Gadgets

CosmOS 1.3 adds the ability to create contacts and connect to Bluetooth devices with your voice, which seems useful. Humane is also promising that the update will “unlock an extra hour of battery life.”

Verge alum Sam Sheffer posted a video showing off some of the new things you can do.

Not much has changed in this updated version of Rode’s wireless microphone system, but it does have a lot of great color options. They aren’t smaller like the Wireless Micro, but at least you can match it to the color of the shirt you clip it to.

Anbernic left out some important details when it announced its GBA-inspired RG34XX handheld emulator last week. But according to @RetroGameCorps and Retro Dodo, we now know it will go on sale starting at 5AM ET on December 16th and will be priced at $70 and discounted to $64 for the first three days. The original Nintendo GBA debuted at $99.99 in 2001.

A Reddit user discovered that Panic has quietly introduced a 10W AC adapter that matches the Playdate handheld’s bright yellow aesthetic. It’s available now for $5 and works with the USB-C to USB-A cable that’s included with the Playdate, but I would have gladly paid more for a USB-C port and a matching yellow USB-C to USB-C cable.

Frog Design’s Hartmut Esslinger once created a slick, but unrealistic-for-the-time handheld Mac concept using Frog’s Snow White design language.

One 3D-printed chassis, a Raspberry Pi 4, and a 3rd-generation iPad display later, YouTuber Kevin Noki shows a functional version they made, using measurements apparently provided by Esslinger himself — with a floppy drive, a full complement of ports, and a pleasingly clicky keyboard, to boot.

It’s not a feature you typically associate with ski and snowboard gear, but POC’s new $550 Obex Connect helmet creates its own mesh network so you can talk with others on the hill even if you don’t have a cellphone signal. It’s also got Bluetooth for connecting to smartphones, audio courtesy of Harman Kardon, and an NFC chip with your medical info.

Areaware’s new 15-piece Blockitecture set was designed by James Paulius with hexagonal shapes and cantilevered features so you can build structures in Frank Lloyd Wright’s distinctive Usonian-style.

The blocks are made from a mix of New Zealand pine and fiberboard and while $60 for the set isn’t cheap, a portion of that will go to the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation.

The new interfaces from the smart home platform are designed to make controlling connected devices easier. Available on iOS and Android, the customizable control panels are clearly inspired by Home Assistant’s popular dashboards and work with 25 Homey widgets plus widgets from third-party apps.

You can create multiple dashboards, which are free for Homey Pro and Home Cloud users. A one-time fee applies for the first-generation Homey Pro.

The company has launched a Matter-over-Thread version of the Bolt for $229 and is offering existing Bolt users a free upgrade.

This means that, as promised, the “invisible” smart lock, which goes inside your existing hardware, now works with more smart home platforms without needing Level’s bridge.

The Level Lock Plus recently got a Matter upgrade, too, but the Lock and Lock Touch are still waiting.

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Following its excellent controller button keychain collections, Nintendo will soon fill the gashapon machines in its stores in Japan with collectible Zonai devices from The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. Six will be available for $4 each, including devices like rockets and flame emitters, and they’ll all double as magnets with an included attachment.

Following McDonald’s in China releasing a Tetris-playing nugget last year, KFC in Spain has created a Tamagotchi-like digital pet called the Eduardochi. It was originally sold through KFC’s website and app, but starting on December 3rd it will be available through KFC’s restaurants across Spain for €3.99 (around $4.20) with many of them hopefully ending up on eBay.