Gizmodo

Submersibles

A Look at Steve Fossett's Super Secret Flying, Diving, Space Bound Submersible

Unbeknownst to most of the world, the late super rich adventurer Steve Fossett had started work on an amazing flying submersible that would one day theoretically touch the stars. More importantly, however, was that the design would have allowed adventurers and scientists alike (and most importantly Fossett himself, of course) to venture into the deadly depths of the Mariana Trench, some 36,000 feet below the ocean's surface. Sadly, the design was put on hold immediately after Fossett went missing about one year ago, but that hasn't stopped San Anselmo inventor Graham Hawkes from detailing the project that Fossett tapped him to create two years before his death. More »

Architecture

The Highest Skyscraper in the World

When it's finished in ten years, Dubai's latest architectural monolith will be the tallest skyscraper in the world. At more than one kilometer high (3,280 feet), the Nakheel Tower will have the hundred floors. More »

Always Low Prices. Always.

Walmart Unwittingly Sells iPod Nano Knockoff as Actual iPod

Reader Mitchel Jones noticed something seriously wrong with the iPod display at his local Walmart. Was there another new iPod Nano? Has Apple finally abandoned its iconic wheel? The answer, as deduced by Mitchel himself, is much more depressing: retail fraud. More »

What Bailout?

Chelsea Football Club Owner Building $400 Million Mega-Yacht with Submarine, Missile Defenses

Russian billionaire and Chelsea soccer club owner Roman Abramovich is building a $400 million mega-yacht. Yawn, you say? You have two? OK, well, this yacht has its own submarine. And armor plating with bulletproof glass. And little boats that fit inside the bigger boat. And a frickin' missile defense system that will alert he and his crew of 70 former SAS soldiers that there be pirates in those waters. It should be noted that Abramovich's other yachts—the 377 ft. Pelorus, 282ft Ecstasea and 160ft Sussurro—all pale in comparison to the 550 ft. Eclipse, and do not include missile detection systems. You can never be too safe, right? More »

Grand theft naval

US Navy Sysadmin Fills House With $1.6 Million Worth of Pilfered Office Supplies

If you're working at Dunder-Mifflin and you're lifting a highlighter or two every now and then, Michael may feign disapproval, but that's about it. On the other side of the coin is Victor Papagno, a sysadmin for the US Naval Research Laboratory, who was recently busted for jacking over 20,000 pieces of gear worth $1.6 million—from ink cartridges to hard drives to software—over the course of 10 years. More »

Question of the Day

Who Would Win: an Imperial Star Destroyer or the USS Enterprise?

This great image requires a t-shirt urgently. When I came across it today on Digg I thought: "I can't believe we haven't asked this question in Gizmodo yet. Hello?" Who would you think would win: an Imperial Star Destroyer or the USS Enterprise? And a simple answer won't work. You have give us actual technical arguments. More »

sega vision

Sega Returning to the Hardware Biz with Vision PMP for 2009

Sony's PSP is currently getting its butt handed to it by the Nintendo DS, but don't tell that to Sega. With its upcoming Sega Vision PMP, due out in the UK sometime in 2009, the former hardware company-turned-sub par software maker is hoping to take on the jack-of-all-trades portable market. The prognosis for such a device is OK, but then again how could it not be? After all, this is the company that brought us the 32X, Saturn, and the Dreamcast—the only direction any Sega hardware offering could go from this point forward is up. More »

Holy Flying Penguins

Penguins Flying in Military Planes from Brazil's Beaches to the South Atlantic

Get ready to fight to dead for this one, Disney, Pixar, and Dreamworks: More than a thousand penguins have suddenly appeared on the beaches of Brazil. The scientists can't explain why this is happening. Some say they are somehow confused. Knowing the views in Brazil's beaches, I personally think they are not confused at all. Brazilian National Institute for Space Research climatologist Jose Marengo thinks the penguins—who are being airlifted back to its origin by the air force—got lost because of changes in the ocean circulation in the South Atlantic: More »

Existentialism

Beer-Filled USB Drive Raises Disturbing Questions

Gadgets like this Beer-Filled USB Flash Drive really make me question the basics. More than my first-year university philosophy class did, anyway. Existential angst, the downfall of western civilization, and "customizable floaties" after the jump. More »

Fusion

HiPER Laser Fusion Project "Starts" Tomorrow, Could Save Earth

The $1.7-billion HiPER facility—High Power laser Energy Research—will kick off with a party this monday. Yes, the project that will hopefully give us a way to produce limitless clean energy and save humanity from self-destruction (or pull out an LHC and destroy half the planet), starts up with a hydrogen pellet and alcoholic cocktails, which, if you ask me, is the perfect way to begin saving the planet. Here is how it works: More »

Rumor

Apple's 'Brick' is a Revolutionary Aluminum Manufacturing Process?

