Kyle VanHemert, Author at Gizmodo

Black People Call and Text Way More Than Everyone Else

According to a new year-long study by The Nielsen Company, black people use more voice minutes and send more text messages than any other race. Like, way more. The new study found that African-Americans averaged 1,300 voice minutes a month, far outpacing Hispanics (826 minutes/mo.), Asians and Pacific Islanders (692 m/mo.), and Whites (647 m/mo.).…

Tech News Kyle VanHemert

Apple Reportedly Readying 99 Cent TV Show Rentals For September 7 Event

There’s been plenty of talk about a new AppleTV, but what about, y’know, the TV shows themselves? Bloomberg’s reporting that Apple’s working on bringing 99 cent TV rentals to iTunes, with Fox nearly locked and CBS and Disney close behind. https://gizmodo.com/rumor-appletv-renamed-itv-will-have-apps-but-no-1080p-5610526 Bloomberg’s report, which also suggests the imminent release of the long-rumored $99 AppleTV, says…

Tech News Kyle VanHemert

Microsoft Boss Brad Silverberg: Here’s What I Remember Most About The Amazing Launch Of Windows 95

After we ran our feature on the 15th anniversary of the launch of Windows 95 this morning, we exchanged a few emails with Brad Silverberg, the senior Microsoft engineer who ran the team who built the product. Brad’s at Ignition Partners now, but obviously he remembers the Win 95 launch well. Brad spoke at the…

Tech News Kyle VanHemert

Watch the Samsung Galaxy Tab Official Teaser Video

The Samsung Galaxy Tab, a much-leaked, small-enough-to-grip-with-one-hand tablet, will be unveiled on September 2 at the IFA trade show in Berlin, Germany. But you can sneak a peek right now in this official teaser video. https://gizmodo.com/froyo-shown-running-on-samsung-galaxy-tab-along-with-sw-5620419 The specs haven’t been a very well kept secret—reportedly 1024 x 600 AMOLED screen; Android 2.2; 3.2MP back-facing camera,…

Tech News Kyle VanHemert

A Cross Section of a Boeing Engineer’s Crazy-Efficient Condo

“I tend to like things in their place,” says Steve Sauer, a Boeing engineer who spent the last 7 years turning this 182-square-foot basement condo into a decked-out, three-level dwelling. Can you spot the bathtub? Ah, there it is, built into the floor just beneath the front door and covered up by a 3form Chroma…

Tech News Kyle VanHemert

The RIAA Wants Search Engines and Advertisers To Police You, Too

The internet bullies at the RIAA are now saying that the DMCA “isn’t working for content people at all.” Their solution? Pressure not only ISPs but search engines, payment processors, and advertisers into policing users, too. Please just go away. https://gizmodo.com/riaa-mpaa-want-government-mandated-spyware-that-deletes-5517850 At the Technology Policy Institute’s Aspen Forum, poor, unfortunate RIAA President Cary Sherman said…

Tech News Kyle VanHemert

Why Won’t Russia Bust Its Hackers?

In November, 2009, U.S. authorities identified BadB, one of the internet’s most ingenious financial criminals, as 27-year-old Moscow resident Vladislav Horohorin. He was recently arrested in France. But why did Russian authorities let him operate freely in the meantime? NYT sketches out a few popular theories among security experts as to why, generally, Russia has…

Privacy & Security Kyle VanHemert

Roxio Creator 2011 Lets You Convert 2D Home Movies and Family Photos To 3D

The newest iteration of Roxio’s do-everything software bundle, Creator, will take home movies into the third dimension—it includes tools for managing, editing, and sharing 3D content and even lets users convert existing 2D photos and video into 3D. If 3D does indeed make its way out of movie theaters and into our homes, we’re going…

Tech News Kyle VanHemert

The Best Way To Recycle Those Damn Printer Cartridges

PRINTER INK. Possibly more expensive than oil and blood. Definitely expensive enough that most people I know haven’t bothered owning a printer in years. These printer cartridge dioramas, however, give the increasingly obsolete printer cartridge a new lease on life. https://gizmodo.com/hp-ink-costs-more-than-human-blood-booze-212444 The scenes, some reenactments of great movie moments, were created by artist Faith Pearson.…

Tech News Kyle VanHemert

Self-Dusting Solar Panels Keep Themselves Efficient

Dirt and dust can reduce a solar panel’s efficiency as much as 80%. The solution: solar panels that dust themselves, a trick they’re picking up from their Mars-roving brethren. At a recent meeting of the American Chemical Society, researchers introduced solar technology that knows when dirt is keeping it down—the panels first use sensors to…

Space & Spaceflight Kyle VanHemert

The Art of Japanese Manhole Covers

Your current favorite manhole fact: they’re round so that they can’t fall in the manhole, even when they’re turned sideways. Your new favorite manhole fact: in Japan, they serve as canvasses for hundreds of beautiful, vibrant artworks: Photographer Remo Camerota catalogs the circular works in his new book Drainspotting, which recently took the award for…

Tech News Kyle VanHemert

How To: Get Exposé-Style Multitasking on Your iPhone or iPad

If flicking through that puny pop-up tray isn’t what you had in mind when you envisioned multitasking on your iPhone, well, you’re not alone. But jailbreakers can get gorgeous Exposé-style task management with Multifl0w 2.0. Here’s how it works: It’s pretty simple: 1. Jailbreak. If you haven’t upgraded to the latest, jailbreak-breaking iOS 4.0.2 on…

Tech News Kyle VanHemert

Google Maps (Minus All the Maps)

Madness! Damon Zucconi’s Fata Morgana takes the zoomable Google Maps you know and love and strips them of their very mapness, leaving only the text labels on a yawning gray plane. It’s like seeing a bear without its fur. The non-geographical world—just the metaphysical mindfark you needed to cure, or at least overpower, your case…

Tech News Kyle VanHemert

Iron Man Xbox 360 Mod Powers Your Gaming With Arc Reactor

When you’re modding your Xbox you have two options: 1. Bend the Xbox to your idea; or 2. Bend your idea to the Xbox. Adding a whirring arc reactor to your console is the latter at its very best: https://gizmodo.com/xbox-360-transforms-into-the-all-spark-5453822 Zachariah Perry Cruse, a 19 year old sculpture student, is the video game-playing Tony Stark…

Tech News Kyle VanHemert

What Kind of Photographic Trickery Is Going On Here?

