Chris Mills, Author at Gizmodo

A Combo 3-D Printer, CNC Machine And Laser Etcher Makes A Lot Of Sense

3-D printers are powerful but limited tools: you can make anything you want, but only out of a specific kind of plastic. But combine that with a CNC machine that shapes metal, and a laser etcher for fine detail, and you have an all-in-one workshop that doesn’t require you getting your hands dirty. BoXZY is…

Tech News Chris Mills

Chrome and Firefox Users Make Better Employees

Have you ever griped at your company’s IT department for forcing you to use Internet Explorer? Chances are, you weren’t being difficult: you were just trying to be a better employee. According to research published by Cornerstone OnDemand, people who use Firefox or Chrome make better employees. It gathered the data from customers who used…

Tech News Chris Mills

The Weird And Wonderful World Of Icicle Science

Despite icicles killing chilling numbers of people per year, we know surprisingly little about the hows and whys of their formation (and no, the answer is not just ‘the cold’). The Icicle Atlas, a giant online repository of everything you could ever want to know about icicles, seeks to change that. As the New York…

Tech News Chris Mills

This Cheap Hack Shows No iPhone PIN Is Really Safe

I’ve always thought of an iPhone passcode as being fairly secure — it’s a 4-digit number, whith a lockout that prevents just mashing buttons until you find the right answer. But apparently, there’s a cheap box that can get hack your security, no matter what. According to MDSec, there’s a $300 device called an IP…

Tech News Chris Mills

Premera Blue Cross Was Hacked — And Took Months To Tell Anyone

Premera Blue Cross, a health-insurance company with millions of patients in the US, has just admitted that 11 million of its customers have been victims of a wide-ranging data breach. Stolen data includes Social Security numbers, bank account information, and clinical records. Oh crap. According to a statement released today by Premera, the attack started…

Privacy & Security Chris Mills

How Science Looks At Really Tiny Things – Using Tape And Pliers

For nanomaterials scientists, just getting a look at what they’re working with presents a serious challenge — you can’t see something a couple atoms wide with a normal microscope. And while they have all the fancy toys you’d probably expect in a hi-tech lab, office supplies also play a disturbingly prominent role. YouTuber Tom Scott…

Tech News Chris Mills

Apple May Be Launching A Genuine Alternative To Cable In The Fall

Rumors about an Apple TV, and associated Apple TV service are about as old as the history of rumor blogs. But according to a WSJ report, this fall could finally see Apple launching a streaming TV package, featuring a bunch of big-name broadcasters, available only on Apple devices. The WSJ report lists ABC, CBS and…

Tech News Chris Mills

Buzz Aldrin Has An Important Message For Humanity

Buzz Aldrin has always had some pretty strong opinions on Mars exploration — but this photo, which the astronaut took at Stonehenge yesterday, doesn’t leave a whole lot to the imagination. Maybe NASA (and those who control its budget) will take the hint. [Twitter via Reddit]

Space & Spaceflight Chris Mills

You Can Now Control Your Chromecast With A Normal TV Remote

A Chromecast is just about the cheapest (and best) way to get Netflix onto your TV with minimum hassle, but one of the tradeoffs is that you have to control everything from your smartphone or laptop — which kinda sucks. But as of now, you can at least play and pause without poking a screen.…

Gadgets Chris Mills

Watch ISS Astronauts Geek Out About Star Trek

The crew aboard the ISS conducted a long interview with radio station WTOP recently, covering everything from daily life aboard the ISS, to their Star Trek childhoods. Although there’s a whole host of interesting stuff in the interview — details about how ISS experiments don’t always go to plan, for example — the highlight is…

Space & Spaceflight Chris Mills

Withdrawing Cash With a Smartphone Could Beat The Card Skimmers

The U.S. loses more money to card fraud than the rest of the world combined — something that’s mostly down to the magnetic stripes that make our cards incredibly hackable. Although more secure technologies are coming, they’ll require time and money to adopt. But one kindly Canadian bank has a secure system that only needs…

Tech News Chris Mills

Designing a Shadowless Skyscraper Isn’t Magic, Just Good Science

The boom in skyscrapers is good for elevator manufacturers, but can be bad for residents who have to live in the shadow (literally or otherwise). Using computer-aided design and some seriously big mirrors, architects in London have come up with a plan to build a pair of skyscrapers with no shadow at all. As Wired…

Tech News Chris Mills

The UK Is Hosting Cyber War Games In A Decommissioned Warship

Wargames used to — and still often does — mean legions of tanks roaming across battlefields, and a bunch of soldiers playing make-believe with really big guns. These days, it’s all about corralling a bunch of nerds into an old tin can, and giving them a doomsday scenario straight out of 24. Recently, our friends…

Privacy & Security Chris Mills

Geckos Hate Water So Much It Explodes Off Them

Look, I don’t like rain as much as the next person. I’m sure my mom wasn’t a big fan either, and the rest of my ancestors probably weren’t wild about water falling from the sky. But nowhere along the line did any of them develop skin that forces water droplets to explosively launch off. A…

Tech News Chris Mills

A Completely Clean Web Would Be So Boring

For all its wonders, the internet does have some dark sides. Trolls. YouTube comments. 4chan. But as YouTuber Tom Scott explains by showing us what a completely offence-free internet dystopia would look like, even the lowliest of bridge-dwellers are a defining feature of online life. Scott’s ‘Bubble’ — a fictitious, perfect, personalised screening device for…

