Designer Niklas Roy constructed a working mechanical clock entirely from trash and found materials while on an artist residency in Glashütte, Saxony, hosted by watchmaker NOMOS. The clock runs for about 30 minutes, displaying only seconds and minutes, striking a gong at each full hour and triggering a randomizer device just before it stops. Roy also devised a mock time standard he calls GTC, with his clock serving as its reference timepiece.
niklasroy.com
· 2026-10-02
An industry analysis argues that entertainment companies are now designing content strategies around two distinct forms of audience attention: 'appointment' viewing, where consumers deliberately set aside time for a release, and 'ambient' viewing, the unplanned minutes spent scrolling feeds or half-listening to podcasts. The piece contends that this ambient, seemingly unintentional consumption is increasingly treated as valuable, premium engagement by the industry.
fastcompany.com
· 2026-09-30
A newly released Android app called Pixel Clock, roughly two weeks old, provides alarm, timer, stopwatch and world clock functions with a Material 3 Expressive design that adapts to the user's chosen system color. Android Authority's Andy Walker reports it replaced several other timing apps on his device after he had also tried an app called Chrono as an alternative to Google Clock.
androidauthority.com
· 2026-09-30
Researchers led by neuroscientist Agustín Ibáñez at Adolfo Ibáñez University created an algorithm that analyzes hundreds of vocal traits, including pitch and speaking speed, from four-minute recordings to estimate a person's age. The team found that a large gap between this speech-predicted age and a person's actual age was strongly linked to cognitive problems associated with conditions like dementia, according to findings published in Science Advances.
nature.com
· 2026-09-30
Big Mess o' Wires, maker of the Floppy Emu disk emulator, conducted a months-long audit of accumulated hardware failures from quality-assurance rejects and customer returns. Of 68 defective boards examined, 42 traced back to problems with the clock crystal component: 26 boards had no functioning clock at all, and 16 showed erratic behavior at higher speeds. The maker linked this to a supplier substitution made by the contract manufacturer when the usual clock crystal part was out of stock.
bigmessowires.com
· 2026-09-29
Amazon has discounted its latest Echo Spot smart alarm clock to $54.99, down from its $109.99 list price. The device, which lacks a camera unlike the original Echo Spot, features a small customizable display, Night Mode, Alexa voice control, alarms, timers, and dual-band Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity.
androidauthority.com
· 2026-09-29
Users continue reporting that alarms on Google Pixel phones fail to sound, with the Clock app displaying a message that the alarm 'didn't fire for an unknown reason.' The problem has been documented since at least 2021, and though Google previously said it addressed the issue, new reports keep surfacing, including one case where an overheated device blocked the alarm and another where alarms fired silently despite the phone not being on silent mode.
androidauthority.com
· 2026-09-25
Google Nest support has confirmed reports that Google Clock alarm routines are malfunctioning: tapping to add or edit an alarm routine sometimes opens Assistant settings instead, and some existing routines fail to trigger after an alarm is dismissed. The company says its team is working on a fix and is also looking into separate complaints about timers. Google separately said a fix for voice-controlled lights with non-English names should roll out within 24 to 48 hours.
androidauthority.com
· 2026-09-24
Researchers at Singapore's Centre for Quantum Technologies, led by Murray Barrett, report building a lutetium-based atomic clock that outperforms previous record-holding clocks made with ytterbium, strontium and aluminum. The findings were published in Nature on September 23. The clock works by locking a laser to lutetium's atomic transition frequency, which then serves as an ultra-precise timekeeping reference.
phys.org
· 2026-09-24
Physicists have built an optical atomic clock based on the rare-earth element lutetium that would drift by less than one second over roughly 260 billion years, making it the most precise timekeeper reported so far. The clock measures time using the frequency of visible light absorbed by lutetium atoms. Researchers say its design is stable enough that they aim to miniaturize it for use outside the laboratory.
nature.com
· 2026-09-24
Action Porty, the community group that recently bought Portobello's old Police Station building, asked local residents for help resetting its clock tower's time. A volunteer climbed a ladder into the attic and up into the tower to inspect the mechanism, finding what appears to be the original 1877 clockwork, later fitted with electric motors and a control box to silence the night chime.
pointinthecloud.com
· 2026-09-23
Researchers at the National University of Singapore have built an optical atomic clock using lutetium ions that is four times more precise than the previous record-holder, a calcium-ion clock. The device would lose less than a second over roughly 260 billion years, making it the most accurate timekeeper reported to date, according to a study published in Nature on September 23.
nature.com
· 2026-09-23
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