AwesomeCast 787: Fortnite’s Hot Bat Summer, Robot Arms & AI
Technology is at its best when it solves a real problem. It can also be at its most entertaining when somebody creates robotic Doctor Octopus arms or puts Batman in swim trunks.
AwesomeCast 787 covers both ends of that spectrum as Sorg, Katie Dudas and Dave Podnar examine practical health technology, safer devices for children, confusing USB-C cables, AI privacy failures and some of the strangest digital stories of the week.
Health Technology That Makes Data Easier to Use
Dave’s Awesome Thing of the Week is the Omron 7 Series Bluetooth blood pressure monitor.
After receiving inconsistent numbers from an older monitor, Dave wanted a device that could make readings easier to track and share. The Omron model supports two users, saves readings on the device, calculates an average from recent measurements and sends data to its companion app.
For iPhone users, it can also connect with Apple Health. More importantly, Dave can export a record of his results instead of manually writing everything down before speaking with his doctor.
Blood pressure monitor:
https://amzn.to/4yncwxY
A Phone Ecosystem Designed to Grow With Kids
Katie brings a different kind of connected technology to the show with Pinwheel.
Pinwheel offers phones, watches and a Wi-Fi home phone designed for younger users. Parents can manage contacts, review messages, restrict social media, track location and decide which applications are available. Those permissions can gradually expand as the child gets older.
One especially thoughtful feature is support for multiple caregivers. Parents, grandparents and members of a blended family can receive the appropriate level of access without placing the child in the middle of conflicting household rules.
Pinwheel also offers a standalone watch for calls, texts and GPS tracking. Its most nostalgic product may be the Pinwheel Home: a corded telephone that works through Wi-Fi and allows children to experience the lost art of slamming down a receiver.
Learn more:
https://www.pinwheel.com
What Is That USB-C Cable Actually Doing?
USB-C may look universal, but identical connectors can support dramatically different speeds, charging capabilities and video standards.
Sorg tests WhatCable, a free Mac application that inspects connected devices and reports what the cable, port, charger or dock has negotiated. It can help answer questions such as:
Why is an external SSD transferring files slowly?
Why is a monitor stuck at a lower refresh rate?
Is the cable limiting the device?
Is a laptop receiving the expected charging power?
Does the computer’s USB-C port support the standard printed on the accessory?
For video producers, photographers and anyone with a drawer full of mystery cables, the utility could prevent unnecessary replacement purchases.
Download WhatCable:
https://www.whatcable.uk/
Celebrating Inventor Rory Cooper
For Disability Pride Month, Dave highlights the work of Rory Cooper.
After being paralyzed in a cycling accident while serving in the military, Cooper encountered the limitations of the heavy wheelchairs available to him. He designed a lighter option and continued his education, eventually becoming a leading researcher in mobility and assistive technology.
His work includes the Human Engineering Research Laboratories in Pittsburgh, and he holds numerous patents connected to wheelchair and mobility improvements. Cooper is also a Paralympic bronze medalist and a longtime competitor in the National Veterans Wheelchair Games.
Read more about Rory Cooper:
https://www.invent.org/inductees/rory-cooper
LEGO Cars and Real Racing Technology
Katie offers something for Fast & Furious fans with LEGO’s Toyota Supra MK4 set. The orange Speed Champions model is based on Brian O’Conner’s car and includes a minifigure wearing his signature T-shirt and jeans.
View the LEGO set:
https://www.lego.com/en-us/product/the-fast-and-the-furious-toyota-supra-mk4-77260
The hosts also preview a speed-focused attraction at the Carnegie Science Center. The exhibit includes an interactive racing component, with specialized vehicles expected through a partnership with the Petersen Automotive Museum.
Watch the preview:
https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1PZqTmHP4J/?mibextid=wwXIfr
Better Camera Angles Through Better Training
One of the episode’s most important conversations begins with broadcasting guidelines intended to reduce the sexualization of women athletes.
The examples show how revealing angles, lingering shots and unnecessary slow-motion replays can turn ordinary sports coverage into something exploitative. The hosts stress that clothing is not consent and that athletes choosing to present themselves a particular way does not give every camera operator permission to create invasive images.
Sorg discusses using AI to adapt the guidelines into a pro wrestling training tool. This is a constructive use for image generation: quickly visualizing good and bad framing so new camera operators and video switchers understand what should—or should not—appear in a production.
See the original examples:
https://www.reddit.com/r/interestingasfuck/comments/1uwaxzx/some_of_the_new_guidelines_that_have_been/
Instagram Learns Another AI Privacy Lesson
Meta briefly introduced an Instagram feature that allowed AI creations to draw from images on public profiles. The feature appeared without a clear opt-in process, leaving users to discover that they needed to disable it themselves.
Women and other users vulnerable to image-based harassment quickly recognized how the feature could be abused. After the backlash, Meta removed it.
The AwesomeCast crew discusses why these failures keep happening and why privacy, consent and potential abuse must be addressed before a product reaches millions of users.
Read the report:
https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2026/07/13/meta-disables-ai-feature-instagram-backlash/90899917007/
Doctor Octopus Arms Are Here—Sort Of
Jizai Arms is a research project involving wearable robotic limbs. A base unit can support several detachable arms, and users can even exchange the arms during social interactions or performances.
It looks like technology pulled directly from a comic book, but the presentation leaves the hosts debating its purpose. Is it a step toward useful assistive limbs? A study of future cyborg interactions? Performance art? Or simply a demonstration of what engineers can build?
Explore the project:
https://jizai-arms.com/
The conversation also introduces the wonderfully skeptical design commentary of Refashioned Hippie:
https://www.instagram.com/refashionedhippie/
Welcome to Hot Bat Summer
Fortnite’s DC characters are going to the beach.
“Hot Bat Summer” introduces summer-themed versions of Batman, Harley Quinn, Catwoman and Poison Ivy. It is another wonderfully strange addition to a game where nearly every fictional universe can eventually collide.
See the skins:
https://www.polygon.com/fortnite-hot-bat-summer-skins-dc-batman-harley-quinn-catwoman-poison-ivy/
Waymo, Surveillance and Digital Ownership
The episode closes with footage of a shirtless man climbing onto and damaging a Waymo vehicle in East Hollywood.
The incident is bizarre enough on its own, but it opens a larger discussion about cameras, autonomous vehicles and surveillance. Between doorbell cameras, vehicle sensors and public monitoring systems, people increasingly have to assume that almost everything they do in public is being recorded.
The hosts connect that loss of control to another digital problem: accounts containing decades of purchased media can be hacked, suspended or deleted. When access depends on a company’s servers and policies, ownership may not mean what consumers think it means.
Read the Waymo story:
https://kotaku.com/shirtless-man-starts-butlerian-jihad-against-waymo-in-east-hollywood-2000715911
One Beta Download and More to Come
While all of this is happening, Sorg begins downloading the iOS 27 public beta on a secondary phone. Katie declines to join him and saves her complaints about the latest update for the Patreon aftertalk.
Support AwesomeCast and receive the additional conversation at:
https://www.patreon.com/awesomecast
AwesomeCast is hosted by Sorg, Katie Dudas and Dave Podnar and is part of the Sorgatron Media Podcast Network.
