Brian Barrett

Don’t Read Too Much into Newsweek’s Digital Retreat

Newsweek’s 80th anniversary will be next February, but you won’t be able to find a commemorative issue in newsstands or in your mailbox. After December 31st, the weekly magazine will cease to be anything more than bits downloaded to your iPad. It’s the end of an era for one of America’s most stalwart weeklies, but…

Amazon Just Beat Apple to the Classroom

On a freezing, cloudless day last January in New York, Apple presented to the world its vision for the future of education. It was a clear-eyed argument for bringing tablets into classrooms, a blueprint for fusing cutting-edge technology with advanced learning techniques. https://gizmodo.com/apples-ipad-textbooks-everything-you-need-to-know-abou-5877500 But the future doesn’t get built on no-bid contracts. And slowly, steadily—especially…

Everything Is Like Facebook

Remember how chairs are like Facebook? Of course you don’t! That ad was super dumb, and you bleached it from your brain just as quickly as you could. But that doesn’t mean you can’t have some fun with other things Facebook might actually be like. Or at least, look silly next to. https://gizmodo.com/facebooks-first-ad-is-facebooks-worst-ad-5948904 Here’s how…

Don’t Preorder Microsoft Surface

Microsoft’s Surface RT tablet is gorgeous. It’s innovative. It’s without exaggeration the most exciting new gadget to come along in years. And if you buy one today, you’re a fool. If you’ve got $500 to spare (really $600, since you’ll want that fancy keyboard cover), you can preorder a Surface RT tablet today and have…

The iPad Mini Is Coming October 23rd

Apple has just sent out its last round of invites for the year, and it’s as official as it gets: The iPad Mini is coming next week. Go ahead and mark off October 23rd on your calendars. It should be quite a show. As the invite above indicates, the event will be held at 10am…

Microsoft Surface RT Tablet: $500 for 32GB of Windows 8’s Best Hope

It’s been since pulled, but a listing on the Microsoft Store earlier this morning showed that Surface RT, the company’s self-made, keyboard-covered Windows RT tablet, will be available for preorder today, starting at $500 for a 32GB model. That price seems right to make a major impact. That pricing puts the entry-level Surface at a…

According to AllThingsD, Apple has poached one of Amazon’s search honchos to give Siri a boost. [AllThingsD]

Why the Best Online Identity Protection Is Just Being a Weirdo

These are troubling times for internet identity, with passwords being ravaged and real names outed. How does a young web citizen keep himself secret and safe? http://gawker.com/5950981/unmasking-reddits-violentacrez-the-biggest-troll-on-the-web By being a unique brand of nutjob, of course. XKCD has given us handy password tips before, but this one might be my favorite. Remember: it’s less important…

Microsoft Made Its First Non-Terrible Ad Just in Time for Windows 8

You may well know Windows 8 backwards and forwards (swipes) by now, may even be tinkering with the Developer Preview as we speak. But for the normals out there in the world? Their first introduction to Microsoft’s desktop upheaval will be through this ad. And—shockingly enough—it’s pretty good! Whatever your take on Microsoft’s actual products,…

Why the Galaxy S III Mini Is a Major Letdown

The Galaxy S III is one of the best phones you can buy. It’s fast, it’s beautiful, it’s got guts most handsets can only dream of. Which is why it’s so disappointing—inexplicable, even—that Samsung’s Galaxy S III mini isn’t just the same, but smaller. It’s a lesser phone in every conceivable way. And that sucks.…

The Onion‘s TED Talks Parodies: Way Smarter Than the Real Thing

TED Talks! What was once a proud educational lecture series long ago descended into a smug parade of increasingly ridiculous ideas. They’ve never been more ripe for skewering. Thank goodness The Onion noticed. https://gizmodo.com/proof-that-ted-is-past-its-prime-5915942 Above is just a short preview of Onion Talks, but if a dog eating pie isn’t more educational than half of…

After a successful Samsung appeal, the Galaxy Nexus injunction has been lifted. You are free to enjoy your Nexii again!

Report: Microsoft Office Will Hit iOS and Android Next Spring (Updated)

Oh, boy. Here we go again. Microsoft Office had reportedly been confirmed for iOS and Android, and should be available on both platforms in March 2013. Why should we believe this now more than the previous rodeos? Because this time, it comes from Microsoft itself. https://gizmodo.com/office-for-ipad-is-reportedly-imminent-updated-5886842 As the Verge reports, Microsoft product manager Petr Bobek…

Science Just Killed Any Hope You Ever Had of Jurassic Park Being Real

Every so often, a scientific breakthrough comes along that completely reshapes our world, giving us untold insight and inestimable hope for a more perfect future. What a world, it makes us think, and what privilege to be a part of it. This is not one of those breakthroughs. This is bullshit. Nature reports that researchers…

Advanced Trolling 101: Think Big

You hate “green” energy. You love mayhem. You’re an eccentric billionaire just looking for a good way to kill a Sunday afternoon. If any of these applies to you, here’s a blueprint for the most advanced trolling the world has ever known. Let this be a lesson to all of us: no matter what, we…

Samsung’s Galaxy S III Mini Might Have Shrunken Specs, Too

When Samsung confirmed that its 4-inch Galaxy S III mini was real, it promised that it wouldn’t just be another horrible tiny budget phone. But if MobileGeeks’ information about the handset is correct, we may be in for a letdown tomorrow. https://gizmodo.com/samsung-launching-new-four-inch-galaxy-s-iii-mini-tomor-5950454 It’s not that the device looks actively bad, like some other 4-inch clunkers…

Firefox 16 arrives today! And you probably won’t notice the difference, unless you’re a dev. [TechCrunch]

That overpriced, locked down, long-delayed 30-pin-to-lighting adapter is finally shipping. Sorry, still $30. [MacRumors]

How a Single Company Caused a Deadly Meningitis Outbreak

It starts with a headache, nothing major. Then the neck stiffness sets in, the high fever. That’s all the warning you have before fungal meningitis inflames your brain and takes your life. And it’s happening, all of a sudden, to unprecedented numbers of people all across America. Fungal meningitis is a devastating illness, but also…

GIFCTRL: Take Godlike Control Over Any GIF

Problem: you love animated GIFs, but wish you had omnipotent Time Lord-like control over their movements. Solution: GIFCTRL. You didn’t have any plans for Sunday afternoon anyway, right? Good. Because this is how you’re going to spend it. GIFCTRL displays your favorite animated loops of life-wasting in the same mega-sized format as MAXGIF before it,…