Eric Limer

5 Awesomely Terrible Hacks From the World’s Stupidest Hackathon

Most hackathons are where brilliant minds come together to try and invent something amazing that can maybe change the world. This is not one of those hackathons. This is the Stupid Shit No One Needs and Terrible Ideas Hackathon. Organized by Sam Lavigne and Amelia Winger-Bearskin, the dumb event went down in New York City…

Siri vs. Google Now vs. Cortana: The Ultimate Voice Control Showdown

In the months since Windows Phone 8.1 showed up complete with its voice assistant, Android Lollipop and iOS 8 have arrived, so it’s time to pit our phone-friends against each other again. Voice control is better than ever. For the most part, as you can see, Cortana, Siri, and Google Now are mostly on even…

iOS 8.1.1 is here, and while it’s a pretty minor update, Apple says it should increase performance for the iPad 2 and the iPhone 4S, two of the oldest devices that make the leap to iOS 8. Go grab it now, especially if you have some more elderly devices.

I Need This Genius Spring Smasher To Crack My Nuts

Thanksgiving is just around the corner. That means turkey, mashed potatoes, and also probably a bowl of nuts that still have the stupid shell on them for some stupid reason. WTF, is this the Middle Ages? Instead of reaching for some lame two-pronged cracker, or worse, some kitchen implement that looks like a smallish man…

​Samsung Gear S Review: But I Don’t Wanna Be Dick Tracy

Samsung started the smartwatch push in earnest with its over-the-top Galaxy Gear just last year. Now, some six smartwatches later, Samsung is releasing one that can make its own calls. The Gear S is a tiny phone on your wrist. But is that really a good idea? What Is It? A watch with its very…

I Let My Keyboard Suggestions Write This Post

I am going to be a little late On Wed Jan the office of the most interesting and I will be there for a while I wrote a good wtfriday about flight 666 to hell that did not have to go to bed at night and day out of the box and the other keeps…

Galaxy Note Edge Review: This Crazy Smartphone Ain’t Half Bad

You’ve never seen anything quite like the Samsung Galaxy Note Edge. The phone looks like it’s melting. The entire right edge of the device is a second screen. And though it feels like a gimmick at first, that extra, angled real estate can be surprisingly cool. What Is It? The Samsung Galaxy Note 4 all…

Not to be outdone, Rdio has just announced a family plan that’s basically like Spotify’s. Families now get a discount of 50 percent on the premium subscription price for each additional member.

Nexus 6 Review: It’s Time To Go Big

The Nexus 6 is fucking huge. It’s also the best big phone I’ve ever used. Hell, it’s one of the best phones I’ve ever touched. I never want to give it up. It’s that good. What Is It? A massive Nexus phone made by Motorola, with a giant 5.96-inch 2560 x 1440 493ppi AMOLED screen.…

You Can Run PlayStation Games on a Smartwatch For Some Reason

Gadgets have come such a ridiculously long way in the past 15 or so years. Need proof? It’s totally possible to play the flagship console games of yore on a watch now. You know how that guy put Windows 95 on a smartwatch? Well it doesn’t end there. Using ePSXe, a Playstation emulator for Android,…

Darth Vader Sounded Hilarious Before Voice-Over

The Force Awakens will introduce us to some new Sith villains for sure, but Darth Vader will always be the most iconic. James Earl Jones was his threatening voice, but the body was an English actor who didn’t just gesture around in silence like a mime during filming; he voiced all the lines in a…

If Amazon Echo Said What It Was Really Thinking

Amazon’s Echo looks promising. It’s Amazon’s most interesting—and important—product in years, if it lives up to its promise. But what if it works, and also hates you? Amazon’s original promo is pretty optimistic (if also a little awkward). Redditor The_Invincible is a little less so, and edited together a new promo video that offers an…

Workaround Finally Puts Amazon Instant Video on Your Chromecast

Amazon Instant Video is now available on Android, but what’s still missing? Chromecast support. But you can hack it together with a handy (and barebones) app. Primecast is a $3 app for Android that puts Amazon Instant Video on your Chromecast by scraping Amazon’s backend to show you a list of your purchased and rented…

How Fast the Elevators in the World’s Tallest Buildings Go

When you’re building supertalls, there are other problems to worry about than just making sure they don’t fall or blow over. One of the biggest is how to get people up to the top in a reasonable amount of time. If you’ve got a slow elevator the 125th floor might as well not exist. This…

I Can’t Believe How Great Android Lollipop Is So Far

Android 5.0 Lollipop just started rolling out. Like all Android operating system releases, it’ll probably take a week or two to filter down even to Nexus devices, and maybe a month or two before it starts showing up elsewhere. But in the meantime I’ve been using it on the Nexus 9 and Nexus 6 and…

CNN Discovers Promotional Surface Pros Make Fantastic iPad Stands

Last night, CNN wasn’t just covering the mid-term elections. It was also pimping the Surface Pro 3, conspicuously placing a kickstand-ed unit in front of a bunch of its commentators. The catch? They were actually just being used as iPad stands. As GeekWire points out, a few eagle-eyed viewers pointed out that behind every Surface…

Rebuilding the Black Hole from Interstellar with DIY Effects

The black hole from Interstellar is the product of millions of dollars of movie magic, but maybe it didn’t have to be. DIY effects extraordinaire Joey Shanks of Shanks FXmade a pretty good poor man’s version with just some sparkers and Photoshop. Spoilers, sort of. The step-by-step process of shooting all the different layers by…

The Best of Android Lollipop in 8 GIFs

Android Lollipop has been around as a developer preview for months, but the real version—complete with all its new Material Design tricks—just started rolling out. Here are a few GIFs to hold you over until it shows up on your phone. A lot of the new look depends on app makers (and Google) updating to…

​Nexus 9 Review: Google’s Flagship Tablet Is Nothing Special

A fleet of new Nexii are here; a phone, a tablet, and a set-top-box. The first to touch down is the Nexus 9, Google’s second attempt to make a big Nexus tablet that can hang with the iPad. It’s not a total whiff, but it’s no home run either. What Is It It’s Android’s iPad…

7 Brilliant Facebook Cover Photos Just in Time For Halloween

Too lazy to whip up a Halloween costume? It’s fine; you can just dress up your Facebook cover photo. Too lazy to do that? Just take a look at these clever cover photos, change you profile picture to a pumpkin, and imagine what it’d be like to be more creative. [E3, Ori Hasson]