Hasta La Gadget!

Over the years, Nintendo has made some great consoles. From the original NES to the Super Nintendo, to the Switch, there are lots of classic systems out there. The GameCube is among my favorites. There was just something so great about the games, the design of the console, and its controller, and it really stepped up Nintendo’s graphical game.

If you’re a GameCube fan like me, check out these sweet custom systems I spotted over on Etsy.

Each of these unique game systems was hand-painted by Mago Serenil of Custom GameCubes. There are designs based on Donkey Kong, Thwomp, Kirby, and Dark Samus, with matching color schemes on both the console and its controller. I can’t decide which one I like best, but I do have a soft spot in my heart for the bubble gum pink Kirby.

Thwomp works great as a cube, but he could use some more spikes. I also wouldn’t recommend dropping him on the floor to crush your Mario or Luigi action figures.

The custom GameCubes are currently listed for sale for $200 each, and would make a great display piece for any Nintendo fan’s collection.

io9 is thrilled to exclusively reveal today that Dreamworks’ Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts—the coolest dystopia around—is coming back to Netflix for a second season this summer. We also have a special look at Kipo’s coming battle with the evil (but fashionable) Scarlemagne in the first teaser.

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I see far more research articles than I could possibly write up. This column collects the most interesting of those papers and advances, along with notes on why they may prove important in the world of tech and startups.

This week: one step closer to self-powered on-skin electronics; people dressed as car seats; how to make a search engine for 3D data; and a trio of Earth imaging projects that take on three different types of disasters.

Sweat as biofuel

Monitoring vital signs is a crucial part of healthcare and is a big business across fitness, remote medicine and other industries. Unfortunately, powering devices that are low-profile and last a long time requires a bulky battery or frequent charging is a fundamental challenge. Wearables powered by body movement or other bio-derived sources are an area of much research, and this sweat-powered wireless patch is a major advance.

A figure from the paper showing the device and interactions happening inside it.

The device, described in Science Robotics, uses perspiration as both fuel and sampling material; sweat contains chemical signals that can indicate stress, medication uptake, and so on, as well as lactic acid, which can be used in power-generating reactions.

The patch performs this work on a flexible substrate and uses the generated power to transmit its data wirelessly. It’s reliable enough that it was used to control a prosthesis, albeit in limited fashion. The market for devices like this will be enormous and this platform demonstrates a new and interesting direction for researchers to take.

Huawei is reportedly working with a European chip-maker on chips for mobile devices and cars, as the Chinese firm explores its options with no end in sight for the US export restrictions. The Trump Administration’s decision to place sanctions on Huawei has already prevented it from using the full suite of Google apps and services on its Android smartphones. Huawei … Continue reading

The latest version of Google’s Pixel Buds just started shipping yesterday, but US Cellular isn’t waiting to offer a discount. With the code ACCESSORY30, customers can snag a pair of the smart, true wireless earbuds for 30 percent off. That drops the…