TUCSON, Ariz. — Welcome to Tech Tuesday, where each week I break down the hottest news in the world of science and technology -- and first, Amazon is now letting customers decide which Alexa-powered products they’ll make next.
Their new program, called Build It, serves as a Kickstarter-of-sorts, showcasing three potential devices that will only be produced if enough people show interest and hit the pre-order button. The first round includes a smart sticky-note printer (which has already been fully supported), a smart nutrition scale and a smart cuckoo clock.
If you like the latter two, you have until March 19th to show your interest before they get scrapped.
Pretty soon, your smartwatch won’t be your only piece of wearable tech. A video highlighting an unreleased Samsung device has leaked online, showing off some impressive features. The “Glasses Lite” will let you play video games, control movies with your watch, serve as a desktop display, video chat and even control your drone. Because it’s just a concept, and a leaked one at that, there’s no word on price or release date. But you can bet they’re developing these to compete with something that’s been rumored for a while… Apple Glasses.
To the planet Mars now – and NASA’s extraordinary landing of their latest rover.
After successfully touching down on the red planet on Thursday, Perseverance began sending us thousands of photos and never-before-seen video of the actual landing sequence. This is a rare look at how they managed to get the rover on the ground in the first place. Called the “seven minutes terror,” it includes several stages of separation, speed reduction and the incredible “sky crane maneuver” to gently lower the rover.
On Monday, NASA released the actual video of the process, showing the flawless execution of the landing. Not only did they capture all of this with state-of-the-art cameras, but for the first time ever, we got to actually hear what Mars sounds like, thanks to a pair of microphones on board.
This is just scratching the surface of what Perseverance will send back for days, months and years.
