Kyle Wagner

Mobile Payments Are About to Become Standardized. Really Good or Really Terrible?

Mobile payments are a mess. Mostly because every single carrier is trying to set up its own payment platform and squeeze everyone else out. The Electronic Transactions Association has announced the Mobile Payments Committee, which should put some order to the chaos. The committee will have representatives from each of the four major US carriers,…

Microsoft’s “Metro” UI Is Now Just “Windows 8”

Microsoft is ditching the “Metro” name for its live tiles UI in Windows 8 and Windows Phone. And it was a bit of a mystery what it was going to be called. Answer’s in: Just plain ol’ “Windows 8.” https://lifehacker.com/microsoft-no-longer-using-the-metro-name-for-its-new-5931657 It feels a bit like a missed opportunity for Microsoft to brand its whole ecosystem—especially…

Google Translate for Android Can Read Pictures in Foreign Languages Now

Google Translate just got Word Lens, basically. The new feature in the latest update of the Google Translate app lets you take a picture in-app, and highlight text you want translated from one language into another. It’s pretty cool. https://gizmodo.com/incredible-world-translating-app-word-lens-is-finally-o-5923981 The translation is different from Word Lens in that it’s not live AR translation. You…

All the Spam in the World Makes $200 Million—And Costs Us $20 Billion

We all hate spam. But we figure it must be worth it to someone since there’s so damn much of it. But… apparently not. A new paper from the Journal of Economic Perspectives estimates it brings in a total of $200 million in revenue worldwide per year. And then the rest of us spend $20…

Amazon Says It Closed Its Glaring Authentication Hack Exploit

Ty Rogers of Amazon PR has reportedly confirmed that the hole in Amazon’s authentication process that allowed Mat Honan to be hacked has been closed, “effective yesterday.” https://gizmodo.com/apple-and-amazon-know-about-a-massive-hack-exploit-and-5932176 The Amazon exploit had ben somewhat undersold, even in the Wired piece that explained the process. Most of the focus had been that the last four digits…

The Single Most Awesome Photographer at the Olympics

Sports photography is usually home to the highest-of-high tech camera technologies, because its subjects move so swiftly, and in such limited bursts. It’s not the place you’d expect to find, say, a gigantic old 4×5 large format view camera. And yet! The photog in question (so many questions) is David Burnett. He’s actually been going…

Report: iOS 6 May Confirm Taller, 4-Inch iPhone

Well this is interesting. iOS 6, pictured above on the left, is now able to scale to show five full lines of apps when displayed at 640×1136—the resolution a reported 4-inch iPhone would have. https://gizmodo.com/iphone-5-the-complete-rumor-roundup-5930100 iOS 5.1, which is on the right, only shows four app rows when run in the same iOS simulator app.…

Prisons Are Getting Fewer In-Person Visitors Because of Skype-Like Video Visitation

How close does a video call come to replicating actual human contact? What if that call is the only contact you have with the outside world while in prison—does that change the calculus at all? Apparently so, for inmates in the District of Columbia Department of Corrections. The department’s installed 108 video units, split between…

The First Color Photo of Martian Landscape from the Mars Curiosity Rover

Shooting a robot millions of miles from Earth and landing it on another planet is incredibly impressive and all, but it wasn’t a just an aeronautical physics experiment. We went there to collect data. Now we’ve got some: the first color images from Mars Curiosity. The image was taken by Curiosity’s Mars Hand Lens Imager…

Apple and Amazon Know About a Massive Hack Exploit—And Have Done Nothing (Updated)

Gizmodo alumnus Mat Honan got hacked this weekend. It was bad. But that’s not the worst part. Worse is that Apple knows exactly how easy this is, and hasn’t done a thing to stop it. And Amazon accounts are in just as much danger. How It Happened Honan has a chilling account of Apple and…

Which Olympic “Throwing” World Record Required the Most Power?

The Olympics are full of beefy men and women throwing heavy things long distances. That’s just good television. But which event takes the most power to compete in? MinutePhysics broke down the numbers for the world records in the shot put, javelin, discus, and hammer throw. (Spoiler: It’s called the hammer throw. What did you…

AT&T will shut down its whole 2G network by 2017. [WSJ]

Samsung thinks kids call the iPhone Home Button a “Bellybutton.” What the hell is going on in that courtroom? [Twitter]

Google Wallet Works on Verizon’s Galaxy Nexus Now

Verizon has fought Google Wallet pretty hard, in favor of whatever similar NFC service it’s working on. But it seems to have ceded some ground to Google: Verizon’s Galaxy Nexus can now reportedly download and use the Google Wallet app directly from the Google Play Store. https://gizmodo.com/verizon-is-screwing-the-galaxy-nexus-by-blocking-google-5865580 We like Google Wallet, and hope it starts…

The Best Ultraportable Laptop of 2012

For a while now, ultraportables have been the only class of laptop that really matters. Sure, you can find more powerful machines for less money. But the mix of portability, speed, and beauty—along with the miniature muscle of Intel’s Ivy Bridge chips—has made ultrabooks the best laptops to own for almost all of us. Problem…

BREAKING: David Pogue Has Lost His iPhone (UPDATE #2 #3 #4 #5 #6 #7 #8 #9 #10 #11 #12 #13 #14 #15 #16—THEY GOT IT—Still Updating #17 #18)

New York Times technology writer David Pogue has lost his iPhone. He has posted a screenshot of where it might be on Lockerz.com, though. Won’t anyone help him find it? Or help him sign up for PhotoBucket? Update 11:52AM EDT: David has posted another photo to Lockerz.com, this time showing the larger scope of the…

The iPad’s Smart Cover Could Someday Be a Second Display

Apple is trying to patent a Smart Cover for the iPad that has an embedded secondary display. Or in other words: Eat it, Surface. The cover would use a connector on the side of the iPad that would supply data and power to the cover. Here’s Apple’s description from the application: [The] accessory device comprising:…

No, the next iPhone won’t cost $800. Unless it’s unlocked. Please stop being dumb, Twitter. [Buzzfeed]

Olympic Track and Field Doesn’t Use Starting Pistols Because the Speed of Sound Is Too Slow

Did you know the reason that Olympic track and field doesn’t use starting pistols anymore is that the runners farthest from the gun were posting demonstrably slower start times. Even with the help of digital speakers. This is crazy. For a long time, the sound of the gun was pumped in from behind each runner…

The Technology That Turned Joe Quesada into a Legendary Comic Book Artist

Joe Quesada is Marvel Comics’ Chief Creative Officer, and one of the most respected artists in comics. But he’s also a tech geek at heart, and here’s what got him started. Joe is back answering questions below this evening. He’ll be here until at least 6PM—longer if you bring the good stuff with questions. Gizmodo:…