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Awesome tech you can’t buy yet: Water drones, fire-spewing speakers, and more

At any given moment, there are approximately a zillion crowdfunding campaigns on the web. Take a stroll through Kickstarter or Indiegogo and you’ll find no shortage of weird, useless, and downright stupid projects out there, alongside some real gems. In this column, we cut through the worthless wearables and Oculus Rift ripoffs to round up the week’s most unusual, ambitious, and exciting projects. But don’t grab your wallet just yet. Keep in mind that even the most well-intentioned crowdfunded project can fail. Do your homework before cutting a check for the gadget of your dreams.

Fireside Audiobox — Fire-spewing Bluetooth speaker

 

Bluetooth speakers are a dime a dozen these days. They come in practically every shape, size, and configuration at this point — but somehow, the Grey Street Design managed to end the monotony and make a speaker that stands out from the rest of the pack. The Fireside Audiobox, as it’s called, is essentially a speaker with a fire-based waveform visualizer on top that creates flames that dance in time with your music.

Here’s how it works: On top of the speaker, there’s a tube filled with propane. As sound moves through the gas, the waves create areas of high pressure and low pressure form at fixed points along the tube. This forces the propane gas to be expelled from the holes more quickly in some zones (generating a taller flame) and more slowly in others (creating a shorter flame) This effectively allows you to visualize the standing wave that’s created inside the tube. When you play a constant tone of, say 440 Hz (the musical note A), the flames will form a perfect sine wave. Adjusting the frequency of this tone will alter the shape of the wave accordingly, and playing a full song will cause the flames to dance and pulse with the music.

Read more here.

M3D Pro — Compact, affordable 3D printer

Remember the M3D Micro? The pint-sized 3D printer that took Kickstarter by storm back in 2014? Well this week M3D is back with a Pro version. As per user requests, the new-and-improved M3D printer features a range of advanced features and specs that were notably absent from the Micro. First and foremost, the Pro model is equipped with a tempered-glass heated bed, which improves adhesion and helps prevent warping, two things that the Original Micro tends to struggle with. The Pro also boasts a larger build envelope, and allows users to print objects up to 7.8 inches tall and 7.2 inches wide — a considerable improvement over the Micro’s 4.29 inches by 4.45 inches. And best of all, the new printer is much quicker than its predecessor, boasting a travel speed of up to 120 mm/s.

M3D also stuffed this device full of sensors and internal memory, which makes it more reliable than ever before. Thanks to these additions, the M3D Pro doesn’t need to stay plugged into your computer, and can also recover from print failures. If the power goes out, or your print stalls in the middle of a job due to a filament jam, the printer can pick up where it left off when you’re ready to start printing again.

Read more here.

Marty — Programmable robot for STEM education

Take a stroll through Kickstarter or Indiegogo on any day of the week and you’re basically guaranteed to encounter dozens upon dozens of toys and games designed to teach children how to code. They’re absolutely everhwhere these days — but Marty is arguably one of the best ones yet. He’s basically a mini walking robot that’s fully programmable, Wi-Fi enabled, and Raspberry Pi-compatible — designed with the sole intention of making programming, electronics, and mechanical engineering a fun and engaging process. On top of that, he’s also totally customizable and built from 3D-printed parts, which let you easily install custom upgrades and modifications.

“Marty is designed to bridge the gap between smart toys and a real robot,” creator Alexander Enoch told Digital Trends. “[He’s] a cute little robot that can be played with like any other toy, but which provides opportunities to get stuck in with real programming and engineering. It was really important to us that we made something that could really provide a journey to users — from starting off remote controlling, then using the graphical programming language Scratch, through commonly used languages like Python, and even up to some university-level stuff if you want to go that far.”

Read more here.

Estream — Portable hydroelectric power generator

Solar chargers are great for keeping your gadgets juiced up in the backcountry — but what happens when the sun goes down or a cloud front moves in? That’s where Enomad, a startup from South Korea, comes in. The company has built a hydropower device called the Estream, which is designed to convert running water into electricity that can charge your phone and other USB devices. Once submerged in running water, the device’s turbine rotates and generates electricity that gets stored in the Estream’s built-in 6,400mAh battery, which takes about 4.5 hours to fully charge.

According to the creators, a full battery should be able to charge up to three smartphones or action cameras. Estream claims that it’s able to charge devices twice as fast as a regular outlet thanks to a quick-charge function. Unlike solar chargers, it’s impractical to charge your device while the Estream is generating power, but being independent of sunlight means that you can leave it in a nearby stream overnight and wake up with a fully charged power bank.

Read more here.

Fathom One — Modular underwater drone

Dig the idea of exploring the bottom of the ocean, but don’t have the money or expertise to strap on a bunch of scuba gear and do it yourself? Well good news — the folks at Fathom have developed a new RC submarine that makes exploring the depths easy and accessible for pretty much anyone. The Fathom One, as it’s called, has a hydrodynamic design that’s incredibly efficient at flying through in the water in long, straight runs, yet still maneuverable enough to slide in between underwater rocks and crevices. It’s also modular and collapsible, so you can easily stuff it inside a backpack.

According to its creators, the Fathom drone is able to dive to a depth of 100 feet, and has a range of 100 feet from shore station, plus 100 feet of tether. The modular aspect of Fathom One is equally exciting. Not only does it make it easier to transport, since you can easily take it apart and put it back together again, but it also offers the tantalizing promise of add-ons.

Read more here.

Drew Prindle
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Drew Prindle is an award-winning writer, editor, and storyteller who currently serves as Senior Features Editor for Digital…
Toyota shifts gears: 15 New EVs and a million cars by 2027
Front three quarter view of the 2023 Toyota bZ4X.

