Paul Ridden

When we tried the world's first true wireless earbuds almost 10 years ago, battery life for continuous listening came in at around 2 hours. The latest buds from Anker's Soundcore brand last for 12 hours, or 192 hours with a charging case that could also juice up your phone.

Ricoh's Theta 360-degree camera has come a long way since it first appeared in hammerhead concept form at CES 2013. Now the company has toughened up the panoramic immersion machine so it can get to work in extreme environments.

Hisense has launched its "smallest, lightest and most portable laser projector to date." The M2 Pro smart mini projector boasts RGB lasers, expands 4K viewing up to 200 inches and pounds out the soundtrack though Dolby speakers.

Archer has released video footage of the first flight of its Midnight eVTOL with a pilot at the controls, though the aircraft rolled down a runway to take off rather than using its rotors to lift it vertically.

We've seen a bunch curbside chargers that enable apartment dwellers to join the electric revolution without having to always top up away from home, but the one from Rheinmetall AG is about the least obtrusive. The street-level charger replaces concrete curbs with a Level 2 charge point.

They're chunky and heavy, and not the most attractive handsets around. But rugged phones are designed to shake off abuse, while filling their girth with huge batteries and useful tools. The latest model from Ulefone has all that in spades, plus pocket cinema chops.

Hisense sub-brand Vidda has launched a new home entertainment powerhouse in China called the C3 Ultra. The 4K home cinema projector is the first to feature the MCL39 laser light source for high brightness and excellent color performance.

Back in 2022, we brought development news from a robotics startup looking to launch a smart garden helper sporting two jointed arms. A lot has changed since then, and as the commercial release approaches we take a fresh look at the Willow X.

A US startup is looking to our closest satellite to fill a resources gap here on Earth. Helium-3 is rare on terra firma, but is thought to be abundant in the regolith of the Moon. Interlune has now revealed a full-scale excavator prototype that forms a key component of its lunar Harvester.

Though slim is in as far as smartphones are concerned, they're probably not going to be the first choice for adventurous types. That's likely to be a multi-function rugged phone, and the latest from FossiBot features a huge battery, color night-vision camera and a powerful dual-beam flashlight.