In 1963 a kit of red and white polystyrene plates, stiff metal rods, rubber bands, and short plastic tubes sold for $4.99 ($54.45 today) and assembled into a working digital computer. Three small windows on the front face displayed binary digits as either 0 or 1. A white lever marked “Clock” stuck out from the right side. Pushing that lever fully inward and then drawing it back out advanced every calculation by one step. No batteries or power cord were required. All motion came from the user’s hand and the tension stored in the rubber bands.

E.S.R. Inc., a small company founded by three engineers who originally intended to produce electronic computing equipment, release the kit as a side project to create quick cash. Instead of being a one-hit wonder, the Digi-Comp 1 sold out faster than anyone could keep up. Over 100,000 units were sold, with some estimating it could have been as many as 250,000. For a period, the number of Digi-Comp 1s was actually greater than the number of true electronic computers in use. At least in the middle of the 1960s. Eventually, the business chose to move its focus to more… traditional toys, and Digi-Comp 1 would remain in production for a little longer. It remained in production until the early 1970s.

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You assemble the device by slapping the base plate down and joining the upright supports in one seamless action, with no tools required. Then you add three horizontal bars that can move in any way because they can lock into either of two spots that you’d intuitively associate with binary 0 or binary 1, and those three bars may represent any number between 000 and 111, or, in more common terms, 0 to 7. Six thin rods now run along the front of the machine, with another six going along the back. Along the front, there are little tubes that you put onto tabs, and on the back, there are tubes that you fit onto the appropriate tabs. The arrangement of the back tubes dictates which rods can move and which cannot during a single clock cycle.

Now, the front rods serve as logic sensors, and depending on the condition of those three sliding bars, they will either drop or remain held up. The back rods are your actuators. So, if a rear rod swings free, it can push the bar from 0 to 1 or 1 to 0, as long as the right tube is in place. The rear rods with odd numbers reset to zero, while those with even numbers reset to one. Rubber bands keep the rods taut, allowing them to snap back into position as soon as an obstructing tube is relocated or a passage opens.

When you draw the lever all the way in and secure the logic rods, you complete a full clock cycle. Any rod that is not blocked by a front tube then connects to the corresponding rod on the back. Then, on the way back out, those free rear rods spring into action, shifting the sliding bars to whatever position is required by where you’ve placed the tubes. By the time the bars have set, the overall pattern of what is blocked and what is not has changed, making it ready for the next cycle. That’s all there is to it, because the machine’s current state totally controls its next state. In other words, it is a three-bit finite-state machine.

Users rummaged through the large instruction booklet to find tube arrangements that really worked. One fairly conventional configuration transformed the machine into a binary counter that counted up from 000 in a smooth, step-by-step manner, 000 to 001, then 010, 011, and so on all the way up to 111 until eventually counting down to 000 again. Other layouts became more fascinating, as you could combine two numbers, subtract one from another, move bits left or right, or just flip the entire value on its head. You could also use it for simple multiplication and comparisons. The kit featured a clever little plastic bit that allowed you to create “or” situations and solve some interesting challenges. People were able to encode games like Nim so that the machine would enforce the rules and vary the outcome depending on the starting position.

The results appeared immediately in the three front windows when the bars were clicked into place. The documentation that came with the tube layouts included not only the charts for how to set up the tubes, but also the fundamentals of binary counting and Boolean logic, all explained in a way that a 12-year-old could grasp. Many people who received a Digi-Comp 1 as a present later claimed that it was the first gadget to make abstract rules feel real and concrete. The tangible “click” of the bars moving and the rods shifting in front of you was extremely effective in demonstrating cause and consequence in a manner that a simple diagram cannot.

American luxury EV builder Lucid Motors announced and unveiled the Lucid Gravity GT-S this weekend during Monterey Car Week in California. The new performance variant of the brand’s three-row electric SUV inherits the upgraded three-motor powertrain from the 1,070-horsepower Lucid Air Sapphire, seats up to seven and features a 3.1-second 0-60 sprint.

