Jamie Condliffe

A 32GB Nexus 7 Will Probably Cost the Same as the Original 16GB Model

Evidence is mounting which suggests that a new 32GB Nexus 7 will soon be available, and that it will cost the same as the original 16GB version. A listing in UK retailer Argos’ Christmas Gift Guide suggests a new tablet with 32GB of storage will soon be available, for £200—the exact same price as the…

Stunning ISS Time-Lapse Shows Thunderstorms From Space

There’s no shortage of great images from the International Space Station, but this time-lapse from the ISS, created by “stacking” sequences of images, is absolutely mesmeric. https://gizmodo.com/this-incredible-time-lapse-from-the-iss-is-straight-up-5895430 Those disorganized white blobs? Lightning strikes! And if you look closely, you can even see tracks from meteors and satellites. Christoph Malin, who created the video, explains: This…

Red Bull’s Chief Engineer Explains Felix Baumgartner’s Tech

Felix Baumgartner’s record-breaking supersonic jump was an amazing feat of human endeavour. But getting Felix to break the speed of sound caused Red Bull Stratos technical project director Art Thompson some engineering headaches. Here’s how he solved them. https://gizmodo.com/space-jump-full-video-supersonic-awesomeness-5951621 Engadget has been chatting to Thompson about the technical problems faced in getting Felix up in…

GoPro’s Rugged New Hero3 Shoots 4K Video

Despite Contour offering some stiff competition of recent time, think of an action cam, and the name GoPro probably comes to mind. The company is trying to cement that reputation with the Hero3, which claims to be smaller, lighter and record better quality footage than its predecessor. https://gizmodo.com/contour-2-review-sweet-images-sloppy-mounts-5948640 Announced in San Francisco last night, GoPro…

Water on the Moon Came From… the Sun?

Water on the moon is nothing particularly revelatory. But a new study suggests that H20 on the surface of the Earth’s nearest neighbor comes from a most unlikely place: the Sun. The research, which is published in Nature Geoscience, suggests that hydrogen ejected from the Sun’s atmosphere is carried towards the moon in solar winds.…

WSJ: Microsoft Building 5 Million Surface Tablets This Quarter

Ahead of its launch, the Wall Street Journal is reporting that Microsoft is building between 3 and 5 million Surface tablets to sell on the run-up to the holiday season. Clearly, it means business. The newspaper cites component suppliers in Asia, who have stated that up to 5 million Surfaces could be churned out before…

The Latest Tokyo Flash Watch Hides the Time in a Maze

Tokyo Flash is the go-to watch brand for people who don’t care what time it is. Here’s its latest creation, which hides the time in the negative space of a maze. The Kisai Maze is labyrinthine in its complexity. It takes some patience to work out what the hell time it is—but once you’ve cracked…

Inside the Chip Apple Uses to Stop You Buying Cheap Cables

People looking for cheap, third-party lightning adapters and cables for their new iPhone 5 are out of luck because of an authenticator device hidden in the official products. Here’s what’s lurking within that infuriating piece of technology. https://gizmodo.com/heres-the-chip-apple-is-using-to-stop-you-from-buying-c-5945889 Chipworks has torn right into a Lightning-to-USB cable, and found a total of four chips lurking within…

One DMCA Notice Took Down 1.45 Million Education Blogs

We all know that DMCA notices are kinda dumb, but this is ridiculous: a single takedown request from Pearson, a textbook publisher, took down 1.45 million education blogs in one fell swoop. https://gizmodo.com/rogue-dmca-notice-stakes-a-bizarre-claim-on-the-number-5949662 Ars Technica reports that Pearson targeted a single page from 2007 that was using copyrighted material. Some form of miscommunication ensued, though,…

The New Padfone Lets It All Hang Out

The Asus Padfone took 12 months to arrive on the market after it was first announced. Now, for multi-tasking device lovers everywhere, there’s a new version of the smartphone powered tablet—and it seems to want to show off its insides. https://gizmodo.com/the-asus-padfone-is-as-confused-as-its-name-suggests-5888516 The first iteration of the Padfone had a little door to hide the phone…

File-Sharers Buy 30 Percent More Music Than Non-Sharers

A massive public policy study has revealed that on average file-sharers buy 30 percent more music than their non-sharing counterparts. That suggests that the record labels’ self-declared enemies are in fact their best customers. The study, known as the Copy Culture Survey, was carried out by the non-partisan American Assembly, and the results were teased…

Google’s personal search, amped: enter a field trial, and search mail, contacts, calendar and docs from Gmail. [Google]

Evolving Bigger Brains May Have Made Us Prone to Cancer

If it’s not one thing, it’s another: a new hypothesis floating around the scientific community suggests that evolving bigger brains and superior intellect may have led to a dramatically elevated risk of cancer in humans. Thanks, brain. The theory runs like this. Usually cells die off in a controlled fashion—called apoptosis—which allows fresh cells to…

Early Aerial Photography: Cameras on Pigeons in 1907

These days there are plenty of opportunities to take interesting photographs from unusual angles, including strapping tiny digital cameras to birds. But some early aerial photography was rather more clunky—and used massive cameras strapped to the breasts of pigeons. https://gizmodo.com/this-unbelievable-footage-literally-shows-a-birds-eye-v-5949507 In fact, the whole concept was pioneered by a German photographer named Julius Neubronner. From…

No Wonder Street View Is So Good When Google Has This Army of Cars

Street View is good and getting better—and that’s thanks to Google’s massive fleet of cars, kitted out to capture the world around us in all its panoramic glory. This is what a parking lot full of them looks like. https://gizmodo.com/googles-biggest-ever-street-view-update-sneak-inside-t-5950829 Google’s own Masrur Odinaev posted this picture of one of the company’s holding pens: the…

Amazon in Talks to Buy Texas Instruments’ Mobile Chip Division

Amazon is apparently in “advanced negotiations” with Texas Instruments, in an attempt to buy its smartphone and tablet oriented OMAP chip division. The news was reported by Calcalist.co.il (Hebrew) and hasn’t been confirmed by either company yet. However, Assaf Gilad, the journalist behind the story, has correctly spotted industry buy-outs in the past. According to…

The Raspberry Pi mini computer now ships with 512MB of RAM, up from 256MB, for the same $35 price. Tasty. [Raspberry Pi]

Amazon Quietly Discontinuing the Kindle DX

Amazon has been busily updating its Kindle lineup over the past few years, and now its flagship Fires and Paperwhite have media consumption covered. Along the way the massive Kindle DX has been ignored—and now it seems the device is being discontinued. https://gizmodo.com/kindle-fire-hd-review-everything-a-tablet-should-be-an-5942283 The eBook Reader points out that the DX is no longer available…

Softbank Confirms 70 Percent Acquisition of Sprint

Softbank has officially announced that it is buying a 70 percent stake in US mobile carrier Sprint. The Japanese company is ponying up a total of $20.1 billion for the privilege. https://gizmodo.com/wsj-japanese-carrier-softbank-to-buy-sprint-5950842 Softbank is paying $12.1 billion to buy existing shares in Sprint, and a further $8 billion for new shares that the network is…

Today’s Google Doodle Is a Huge Animated Tribute to Winsor McCay’s Cartoons

Winsor McCay’s Little Nemo was an iconic comic strip first drawn in 1905. Today’s Google Doodle celebrates the cartoon in an animated strip which sees Little Nemo embark on an adventure through Google-Land. McCay’s a hugely celebrated cartoonist and arguably inspired much of the work of Walt Disney numerous other animators along the way. The…