Left side of the photo: adorable 4-year-old pancake chef is blinking. Right side of the photo, in the reflection: his eyes are wide open. Whoa. Viral marketing for the The Last Exorcist? Not exactly. https://gizmodo.com/stripping-chatroulette-girl-turns-into-she-demon-5616956 The prevailing theory, from BoingBoing commenter nickelrocket: resolution pixels on the chip load from L to R (or R to…

Tech News Kyle VanHemert

This Week’s Best Apps

In this week’s totally radical app round up: wasting time on the mobile web, simplified; music videos, enjoyed; battleships, sunk; appointments, maintained minimalistically; monsters, evaded (and blasted); your childhood fear of puppets, worked through, and much, much more! iPhone To view these on one page, click here https://gizmodo.com/iphone-apps-gallery-5618147 Android To view these on one page,…

Tech News Kyle VanHemert

iPad Apps Gallery

Elements: Dropbox is our favorite way to keep files synced across multiple machines, bar none, but its apps sadly don’t do text editing. The universal app Elements fills that role, letting you cleanly edit text and quietly keep it in sync. There have been a few Dropbox-enabled text editors for the iPad, but none quite…

Tech News Kyle VanHemert

iPhone Apps Gallery

Monster Dash: A new running game from Halfbrick, the makers of Fruit Ninja—do I even need to keep going?—Monster Dash sends you scurrying as a tiny little cartoon man blasting away at a whole army of vampires, mummies, and other assorted baddies. Simple but highly enjoyable. $1 Nook: Oh Barrett… Barnes and Noble already had…

Tech News Kyle VanHemert

The Price of Perfect Cell Service: A Collapsing Apartment Building

Good cell service is hard to come by, especially in NYC, but five bars won’t do much good when you’re DEAD. Some New Yorkers are convinced that the AT&T and T-Mo antennas on their roof are bringing the building down. The tenants of 165 Pinehurst Avenue in New York City have a dilemma: they have…

Tech News Kyle VanHemert

The Rest of the Numbered Pencil Family

We all know and love the No. 2 Pencil, but what about Messrs. No. 1 – No. 12? Artist Nathan W. Pyle has dutifully cataloged those lesser-known writing implements, which you can buy as a t-shirt on Woot. [Laughing Squid]

Tech News Kyle VanHemert

Kyle VanHemert

Black People Call and Text Way More Than Everyone Else

Apple Reportedly Readying 99 Cent TV Show Rentals For September 7 Event

Microsoft Boss Brad Silverberg: Here’s What I Remember Most About The Amazing Launch Of Windows 95

Watch the Samsung Galaxy Tab Official Teaser Video

A Cross Section of a Boeing Engineer’s Crazy-Efficient Condo

The RIAA Wants Search Engines and Advertisers To Police You, Too

Why Won’t Russia Bust Its Hackers?

Roxio Creator 2011 Lets You Convert 2D Home Movies and Family Photos To 3D

The Best Way To Recycle Those Damn Printer Cartridges

Self-Dusting Solar Panels Keep Themselves Efficient

The Art of Japanese Manhole Covers

How To: Get Exposé-Style Multitasking on Your iPhone or iPad

Google Maps (Minus All the Maps)

Iron Man Xbox 360 Mod Powers Your Gaming With Arc Reactor

What Kind of Photographic Trickery Is Going On Here?

This Week’s Best Apps

iPad Apps Gallery

iPhone Apps Gallery

The Price of Perfect Cell Service: A Collapsing Apartment Building

The Rest of the Numbered Pencil Family

Watch and Follow Live as NASA Launches Its First Crewed Mission to the Moon in 54 Years 🔴

This Is the Way to Lego’s April Releases

Group Pushing Age Verification Requirements for AI Turns Out to Be Sneakily Backed by OpenAI

Amazon Facilities in Bahrain Hit Again as Iran Follows Through on Threat, Report Says

Why the PS6 Handheld Will Matter More Than the PS6

DNA Study Casts Even More Doubt on Shroud of Turin’s True Origin

Sam Witwer Is Ready for Maul’s Moment

Anthropic Can’t Cover Up Its Claude Code Leak Fast Enough

Zach Cregger Recruits Second Zach for His Aunt Gladys Spinoff

Can You Run a Computer Without RAM? Surprisingly, Yes—But You’ll Be Miserable

The Best Gadgets of March 2026

AirPods Max 2 Review: Still Ridiculously Expensive and Ridiculously Nice

DJI Osmo 360 Review: The Best 360 Camera for the DJI-Pilled

Aqara Smart Lock U400 Review: Hands-free Unlocking at Its Best

MSI Prestige 14 Flip AI+ Review: A Solid 2-in-1 Laptop With Some Glaring Flaws

Sonos Play Review: Call It a Comeback

Sonos Era 100 SL Review: The Cheapest Way Into Wired Sonos Sound

Asus ROG’s Massive Swift OLED Gaming Monitor Epitomizes Excess in the Best Way

The Ikea Varmblixt Smart Lamp Fills a Donut Hole in My Life

Nothing Headphone A vs. Headphone 1: Which Pair of ANC Wireless Headphones Wins?