Jamie Condliffe

Financial Times: Microsoft Pulls Windows 8 U-Turn

The Financial Times is reporting that Microsoft plans to “reverse course over key elements of its Windows 8 operating system” when Windows Blue, a so-called iterative update, rolls outlater this year. In an interview, Tammy Reller, head of marketing and finance for the Windows business, apparentlytold the newspaper that some of the most fundamental aspects…

How to Open 24 Beer Bottles at Once

Got a lot of friends visiting? Man, it’s going to be boring to open each and every bottle of beer separately—so what you need is an opener like this, that can ready 24 beers for drinking in a glorious, single movement. YouTuber stopstopitstoofunny has posted this video of the world’s ultimate bottle opener in action.…

What’s Your Grubbiest Tech Confession?

Nobody’s perfect. Some people Skype without a headset in public. Others insists on using Internet Explorer. Some weirdos even use Comic Sans without flinching. But what’s your grubbiest tech confession? We’re all friends here, so let it out. It’ll be cathartic. I promise. Image from Reddit

Amazon Leaks the World’s First Small-Screen Windows 8 Tablet

Rumors have swirled recently suggesting that a new breed of small Windows 8 tablets would soon appear in the wild. Now, Amazon has managed to accidentally leak the first tablet of its kind. The Acer Iconia W3, previously rumored to be the first small-screen Windows 8 tablet, made a brief appearance on the website of…

You Can Now Get a Nook HD For $150

Following last week’s decision to make its tablet actually useful with the addition of Google Apps, Barnes & Noble has now slashed the price of its Nook HD range. Until the 12th May—yes, this is a Mother’s Day offer—the price of the Nook HD line is cut both online and in-store. So, a 8GB 7-inch…

Rumor: YouTube to Launch Pay-For Channel Subscriptions

The Financial Times is reporting that YouTube will launch a paid subscription model for specific, specialist video channels—as soon as this week. The report, which cites an anonymous source, suggests that the site has been developing the system for months, in order to help channels fund more content. Rumors suggest that 50 YouTube channels will…

This Picture of Saturn’s Moon, Enceladus, Is Simply Beautiful

This picture may be simple—monochromatic, a deep black background, and just a hunk fo rock to admire—but it’s also stunningly beautiful. You’re looking at Enceladus, the sixth-largest of the moons of Saturn, as pictured by Cassini. Measuring 313 miles across, here’s it illuminated by light reflected off Saturn. The simplicity of the picture is what…

Chinese Researchers Create Potentially Deadly Strains of Avian Flu

A team of Chinese researchers have deliberately created deadly new strains of influenza in a veterinary laboratory—and are now on the receiving end of severe criticism from across the wider scientific community. The controversial research, carried out at China’s National Avian Influenza Reference Laboratory at Harbin Veterinary Research Institute, has mixed the H5N1 bird-flu virus—which…

Watch the World’s Smallest Flying Robot Insect Take to the Sky

This little guy might not look much, but he’s the world’s smallest flying robotic insect—and he’s taken 12 years to get into the air. While engineers from the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard have been able to get him to flap his wings for some time, they’d never managed controlled flight. But…

How Apple Just Avoided Paying $9.2 Billion in Tax

When you’re a company as big as Apple, saving on tax bills is important—especially when they’re in the billions. Fortunately its team of accountants has just managed to save it a cool $9.2 billion. The trick—I think we can call it a trick—involved financing a $55 billion stock buyback using debt instead of offshore cash.…

Google has added a remote desktop function to Hangouts, which means you can now easily fix your mom’s computer while you chat to her. Yay?

Warner Brothers Is Being Sued For Using Nyan Cat Without Permission

Warner Brothers—a company all too keen to leap on anybody infringing its copyright—is being sued for unauthorized use of the Nyan Cat meme. Oops. Ars Technica reports that Warner Brothers is facing a legal battle because the Nyan Cat and Keyboard Cat memes were used in a video game called Scribblenauts, published by WB Games.…

Next on Google’s list to receive its amazing fiber service is Shawnee, KS.

How Time Crystals Could Rewrite the Rules of Physics

If you overheard someone talking about time crystals in a bar, you’d think they were mad, or drunk. Or both. These things, theoretically, oscillate for eternity without any energy input whatsoever—and if that sounds like a perpetual motion machine, it’s because it is. Impossible, right? But what if it was a Nobel prize-winning physicists making…

There’s Already a Google Glass App That Lets You Take Photos With a Wink

Last week we reported that the ability to control Google Glass with the wink of an eye was a very real possibility. Now, an enterprising chap by the name of Mike DiGiovanni has made that a reality. The developer has created an app called Winky, which lets you power up Glass from standby and take…

The World’s Toughest Material Is Built of Knots

A scientist from the University of Trento in Italy claims to have made the world’s toughest material. But this isn’t some kind of exotic super material—it’s just made from strands of fiber with knots tied in them. The material, created by Nicola Pugno, is formed from strands of Endumax polymer fiber with a simple slip…

Just three months after an acid leak caused a fatality in a Samsung plant, the same thing’s happened again, injuring three people. Sounds like something needs fixing.

The Insane Camera Tech That Captured NASA’s Space Shuttle Launches

Sadly NASA’s Space Shuttle program is shuttered, but when you’re feeling whimsical at least you can still watch footage of the behemoth being sent into space. What you might not know, though, is that NASA threw all kinds of camera tech at recording the launches for posterity—and this video shows it off. An old promotional…

This Camera Sees the World Like an Ant

While you’d be forgiven for thinking that this looks like a dome of bubble wrap, it’s actually the world’s first working compound-eye camera—which sees the world just like an insect would. With 180 separate imaging elements—each replicating the separate ommatidium, or “small eyes” which make up an insect’s odd visual system—arranged over its surface, it…

Should It Be Illegal to Exploit a Video Poker Bug and Win Big?

A Las Vegas District Court judge is currently weighing a big question that you may have opinions on: is exploiting a bug on a casino’s video poker machine illegal or not? Wired reports that a pair of gamblers, John Kane and Andre Nestor , stumbled upon a bug while playing video poker in a Las…