Need something to keep you busy this weekend? Look no further. The Weekend Workshop is our weekly column where we showcase a badass DIY project that you can complete with minimal skills and expertise. We’ve dug through all the online tutorials on the web, and gone the extra mile to pinpoint projects that are equal parts easy, affordable, and fun. So put on your work pants, grab your tool belt, and head to the garage — it’s time to start building!
There are few feelings capable of leaving some as dejected as having a smartphone with less than 15 percent battery and a full day’s worth of activities ahead — be it an eight-hour work day or weekend outing with your friends. Considering the fact that 15 percent will likely drain itself completely before you even get to your desired location, you don’t simply want a portable charger, you need one. But who wants to spend upwards of $50 on a power bank from Radio Shack?
Certainly not Instructables user Sethaulton who devised an incredibly savvy method for assembling their own portable USB charger out of nothing more than a couple old Altoid tins and some small solar panels. Sethaulton’s finished product — a fully-functional USB charger with an additional power bank — is the best solution for not only keeping your phone charged throughout the day but doing so on the cheap.
To help you get started on this project, we’ve gone ahead and sifted through the Instructables walkthrough to piece together an exact list of tools and materials needed for the build. It is worth noting that this particular walkthrough requires the use of a soldering iron, so it’s imperative you either know how to use one — or know someone who does who can help — before attempting to construct this solar charger. Here’s everything you’ll need to get started:
Now that you’ve assembled the necessary build list, it’s time to start building this innovative DIY solar charger. Simply follow Sethaulton’s step-by-step Instructables walkthrough and before long you’ll be the proud owner of an incredibly unique Altoids tin portable USB charger. Happy building!
San Francisco startup Dimensional advertised for people to walk robot dogs through city streets. The New York Times reported that the job could include carrying a roughly 33-pound robot back to the office if it overheated. A lift home is an awkward requirement for a labor-saving machine.
Keeping the hardware running is only one challenge. Anthropic's robotics tests found that language models mostly failed when controlling joints directly, but did better when directing trained controllers. Giving an AI agent a body doesn't teach it to handle ordinary household objects.
Soon, a mattress protector may be more than a bed cover. Australian medtech company Sleeptite and researchers at RMIT University have received a US patent for FlexiSense, a smart bedding technology that tracks body position and posture to help caregivers identify when older residents may be at risk of falling.
The technology is being developed for Sleeptite’s in-bed monitoring system, REMi, and was recently on display at The MedTech Conference in Boston. A peer-reviewed study in Flexible and Printed Electronics says the sensors can also be made at scale without sacrificing performance or durability.
AI companies spend enormous amounts of time convincing us their technology is safe and secure. But what happens when those same companies become targets of increasingly sophisticated AI-powered attacks? Anthropic, the company behind Claude, is now facing that question. According to a Washington Post report, cybersecurity startup Cathedral discovered vulnerabilities that let its researchers access sensitive information in Anthropic's internal systems.
The researchers used AI agents to identify potential entry points in less than 12 hours. Interestingly, they didn't need to crack Claude itself. Instead, they exploited weaknesses in third-party business applications that Anthropic uses for everyday operations. Anthropic's security testing program disclosed the findings, which allows outside researchers to identify and report vulnerabilities.