Kyle Wagner

How Parallel Universes Actually Work, Scientifically

Parallel universes are basically the most popular trope in science fiction, because Batman and Spider-Man in alternate universe costumes are awesome, and also human existence is inherently full of awful, soul-crushing regret. But how does the science actually work? Our old friend MinutePhysics explains that there are three models of multiverse theory. There’s the Bubble…

What a Major League Stadium Looks Like from the POV of a Baseball in Flight

It’s Opening Day! America’s most popular boring sport is back. Great(?). If you have even a passing interest in baseball, you’ve probably ditched work to go catch a game already, but if not, here’s a bit of fun. A GoPro on a baseball. Yep, as silly and wonderful as it sounds. The video was taken…

Battery Life Is the Only Spec That Matters

Give basically any piece of tech you carry around the time machine test. Jump ahead 50 years, and show off whatever anachronism of a gadget you brought along to a native. They’d laugh, obviously. But within the confines of our traditional tech specs, you know what they’d probably find most egregious? The battery. Somehow, when…

This Secret Google Maps Gesture Is Totally Brilliant

So this is great. Google might have the smartest new gesture we’ve seen in a while: a smart, simple way to zoom in and out with one hand. Just double tap the screen with your thumb—anywhere on the screen is fine—and on the second tap, hold your finger down. Now slide your finger up and…

Someday Soon, Video Games Will Look Like This Incredible Unreal Engine 4 Graphics Demo

So this is gorgeous. The video up top is a leaked demo of the Unreal Engine 4. It’s been shown at GDC, and Kotaku isn’t sure if it’s a new, next gen game or just a tech demo. But either way, it’s stunning for in-game visuals. https://kotaku.com/impressive-unreal-engine-4-graphics-demo-infiltrator-462820497 Facial expressions, particle effects, light and shadows; this…

The First Honest Cable Company Commercial

Cable companies are universally regarded as only slightly more popular than evil dictators, and a little less fashionable than certain strains of STDs. How do you fix something like that? Honesty! We’re awful; we’re unstoppable; you’ll hate us; deal with it. That’s something you could respect (and which would be applicable basically everywhere in the…

Razer Edge Review: So Heavy, So Expensive, So Awesome

A gaming laptop in a tablet. It’s a thought experiment that raises a whole host of questions: Is that even possible? Can it possibly be good? Would anyone even want it if it were? And finally: How much does it cost? The Razer Edge’s answers translate roughly to “Yes!”, “Sort of.”, “Maybe?”, and “Erm, you…

Adidas Energy Boost Running Shoes Review: For Once, New Shoes That Live Up to the Hype

Adidas isn’t the first company you think of when you think running. But its new Energy Boost shoes are getting a lot of hype. “Breakthrough for running shoes,” they say. Big claims, but surprisingly, backed up by the performance. https://gizmodo.com/adidas-energy-running-the-next-great-running-innovatio-5983960 What Is It Running shoes made from a new material called Boost, as opposed to…

FBI Pushing Hard for Realtime Email, Gchat, Skype, and Dropbox Spying Powers

The FBI wants more power. That’s not any particular kind of surprising, since the FBI always wants more power, but this push is notable for what’s it’s after: real time spy privileges for your online communication. Right now, government agencies can force ISPs and phone companies to install surveillance gear in their networks thanks to…

Best Thing Ever: Classic Calvin and Hobbes Scenes Animated into GIFs

Short of a few seconds of homebrewed animations here and there, we’ve never seen Calvin and Hobbes animated. That’s fine—Bill Watterson’s panels are more lifelike than a kabillion hours of most shows—but seeing it done right is enough to make your eyes fall out from happiness. http://gizmodo.com/5991372/if-there-were-a-calvin-and-hobbes-cartoon-this-is-what-it-would-probably-look-like?tag=calvinandhobbes The Calvin & Hobbes GIFs Tumblr has been…

Don’t Buy the Verizon T-Mobile iPhone 4 5 (UPDATE)

The day that Verizon T-Mobile gets the iPhone will be remembered as glorious by everybody who’s dropped 12 calls in a row, been taunted by meaningless signal bars stared lecherously at all their friends’ nubile iPhones and just plain had a miserable AT&T T-Mobile Sidekick experience. But they shouldn’t buy one. https://gizmodo.com/the-t-mobile-iphone-is-here-at-last-5992438 Let’s keep in…

Humongous 55-Inch Windows 8 Touchscreen Computer Is a Wonderful Thing That Exists in the World

How great is this? 55 inches of touchscreen magic for a classroom or a Wolf Blitzer or a droll, droll conference room. Sure, it’s $5,000, and sure, it’s “only” 1080p, but WHATEVER. This is great. Other than being gigantic, the InFocus BigTouch is basically a regular computer. It’s got a Core i5, a 120GB SSD,…

Watch All 6 Star Wars Movies At the Same Time on YouTube (It’s Confusing and Terrifying)

At first you think, This looks cool, all the intros side by side by side! And then you think, Waaaiiiit no these are the whole movies this is awful at least it will be taken down soon. And then: WAIT HOLD ON THIS HAS BEEN UP SINCE OCTOBER AND LUCAS HASN’T IMPALED ANYONE??? Yep, all…

Windows 8’s Main Apps All Just Got a Little Better

Tomorrow, Windows 8 and RT’s Mail, Calendar, and People apps will all receive updates in the Windows Store. Meaning, tomorrow, Windows 8 gets a little bit better! Here’s how the updates to the apps will break down. Mail Mail gets the most improvements of the three apps. It’ll add the ability to create, delete, or…

How Clouds Work: The Most Complicated Problem in Climate Change

Predicting how Earth’s climate will change in the coming years is a deeply important task for science. It also seems fairly fundamental—they’re just clouds! Thing is, cloud dynamics are incredibly problematic, to the point of being unknowable in some instances. The Verge has a very cool feature today about the problem. Essentially, it’s impossible to…

These Incredibly Realistic Human Face Computer Graphics Will Obviously Be Used for Porn

We’ve seen how impressive Nvidia’s new Titan GPU can be, but this is kind of nuts. Face rendering that is pretty darn close to bridging the uncanny valley. It’s remarkable. And also? This is obviously going to be used for porn. https://gizmodo.com/nvidia-geforce-gtx-titan-a-massive-gpu-that-might-be-u-5985291 Everything is used for porn. And this, especially, should be put right to…

Vocal Coach Uses Sex Toys to Fix Singers’ Voices

This makes sense in a way that makes absolutely no sense. David Ley, a University of Alberta drama professor and vocal coach, figured out that one especially effective and not at all lecherous way to sooth a lost voice is… a vibrator. Ley says that the vibrator is so effective—more so than a typical larynx…

Verizon has its own Google Voice-like SMS/MMS messaging app now. You know, as long as you stick with Verizon.

HBO’s CEO Says an HBO Go + Broadband Internet Package Could Work

Yeah, yeah, shut up and take your money. Well, it looks like HBO just might. CEO Richard Plepler told Reuters that he thinks HBO “has the right model”, but the popular HBO Go service could evolve to be paired with broadband internet subscriptions. HBO has been pretty dogged about saying it wasn’t interested in offering…

Apple Just Fixed a Huge Security Hole with Two-Step Verification

Apple just added two-factor authentication for iCloud and all your Apple accounts. It’s a huge deal for security, and are a welcome boon to a security process that had proven full of holes that were frustrating to fix. You can enable it at the Apple ID page. https://gizmodo.com/apples-hacker-fix-nuke-your-itunes-account-refuse-to-5942187 Two-step authentication sends a security code to…