From Portable Microwaves to Self

March is drawing to a close, and although the month rarely brings much in terms of trade shows or major product announcements (aside from the tail end of Mobile World Congress, this year) it does herald the start of Spring, and new beginnings, and plenty of new weird and wonderful gadgets you may have missed.

Last month brought us everything from a battery-powered microwave that can provide a hot meal while you’re spending a weekend glamping, to a battery-powered cooler that can instead keep all of your snacks and drinks cold during a day at the beach. Click through to see everything you may have missed.

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Yearning for a hot lunch at work but there’s no microwave or power cord in sight? Makita’s new cordless microwave is a solution to both of those problems. Instead of requiring AC, it draws power from a pair of Makita XGT 40-volt rechargeable batteries, allowing it to heat up to 11 meals, or 20 drinks—assuming neither are completely frozen. The 20-pound microwave isn’t exactly lightweight, and at launch it’s only going to be available in Japan. It’s also got a steep price tag of around $540.

Ember is taking the battery-powered heating technology it developed for its self-heating cups and mugs and bringing it to a new audience not yet dependent on caffeine to get through the day. The Ember Baby Bottle System pairs proprietary baby bottles (compatible with the most popular brands of nipples on the market) with a charging puck that can heat 6 fl oz of milk or formula to 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit in about five minutes’ time. A full charge can heat two full bottles, but that convenience comes with a $400 price tag.

It turns out the easiest way to improve how your favorite headphones sound is to simply make sure your ears are clean. But why struggle with all the manual labor of Q-Tips, which you shouldn’t really be cleaning your ears with anyway, when the OtoSet Ear Cleaning System can do all the work for you. They look like headphones, but instead of pumping sound waves into your ears, they pump in a cleaning solution that breaks down wax, then suck it back out into a disposable container. At $3,059 they’re not cheap, but they’re actually designed for “use by healthcare professionals only.”

Looking for the ultimate element of surprise when harassing your co-workers? Joel Hartlaub of the YouTube channel Joel Creates came up with an incredibly clever design for foam darts, the kind usually fired from toy blasters, that are able to fire themselves through internal mechanisms relying on springs and even explosive flash cotton.

reMarkable showed the world that E Ink wasn’t just for reading; it could also be a digital substitute for pen and paper. Last month, the company further expanded the capabilities of its reMarkable 2 e-note with the Type Folio keyboard case, allowing notes to be quickly typed using a compact keyboard that perfectly integrated with the electronic paper tablet. It was sleek, but we found the key layout to be a little cramped, and its $199 price to be steep for an already expensive e-note.

Sony continues to position its smaller, mirrorless cameras as tools for content creators, particularly vloggers, but its new ZV-E1 is the first to offer interchangeable lenses and a 35mm full-frame sensor inside. The sensor, along with AI-powered features including autofocus that recognizes people and animals in a shot and automatic reframing capabilities for creators lacking a dedicated camera operator, should help step up the quality of the ZV-E1's video content. But with a $2,200 price tag and coming without a bundled lens, it’s also the priciest Sony ZV camera to date.

“Spatial audio” is the consumer tech industry’s favorite buzzword at the moment, and a big selling point of Sonos’ Era 300 speaker, its first non-soundbar with Dolby Atmos support, which promises to fill a room with sound using four tweeters all firing in different directions, plus a pair of subwoofers. It sounds great, which is not terribly surprising for a $450 speaker, but filling a room with multiple Era 300s for a surround sound experience quickly gets expensive. Sonos’ latest and greatest is also better suited for those fully immersed in the Apple ecosystem, as it lacks access to Google Assistant, as well as Google Casting, forcing Android users to control it through the Sonos app.

8BitDo produces some of the best third-party wireless controllers out there, and a recent announcement from the company made them even better. Six 8BitDo controllers (with more to follow in the future) got free software updates, finally making them completely compatible with Apple devices, including iPhones, iPads, and Apple TV.

Although not as powerful as Qualcomm’s flagship processors, the new Snapdragon 7+ Gen 2 promises to be a versatile mid-range chip offering clock speeds up to 2.91 Ghz and compatibility with up to 16GB of RAM, making it useful in non-smartphone devices, including the ever-growing market of handheld game-streaming consoles.

It can be heartbreaking to watch classic consoles get torn apart by hardware hackers, but we’re very much in support of Peter Knetter, who transferred the guts of a real GameCube into a DIY GameCube made entirely from Lego. It’s still fully functional, although their attempt to make a Lego GameCube controller could definitely use a second pass.

