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Awesome Tech You Can’t Buy Yet: Beer brewers, LED strips, and weatherproof UAVs

At any given moment there are approximately a zillion different crowdfunding campaigns happening 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. We’ve cut through the Pebble clones and janky iPhone cases to round up the most unusual, ambitious, and exciting projects out there this week. Keep in mind that any crowdfunded project — even the best intentioned — can fail, so do your homework before cutting a check for the gadget of your dreams.

Luminoodle Color/Basecamp — multicolor, multipurpose LED strips

 

So about a year ago, a startup by the name of Power Practical launched a ridiculously successful Kickstarter campaign for a versatile string of LED lights called the Luminoodle. Now, they’re back with two new and improved versions — and these ones are brighter, stronger, and more colorful than ever before.

The 5-foot long Luminoodle Color delivers up to 450 lumens of light, whereas the 20-foot long Basecamp up to a whopping 3,000 lumens of light for your campsite or backyard. Each string light shines in 14 different color options including three different shades of white and a red night-vision mode. Both the new Luminoodle Color and Basecamp come with built-in controls as well as a wireless remote to toggle between all the different settings. A dimmer allows you to pick just the right level of light for every situation, and if you want to create a more festive atmosphere, the new Luminoodles also offer three dynamic modes: one color strobe, multi-color strobe, and multi-color fade. The strips are also equipped with magnet sliders for securing the Luminoodle to metal surfaces, as well as Velcro quick straps connected to steel plates to create magnetic surfaces where they don’t exist.

Read more here.

ArtBrew — Tabletop craft brewing machine

As far as hobbies go, brewing your own beer is one that requires a large amount of time and space. As such, beer-loving inventors have mounted numerous attempts to wrap the multi-step process up in a neat little package — and ArtBrew is the latest such contraption. The machine is essentially an attempt to simplify, streamline, and speed up at-home beer making. With MiniBrew’s semi-automated process, it reportedly takes just a few button presses to make your own craft beer. We’re not sure you can still call it “craft” when brewing only requires a single button press, but honestly, we’re not complaining. What’s not to love about a machine that makes beer for you?

In order to brew a beer, all you need to do is select the recipe, add the ingredients, start the “mashing” process, and let the machine do its thing. The machine boils, cools, does yeast pitching, and handles primary and secondary fermentation. It’s pretty automated, but after the brewing process, you may have to add yeast and extra hops before fermentation. All of that will take some time, with the machine’s sensors and software guiding the majority of these actions. You could be drinking your lager in as little as a week, according to the machine’s creators — though other types of beer will take longer.

Read more here.

FlipFlic — Smart, auto-adjusting window blinds

Opening and closing blinds isn’t exactly a difficult task, but if you’re lucky enough to live in a giant house with tons of windows, it can actually be time consuming (#FirstWorldProblems). That’s where FlipFlic comes in. Unlike most automated blinds (which cost a fortune and often require a specialist to install) this gizmo can be installed in just a few minutes, and allows you to adjust your blinds on both a schedule, or based on environmental cues. The device has light and temperature sensors that can indicate whether blinds should be open or closed, and can adjust them accordingly.

“It just hit me; there’s got to be a way to automatically control indoor light and temperature without breaking your wallet on expensive and low-tech motorized blinds,” said FlipFlic CEO Ksenia Vinogradova in a press release. “Window blinds are there to regulate incoming heat and light, but it is nobody’s job to open and close them several times a day. Such a simple, but annoying task has got to be automated, just like many other things at home.”

Read more here.

Freebird One — Crash proof, weather-proof drone

Drones are so advanced these days that upping the ante and bringing something new to the table is a tall order — but somehow, FreeBird has managed it anyway with the FreeBird one. This thing is literally packed to the gills with advanced features and functionality.

First and foremost, it’s totally weatherproof. The One is outfitted with structurally closed rotors, which allow pilots to operate the drone in rainy or snowy conditions without a decrease in function. It’s also equipped with a proprietary 3D-printed airframe and body built to enclose the craft’s rotors, dramatically improve its impact resistance, and make it infinitely customizable. Furthermore, for users who yearn for a bird’s-eye view of what their aircraft sees, the FreeBird One also enables you to view a live 3D video feed via a connected VR headset — which means you can see exactly what the drone sees in real time.

Read more here.

Edge Desk — portable, adjustable, stowable kneeling desk

Don’t have enough space in your house for a full-fledged office desk, but still need a comfortable workstation? Check out the Edge Desk — it might be exactly what you need. Aimed primarily at students, artists, freelancers, and anyone who uses a desk but is tight on space, the Edge Desk features a portable, adjustable, and totally foldable design. When you’re not using it, you can just collapse it down and store it in a closet or under your bed.

The 20-pound desk features an aluminum frame and a padded, adjustable seat that resembles one of those kneeling-chairs that were all the rage a few years back. The angle of the worktop is also adjustable, and while the space isn’t huge, it can comfortably accommodate a laptop and a few notebooks. Of course, the relatively small surface means you wouldn’t want to risk your spilling coffee by placing it on the top. But that’s not a problem for this particular desk. It comes with a grooved edge that lets you snap in a variety of attachments, which, at a later date, will include a cup holder (yay!), a speaker, and an LED light, to name a few.

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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