I still remember the first Chinese electronics factory I visited like it was yesterday: It was an old tier-3* contract manufacturer somewhere in the sprawling Dongguan City. Its white tile facade was yellowed from acid rain, and despite the sweltering midsummer heat, only a few ceiling fans feebly circulated the muggy air on the factory […]

Before we get to business today, here’s a little trivia: The Lazer Tag product line was brought to us by Worlds of Wonder (the original WoW), a toy company founded by former Atari employees. This hot hardware startup hailed from Fremont, California and got its start making “the world’s first animated talking toy,” Teddy Ruxpin. It […]

Congratulations! After a long design and prototype verification process, mass production has finally begun for your product. Let’s imagine that your first batch of a few thousand units sells out in a few weeks (hooray!), you place a bigger order with the manufacturer, and then an even bigger one in a few months. How do […]

Foamcore (also known as foamboard) is a lightweight building material that typically consists of a foam inner layer covered on top and bottom by paper. It’s cheap, easy-to-use and can quickly create scale models. There are 2 main applications for working with foamcore: 1. Early user testing Working with foamcore makes sense for applications where […]

One of the coolest new products we’ve seen hit the shelves for the holiday season is the Wilson X Connected Basketball. It uses Bluetooth LE and an accelerometer to track your shooting stats so you can improve your game. The ball also pairs with the Wilson X App so you can track shooting percentage and range […]

For this edition of our Hardware DNA series we’re taking apart a very unique product: The Muse brain sensing headband. What the heck is a brain sensing headband, you ask? Well, essentially it uses sensors to measure brain activity across your frontal cortex and then, using the app, gives you real-time feedback on what’s happening in […]