Jamie Condliffe

New Zealand’s Amazing Trails Are Now on Google Street View

As the nights draw in, your plans for adventure are probably headed in the direction of a new show on Netflix rather than a hike through the wild. But if you want to see something rugged, Google has now added a series of amazing New Zealand trails to Street view. If there’s one thing New…

Huawei’s New Chipset May Worry Its Competition

Huawei, the Chinese smartphone manufacturer, is slowly becoming a big deal in the west, too—and it’s latest chipset may just provide its competitors with a little cause for concern. While Huawei has recently begun to dominate the mobile market in its native land, it’s also recently teamed up with the Google to produce the Nexus…

Google Security Research Found 11 High-Impact Flaws on the Galaxy S6 Edge

Google’s Project Zero security team recently turned its attention to Samsung’s Galaxy S6 Edge, and the results make for awkward reading: it found it found a total of “11 high-impact security issues” with the smartphone, with OEM software introducing new vulnerabilities. In a blog post, the team details its findings and describes its motivations for…

Sprint’s parent company, Softbank, is struggling to turn as much profit as it would like. Sadly, the U.S. carrier is set to shoulder some of the responsibility—with “thousands” of jobs to be cut, according the Wall Street Journal.

China Burns a Lot More Coal Than It’s Claimed in the Past

It’s come to light that China has been burning up to 17 percent more coal than its Government has previously claimed — pumping up to 1 billion more tons of carbon than expected into the atmosphere every year. The figures, which come ahead of the international climate talks to be held in Paris at the…

You Can Finally Buy a Dedicated Hardware Emoji Keyboard

Communicating via the written word can sometimes fail to communicate the nuances of human emotion. For those times, there are emoji—and now you can actually buy a dedicated hardware emoji keyboard to help. The concept of an emoji keyboard is nothing new, for sure, but this is the first dedicated, self-contained emoji hardware keyboard we’ve…

San Francisco Has Voted Against Limits on Airbnb Rentals

San Francisco’s attempt to more tightly control services like Airbnb has been voted down in a city-wide ballot. The proposed initiative, Proposition F, was ambitious. It aimed to limit the total amount of time a propriety could be rented out for to just 75 days per year, as well as imposing severe fines for those…

Scientists Built This Molecular Playground in Minecraft to Teach Kids Chemistry

Minecraft welcomes millions of young players every day and is home to all kinds of nerdery. Now, a team of chemists hope to bring the two together by helping children take their first blocky steps into the world of biochemistry inside the virtual building environment. Researchers from the University of Hull in the UK have…

You’ll Only Be Able to Buy a Windows 7 or 8.1 PC For One More Year

Microsoft has announced that from October 31st 2016, PC manufacturers won’t be able to sell new computers sporting the ageing Windows 7 or 8.1 operating systems. Instead, they’ll have to come pre-installed with Windows 10. Microsoft usually puts such restrictions in place, but, as ZDNet points out, it typically leaves two years of breathing room…

Edward Snowden’s favored encrypted chat app, Signal, is now available for Android. Take that, NSA.

Sennheiser’s Built Probably the World’s Best Headphones—But They Cost $55,000

In the ‘90s, Sennheiser asked it engineers to make the best headphones ever and the result was 300 sets of the legendary Orpheus, each pair of which sold for $16,000. Now, Sennheiser has created an ever better-sounding successor to those luxurious cans—but they’ll set you back $55,000. The reboot of the 25-year-old audiophile’s wet dream…

Microsoft Scraps Unlimited OneDrive Storage and Cuts Its Free Offering

Microsoft has announced that it’s scrapping its unlimited OneDrive cloud storage plan which it launched last year, as well as introducing a lower cap on its free offering, too. Complaining that subscribers were using too much of the unlimited storage, there will now be a 1TB limit placed on the subscription service. Microsoft explains the…

Since 2013, rumors have circulated about Google opening a retail store in New York City. Now, Crain’s New York Business reports that the space leased—and spent $6 million renovating—is back on the market.

Nokia Networks Will Test the pCell Tech that Promises Faster Cellular Data

Nokia Networks has announced that it’s going to test out pCell, the new cellular data system created by Steve Perlman which embraces large quantities of mobile devices to actually speed up data provision. Perlman is the brains behind the like of QuickTime, WebTV and OnLive, and he reckons the pCell technology, which is being commercialized…

Apple’s Indoor Survey App Creates Building Interior Maps Using an iPhone

Apple has quietly released a new iOS app that allows users to map out the interior spaces of a building using just an iPhone. While the apps doesn’t show up in search within the App Store, you can grab it using this direct link, first spotted by developer Steve Troughton-Smith. Update: The app requires a…

Today’s Google Doodle Celebrates the Genius of Boolean Algebra

Today’s Google Doodle — in most of the world, at least — celebrates the 200th anniversary of George Boole’s birth. We all have a lot to thanks Boole for, as he created the mathematics that underpins the logical operations of computing. Boolean algebra, as its become known, is the branch of mathematics that operates on…

This Interactive Visualization Explains If Daylight Saving Works For You

Whether you love it or hate it, we’re currently stuck with Daylight Saving Time. If you’re on still on the fence, though, this interactive visualization explains what impact the clock changes have on the number hours of daylight you get to enjoy, based on your daily routine. Put together by Keith Collins for Quartzusing data…

This Rover Isn’t on Mars

This looks like it could the latest rover to land on the surface of Mars. But in fact it’s a test of the European Space Agency’s ExoMars mission happening right here on Earth. Theaerial photograph shows a half-scale model of the ExoMars lander and a prototype rover being tested in the ESA’s Mars Yard in…

Google’s Testing Web-Style Responsive Ads on Huge London Billboards

Google has long been using technology it calls DoubleClick to target ads on millions of websites. Now, it’s taking it to the city streets, installing a series of billboard in London that use real-time data to change what they display. Business Insider reportsthat the new billboards, which can be found in busy areas of the…

Apple’s Beats Pill+ App Is Its Second-Ever Piece of Android Software

Apple just launched its second-ever Android app, and it’s to help you control the new Beats Pill+ speaker. The new piece of software is pretty simple: it allows you to control what’s on the play list, keep an eye on battery life, name the speaker, and link up two of the devices so you can…