LEGO BOOST Makes Building Interactive Models Fun and Easy for Kids

For as long as I can remember, I’ve loved LEGO bricks. While the basic blocks are great for all ages, sets like Technic and the mechanised Mindstorms kits have a tendency to be a bit complex for kids – especially when it comes to programming Mindstorms. Now, LEGO has announced a new series of mechanised, programmable components designed for ease of construction and programming.

LEGO BOOST kits make it easy for pre-teen kids to build interactive machines like robots, musical instruments, vehicles and more. The blocks work in concert with a drag-and-drop touch based app that runs on iOS or Android tablets, and allows builders to create programming sequences with ease.

Initially, LEGO BOOST will come in a $159.99(USD) starter kit that includes 3 BOOST bricks and 843 other LEGO elements, along with a special playmat that can be used to help practice programming and offering various mini challenges.

The 3 BOOST bricks include a move hub with a built-in tilt sensor, a combination color and distance sensor, and an interactive motor. The kit will include instructions for five models, but like all things LEGO, experimentation is encouraged.

LEGO says BOOST will hit shelves in August 2017.

LEGO BOOST Makes Building Interactive Models Fun and Easy for Kids

For as long as I can remember, I’ve loved LEGO bricks. While the basic blocks are great for all ages, sets like Technic and the mechanised Mindstorms kits have a tendency to be a bit complex for kids – especially when it comes to programming Mindstorms. Now, LEGO has announced a new series of mechanised, programmable components designed for ease of construction and programming.

LEGO BOOST kits make it easy for pre-teen kids to build interactive machines like robots, musical instruments, vehicles and more. The blocks work in concert with a drag-and-drop touch based app that runs on iOS or Android tablets, and allows builders to create programming sequences with ease.

Initially, LEGO BOOST will come in a $159.99(USD) starter kit that includes 3 BOOST bricks and 843 other LEGO elements, along with a special playmat that can be used to help practice programming and offering various mini challenges.

The 3 BOOST bricks include a move hub with a built-in tilt sensor, a combination color and distance sensor, and an interactive motor. The kit will include instructions for five models, but like all things LEGO, experimentation is encouraged.

LEGO says BOOST will hit shelves in August 2017.

Razer Project Valerie Puts Three Screens on a Laptop

Normally, when I have to work on a laptop, I am much slower than when I’m at home because I use a big old 30-inch screen that lets me get like four windows open at once without having to switch back and forth. On a laptop you can’t do that as easily, or at least that’s what I tell the boss is the reason I don’t get as much done. The Razer Project Valerie laptop will ruin that excuse though.

This insane laptop has got three 4K resolution screens and a honking NVIDIA GTX 1080 GPU to run the show. Those screens are quite thin, and have aluminum hinges that fold away giving the Valerie about the same profile as your typical 17-inch gaming notebook.

You can span your game (by game I mean work) across all three screens in 11520 x 2160 resolution, or use each of the three displays individually.

I kind of want one of these, but I am afraid to learn what it will cost. No word on pricing yet, but with three 17-inch 4K screens and a powerful graphics card like that, it’s sure to destroy your wallet.

Fisher-Price Exercise Bike and Tablet Holder: Tykes on Bikes

So this is what it has come to. Your kid spends like 20 hours a day on his or her tablet, eating HoHos and DingDongs and mainlining Mountain Dew, while snorting Pixie Dust off the backside of your PS4. So naturally, tons of kids are all obese now. Good job. You could have simply limited their time on their digital devices and introduced them to the outside world so they could get some exercise and play time. Well, Fisher Price is here to help where you as a parent have failed.

It’s a tablet holder that doubles as an exercise bike for kids. The Think & Learn Smart Cycle uses video games to trick out of shape kids into shaping up. It wirelessly connects to a tablet mounted on its handlebars via Bluetooth, letting youngsters control one of four downloadable iOS or Android games through the speed of their pedaling.

Fisher-Price will add more apps in the future, which will expand on the educational focus of the original four that help teach reading, math, science, and social studies. The $150 Think & Learn Smart Cycle can also be connected to a larger screen using apps running on hardware like an Apple TV or smart televisions that support Android TV.

So here’s the problem: You’re still reinforcing the same bad behavior – the idea that kids have to be glued to their tablet screens all day. So, let’s say you get the not-obese child of your dreams thanks to this thing? Well, that just means you have a skinny zombie instead of a fat one. Perhaps an actual bicycle would be a better idea.

[via Gizmodo]

E Ink Launches 42″ ePaper Display

These days, there are digital signboard made from LCD monitors all over the place. So how do you stand out from the crowd? Perhaps with a slick ePaper display like this one which just broke cover at CES.

The folks from E Ink revealed a big 42″ diagonal electrostatic display – reportedly the largest commercially available. The display can show easy to read monochrome images at a resolution of 2160 x 2880 at 85 dpi. In addition to its unconventional looks, the big advantages of an ePaper display are that it uses barely any power, and can continue to display the last image without application of any electricity.

The first product to feature the new display will be the QuirkLogic Quilla, a digital whiteboard designed for collaboration that replicates the feel of pen and paper, but uses the eInk screen as its display. Thanks to its low power consumption, the Quilla can run for up to 16 hours on battery only, and retains the last image on screen so you can pick up right where you last left off. Multiple Quillas can be linked together, and images can even be shared via a centralized library.