR worlds. Currently being developed by UK/US startup Freeaim, the clever kicks are essentially little wearable treadmills.

Realistic and immersive as VR gaming may be, it produces feelings of motion sickness in many people. The C-Infinity platform is claimed to keep that from happening, by better engaging the user's body in their avatar's actions.

There are now a number of gloves that deliver tactile sensations to VR users' fingertips when they touch virtual objects. The Phantom glove is unique, however, in that it doesn't cover the fingers, leaving them free for real-world interactions.