DIY drones: don't confuse homemade UAVs with military killing machines

DIY drones: taking off as a hobby. Photograph: kerolic/Flickr "It was always a dream to build one, after having built helicopters in my bedroom for a while. I mostly like flying for fun, seeing whether I can get the device to auto-stabilise. As opposed to a plane or helicopter, you don't need a lot of knowledge to control them. They fly themselves. Something like this – you can put in a backpack and carry it with you." Electronic circuit designer Matt Lloyd is talking about building his first quadcopter, a type of drone popular with the growing number of DIY drone makers in the UK. He's not alone. Hobbyists with backgrounds in electronics and robotics are kitting out home-built drones with expensive cameras for activities as...

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Razer Blade is thinnest gaming notebook

Whenever someone throws out a superlative word, you cannot help but wonder just how the heck did they arrive at such a conclusion. Was the label warranted just because of some in-house tests, or has it been independently verified? That is the big question that we have concerning the Razer Blade, but since Razer has been pretty much a reliable company for the longest time in the world of gaming, it goes without saying that to see Razer slap on the label of “The World’s Thinnest Gaming Notebook” on the Razer Blade is a trustworthy saying. In fact, the Razer Blade comes across as thinner than a dime, sporting a 14” HD+ display, running on a quad-core Intel Core i7 processor, alongside NVIDIA GTX 765M as the graphics card of choi...

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Outdoor Tech rolls out Tuis premium headphone

Have you heard of Outdoor Tech before? Just in case the name sounds familiar to you, that is because this is the very same outdoor designer brand which brought you the Turtle Shell rugged wireless boom box, and this time around, Outdoor Tech is raring to go with the Tuis premium headphone that is actually part of Outdoor Tech’s growing wireless assortment. The Tuis is no slouch when it comes to capabilities, where it will boast of a host of convenient and well-designed features, where among them include integrated music/call controls, a rechargeable lithium-ion battery that is capable of going on for a good 16 hours of play time and 19 hours of talk time, in addition to premium Hi-Fi sound quality, of course. After all, isn’t that why you...

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Tuggit Pullbulb

Ah, lighting solutions in the home could prove to be something that you might want to look into if home improvement is your hobby. After all, the usual array of bulbs and lamps won’t make the cut these days if you want to stand out from the rest, so it makes perfect sense if you want something else that is unconventional, such as the $19.99 Tuggit Pullbulb. Yes sir, by the name itself, you can more or less figure out the direction of where the Tuggit Pullbulb is going. The Tuggit Pullbulb is a battery-powered LED lightbulb (now that ought to get those pesky Greenpeace activists off your back for siding with the environment) which has been attached to a 4-foot long nylon rope. Turning it on and off is as simple as giving it a tug. Should...

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Star Wars Large Darth Vader Glitter Light

Assuming the Dark Lord of the Sith is one mean character who is just less forgiving than the Emperor himself, it would still be out of character to see Darth Vader’s room sport the £19.95 Star Wars Large Darth Vader Glitter Light. After all, this is a pretty self descriptive device, where it was specially designed to imitate the dreaded lightsaber, a weapon of choice for Jedis as well as Sith alike during times when folks were more civilized. Of course, you will not find some sort of mystic crystals powering the Star Wars Large Darth Vader Glitter Light, but rather, good old electricity that has coursed through the wire to power it up. It will definitely have a far lower energy cost compared to the Death Star, and your little one...

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SETA smartphone

What are some of the modern day innovations that you think will stand the test of time? The car is definitely one of them, as we all know that it is rather difficult to get around without any form of wheels. I would like to think that when it comes to mobile devices, the smartphone would also eventually end up to be an indispensable tool of everyday life. Well, if that were to be the case, you might want to be at the forefront of the action with the introduction of SETA, a smartphone stand that was specially designed to be the “last stand” that you will ever need. It was manufactured to perform a whole lot better compared to other traditional phone stands or docks, as SETA will suspend smartphones at what is deemed to be the perfect viewing...

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One of Steve Jobs' earliest computers - Apple 1 - bought for a record £441,000

One of Steve Jobs' first Apple computers has sold at auction for a record €516,000 (£441,000). An anonymous Asian buyer snapped up the digital antique, which Jobs built in a family garage with Steve Wozniak, Apple’s hardware-hacking engineer. There remain 46 examples of the 37-year-old Apple 1 model, which boasts a keyboard set in wood. Last November one of those was sold for $640,000 (£420,000) at Cologne’s Breker auction house, the site of the most recent sale. The sum surpassed a previous record of $374,000 set at Sotheby’s in New York five months earlier. Uwe Breker, who runs the German auction house which specialises in vintage toys and office equipment, did not disclose the seller, only revealing that it was a young American...

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Satechi 7-Port USB 3.0 Aluminum Hub

Satechi 7-Port USB 3.0 Aluminum Hub by Edwin - on June 1st, 2013 Throughout my relatively short life, there is one lesson that I have learnt – never argue with a lady whenever she is mulling over whether to pick up that particular pair of shoes or handbag, never mind that she already has umpteenth pair of shoes and countless handbags back home. Assuming you are a geek, you might want to take your “revenge”, so to speak, in a more subtle manner by telling here that when it comes to gadgets, there are just certain items on your list that you will never compromise in not purchasing those – and one of them would definitely be a USB hub. After all, you can never have enough USB ports lying around to plug in your ever growing collection...

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HTC One

 $343.00(Lowest Price) With its stellar design, great camera, and hardy processor, the HTC One is the phone to beat. HTC knows how to make good-looking hardware. I loved the white ceramic body of the HTC One X and Nokia could learn a thing or two about making Windows phones by taking a closer look at the HTC Windows Phone 8X. The company’s latest offering, the HTC One, is a paragon of industrial design: Its chiseled chamfers, rounded edges, and chrome accents are sure to turn more than a few heads when you whip out the phone in public. But the One is more than just a pretty face: HTC packed a lot of power under the phone’s hood, and the handset’s camera benefits from numerous software and hardware tweaks that should excite...

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Ancient Egyptian jewellery carved from a meteorite

THINK iron jewellery is down-to-earth? Not for the ancient Egyptians, it wasn't. A 5300-year-old necklace bead found in an Egyptian tomb was made with iron from a meteorite.img alt=" (Image: Andy Tindle/Open University)" src="http://www.newscientist.com/data/images/ns/cms/mg21829195.500/mg21829195.500-1_300.jpg" style="background-color: transparent;"> Evidence for iron smelting in Egypt dates back to the 6th century BC, but archaeologists have found much older iron artefacts in the region, including in Tutankhamun's tomb. Such artefacts are "pretty much exclusive to high-status tombs", says Diane Johnson of the Open University in Milton Keynes, UK. Previous analyses of the oldest of these – nine iron beads from a cemetery near...

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Skylab: The trailblazing outpost in space

Forty years on from Skylab's launch, we look back at how the space station taught us much about how humans perform in orbit and how to design future craft A true pioneer (Image: NASA) Life on the International Space Station is luxurious. Its living accommodation is spacious, with two bathrooms, two toilets and a gym. There's also Wi-Fi, DVDs, musical instruments, even fresh fruit on a good day. Some occupants even have enough leisure time to film themselves performing David Bowie tunes. The first US space station was rather more basic. Forty years ago this month,Skylab took off aboard a Saturn V rocket from the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida. It was a bridging mission by NASA, intended to fill the gap between the Apollo...

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