Lucid calls the new GT-S trim level “America’s most powerful three-row SUV,” backing up the claim with that stated 1,070 hp from the EV’s three-motor (one front, two rear) setup. That sort of oomph is enough to propel the SUV to 60 mph in just 3.1 seconds — a tick behind its sibling, the lighter Air Sapphire sedan’s 1.89-second blitz, but still an impressive feat for a luxury SUV with three rows for passengers and a large cargo capacity.

Amazingly, while the Gravity GT-S may be the most powerful vehicle in its class, it’s not the quickest. Rivian’s range-topping R1S Quad-Motor keeps pace with 1,025 hp and an estimated 2.6 seconds to 60 mph, though Edmunds’ instrumented testing clocked it closer to 3 seconds flat. Tesla’s Model X Plaid packs 1,020 hp and a Tesla-claimed 2.5-second run — the Falcon-doored three-row EV was recently discontinued, but new and low-mileage examples are still relatively easy to find. Drivers with a half-second more patience can also consider the Cadillac Vistiq, which gets the job done in its 3.7-second Velocity Max mode with only 615 ponies. The level of speed on offer for luxury EV buyers these days is, frankly, absurd.

In addition to straight-line acceleration, Lucid has also boosted the GT-S handling. The spec comes standard with the automaker’s Dynamic Handling Package, which includes an adaptive air suspension that automatically lowers the SUV for efficiency at speed and hunkers down during dynamic driving. Independent rear-wheel steering is also standard, boosting low-speed agility and high-speed stability.

Lucid estimates the focus shift to performance will cost the GT-S trim a bit of efficiency. Range is projected to drop to around 373 miles, versus the 450 miles of the Gravity Grand Touring trim level, though that estimate has not yet been confirmed by the EPA.

Sapphire styling, inside and out

Along with the performance chops, the Gravity GT-S gets a Sapphire-inspired makeover inside and out. Exterior touches include blue accents and blue brake calipers, plus GT-S badging complete with a blue S that looks identical to the Sapphire’s branding.

Inside, the GT-S is upholstered in Lucid’s Mojave PurLuxe interior — a synthetic, animal-free leather alternative — finished with blue stitching and piping. Buyers who prefer real leather can opt for the Tahoe leather interior, which adds $1,300 to the bottom line. Either way, the blue theme carries through to the steering wheel and armrest stitching, plus blue seatbelts, a blue steering wheel badge, and blue embossing on the Lucid Bear headrest logos.

This level of performance and luxury doesn’t come cheap. The Lucid Gravity GT-S will be available exclusively in the US, priced starting at an eye-watering $125,900, excluding tax, options and the $1,850 destination fees.

Antuan Goodwin

Senior Writer, Electrified Cars

Antuan has nearly 20 years of expertise and experience testing hundreds of cars, including electric, hybrid, plug-in hybrid, hydrogen, and traditional combustion vehicles.

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Target’s Floor Care promotion is in its second week, and ECOVACS is going deep, with discounts of up to 60% on some of the most capable Deebot robot vacuums on the market, plus its Winbot window cleaner lineup and the GOAT robotic lawn mower on sale alongside them.

Headlining the deals is the Ecovacs Deebot X11 OmniCyclone, a high-end powerhouse packed with top-of-the-line features like nearly 20,000Pa of suction courtesy of BLAST engineering and the self-washing Ozmo Roller 2.0 mop. The Ozmo is a different beast than most mops because it utilizes a horizontally mounted scrubbing sponge instead of the rotating or vibrating pads normally found on robot mops. Make no mistake, the X11 OmniCyclone is a luxury-class robot vacuum — but at an impressive of around 50% discount, it makes premium autonomous cleaning available to more households than ever.

Of course, that’s far from the only great Ecovacs deal you can snag right now at Target. The Deebot X9S Pro Omni offers a similarly high-end finish and feature set to the X11, and it boasts additional suction power to pick up especially big messes and free stubborn particles from high-pile carpet. The X9S Pro Omni also sports the Ozmo Roller mop and luxury finish, and it’s $300 off for a final sale price of $699.99.

