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Fresh fish isn’t really that fresh — even straight off the boat, the way they’re caught and killed is not only inhumane but detrimental to the resulting meat. There’s a far superior alternative, but it’s time-consuming and manual — but Shinkei Systems has figured out a way to automate it, even on the deck of a moving boat, and has landed $1.3 million to bring its machine to market. It’s unpleasant to think about, but fish harvesting doesn’t really give a lot of thought to the comfort of the fish. How could it at the scales fishing boats work at? What generally happens is the fish are dumped out of the net, roughly sorted, and then thrown on ice to flap around and eventually suffocate minutes or hours later. Not great! This isn’t just cruel, but it results in the fish’s body degrading faster, due to the stress, bacteria in wounds and blood, and lactic acid in the muscles. Of course, anyone who catches fish one by one knows you either have to keep them alive in water or kill them rig

About a year ago, Keychron launched its Q-series of custom mechanical keyboards that now spans the gamut from small 60% boards to full-size options, with everything in between. Whatever your preference, Keychron clearly wants to be in the running for your money. Now, the company is launching the Q8 , a rare 65% Alice-style board with a gasket design. Unless you’re deep into mechanical keyboards, chances are you’ve never heard of an Alice-style board. It’s basically a keyboard that’s split in the middle with both sides slightly angled and curved, with small space bars and B keys on both sides (yes, B keys on both sides…). Otherwise, it’s mostly a standard layout with arrow keys and numbers, but without a numpad or F keys. and while I hesitate to call it ‘ergonomic,’ the angled keys allow for a pretty relaxed wrist position. Unlike ‘real’ split ergonomic keyboards like an ErgoDox EZ or Matias Ergo Pro , all you get is a set angle though and no tenting to raise the middle of the board.

Framework has been expanding its footprint in the laptop scene over the last few years, and we felt it was time to give one of their modular laptops a look. This latest generation is good enough that I felt it could be my daily driver, the port swap system is simple enough for a child to use, and if you don’t mind continuing to take part in the company’s ecosystem, you’ve got upgrades for years without having to throw away any more than the bare minimum. If you’re not familiar with Framework, the company makes laptops and parts with two goals in mind: sustainability and repairability. The repairability piece is a breath of fresh air to someone like me who has used exclusively Apple laptops for the last 10 years — good devices to be sure, but forget about repairing or upgrading them. Framework’s models are built from the ground up to be fixed, whether that’s swapping out bad RAM, replacing the keyboard, or adding a (new or old) port. That feeds into the sustainability side, since in

Robots have always found it a challenge to work with people, and vice versa. Two people on the cutting edge of improving that relationship joined us for TC Sessions: Robotics to talk about the present and future of human-robot interaction: Veo Robotics co-founder Clara Vu and Robust.ai founder Rod Brooks (formerly of iRobot and Rethink Robotics). Part of the HRI challenge is that although we already have robotic systems that are highly capable, the worlds they operate in are still very narrowly defined. Clara said that as we move from “automation to autonomy” (a phrase she stressed she didn’t invent) we’re adding both capabilities and new levels of complexity. “We’re moving… from robotic systems that do exactly what they were told to do, or can can perceive a very specific very low level thing, to systems that have a little bit more autonomy and understanding,” she said. “The system that my company builds would not have been possible five years ago, because the sensors that we’re usi

Factors like latency, bandwidth, security and privacy are driving the adoption of edge computing, which aims to process data closer to where it’s being generated. Consider a temperature sensor in a shipyard or a fleet of cameras in a fulfillment center. Normally, the data from them might have to be relayed to a server for analysis. But with an edge computing setup, the data can be processed on-site, eliminating cloud computing costs and enabling processing at greater speeds and volumes (in theory). Technical challenges can stand in the way of successful edge computing deployments, however. That’s according to Said Ouissal, the CEO of Zededa , which provides distributed edge orchestration and virtualization software. Ouissal has a product to sell — Zededa works with customers to help manage edge devices — but he points to Zededa’s growth to support his claim. The number of edge devices under the company’s management grew 4x in the past year while Zededa’s revenue grew 7x, Ouissal says.

Today during an event focused on Alexa developer and partner news, Amazon announced new features and integrations, including a collection of APIs and software development kits (SDKs) aimed at making Alexa more versatile. They come a month after the company demoed forthcoming and experimental Alexa features at its annual re:Mars conference in Las Vegas, including t he ability to synthesize short audio clips into longer speech . A highlight of today’s event was the previewing of Amazon’s Universal Device Commands (UDC) and Agent Transfers (AT), a pair of technologies intended to simplify the task of interacting with multiple voice assistants on the same device. On devices that support Alexa and another voice assistant, like Sonos’ Sonos Voice Control, UDCs will let users say commands (e.g., “Turn up the volume”) using compatible wake words (e.g., “Hey, Sonos”), even if the target assistant wasn’t originally used to initiate the request. ATs, meanwhile, will allow voice assistants to tr

