Nerdly News Curated from Interesting Sites
It is easy to cobble together projects these days. ICs make it simple and microcontrollers even easier. However, we always respect a project that really goes from concept to finished product and that’s what we liked about [Curt Yengst’s] “THAT” Thing microphone preamp.
In part 1 of his post about …read more
With the rise of affordable 3D printers, we just don’t see the projects in Tic Tac boxes that we used to. That’s kind of a shame. Not only are you upcycling existing plastic when you use one, they’re decently sized component vessels for pocket builds such as [rgco]’s portable magnetometer, …read more
Laptops are great when it comes to getting work done on the move, but sometimes you need a better and more responsive keyboard in order to get your work done away from your desktop. Here are six top-rated Bluetooth keyboards that will help you power through your tasks both at the office or while youre traveling.
1. Gotek Voyage Ergonomic Bluetooth Keyboard
MSRP: $89 | Sale Price: $72 (19% off)
Get your work done faster and more efficiently with this V-shaped keyboard that offers Bluetooth connectivity, an ergonomic 166-degree typing angle, and a stand that supports devices with screen sizes of up to thirteen inches.
2. Gotek Slim Wireless Keyboard
MSRP: $49 | Sale Price: $40 (18% off)
This wireless keyboard features a full QWERTY layout, function keys, and a battery that can last for up to 100 hours on a single chargemaking it ideal for frequent travelers and commuters.
3. Foldable Bluetooth Keyboard with Built-In Stand
MSRP: $79 | Sale Price: $63 (20% off)
This ultra-thin and lightweight keyboard makes for the perfect travel companion, thanks to its compact design and a built-in stand that makes it easy to attach a wide range of devices.
4. Gotype Rollable Keyboard with Bluetooth Speaker
MSRP: $99 | Sale Price: $75 (24% off)
Type more accurately and enjoy music on the go with this portable roll-up keyboard. Youll be able to use it with both Apple and Android devices, and theres a built-in stand along with an HD Bluetooth speaker that offers a rich bass along with crystal-clear highs. Read the rest
JustAnotherOldGuy writes: Count GE in on the “screw your customers” bandwagon. Twitter user @ShaneMorris tweeted: “My fridge has an RFID chip in the water filter, which means the generic water filter I ordered for $19 doesn’t work. My fridge will literally not dispense ice, or water. I have to pay General Electric $55 for a water filter from them.” Fortunately, there appears to be a way to hack them to work: How to Hack RWPFE Water Filters for Your GE Fridge. Hacks aside, count me out from ever buying another GE product if it includes anti-customer “features” like these. “The difference between RWPF and RPWFE is that the RPWFE has a freaking RFID chip on it,” writes Jack Busch from groovyPost. “The fridge reads the RFID chip off your filter, and if your filter is either older than 6 months or not a genuine GE RPWFE filter, it’s all ‘I’m sorry, Dave, I’m afraid I can’t dispense any water for you right now.’ Now, to be fair, GE does give you a bypass cartridge that lets you get unfiltered water for free (you didn’t throw that thing away, did you?). But come on…”
Jack proceeds to explain how you can pop off the filter bypass and “try taping the thing directly into your fridge where it would normally meet up when the filter is install.” If you’re able to get it in just the right spot, “you’re set for life,” says Jack. Alternatively, “you can tape it onto the front of an expired RPWFE GE water filter, install it backward, and then keep using it (again, not recommended for too much longer than six months). Or, you can tape it to the corresponding spot on a generic filter and reinstall it.”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Two years after Vine’s co-founder Dom Hofmann announced he was building a successor to the short-form video app, today Byte makes its debut on iOS and Android. Byte lets you shoot or upload and then share six-second videos. It comes equipped with standard social features like a feed, Explore page, notifications, and profiles. For now, […]
Kevin Kelly and I interviewed our friend Jane Metcalfe for the Cool Tools podcast. Jane is the founder of NEO.LIFE, a media and events company tracking how digital tools and an engineering mindset are transforming human biology. Prior to that, she made chocolate on a pier in San Francisco at TCHO Chocolate. Jane is probably best known as the cofounder of Wired magazine.
The Kickstarter campaign for her new book “Neo.Life: 25 Visions for the Future of Our Species” is now live.
