Ashley Feinberg

The Smartest Computer in the World Also Has the Dirtiest Mouth

We already knew Ken Jennings thought IBM’s Jeopardy-winning supercomputer was a dick, but he’s not alone. Developers at IBM were forced to wipe part of Watson’s memory once they realized their hyperintelligent computer had turned into a bit of a smartass. https://gizmodo.com/ken-jennings-wants-to-occupy-jeopardy-5853708 During development, Watson’s project head had what must have seemed like a brilliant…

FontBook: The Only Font Resource You’ll Ever Need

FontBook, the veritable bible for typography addicts and design nerds everywhere, recently updated its iOS app to support the iPhone. You’ll never be caught without an encyclopedic knowledge of typography ever again. What does it do? FontBook is a near-comprehensive reference tool for exploring fonts and in any subclass you could hope for. With FontBook…

The Selfie Van Gogh Would Have Taken if He Could Have

Van Gogh’s is undoubtedly one of the most immediately recognizable self-portraits in the world. And it’s this familiarity with the impressionist painting that makes Lithuanian architect and photographer Tadao Cern’s digital recreation so haunting. Seeing what should be a dreamy, swirling image with such clarity and realism is jarring, but it’s also kind of incredible…

Leave Our Awesome Dinosaur Stampedes Alone

For years, people were perfectly happy believing that the series of fossilized footprints in Australia’s Lark Quarry was all that remained of an epic dinosaur stampede. Then Science happened. According to dream-killing researchers from the University of Queensland, the tracks were actually being misread for years; these fossils aren’t from a sudden prehistoric exodus but…

Foursquare just added detailed check-in pages for mobile web users—your adoring fans can now hunt you down with ease.

Apple’s App Store Is Finally Cracking Down on the Screenshot Scam

After years of complaints, scams, and careless screening tactics, Apple’s App Store is finally starting to figure itself out. The latest update should stop developers from using misleading screenshots by locking them into place once the app gets approved. As one of the most widespread app store hoaxes, developers would upload actual screenshots to gain…

MyScript Calculator: Somehow Calculators Just Got Even More Convenient

Already on Android for the past few months, this conceptually simple calculator app is finally available to iOS users. What may seem basic in theory becomes extraordinary in MyScript’s execution, leaving you with a buttonless calculator you’d never think to want but can’t imagine living without. What does it do? Though a minor annoyance, using…

Vote Which Monopoly Token Should Keep Passing Go

Say goodbye to your childhood. In order to herald in an age of change, Hasbro’s “Save Your Token” campaign is asking you to pick which memory of your youth you’d least like to watch fade to nothingness. Up until February 5, fans can go to the Monopoly Facebook page and choose which classic token they…

Photographs Look Even Better With 200 Years of Decay

The Library of Congress is brimming with flawless daguerreotype photographs that give us a pristine look into the state of things over the past two centuries. Now that’s great and all, but perhaps even more incredible are the ones that succumbed to the 200 years of damage and decay. According to The Public Domain Review:…

The Only Person North Korea Follows on Twitter Is This Goofy American Dude

North Korea’s led the charge in a lot of areas, fictional animal lair discoveries, for one. But South Korea’s crazy cousins to the north aren’t exactly known to excel at internet culture. So while it’s no surprise that their official Twitter account only follows three accounts, as Mother Jones discovered, it is, in fact, very…

Pakistan will finally be lifting its YouTube ban—as soon as it finishes work on a blasphemous content filter, that is.

Walmart’s iPhone 5 Data Plan Is Ridiculously Cheap (Updated)

Yesterday, Walmart became the latest retailer to announce plans to offer the iPhone 4 and 5 on a pre-paid basis with Straight Talk, a no-contract carrier offering unlimited data plans. And if you go with anything else, you’re probably a sucker. The Straight Talk plan (which claims to save users roughly $950 a year after…

Directr: A Video Making App That Calls the Shots

With the volume of high-quality videos flooding every corner of social media these days, it’s easy for the less artistically inclined among us to feel a little left out. And sure, video-editing apps that streamline the process aren’t new, but nothing will drop a seamless end product into your digital lap quite as quickly and,…

Netflix now streams some 3-D titles and higher-quality Super HD! Well, assuming your ISP is down to use Netflix’s CDN.

Hulu’s Adding More Original and Exclusive Content Beginning in January

Hulu’s continuing its trend of producing its own original content with three new shows: an animated superhero comedy with Seth Meyers, “The Awesomes”; U.K. comedy thriller “The Wrong Mans”; and docu-series “Behind the Mask.” https://gizmodo.com/hulus-summer-shows-might-actually-be-worth-watching-5911941 The streaming service will also be promoting its run of the Hulu Exclusive Series as it continues fighting to stay…

A Trip to Mars Will Turn Astronauts Into Lazy Bros

While you’ve been out living your life in the sunshine and open air, scientists watched as six men willingly spent 520 days locked in windowless, steel tubes inside a Moscow warehouse. Results: this group, once cream of the astronaut crop, morphed into sluggish, unmotivated frat dudes. https://gizmodo.com/phew-that-fake-mars-mission-finally-returned-to-earth-5856380 The international team, termed the Mars500, was part…

Why You Shouldn’t Post Your Concert Tickets on Facebook

The scene: your girlfriend and/or boyfriend (hey, nothing wrong with polyamory) got you tickets to The Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. You’ve been waiting your whole life to see those goats up close, so naturally, you want to post pictures of your beloved gift on Facebook, rubbing it in all your friends’ rodeo-less faces. Here’s…

Corsair Voyager Air: A Do Anything, Anywhere NAS

Corsair, primarily known as a manufacturer for PC memory and power supply, is breaking into new territory with Voyager Air, an all-in-one wireless hard drive that’s just as useful on the road as it is in your living room. This neat little box is essentially four products in one: a mobile wireless drive, home network…

Rise: An Alarm You Can Actually Enjoy Waking Up To

The iPhone’s stock alarm app is kind of terrible. You have to navigate through multiple screens, flip switches, and spin what feels like an infinite roll of numbers. And that’s just to turn it on. Minimalist, simplified apps have started popping up everywhere, so while Rise is no surprise, it’s still a relief to ditch…

A U.S. Nuclear Lab Removed Chinese Tech Due to a National Security Risk

After recently discovering that its computer systems contained several Chinese-made network switches, a major U.S. nuclear weapons lab has replaced at least two components because of national security concerns. According to a document acquired by Reuters: A letter from the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, dated November 5, 2012, states that the research…