The flexibility of where we can use our mobile devices, like smartphones, has spoiled us to the point where we’ll grumble and complain when we have to sit at a desk to use a proper keyboard. With the Grab Shell keyboard, a desk isn’t a necessity, as it can be transformed into a handheld keyboard complete with a full QWERTY layout, lots of customizable buttons, and even a trackball for controlling a cursor. But is typing during a bathroom break worth $400 to you?

Looking for some of the best mobile hardware that Samsung has to offer but don’t want to spend $1,200+ on the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra? Both the 6.1-inch Galaxy S23 and 6.6-inch Galaxy S23+ feature the same Super AMOLED, FullHD+, 120Hz screen technology as the Ultra, but with price tags a few hundred bucks cheaper. Both alternatives do come with other concessions, including the S23 not offering ultra wide-band support and battery life limitations, but if you’re an Android user wanting the best screen tech on the market, both of these smartphones will deliver.

Most headphones designed for kids don’t actually seem very well designed. More often than not, they’re just smaller versions of headphones for adults, but the new $35 Logitech Zone Learn were created from the ground up with younger users in mind. Not only are they tough but repairable with various parts that can be easily swapped out, but they can also be easily wiped clean when dirty, and lack any and all buttons that could make for an unwanted distraction.

The only thing harder to find at a remote campsite than a power outlet is a fresh source of ice. Anker’s upcoming EverFrost cooler doesn’t need either, at least for up to 42 hours, as it features a built-in rechargeable battery powering its refrigeration unit that keeps the interior, and everything you pack inside it, cold. Anker’s bringing it to consumers through a Kickstarter, but at almost $800 for the smallest model, it’s even more expensive than a Yeti.

Viewsonic has partnered with Microsoft for a pair of new projectors that not only arrive with the ‘Designed for Xbox’ stamp of approval, but a black design with green accents as well, so they won’t clash with your console. We actually recommend the short-throw X2-4K over the standard X1-4K model, as it offers much brighter performance, and there’s no risk of someone blocking the projector’s image.

Will humanity ever have enough digital storage? It seems unlikely, but YouTuber HistidineDwarf came up with a clever way to take advantage of Google’s vast cloud storage capabilities without having to pay for the privilege. Instead of uploading files to Google Drive, they compressed them to a single file and encoded them into a video uploaded to YouTube that ends up looking like random noise. The downsides: it’s incredibly slow, and the video files being uploaded are four times larger than the original data encoded within.

Nothing might still be a relatively young company, but it’s old enough to have released the first follow-up to one of its existing products, the Ear (2) wireless earbuds. Nothing promises improved sound, improved active noise cancellation, and even improved battery life, but the best feature might be the personalization features, which customize how a user hears their content depending on where the buds are being used.

The most important spec to be aware of when buying a projector is how bright it is. You can find projectors online for just a few hundred bucks, but you’ll be restricted to using them in dark, windowless rooms. The JMGO N1 Ultra, which launched on Kickstarter for just $1,099, boasts an impressive 4,000 ANSI lumens of brightness, plus a design with a built-in gimbal that makes it easy to perfectly position and align the projection.

Looking for a handheld that can play the thousands of 8 and 16-bit retro games that made the ‘80s and ‘90s awesome? We found that while the Anbernic RG35XX wasn’t the most powerful handheld retro gaming machine out there, for $65, it easily handled everything from the PS1, SNES, Genesis, and more. It also continued Anbernic’s trend of churning out very solid and reliable hardware.

Ikea continues its expansion into consumer electronics but without the DIY products that made it famous. Its $15 Vappeby Bluetooth speaker boasts IP65 dust and water resistance so you can hang it in your shower and have quick one-button access to Spotify. Ikea promises up to 80 hours of battery life with the volume kept at 50%, so if you do intend to use it in the shower, and actually hear it over the sound of running water, you can expect to charge it more frequently.

Looking for an incredibly powerful handheld gaming system that runs Microsoft Windows out of the box and don’t mind paying a premium for the privilege? Powered by a AMD Ryzen 7 6800U processor, the Ayaneo Geek feels like a pro version of the Valve Steam Deck, and is priced that way, too, starting at $849, with the model we tested offering specs boosting that to $1,199. Yes, that is expensive for a mobile PC you can’t also easily use as a productivity tool (although it’s certainly possible to do so), but the Geek offers excellent gaming performance, paired with a lovely seven-inch, 1,920x1,200 screen.