From Project Ara to Wave , Google has a rich history of bailing on neat ideas when the going gets tough. Yet unlike those forgone experiments, Google’s augmented-reality glasses apparently aren’t doomed to spend eternity in a metaphorical graveyard . Instead, Google is tip-toeing its spiritual successor to Glass back into the wild . After teasing the smart glasses in May, Google said today that it is moving forward with “small-scale,” “limited” public tests, carried out by Google employees and “select trusted testers.” Featuring cameras, microphones and in-lens displays, the devices will provide language translation and navigation features, but “they’ll have strict limitations on what they can do,” AR product manager Juston Payne cautioned in a blog post . The “prototypes don’t support photography and videography, though image data will be used to enable experiences like translating the menu in front of you or showing you directions to a nearby coffee shop,” Payne added. On a separ

India has proposed to introduce a right to repair law, aiming to provide consumers the ability to have their devices repaired by third parties to fight the growing “culture of planned obsolescence” in a move that follows similar deliberations in the U.S. and the UK. The Indian Department of Consumer Affairs said Wednesday that it had set up a committee to develop a right to repair framework. The committee identified mobile phones, tablets, consumer durables, automobiles and farming as important sectors for the framework, the ministry said. “The pertinent issues highlighted during the meeting include companies avoiding the publication of manuals that can help users make repairs easily,” the ministry said in a statement. The committee is chaired by Nidhi Khare, additional secretary of consumer affairs, and its other members include industry bodies and stakeholders including the India Cellular and Electronics Association (ICEA) and Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), as

Tonal, an at-home fitness company last valued at $1.6 billion , has laid off 35% of its workforce in what the company says was “responsible” decision made in order to grow at a more sustainable rate. “Tonal is prioritizing becoming a self-sustaining business with an emphasis on profitability,” the company said in an a statement confirming the layoffs. “While sales have continued to grow at an unprecedented rate, so have the costs of our business, particularly in light of the macroeconomic climate and global supply chain challenges.” The company said that the restructuring impacts all corporate functions across all levels, but it’s unclear if there is an concentration of cuts or if any high-level executives are parting ways with the company. CEO Aly Orady, who remains at the company, sent a memo to staff after announcing the 35% cut during a morning all-hands meeting. “As our business scaled, we grew our teams rapidly to keep up with demand and competition,” Orady wrote. “Our growth

If you’ve ever searched on YouTube for a review of the latest iPhone or electric car, then you’ve probably encountered Marques Brownlee. Since he started his channel MKBHD as a teenager in 2009, Brownlee has amassed 15.8 million subscribers for his in-depth, yet approachable tech videos. He’s even scored interviews with Elon Musk , Mark Zuckerberg , Bill Gates and Barack Obama , and to top it all off, he’s a professional ultimate frisbee player (the former president even complimented his “unbelievable hops.”) But perhaps Brownlee’s most impressive accomplishment is his ability to remain relevant over 10 years into his online video career without losing his audience’s trust . And as short-form video content becomes a necessity for any creator, Brownlee has seamlessly transitioned to TikTok, where he made one of the only good April Fools’ Day pranks . We caught up with Brownlee at VidCon, where he was helping Discord promote the beta test of its server subscriptions (watch out, Patr

Over the weekend, Tesla showed off its latest gadget: a solar trailer, featuring extendable panels, a satellite internet terminal and even a lick of matte-black paint. Tesla may have designed the trailer to add some range to electric vehicles—or, to advertise Starlink’s new $25-per-month “portability” feature, which SpaceX announced in May . Whatever it’s for, you probably won’t see this trailer for sale any time soon.  That’s because Tesla apparently exhibited it as a “ show of concept ,” per   a Tesla fan , who shared photos of the solar trailer on Twitter. The gadget was displayed at IdeenExpo, a tech conference geared towards high school-aged students in Hannover, Germany. Tesla did not respond to a request for comment when asked about the trailer. As such, there are lots of unknowns, including its size, weight and razón de vivir . More images of the trailer. Another employee confirmed the range extender + Starlink purpose. He said the trailer does not have internal stora

Indian fitness platform, Ultrahuman , is expanding its wearable portfolio by launching a smart ring to boost its ability to provide tech loving ‘biohackers’ — and, it hopes, health-concerned Boomers — with more insightful metabolic insights. Sensors embedded in the forthcoming Ultrahuman Ring include temperature, heart rate and movement monitors, which enable the device to track the wearer’s sleep quality, stress levels and activity density, per CEO and co-founder, Mohit Kuma. The device is designed to work in conjunction with the startup’s existing wearable, a continuous glucose monitor (CGM) sensor-based service it brands ‘Cyborg’, to deepen the quality of insights for users — such as by identifying when a poor glucose response might be linked to a bad night’s sleep, say, or elevated stress levels, rather than putting all the focus on whatever it was the user ate right before their blood sugar spiked. The Ultrahuman Ring is not a CGM itself but it can function as a standalone heal