After years of cautiously navigating the electric vehicle (EV) market, Toyota is finally ramping up its commitment to fully electric vehicles.
The Japanese automaker, which has long relied on hybrids, is now planning to develop about 15 fully electric models by 2027, up from five currently. These models will include vehicles under the Toyota and Lexus brands, with production expected to reach 1 million units annually by that year, according to a report from Nikkei.
This strategy marks a significant shift for Toyota, which has thus far remained conservative in its approach to electric cars. The company sold just 140,000 EVs globally in 2024—representing less than 2% of its total global sales. Despite this, Toyota is aiming for a much larger presence in the EV market, targeting approximately 35% of its global production to be electric by the end of the decade.
The Nikkei report suggests the company plans to diversify its production footprint beyond Japan and China and expanding into the U.S., Thailand, and Argentina. This would help mitigate the impact of President Donald Trump’s 25% tariffs on all car imports, as well as reduce delivery times. Toyota is also building a battery plant in North Carolina.
For now, Toyota has only two fully electric vehicles on the U.S. market: The bZ4X  and the Lexus RZ models. The Japanese automaker is expected to introduce new models like the bZ5X and a potential electric version of the popular Tacoma pickup.
Separately, Toyota and Honda, along with South Korea’s Hyundai, all announced on April 4 that they would not be raising prices, at least over the next couple of months, following the imposition of U.S. tariffs. According to a separate Nikkei report, Toyota’s North American division has told its suppliers that it will absorb the extra costs of parts imported from Mexico and Canada. Another 25% for automotive parts imported to the U.S. is slated to come into effect on May 3.

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Tesla, Warner Bros. dodge some claims in ‘Blade Runner 2049’ lawsuit, copyright battle continues
Tesla Cybercab at night

Tesla and Warner Bros. scored a partial legal victory as a federal judge dismissed several claims in a lawsuit filed by Alcon Entertainment, a production company behind the 2017 sci-fi movie Blade Runner 2049, Reuters reports.
The lawsuit accused the two companies of using imagery from the film to promote Tesla’s autonomous Cybercab vehicle at an event hosted by Tesla CEO Elon Musk at Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) Studios in Hollywood in October of last year.
U.S. District Judge George Wu indicated he was inclined to dismiss Alcon’s allegations that Tesla and Warner Bros. violated trademark law, according to Reuters. Specifically, the judge said Musk only referenced the original Blade Runner movie at the event, and noted that Tesla and Alcon are not competitors.
"Tesla and Musk are looking to sell cars," Reuters quoted Wu as saying. "Plaintiff is plainly not in that line of business."
Wu also dismissed most of Alcon's claims against Warner Bros., the distributor of the Blade Runner franchise.
However, the judge allowed Alcon to continue its copyright infringement claims against Tesla for its alleged use of AI-generated images mimicking scenes from Blade Runner 2049 without permission.
Alcan says that just hours before the Cybercab event, it had turned down a request from Tesla and WBD to use “an icononic still image” from the movie.
In the lawsuit, Alcon explained its decision by saying that “any prudent brand considering any Tesla partnership has to take Musk’s massively amplified, highly politicized, capricious and arbitrary behavior, which sometimes veers into hate speech, into account.”
Alcon further said it did not want Blade Runner 2049 “to be affiliated with Musk, Tesla, or any Musk company, for all of these reasons.”
But according to Alcon, Tesla went ahead with feeding images from Blade Runner 2049 into an AI image generator to yield a still image that appeared on screen for 10 seconds during the Cybercab event. With the image featured in the background, Musk directly referenced Blade Runner.
Alcon also said that Musk’s reference to Blade Runner 2049 was not a coincidence as the movie features a “strikingly designed, artificially intelligent, fully autonomous car.”

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Audi halts vehicle deliveries to the U.S. as it mulls impact of tariffs
2021 Audi Q5

If you’d been thinking of buying an Audi, now might be the time.  The German brand, owned by the Volkswagen Group, has announced it would halt shipments to the U.S. in the wake of President Donald Trump’s 25% tariffs on all imported vehicles.
Audi is currently holding cars that arrived after the tariffs took effect, on April 3, in U.S. ports. But it still has around 37,000 vehicles in its U.S. inventory, which should be able to meet demand for about two months, according to Reuters.
Automakers on average hold enough cars to meet U.S. demand for about three months, according to Cox Automotive.
Audi should be particularly affected by the tariffs: The Q5, its best-selling model in the U.S., is produced in Mexico, while other models, such as the A3, A4, and A6 are produced in Germany.
Holding shipments is obviously a temporary measure to buy time for Audi and parent company Volkswagen. If tariffs stay in place, vehicle prices would likely have to go up accordingly, unless some production is shifted to the U.S. Volkswagen already has a plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and is planning a new plant in South Carolina. That latter plant, however, isn’t expected to be operational until 2027 and is currently dedicated to building electric vehicles for VW’s Scout Motors brand.
Other global automakers have also taken drastic measures in response to Trump’s tariffs. Jaguar Land Rover on April 5 said it is pausing shipments of its its UK-made cars to the United States this month. The British sports-luxury vehicle maker noted that the U.S. market accounts for nearly a quarter of its global sales, led by the likes of Range Rover Sports, Defenders, and Jaguar F-PACE.
And on April 3, Nissan, the biggest Japanese vehicle exporter to the United States, announced it will stop taking new U.S. orders for two Mexican-built Infiniti SUVs, the QX50 and QX55.

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