This Week in Tech

Tiny Washing Machine Can Clean Your Wax-Encrusted Earbuds

Tiny Washing Machine Can Clean Your Wax-Encrusted Earbuds

If you’re ashamed to take your earbuds out of your ears in public because of what might be caked inside them and yet too disgusted to clean them at home, you better believe there’s a Kickstarter product to solve that. Imagine a washing machine miniaturized to sit on a desk that cleans earbuds instead of clothing. That’s what the Cardlax EarBuds Washer promises…


A New Type of Battery That Can Charge Ten Times Faster Than a Lithium-Ion Battery Created

It is difficult to imagine our daily life without lithium-ion batteries. They dominate the small format battery market for portable electronic devices, and are also commonly used in electric vehicles. At the same time, lithium-ion batteries have a number of serious issues, including: a potential fire hazard and performance loss at cold temperatures; as well as a considerable environmental impact of spent battery disposal…


NHS Roll Out Gadget for Cluster Headaches

gammaCore, a handheld device used to alleviate cluster headaches, is now availble through NHS England following successful trials…


Brain Implants and Wearables Let Paralyzed People Move Again

In 2015, a group of neuroscientists and engineers assembled to watch a man play the video game Guitar Hero. He held the simplified guitar interface gingerly, using the fingers of his right hand to press down on the fret buttons and his left hand to hit the strum bar. What made this mundane bit of game play so extraordinary was the fact that the man had been paralyzed from the chest down for more than three years, without any use of his hands. Every time he moved his fingers to play a note, he was playing a song of restored autonomy…


Elon Musk’s Brain-Chip Company, Neuralink, Released a Video of a Monkey Playing Video Games With Its Mind

Neuralink, a company founded by Musk that is developing artificial-intelligence-powered microchips to go in people’s brains, released a video Thursday appearing to show a macaque using the tech to play video games, including “Pong.”…


Apple Presses Ahead With Aim to Replace Paper Passports and ID With iPhone

Apple is continuing to research how to ensure the identity of someone presenting an iPhone to a passport official, or using any other digital ID document…


Scientists Connect Human Brain to Computer Wirelessly for First Time Ever

The first wireless commands to a computer have been demonstrated in a breakthrough for people with paralysis…