The remaining Deebot robot vacuum-mop combos on sale during the Target Floor Care promotion feature even bigger percentage cuts without sacrificing much performance. The Deebot T80 Omni essentially bridges the gap between midrange and high-end, featuring anti-tangle technology, high suction, and an Ozmo Roller comparable to the flagships, plus a whopping $600 off for a grand total of $399.99. For the duration of the sale, Ecovacs’ Deebot T50 Omni punches well above its temporary entry-level price of $298.99, and the inclusion of the Omni base station makes it arguably the most well-rounded choice in this price range. For just $16 more at $314.99, you can opt for the Deebot T50 Omni Care bundle, which includes spare rollers, mops, filters, edge brushes, and an extra bag—getting necessary component purchases out of the way early at a discount.

Ecovacs Winbot Window Cleaners Are Also on Sale

Even though Target is billing this explicitly as a Floor Care promotion, Ecovacs is offering price reductions on advanced, time-saving devices that aren’t meant for floors. The Ecovacs Winbot W2S Omni window cleaner robot can do more than save time and effort — it cleans out-of-reach windows that would otherwise require hiring a costly professional service. As an industry standard in automated window cleaning, it features impressive edge-to-edge coverage, convenient control scheduling, and multifaceted safety features — all for 25% off at $449.99.

If you don’t need the added support of the portable Omni base station, the standard Ecovacs Winbot W2S checks in at $299.99 (25% off) for the sale week, offering the same high-performing triple-nozzle array and Win-SLAM 4.0 navigation as its costlier sibling. Finally, the Ecovacs Winbot Mini gets a 29% reduction down to $170, making it especially useful for homes with just a few out-of-reach windows where investing in a longer-range model would be overkill.

It’s not every day that one of the world’s most effective, user-friendly automated cleaning lineups sees discounts this significant. You can easily snag a flagship-level Ecovacs robot vacuum and mop combo at midrange prices, or opt for a near-flagship model for what you’d normally pay for a run-of-the-mill competitor. These discounts also make it a great time to join the Winbot family — if you haven’t considered an automated window cleaner before, these reduced prices make them hard to pass up.

It’s possible you have something valuable boxed up in the garage.

Condition can swing the price by hundreds

eBay

Rarity helps, but the exact version can matter more

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Prototypes are a different market

Meta has spent much of this year trying to calm concerns about facial recognition coming to its smart glasses. But the company doesn’t look ready to give up on the idea, and a newly public patent application shows just how seriously Meta has continued exploring the technology.

First reported by Patentlyze, the application was filed by Meta in February and describes using AI-powered facial recognition alongside smart glasses to identify people and use information associated with them when creating media.

A patent filing does not guarantee any of these features will reach consumers. But it arrives after months of reports showing that Meta has repeatedly explored facial recognition for its wearable devices.

This is starting to look like more than an experiment

Back in February, reports revealed an internal feature called “Name Tag” that could allow Meta’s smart glasses to identify people in real time.

Things got considerably stranger in June. Researchers found dormant face-recognition components inside the Meta AI app, including systems capable of detecting faces and converting them into biometric data. Meta later removed the code and maintained that no facial-recognition feature had launched.

Around the same time, we also learned that Meta had licensed facial-recognition technology from Rank One Computing, a company whose customers include U.S. military and law enforcement agencies. The software was also found sitting dormant inside the Meta AI app.

At this point, there is no doubt that Meta has explored facial recognition for its glasses. What remains unclear is whether any of that work will eventually make its way into a product people can buy.

The privacy problem hasn’t changed

The patent has already drawn criticism. In a statement cited by CNET, the Center for Democracy and Technology warned that the technology could be abused in ways that put vulnerable people, including stalking and domestic violence victims, at risk.

It is the same concern that has followed Name Tag from the beginning. Smart glasses are very different from facial recognition tucked away inside a photo library. They are cameras worn on someone’s face while they move through public spaces.

Meta’s glasses already look remarkably similar to ordinary eyewear. Add facial recognition, and someone standing nearby may have no way of knowing whether they are simply being looked at or quietly identified.