That clever Star Wars X-wing knife holder you've probably bought as a housewarming gift a few times doesn't actually seem quite as clever — or injury-causing — compared to this alternative that makes it look like Wolverine's hands are busting through your kitchen countertop.

Video: Your childhood fantasies of soaring through the air like Iron Man or Superman will seem far less fantastic after this sobering first-person footage of a drone racing alongside a moving cargo train reveals just how terrifying (and slightly nauseating) it would be to actually fly.

Phone screens are getting bigger, and phone batteries aren't. That means, all other things being equal, you'll need to charge your phone more often. So, to that end, I've put together a list of my favourite high-capacity and-high-speed portable USB battery chargers.

Sometimes, television commercials are great. Funny, thoughtful, iconic - they can be an entertainment medium all on their own.

But there reaches a point where hearing the eleventy billionth funeral insurance plan sales pitch of the day starts to get on your nerves. That's where Mutr comes in.

Amazon, as you may have heard, needs another base of operations. Rather than pick the best geographic location, Jeff Bezos dangled a substantial carrot in front of North America's metropolitan centres: $6 billion in investment, and up to 50,000 jobs.

Everybody seemed excited about Nest's big event on Wednesday. New products! Several of them! New direction! Much needed for a company plagued with security flaws, product defects, and loads of other problems. But the most innovative thing that Nest announced was an alarm. Literally, a box that makes a loud noise. It's called the Nest Guard, and it does not feel like a comeback.

Juicero, the startup that brought us $US399 cold press juice machines that work as good as your bare hands, shut down earlier this month. While his company was being squeezed dry, founder Doug Evans reportedly posted a video of himself vanishing into a sandstorm at Burning Man. And now, a few weeks later, Evans has apparently emerged to embrace a new overpriced beverage: raw water.

Earlier today, it was reported that the Australian Defence Force grounded its fleet of DJI drones — after the US Army did the same thing last month — on security fears. Around 40 drones were taken out of active service in early August on concerns of "user vulnerabilities", and were out of action for a fortnight while an investigation took place. The popular drone manufacturer has released a statement saying that it makes drones for peaceful purposes, not military customers, and that the company has "no way of knowing who they are or what they do with them".

When it comes to smart speakers, Amazon's Alexa is already out to a big lead. But with refreshed Home speakers coming from Google not to mention Apple, Sonos, and others soon to be joining the fray with their own sound systems featuring built-in digital assistants, Amazon has no time to rest on its laurels. To help bring the power of Alexa to places where a regular Echo might not be able to go, Amazon is reportedly getting ready to make an Alexa-powered pair of smart glasses.

eBay, that most venerable website full of deals and savings, is turning 18 today! Happy birthday eBay! Of course, with birthdays come celebrations and eBay is throwing a huge party tonight, online, where everything will be 18% off!

Video: Presented without comment, because who am I to judge.

Overnight, Nest — which just launched into Australia with the Nest Cam and Nest Protect — announced a suite of security products, like a smart home doorbell and door monitoring system. They're not coming to Australia straight away at least, but it should be a sign for Aussies considering a Nest gadget or two that the smart home ecosystem is expanding.

MondlyVR is the first language app available on Google's Virtual Reality platforms; Daydream and Cardboard.

But what's the advantage of language lessons in VR?

If you've heard of Knightscope's security robots, it was probably due to their high-profile failures: one would-be Robocop failed to detect a staircase and killed itself by driving into a water fountain, another ran over a toddler's foot in a shopping mall. On Wednesday, Knightscope announced two new robots were joining the force: the K1 and the K5 buggy.

It's like clockwork: every month or so, you'll be scrolling through your Facebook feed and stumble across a video about a new ring or underwear, colour-changing straws or colour-changing nail polish, or "smart stickers" that claim to help prevent sexual assault. There's the inevitable swarm of uncritical media coverage that garners hundreds of thousands of views in a few days. But after a fleeting moment in the news cycle, the stories — and ostensibly, the products themselves — disappear.

Among the many new features and updates iOS 11 will bring to your iPhone and iPad, there's one that some users might not actually want. Apple is finally neutering older 32-bit apps, which means that some of your favourite games or productivity tools simply won't load with iOS 11 installed.

It was bound to happen. Amazon storms into the voice-controlled gadget game, just like the tablet game, and eventually, a Fire tablet becomes an Echo. That just happened. Amazon's new Fire HD 10 tablet is also a hands-free Echo. It's mostly a tablet, but that Echo bit is interesting.

At least two civilians have been injured in a bombing incident during Russia's war games earlier this week. Videos of the incident have been posted to YouTube and appear to show two helicopters firing at a civilian viewing area. Russian media report that the incident is being investigated by the military.

Even though Google's big October 4 event is still a couple of weeks out, it seems we've just gotten a really good look at the four most important devices we expect the company to announce there. The leaks come courtesy of Droid Life, and include info and prices on a new, smaller version of the Google Home smart speaker, a new premium two-in-one Chromebook, and both the big and small versions of the Pixel 2.