Tech News Chris Mills

Wi-Fi Signals Look Incredibly Uneven When They’re Visualized

You probably don’t think about Wi-Fi signal much, except when you’re at the the wrong end of your apartment and swearing profusely. But rather than being some steady, even projection of data, Wi-Fi actually looks completely random when you map it out in 3-D. Dominique Thiebaut, a computer science professor at Smith College, used a…

Tech News Chris Mills

What It Looks Like To Receive A World-Record Snow Dump

Capracotta, a charming town in Italy’s heartland, received a barely-believable 8 feet of snow over the course of 18 hours yesterday. That’s possibly a world record for snowfall, and unsurprisingly, it’s brought life in the town to a grinding halt. Italian broadcaster Telemolise managed to get a news crew in (presumably by snowmobile, since 8…

Tech News Chris Mills

NASA’s New Rocket Booster Is A Firebreathing God of Thunder

NASA successfully live-fired thenew booster for its Space Launcher Systemtoday. It’s the largest, most powerful booster ever built, putting one hell of a scorch mark into the desert. And yes, there’s a video. Today’s test, which went off without a hitch, is the first of two tests necessary to qualify the booster for flight. The…

Space & Spaceflight Chris Mills

Climbing Quebec’s Frozen Waterfalls

Did you know that Quebec City has a waterfall that’s taller than Niagara? And did you know it freezes over every winter? And did you know you could climb it when it does? We just did that and here’s how you can too. The main falls at Montmorency are 361 feet high, taller than Niagara’s…

Tech News Chris Mills

We Have New Neighbours: Dwarf Galaxies Found Orbiting The Milky Way

Thanks to decades of work from scientists around the world (and the Hubble telescope’s pretty pictures, of course), it feels like there’s little left unknown in the universe. Which is probably why the casual discovery of, I don’t know, nine new nearby galaxies came as something of a shock. Using the results of the Dark…

Space & Spaceflight Chris Mills

Chris Mills

A Combo 3-D Printer, CNC Machine And Laser Etcher Makes A Lot Of Sense

Chrome and Firefox Users Make Better Employees

The Weird And Wonderful World Of Icicle Science

This Cheap Hack Shows No iPhone PIN Is Really Safe

Premera Blue Cross Was Hacked — And Took Months To Tell Anyone

How Science Looks At Really Tiny Things – Using Tape And Pliers

Apple May Be Launching A Genuine Alternative To Cable In The Fall

Buzz Aldrin Has An Important Message For Humanity

You Can Now Control Your Chromecast With A Normal TV Remote

Watch ISS Astronauts Geek Out About Star Trek

Withdrawing Cash With a Smartphone Could Beat The Card Skimmers

Designing a Shadowless Skyscraper Isn’t Magic, Just Good Science

The UK Is Hosting Cyber War Games In A Decommissioned Warship

Geckos Hate Water So Much It Explodes Off Them

A Completely Clean Web Would Be So Boring

Wi-Fi Signals Look Incredibly Uneven When They’re Visualized

What It Looks Like To Receive A World-Record Snow Dump

NASA’s New Rocket Booster Is A Firebreathing God of Thunder

Climbing Quebec’s Frozen Waterfalls

We Have New Neighbours: Dwarf Galaxies Found Orbiting The Milky Way

Good News for Nintendo Switch Users, This 45W Charger With Cable Just Hits Its Lowest Price on Amazon

Apple MagSafe Duo Charger Gets 42% Off, Finally Worth It for iPhone, AirPods, and Apple Watch Users

Oscar Isaac Did ‘X-Men: Apocalypse’ to Work With Top Tier Actors—Instead, He Got a Cooling Tent

This NordVPN Deal Caught Us By Surprise: 76% Off + 3 Months Free for Easter

AirPods Max 2 vs. Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones (2nd Gen): Which ANC Headphones Win?

This California Billionaire Wants to Tax AI Tokens to Create a Sovereign Wealth Fund

Artemis 2 Crew Become First Humans to Travel Beyond Earth Orbit Since the 1970s

Artemis 2 Day 2: Follow the Mission With Our Live Updates 🔴

Labubus Might Be Labu-Bust After Pop Mart Posts Record Share Loss

Cursor’s New Tool Lets Users Delegate to a Team of Coding Agents

The Best Gadgets of March 2026

AirPods Max 2 Review: Still Ridiculously Expensive and Ridiculously Nice

DJI Osmo 360 Review: The Best 360 Camera for the DJI-Pilled

Aqara Smart Lock U400 Review: Hands-free Unlocking at Its Best

MSI Prestige 14 Flip AI+ Review: A Solid 2-in-1 Laptop With Some Glaring Flaws

Sonos Play Review: Call It a Comeback

Sonos Era 100 SL Review: The Cheapest Way Into Wired Sonos Sound

Asus ROG’s Massive Swift OLED Gaming Monitor Epitomizes Excess in the Best Way

The Ikea Varmblixt Smart Lamp Fills a Donut Hole in My Life

Nothing Headphone A vs. Headphone 1: Which Pair of ANC Wireless Headphones Wins?