Jamie Condliffe

Speaking last night, Digg CEO Andrew McLaughlin explained that Digg’s Reader won’t be a standalone app, and will allow you to sort and rank content, unlike a normal RSS reader.

Google is apparently facing a fresh antitrust probe from the Federal Trade Commission to find out if it’s been abusing its dominance in display-advertising to illegally curb competition. Naughty.

Google’s New Trend Visualizer Is a Truly Beautiful Thing

Google’s been logging data about hot trends ever since you started tip-tapping search terms into its front page, but now it’s gone and made it look damn pretty with it. The new full-screen visualization shows off the data that’s been available as a staid list for a long time, but in glorious technicolor. Not hugely…

Why the Googolplex Number Is Insanely Difficult to Visualize, in Song

You might know that a googol—the digit 1 followed by 100 zeroes—is a very large number indeed. You might even know that a googolplex—a 1 followed by a googol of zeros—is an even bigger number. But this video helps explain why it’s such an insane concept to get your head round. The video’s ably presented…

How a 3D Printer Helped a Child Breathe Again

When Kaiba Gionfriddo was born, his parents never expected to have to look on, helpless, as his windpipe collapsed daily and stopped him from breathing. They were desperate—so when a team of researchers suggested that a 3D printer could help, they leapt at the chance. So a team from the University of Michigan set about…

The New York Times has taken an interesting look at hacking culture in China—where it seems the practice is no longer an underground phenomenon, but a massive commercial enterprise.

This Is HP’s Take on the Retina MacBook Pro

HP has just announced a big overhaul of its Envy and Pavilion ranges, and most of the updates are fairly uninspiring—apart from the company’s take on Apple’s Retina MacBook Pro. The Verge has taken a peek at the new laptops, and the Envy 14 TouchSmart Ultrabook sure looks like it could be a winner. The…

Kim Dotcom Claims He Invented Two-Factor Authentication

Yesterday, Twitter finally got two-factor authentication—which was enough to prompt Kim Dotcom to claim that he invented the technique. https://gizmodo.com/twitter-finally-has-two-factor-authentication-509351107 Taking to Twitter, the man behind Mega pointed out a patent from 1997 which he claims is proof that two-step security is, in fact, his idea. He went further, accusing companies like Google, Facebook, and…

This 1.5TB Laptop Drive Is the Most Memory-Dense You Can Buy

While SSDs are blisteringly fast, they still can’t offer the capacities that the humble hard disk provides. Especially this one, because with 1.5 TB squeezed into its tiny little frame, it’s the most memory-dense drive you can buy right now. The 2.5-inch Travelstar 5K1500 is just 9.5mm deep. Packing 1.5TB, that means the drive offers…

This Subway Map Is Not an Image, Just Pure Code

This version of London’s iconic tube map looks just like the official PDF of the transport network—but in fact it is created entirely from HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. That’s a pretty insane feat. Its creator, freelance web developer John Galantini, has recreated every symbol, line, circle and piece of text using HTML and CSS. Each…

There’s been a mass exodus of senior staff from HTC this week, but it could get worse. Former product strategy manager Eric Linhas tweeted: “To all my friends still at @HTC – just quit. leave now. it’s tough to do, but you’ll be so much happier, I swear.” Yelp!

All The Meteorites That Have Been Seen Falling to Earth Since 2500 BC

Since 2005 BC over 35,000 meteorites are known to have hit the Earth—but just 1,107 have actually been seen falling. This visualization shows how they pockmarked our planet over time. https://gizmodo.com/here-is-a-map-that-shows-every-meteorite-that-has-hit-e-5985185 Created by Carlo Zapponi, the animated visualization is based on data from the Nomenclature Committee of the Meteoritical Society. It’s quite fun to watch…

The latest release of Chrome, version 27, is 5 percent faster—and available to download now.

A Stark Reminder That Drones Are Filling Our Skies

It’s hard to avoid the increasing prevalence of drones, but in case you were in any doubt this artwork—Under the Shadow of the Drone—serves as a stark reminder that they’re increasingly filling our skies. Conceived by James Bridle, this is a one-to-one representation of an MQ-9 reaper military drone, drawn on the tarmac of Brighton’s…

A Dead Satellite Could Ruin Weather–And Tornado–Prediction For Years

While extreme weather events seem to come and go more often than ever, our ability to forecast them does at least help us minimize risk to human life. But an impending weather satellite outage could make events like yesterday’s devestating tornado even harder to predict—for up to three years. http://gawker.com/the-biggest-most-destructive-tornado-in-history-just-508956719 The US relies on two…

Opera for Android is out of beta and waiting to be downloaded for free in the Play store. It offers some features to speed up mobile browsing—but it’s probably too late to steal Chrome’s lead.

Judge Rules That Airbnb Is Illegal in New York (Updated)

Bad news for those seeking or offering cheap accommodation over the internet: a New York judge has determined that Airbnb is illegal in the city. Despite Airbnb’s attempts to persuade officials otherwise, the service has been found to violate the illegal hotel law—a statute which stops property owners from renting out their own homes on…

Yes, an Old Mac G5 Does Make a Great BBQ

An old Mac G5 case, some scrap aluminum—and you have the perfect geek’s grill. OK, so there may strictly be more efficient ways to cook outdoors, but this scores maximum nerd points. [Imgur via Macgasm via Ubergizmo] https://gizmodo.com/everything-you-need-to-grill-everything-but-steak-484753430

US military has shut down Wi-Fi access at the Guantanamo Bay following threats from Anonymous that it would “disrupt activities” as part of its #OpGITMO campaign.

Are These The Most Intimate Self Portraits Ever?

Photography often produces incredibly intimate results, but these self portraits by Erno-Erik Raitanen offer a different take—showing off his bacteria in fine detail. The pictures weren’t created using a camera, but his own bacteria, cultivated on the gelatin surface of film negatives. He explains: “I have gathered the bacteria samples from my own body. The…