Subscribe to the Cool Tools Show on iTunes | RSS | Transcript | See all the Cool Tools Show posts on a single page
Show notes:
Offi Mag Table ($249)
I love bent plywood! I also love magazines, so this bent plywood magazine holder/side table designed by Eric Pfieffer is a total winner. There is something just so satisfying about seeing a sweep of beautiful wood flow down into a curve and splash back up the other side. And that’s not all. The table makes a perfect companion to your LazyBoy recliner for Sunday afternoon reading delight. But, you can also turn it on its end and use it as a makeshift work surface, which is great when a colleague has to come be in the video conference but also wants desk space to take notes. It’s so good looking I used it this week on stage for an event we produced.
Souk Shopper Basket by Bohemia
I used to find shopping at farmers markets physically taxing mostly because I get excited and buy way more than I can carry, always. Read the rest
A few years ago, [Wayne] managed to blow out the main board of his Flashforge Finder attempting to change the fan. He could have just fixed it of course, but where’s the fun in that? Instead, he’s used its mechanical components and a Raspberry Pi to create an impressive scanning …read more
If a thousand companies make their own smart light bulb, do a thousand companies also have to design a light switch app to control them? Kraftful, a company out of Y Combinator’s Summer 2019 class, doesn’t think so. Kraftful builds the myriad components that an IoT/smart home company might need, puzzle piecing them together into […]
The life of an entrepreneur is rarely easy, regardless of whether youre running Google or have yet to get your first idea off the ground. So why not make your life easier with a lifetime subscription to Zuitte 50+ Tools for Entrepreneurs while its over 90% off?
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Its also easy to automate your social media platforms and schedule future postsallowing you to maximize performance and enhance your marketing campaigns.
Streamline your business management and promotion with a lifetime subscription to Zuitte 50+ Tools for Entrepreneurs for just $199.
Prices are subject to change.
You can’t beat free! Get $70+ worth of premium Mac apps for free today! Read the rest
I like almost everything OXO makes. This OXO Good Grips Silicone Sink Strainer ( on Amazon) was a welcome replacement for the wire mesh one we had, because some of the wires had broken. Those little protruding wires hurt when they poke your finger. The OXO strainer is made of soft silicone and that won’t hurt you. To clean the collect food debris, just pop the cup inside out in the trash. One reviewer on Amazon said it is still in good condition after four years of use. I’ve had mine since 2016 and it is working perfectly.
The Yoto Player, a connected speaker for kids, has more in common with old-school cassette players than smart speakers like Amazon Echo or Google Home devices. It deliberately doesnt have a microphone, camera, or a screen its really just designed to play audio, but through NFC-enabled physical cards. Inspired by Montessori teachings that emphasize tactile learning and encourage kids to have a level of independence, the cards are loaded with songs, audiobooks, and podcasts to let kids choose what they want to listen to. It was created by two parents who wanted to minimize screen time for their kids compare to Bluetooth speakers that need to be paired with a phone and after a successful Kickstarter run with its first version, Yoto…
Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge
So youre the owner of a brand-new Fitbit Versa or Ionic smartwatch. Congratulations!
If youve never used a smartwatch before, you may be (understandably) overwhelmed. If you swipe left from the home screen, youll see that there are dozens of different things to click on: Spotify, Wallet, Weather, and more.
But those apps are only a fraction of what Fitbit has to offer. There are hundreds of third-party apps available for your smartwatch, which you can use to really make it your own. Fitness enthusiasts, for example, can download any number of apps tailored to their workout needs: Strava for runners, MySwimPro for swimmers, Mindbody for yoga, or FitStar for personal training. Meanwhile, smart home enthusiasts can load Alexa, Nest,…
The Daily Crunch is TechCrunch’s roundup of our biggest and most important stories. If you’d like to get this delivered to your inbox every day at around 9am Pacific, you can subscribe here. 1. Goldman Sachs says it wont take startups public without at least one diverse director; it should go further CEO David Solomon told […]
Photo by Natt Garun / The Verge
Fitbit is probably one of the best-known brands of smartwatches / fitness trackers next to the Apple Watch, and its range of wearables offers something for every kind of health enthusiast. If you want to get started with a fitness band that wont over-extend your budget, Fitbit has a large selection thats especially well-suited for those who are new to wearables.
