Pranav Dixit

This Is What a Watch Expert Thinks of the Apple Watch

The New York Times calls Benjamin Clymer “The High Priest of Horology.” He’s the executive editor of the watch-enthusiast website, Hodinkee, which featured in Time magazine’s list of the 50 best websites in 2013. Which is what makes his unique take on the Apple Watch so fascinating. While the rest of us compare the Apple…

Watch This Robot Get Burnt, Frozen and Run Over By a Car — and Survive

This is the strongest robot I’ve ever seen. It was able to survive a snowstorm, being tossed into flames and being squished by a car and it still lived to tell the tale. The as-yet-unnamed robot, which was created by a Harvard University researcher named Michael Tolley and his team, has no rigid skeleton. It…

An “Extreme” Solar Flare Is Blasting Its Way to Our Planet

There has been a giant magnetic explosion on the sun. A solar flare that scientists have classified as “extreme” is blasting its way towards our planet and could hit as early as Thursday. Solar flares, as Gizmodo’s Jamie Condliffe explains, are a result of Coronal Mass Ejections — events where the sun spits out huge…

Microsoft has finally added a long-requested feature to OneDrive for Windows 7 and 8: you can, at last, right-click a file in explorer and have a simple “Share a OneDrive link” option to create a link to the file that you can share with anyone. Like Dropbox, just about a million years later. [Ars Technica]

Skype on Windows Phone is now slightly more useful thanks to a location-sharing feature that comes with the latest update. Also, you can now turn off notifications for individual conversation, a polite way to block annoying friends. [Engadget]

It’s official: you get a 2-hour refund window to return paid apps and games from the Google Play Store. To be clear, you’ve been able to do this for some time. It’s just that Google has now updated the refund policy on the Google Play support site to reflect the change. Good for us. [Android…

Report: Apple Is Unhappy With the One-Day Battery Life Of the Watch

There’s abig, open question mark hanging over the Apple Watch: how long will the battery last? There’s a reason why Apple didn’t bring it up at all in Tuesday’s keynote. The company simply isn’t very happy with the battery life on the device. Recode’s John Paczkowski says that his sources tell him that the battery…

Google Street View Now Lets You Explore Ancient Egypt

Remember the funny backpack full of cameras that Google uses to map stunning Street View imagery of mountains and canyons? Well, Google just took it to Egypt. Starting today, you will be able to explore the Pyramids of Giza, the necropolis of Saqqara, and the ancient city of Abu Mena on Street View right from…

Hangouts on Air Will Now Let You Cheer Or Jeer In Real-Time

You can now let your Hangouts on Air host know exactly what you feel like. A new feature called “Applause” will let Hangouts viewers give a thumbs up or thumbs down during a live video broadcast. But that’s not all. Google will also track cheers and jeers over the duration of a Hangout and will…

The World’s Biggest Hard Drive Is Now Ten TB, Not Eight

If you thought 8 TB was plenty, think again. Western Digitaljust announced that it has added a 10 TB hard drive to its HelioSeal product line. The drive, which hermetically seals helium in order to reduce internal friction and power use, runs about 5 degrees cooler than today’s 7,200 rpm drives. Sealing air out of…

Google Voice Is Finally Being Integrated Into Hangouts

Google Voice isn’t quite dead (yet); it’s finally being integrated into Hangouts, because God knows Hangouts needed to be even more confusing. You can enable Voice SMS and voicemail via a popup in the conversation list, so check the app. If you still don’t see it, hang on. It’s still rolling out. [Android Police]

Report: Apple May Buy Social Network Path

Let’s face it: Apple’s not so good at social. Path, the former “private” social network with not many users sucks at social too. Now, Apple is reportedly buying Path. It all makes so much sense. The news comes via PandoDaily, which quotes an anonymous “single well-placed source inside Apple’s engineering team” as saying: “It’s almost…

Apple’s New iCloud Pricing Plan Gives You a Terabyte For $20/Month

Apple just made its new iCloud pricing plans official. Here’s what extra storage in Apple’s walled garden is going to cost you. 5 GB: Free 20 GB: $1 each month 200 GB: $4 each month 500 GB: $10 each month 1 TB: $20 each month. These prices are way cheaper than Apple’s previous pricing structure.…

Verizon Is Trying to Make Any Car a Zipcar

Zipcar, the affordable, rent-by-the-hour car sharing service of choice in urban areas, is about to get some competition from… Verizon, of all companies. The wireless service provider announced its “Auto Share” service, which enables any car to become a Zipcar. Here’s how it works, according to a VentureBeat report: Auto Share, which is being shown…

Jawbone’s excellent app will now sync with rival wearable devices from Fitbit, Pebble, Android Wear and yes, the iWatch, when it comes (via HealthKit). And oh, there’s a firmware update for the Up24 that doubles its battery life from one week to two. What’s not to like? [The Verge]

Comcast Is Injecting Ads Right Into Web Pages At Its Public Hotspots

Comcast, your friendly, neighborhood internet service provider, has started sneaking in promotional ads to devices connected to one of its 3.5 million WiFi hotspots around the U.S. How does it do it? By injecting Javascript directly into the Web pages you’re browsing. The purpose of these ads, ostensibly, is to “alert customers that they’re connected…

This Is How We Are Watching The Apple Event Today

Nailed it. [The Joy Of Tech via Recode]

There will be a big U2 announcement at today’s Apple event, says The New York Times. In addition to performing, the band will reveal an integration with Apple’s products that is connected to its next album, which is expected to come out by the end of the year, according to the Times’ anonymous sources. [NYT]

A Desperate Amazon Drops the Fire Phone’s Price To 99 Cents

Right before Apple announces the iPhone 6 on Tuesday, Amazon is dropping the price of its Fire smartphone from $200 to 99 cents with a two-year AT&T contract. If you needed any more proof that this phone was an unmitigated disaster, this is it. Amazon never releases sales numbers for any of its hardware, but…

Whatsapp for iOS Gets A Ton Of New Features (But No Voice Calling Yet)

Whatsapp updates are so few and far between that we should probably open a bottle of wine every time we get them. The Facebook-owned instant messenger just got another update, and if you have an iPhone, you’re in for a treat. Whatsapp on iOS now has the ability to share the slo-mo videos that you…