Chris Mills, Author at Gizmodo

Turns Out Apple Pay Can’t Solve Credit Card Fraud

Among other things, Apple’s Second Coming of the Mobile Payment Solution was meant to fix our broke-ass credit card security system. Only, according to (unconfirmed) reports, it’s doing exactly the opposite. The Drop Labs blog has a good (if technical) post on how Apple Pay security does — and doesn’t — work. In essence, the…

Privacy & Security Chris Mills

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy Is What Spies Really Do

With a new Cold War already ramping up, you can bet all your remaining pennies that every country is spying on the other with even more enthusiasm than normal. And for a sense of what that actually entails, you should go watch Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. The film is set during the height of the…

Tech News Chris Mills

Hozier: Angel Of Small Death & The Codeine Scene

Hozier has been on my musical radar ever since Take Me To Church came out — by which I mean that one song has been saved on my phone since then. But it was only this week that I started discovering how fantastic his lesser-known stuff is. Angel of Small Death & The Codeine Scene…

Tech News Chris Mills

Why You Should Care That The FCC Is Trying To Redefine Broadband

In the wake of the ongoing net neutrality argument, another equally important squabble between regulators and telecoms companies has been overlooked. The FCC is trying to redefine ‘broadband’ as “internet which is actually fast enough to use”, and telecoms companies don’t like that one little bit. According to current FCC policy, ‘broadband’ means 4Mbps down/1Mbps…

Tech News Chris Mills

Bad Graphic Design Puns For Designer In-Jokes

Spending hours laboring over an InDesign template can feel like thankless work, especially when your team of oh-so-gifted writers don’t understand the concept of a word limit. But at least while you’re shedding bitter tears for butchered layouts, these design puns will give you something else to groan about. The cards are the work of…

Tech News Chris Mills

Alan Turing’s Hidden Manuscripts Are Up For Auction

Alan Turing was a British mathematician who both broke the infamous Enigma code, enabling Britain to stay alive during WWII, and also the father of computer science and artificial intelligence. He’s the reason why people have laboured for decades to beat the ‘Turing Test’, and also the reason why submarines didn’t break the UK in…

Tech News Chris Mills

This Beautiful Photo Spells Doom For The Sea

This photo looks innocent enough: a simple, breathtakingly beautiful long-exposure shot of algae along the Hong Kong shoreline. But under the surface, the blue luminescence, called ‘Sea Sparkle’, is bad news for the ocean. Noctiluca scintillans algal bloom, as Sea Sparkle is more correctly known, is caused by farm pollution that can be seriously bad…

Tech News Chris Mills

Someone Is Giving Away This Bike-Powered Star Destroyer On Craigslist

Do you live in Portland? Are you a giant Star Wars fan? Do you have a 22-foot long empty space in your garage? Then man oh man, Craigslist has the best present ever for you. Up for grabs is this bike-powered Star Destroyer, exactly like the one Darth Vader rode around the galaxy. Just like…

Tech News Chris Mills

The Best Predictor Of Heart Disease Is…Twitter?

Normally, when doctors are trying to look at whether an individual is at risk of heart disease, they’ll look at classic indicators of health: smoking, diet, obesity and so on. But according to a University of Pennsylvania study, they might be better off taking a look at their tweets. The researchers tried to find the…

Tech News Chris Mills

This Twisting Skyscraper Is Terrifyingly Clever

There’s a moment you reach in every Jenga game, when the weight of an entire tower balances precariously on a single middle block. A moment where everything can be ruined by a particularly violent cough. Residents of this new Austrian skyscraper will live in perpetual fear of that moment. The 30-storey, 360-foot tower is the…

Tech News Chris Mills

China’s Newest Apple Store Is A Calligraphy Masterpiece

I am defiantly not an Apple Store kinda person. I’ve yet to queue up for the latest iPhone, certainly don’t aimlessly browse around during my lunch hour, and buy all my cases off Amazon. But Apple’s latest chunk of Cupertino on foreign soil would make me change all that. For the opening of its latest…

Tech News Chris Mills

Twitter Now Uses Bing To Translate Weird Foreign Tweets

If you’ve always looked longingly over the Fence of Babel at all those foreigners making jokes that you know would be funny, if only you could understand them, then fear not: Twitter has harnessed the power of the internet’s second-best translation tool into its service. As of right now, tweets in a foreign language get…

Tech News Chris Mills

The First Drone Lawsuit Settled For Pennies

Back in 2011, a man called Raphael Pirker ‘recklessly’ flew his five-pound foam airplane around the University of Virginia without hurting anyone, an act the FAA thought worthy of a $10,000 fine. A few years of wasted court time later, and both parties have agreed to settle for $1,100. In short, the FAA was pissed…