In fact, Fitbit offers a variety of fitness bands in various form factors: theres the Versa 2, Versa Lite, Ionic, Charge 3 (and a special edition version with Fitbit Pay), Inspire, Inspire HR, and Ace 2, which are all designed for different lifestyles and age groups. So depending on whether youre looking to start walking a little more each day or diligently track your workout…
How much is too much too early? What amount of capital raise is typical for comparable peers? How capital-efficient are the best-in-class companies?
LISTEN: ‘Heavyweight Reggae.’ Yep, the name is right, and the channel delivers.
My old pal Rusty Hodge from SomaFM, a longtime independent internet hero and early blogger and NASA space shuttle fanatic — such a cool guy! — ah, focus, Xeni!
Okay, so Rusty and SomaFM just launched an awesome new SomaFM internet radio channel dedicated to the classic roots of reggae.
Heavyweight Reggae.
It is SO GREAT.
I’m a GenXer, and when I was first getting turned on to reggae in the mid-1980s, this is what it sounded like. I am so grateful this channel exists.
Here’s the blurb Rusty sent around when they turned it on.
I’m going to keep this radio channel locked all weekend.
Welcome to SomaFM’s newest channel, Heavyweight Reggae. Reggae, Dub, Ska, Rocksteady hosted by DJ Dion “The Watts” Garcia, the genius behind 7″ Soul.https://t.co/9GC0KG1RKp main page, web player: https://t.co/cXKKsTPIXeor search for “Heavyweight Reggae” in most radio apps. pic.twitter.com/kC6J3t3is8
— SomaFM Radio (@somafm) January 17, 2020
SomaFM
Jan 17, 2020, 2:19 PM (7 days ago)
I’m really excited to announce our first new channel of a new decade:
Heavyweight Reggae: Reggae, Dub, Ska and Rocksteady
Your music director and host is DJ Dion “The Watts” Garcia, the genius behind 7″ Soul.
When Dion and I first discussed a reggae channel over a year ago, he suggested a format that “would cover Jamaican music of the 60s, 70s and early 80s, specifically, what I like to call Heavy Reggae.”
Hackaday editors Mike Szczys and Elliot Williams sort through the hacks you might have missed over the past seven days. In FPGA hacking news, there’s a ton of work being done on a newly discovered FPGA dev board. Kristina has a new column on input devices, kicking it off with …read more
Los Angeles’s Cannabis Cafe is the first restaurant in the United States that encourages its patrons to smoke weed inside. They sell cannabis products (including pre-packaged edibles) but none of the items on the menu are prepared with it. Based on Dave Holmes’s review in Esquire, quoted below, the Cannabis Cafe is certainly a high point in weed history. The bong vases are a very nice touch. From Esquire:
Once youre inside, it is impossible to detect the scent of skunk. The place is outfitted with a casino-grade air filtration system that whisks the smoke up, through a charcoal filter, and out into the West Hollywood skies. It works so well, in fact, that the Cannabis Cafe is the only place in Los Angeles that doesnt smell like weed. Its a comfy space, walls lined with living plants, a bit like the common area on Love Island. Its welcoming. Mellow. Of course….
All of the Cafes waiters are equipped to handle your bummers. As a bartender must train to learn the ABV of her beers and spot the signs of intoxication, the staff here learns the potency of all the Cafes products and how to deal with someone whos spiraling. (The secret, I am told, is a cold towel and a glass of orange juice)…
You get two different menus, one for food and one for weed. We dive into the latter first at our table: my boyfriend and me, plus another couple wed been long overdue for a dinner with.
This is what happens when you pretend the Pauli Exclusion Principle doesn’t apply to you.
Image: LiveLeak screengrab Read the rest
Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge
The Beats Solo Pro are $50 off at Best Buy, taking the price down to $249.99. This matches the lowest price weve seen yet. And to our knowledge, this is only the second time theyve been discounted. If you havent read our review, these are the best Beats headphones yet, according to The Verges Chris Welch, with a noise cancellation effect and sound quality that are inarguably great.
Those gifted with large noggins, be warned: you might find that these on-ear headphones clamp down too hard on your ears. Another warning, this time for people with heads of all sizes, is that these charge via Apples Lightning connector, not USB-C. Best Buys deal includes several colors, and you have through Monday, January 27th, to take advantage of…