Razer likes to position its hardware with a design-focused premium along the lines of Apple, and the Razer Blade 16 certainly earns a “Macbook of gaming laptops” nickname with an aluminum unibody housing and an absolutely massive touchpad. But you won’t find Apple silicon inside it. The Blade 16 we tested was powered by an Intel Core i9-13950HX processor paired with an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 handling graphics, allowing the laptop to play most games at full 4K resolutions without an issue. And with a price tag starting at $2,699 ($4,299 for the model we reviewed), it even feels like you’re paying the Apple tax, too.

Decades after their introduction, 3D printers have really only found their niche as industrial tools, letting companies quickly churn out prototype iterations for testing. But the Cocoa Press could finally help 3D printing go mainstream, because instead of melted plastic, it creates things from melted chocolate, which solidify into intricately detailed objects that are completely edible.

Making the DJI Avata FPV drone an even better proposition for those just getting into drone flying, DJI has updated its Goggles 2 video headset to the Goggles Integra, which integrates the battery pack onto the back of the headstrap, eliminating any dangling wires. DJI also updated its motion control flight stick with the RC Motion 2 controller, which includes a much-improved joystick and a trigger allowing for easy transitions to reverse flight.

Had Nintendo’s designers decided to cannibiaize the GBA SP to create the dual-screen Nintendo DS, it probably would have looked a lot like this custom creation shown off by the YouTube channel Gameboy Custom. The creation looks polished enough to have come from Nintendo itself, but its bizarre ergonomics help explain why Nintendo went a completely different route for the DS.

Are you proud of your home’s recently upgraded wifi 6E wireless network? Too bad, because company’s like Netgear are already introducing wifi 7 hardware, despite the standard not being officially finalized yet. So why should you spend another $700 on wifi upgrades? The usual promises: faster speeds, less congestion, and bragging rights over your nerdy friends.

If you’re looking for a laptop that just works, and one that doesn’t have you pouring through support forums trying to figure out why this or that feature isn’t working, the HP Dragonfly Pro allows users to quickly pull up a chat with an IT pro, although at an added monthly cost. Even if you don’t pay for the extra help, the Dragonfly Pro is a solid Windows machine for $1,399, but you’ll want to avoid the cheaper $999 Chromebook model, which cuts battery life from 11 hours down to barely six.

Speaking of Nintendo’s handhelds, March also marked the end of a very specific era, as the company officially shut down access to its eShop for the Wii U and 3DS/2DS line of consoles. As of March 27, games can no longer be purchased digitally on any of those devices, but software updates and DLC will still be available, and purchases made before March 27 can be downloaded again in the future.

OLED screens far outperform LCD displays when it comes to contrast ratio, but you pay a premium for the improved performance. What if there was a way to make an LCD look as good as an OLED panel? It turns out there is, if you don’t mind quite a bit of DIY finagling. Matt Perks from the YouTube channel DIY Perks was able to create a dual-layer LCD display that looks surprisingly good for being hacked hardware.

It sounds like an impossible claim, but the Climfeet insoles promise to either warm or cool the wearer’s feet using just the motion of the steps they take. The insoles are made of a grid of sealed bubbles: each having two separate chambers. As the user walks, air is forced back and forth between each chamber, and depending on which side is facing up, it can effectively produce a temperature difference, even if it’s just a few degrees.

The problem we’ve had with most handheld game streaming devices, including the Logitech G Cloud and the Razer Edge, is their price. Why spend $350-$400 on a device with limited capabilities (all they really need to do is stream data) when Valve’s Steam Deck is a full-blown handheld PC for $399? The Abxylute promises to do everything other handheld game streamers can do, but at a $229 price point—or $199 if you back its Kickstarter.

Lego goes out of its way to avoid producing sets based on weapons of war—you’ll never find a traditional Army tank or Air Force fighter jet in its lineup—but maybe if enough of us write to the company with big sad puppy dog eyes, it will cave and turn this remarkably sturdy Lego lightsaber, designed and built by the YouTube channel Brick Science, into a real set.

For Apple fans envious of their PC pals using laptops plastered in stickers promoting the hardware inside, Vinoth Ragunathan created the equivalent for MacBooks. They sell a collection of holographic stickers featuring the names of Apple’s latest and greatest in-house silicon, which you can use to adorn your laptop and let everyone else in the coffee shop know what’s under the hood of your MacBook.

If you struggle to take care of your wireless earbuds, or just find yourself often frustrated when the charging case disappears deep into your bag, Casetify’s Grogu case is the solution. It wraps the Apple AirPods Pro and AirPods Pro 2 in a giant vinyl recreation of Baby Yoda’s head, while still allowing easy access to the buds inside. It’s cute, but is it $70 cute?

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