9to5 Mac has gone on record as saying that the rumored Apple Brick isn't a product, but a manufacturing process that can make high quality aluminum shells. The "brick" part comes in because the supposed technique carves these MacBook casings with lasers and high pressure water jets out of bricks of aluminum, making for a seamless and screwless design. Whether or not it's true is still left to be seen, but one benefit would mean that there would be no need to bend metal (which creates weak spots). Again, no idea if this is legit, but 9 to 5 Mac has a fairly decent track record, which they conveniently point out at the end of their post. [9 to 5 Mac]

IKEA Igloos

Igloo Satellite Cabin Modular Home Design Is Sarah Palin Approved

You don't need to meticulously memorize any talking points to see the beauty and functionality in these Igloo Satellite Cabins. Designed to protect you from the worst that Earth has to offer, these little huts are Eskimo-inspired and completely customizable. Like an IKEA store in the Arctic, you can also add in modular interior and exterior design packages to give the 3 meter interior space that personal touch. Better still, get some friends and create a fort, as you'll see in some design plans below. More »

iPhone Apps

The Week in iPhone Apps: Fresh Fring and Other Diversions

Lots of news to catch up on this week from the App Store. So come have a look, iPhone folks, at what you may have missed on Giz this week, in addition to a few of our picks for new apps of the last seven days as always. We're excited first and foremost that Fring, a great multi-service IM and VoIP app, has just made it into the App Store (not even in the search index yet). Good thing, because the rest of this week's pics skew a bit toward the wacky side. But sometimes your weekend just needs a little wahh wahhhh...crickets...crickets.... More »

Research in Motion

Leaked Screens Show BlackBerry's Own App Store

Far be it from us to be criticize something like this, but RIM has been spilling some serious beans lately. The newest (and pehaps tastiest) comes to us from CrackBerry, where they've uncovered a few screens of the BlackBerry App Center. They've also got a wealth of information about the service, which will unfortunately be available for Storm users only. More »

Fire extinguishers

X Sting Wish Fire Extinguisher Turns Firefighting Into a Shoot Out

When everyday devices become autonomous and start mating in the far future thanks to nanotechnology, items like fire extinguishers will become what designer Adam Scott has envisioned with the X Sting Wish. Mixing one part Dustbuster, one part machine gun, and a final part carbon fiber-wrapped fire extinguisher, Scott has managed to cook up a device that looks as at home in a kitchen as it would in Gears of War made real. There are even side-mounted LEDs for night missions. So, why make a lifesaving device like the fire extinguisher so, well, weapon-y? As the mock-ups reveal, it's all about easy recognition in an emergency situation. Apparently, when fire strikes, people are more apt to reach for their shotguns than that red cylinder marked "FIRE EXTINGUISHER." More »

Kindle

Amazon's Kindle 2 Suddenly Appears

Boy Genius just unveiled shots of what is very likely the Kindle 2. Notice the follow-up to the snowspeeder-like original Amazon e-book reader is more rounded, more early-iPod in its proportions, but still white with the same basic screen. The cool sparkly LCD status bar seems to be gone, a joystick has replaced the clickwheel, and the other buttons are smaller for fewer accidental page turns. No word on the availability of this baby, of course. As you might expect, Boy Genius has quite a few more pictures, and more details too, so feel free to drop on over there to have a look. We'll be here when you're ready to comment. [BGR]

Apple

Giant iPhone Display Runs OS X (This Time, At Least)

Eagle-eyed reader Phelipe Hamoui snapped these shots of the giant iPhone display in Hong Kong running Mac OS X. This marks a nice change from that embarrassing little slip-up that revealed a U.S. display was running (gasp upon gasp!) Windows XP. So take a deep breath, Mac Army. Everything's gonna be okay. [- Thanks, Phelipe!]

Led

The World's Largest LED Screen Is, Of Course, In Dubai

It's not built quite yet, but Tameer Holding is constructing the world's largest LED screen in Dubai for a commercial office building named The Podium. The gigantic display will be implemented as the building's facade, reaching 33 stories into the sky and maintaining visibility up to a mile away. (Needless to say, that's a lot bigger than we are building displays in America.) More »

iPhone

iPhone 2.2 Update Finally Brings Google Street View to Maps

After being sent out to developers last week promising only "compatibility testing" enhancements, the pre-release version of iPhone software 2.2 is starting to spill its secrets. The folks at Mac Rumors have dug up evidence that Google Maps' Street View will finally make it into the Maps app, after popping up in the regular mobile Maps applications for non-iPhones as well as, of course, Android, with the cool Compass view feature. On top of Street View, they've also uncovered a few other new features. More »

Research in Motion

BlackBerry Storm Can Cut and Paste, Multitouchily

If browsing through the leaked PowerPoint and User Guide showing how to sync your contacts or, you know, send an email didn't get your heart pumping, BGR has found a punchier little feature that might. RIM's documentation indicates that multitouch (!!) cut and paste functionality will be built into the Storm's software, something that Apple has been stubbornly disinterested in. Hopefully BlackBerry is saving more multitouch announcements for later. [BGR]