Tech News Chris Mills

This Top-Secret Design Will Get Your Resume Into The Right Hands

Most resume designs — two pages of 12-point blah — don’t exactly scream HIRE ME, especially if you’re in the design business. That’s why Norwegian designer Vidar Olufsen put all his details in a folder styled like a top-secret document dossier. Everyone wants to know about the hidden stuff. Olufsen says that the idea came…

Tech News Chris Mills

All The Fun Of Disposable Cameras, Without A Trip To the Drugstore

Back before the days of selfie-sticks, or selfies or even the concept of front-facing cameras, humanity had plastic disposable cameras. You’d shoot your 20 photos, take it to the drugstore, rewind the film — yes, film — and walk out with 20 blurry holiday snaps of your own. WhiteAlbum is an app that’s trying to…

Tech News Chris Mills

App Developers In Crimea Are Getting Cut Off Thanks To U.S. Sanctions

When one country annexes another, there’s some things you expect to happen, like airstrikes or strongly-worded letters to the UN. One consequence you probably wouldn’t have predicted is that you’ll no longer be able to spend $0.99 on certain apps. In a (rather belated) response to the Russian annexation of the Crimea last year, President…

Tech News Chris Mills

Get Another Chance To Buy The OnePlus One Without An Invite Tomorrow

The OnePlus One is very nearly the perfect smartphone, apart from how you buy it. Although it’s been out in the wild for almost a year, you still can’t just buy one — normally, you need an invite. But for a couple hours tomorrow evening, you won’t. Between the hours of 7 and 9 Eastern…

Tech News Chris Mills

Watch Original House Of Cards To Better Appreciate Netflix’s Version

Before Kevin Spacey was even a twinkle in a Netflix director’s eye, the BBC had their own original version. Although it’s not quite as slick as the modern production, there’s a subtlety and intruige to the original — not to mention a shit-ton of British accents — that makes it totally worth watching. Ever since…

Tech News Chris Mills

El Goodo: Feel So Fine

A couple days ago, epic documentary/climbing film Valley Uprising hit online streaming on Vimeo. It’s a superb telling of the growth of rock climbing in Yosemite Valley; but it also has a kickass soundtrack, including this track by self-described Lazy Welsh Psychedelic Band, El Goodo. I’d never heard of El Goodo before listening to the…

Tech News Chris Mills

NSA-Led Panel Says There’s No Alternative To NSA Data Collection

Surprise! An academic advisory panel, chaired by director of national intelligence James Clapper — yup, the same guy who lied to Congress — has concluded that there’s no alternative to bulk data collection. Sorry, citizens. The panel was convened in response to a request from President Obama, and made up mostly of computer science experts…

Privacy & Security Chris Mills

Chris Mills

Turns Out Apple Pay Can’t Solve Credit Card Fraud

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy Is What Spies Really Do

Hozier: Angel Of Small Death & The Codeine Scene

Why You Should Care That The FCC Is Trying To Redefine Broadband

Bad Graphic Design Puns For Designer In-Jokes

Alan Turing’s Hidden Manuscripts Are Up For Auction

This Beautiful Photo Spells Doom For The Sea

Someone Is Giving Away This Bike-Powered Star Destroyer On Craigslist

The Best Predictor Of Heart Disease Is…Twitter?

This Twisting Skyscraper Is Terrifyingly Clever

China’s Newest Apple Store Is A Calligraphy Masterpiece

Twitter Now Uses Bing To Translate Weird Foreign Tweets

The First Drone Lawsuit Settled For Pennies

This Top-Secret Design Will Get Your Resume Into The Right Hands

All The Fun Of Disposable Cameras, Without A Trip To the Drugstore

App Developers In Crimea Are Getting Cut Off Thanks To U.S. Sanctions

Get Another Chance To Buy The OnePlus One Without An Invite Tomorrow

Watch Original House Of Cards To Better Appreciate Netflix’s Version

El Goodo: Feel So Fine

NSA-Led Panel Says There’s No Alternative To NSA Data Collection

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

Nvidia Needs to Remind Itself What PC Gamers Actually Want

Iran Says It Hit Oracle Facilities in the UAE

‘Invincible’ Season 4 Is Doing Right By Debbie

New Theory Says We’ve Been Overcomplicating the Big Bang

Marvel Might Have Finally Dealt With One of the Most Hated ‘Spider-Man’ Characters Around

China Is Trying to Grow New Forests in This Notorious Mega-Desert. It’s Working

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?