Adam Clark Estes

IKEA Sit/Stand Desk Review: I Can’t Believe How Much I Like This

Standing desks are not cheap. Or at least, the extremely handy motorized ones aren’t. That’s why everyone—including this desk-agnostic blogger—freaked out when IKEA announced that it would sell a sit/stand desk powered by electricity for less than $500. Finally, a healthy desk option for the masses. Finally! *Update (12/15/14): IKEA has alerted us that the…

This Documentary Explains the Crazy Reality of Living on Mars

Do you want to go to space? Of course you do, and the fun thing is you (probably) can—if you have a shitload of money. The good news is that space tourism is getting cheaper and easier, so it’s entirely likely that you might be able to afford it one day. But you probably don’t…

Why Cybersecurity Threats Are About to Get Much, Much Worse

Let me state the obvious just to get it out of the way: our nation’s cybersecurity sucks and everybody knows it. The president knows it. The Pentagon knows it. And, worst of all, the hackers know it, too. That’s why I’m so alarmed by a new Pew Internet survey that says we’ll likely get hit…

Brazil Is Keeping Its Promise to Avoid the U.S. Internet

Brazil was not bluffing last year, when it said that it wanted to disconnect from the United States-controlled internet due to the NSA’s obscenely invasive surveillance tactics. The country is about to stretch a cable from the northern city of Fortaleza all the way to Portugal, and they’ve vowed not to use a single U.S.…

Study: Solar Energy Will Be as Cheap as Fossil Fuel Energy by 2016

A new study on solar energy from Deutsche Bank bears very good news. Thanks to technology and innovation, solar energy will be just as cheap as energy from fossil fuels by 2016. That’s basically tomorrow, and it’s awesome. We have a few people to thank for this encouraging turn of events. One is Uncle Sam.…

Fireball Whisky contains an antifreeze ingredient

Fireball is a ragingly popular, sickly sweet elixir that’s taken America by storm. Fireball is also made with propylene glycol, a common ingredient in some antifreezes. That’s an unsettling fact, so unsettling that Norway, Sweden, and Finland just recalled the booze. But it’s not necessarily as unsettling as it sounds. Propylene glycol is actually a…

Watch the Latest Prototype of Google’s Modular Ara Phone in Action

Everybody from hardware startups to DARPA is pumped about Google’s modular Ara phone—when it finally gets here. The device and its hot-swappable hardware is supposed to come out at some point next year, but so far, videos of the neat little thing in action are fairly rare. Luckily the geniuses at Phonebloks like to share.…

“Black & Yellow” Played Over Found Footage of a 1960s Grandpa Party

A random YouTube user recently found some old home movie footage of his grandparents throwing a party in the 1960s. Then, he dubbed over it with the popular hip-hop song “Black and Yellow” by Wiz Khalifa. The outcome is simply perfect. I don’t know which part is my favorite. Obviously, the leading contender is just…

Boston’s Thinking of Building Canals Like Venice Because Climate Change

Imagine taking a scenic gondola tour through Boston’s historic Back Bay as Red Sox fans saunter towards Fenway over arched bridges. Not far away, the Charles River Basin is padded by wetlands that soak up the rising sea water. This surreal scene, a sort of Venice in New England, could be the reality in a…

The FTC Is Finally Suing AT&T for Throttling Customers’ Data

Good news, you lovers of freedom and justice. The FTC is going after AT&T for throttling the mobile internet speed of unlimited data customers. In the words of FTC chairwoman Edith Ramirez: “The issue is simple: Unlimited means unlimited.” Put a little bit more bluntly, the FTC is saying that AT&T broke the law by…

Google Fit Hits the Play Store

Google Fit just hit the Play Store, and, well, it looks pretty much exactly like Google said it would. It also looks a heck of a lot like Apple’s HealthKit and corresponding Health app—not in terms of design but in terms of features. That said, it does look pretty useful! Like Health does in iOS,…

Why Ello’s Plan to Stay Ad-Free Can Actually Work

I want to believe in Ello. It’s a cheeky little startup from Vermont with idealistic ambitions and a haunting logo and the promise of no ads. What’s not to like? Well, a few days ago, Ello revealed its grand plan to stay ad-free, and honestly, it sounded at first like total bullshit. But it’s not.…

How to Get Handoff to Actually Work in OS X Yosemite

If you’re anything like me, you were really excited to try out the new Handoff feature in OS X Yosemite and iOS 8. And you were equally disappointed when you updated all of your software, and the damn thing didn’t work. Fear not, fellow computer user! With Apple’s help, I managed to get Handoff working,…

Would You Let This AI App Answer Your Email For You? 

Would you let a robot respond to your mail? Well Less.Mail just announced an artificially intelligent piece of software that will do just that. It comes in the form of an Android app called Less.Mail, and it’s currently available by invite-only. It’s an interesting idea, but it must be a nightmare to execute. When a…

Dumb Wi-Fi Network Name Delays Flight for Four Hours

Some asshat at Los Angeles International Airport ruined a plane-full of people’s days on Sunday night. He named a Wi-Fi network “Al-Quida Free Terror Nettwork,” and a passenger about to take off on a 9am flight to London noticed it. The plane didn’t take off until 1pm as a result. The plane was taxiing to…

Google Drive is down, and it’s taken all of your docs with it. Users have been reporting outages since 11:20, which is very annoying if you use Google Docs for work—like all my coworkers and I do. Fingers crossed they fix it soon! (Update 3:15 PM: It’s back!)

Some Crazy Genius Hid a Cat in Google Maps

If you’ve been exploring the fine town of Auckland, New Zealand on Google Maps lately, you might’ve spotted a strange shape just north of the Parnell Cricket Club. It’s a cat. (Or at least, it was cat.) Google’s not exactly sure how it got there. “We were aware that cats were trying to take over…

Whatever You Think of Edward Snowden, Go See Citizenfour Now

I have mixed feelings about Snowden. After spending more than a year reporting on the whistleblower patriot traitor spy skinny guy from North Carolina, I’ve gone from lauding his regard for American civil liberties to deeply distrusting his intentions and methods for exposing state secrets. But last night, I saw Citizenfour, a new documentary about…

Google’s Launching a Special Store Just for Project Ara Hardware

Everybody’s favorite modular phone project, Google’s Ara, is about to get little bit more interesting. Recently, the company quietly announced that it would be launching a hardware store for developers to sell their own Ara components. It’ll be a little bit like the Play Store, except with hot-swappable hardware instead of apps. This app store…

Ford’s Adding Another Self-Driving Feature to Its Cars Next Year

There’s a lot of debate over when—and whether—self-driving cars will hit the road. Elon Musk says six years. Volvo says three. However, some of the features of self-driving cars are already in action. And with Ford’s announcement that its sedans will sport pedestrian detection technology starting next year, there are about to be a lot…