Bob Sorokanich

Magic Color-Changing Camo Blends In No Matter The Season

Camouflage only works when it’s got the same color and pattern as your surroundings. When the foliage takes on a different hue, you don’t want to be caught wearing last season’s color. This magical new camouflage solves that problem with temperature-sensitive dyes to keep your sporting wear fashionable year-round. Cabela’s ColorPhase camo takes on a…

If You Could Have Any Boston Dynamics Robot, How Would You Use It?

Today’s big news is Google buying Boston Dynamics. Lazy writers, myself very much included, spent the day making tired old jokes about the dawn of the machine uprising. But there’s gotta be an alternate fantasy, where the robots do something more awesome than overthrow their creators. Let’s dream one up together! https://gizmodo.com/google-just-bought-crazy-walking-robot-maker-boston-dyn-1483235880 Pick a robot…

This week in tech reads, a deeper look at privacy, money, and the way that design affects how students learn. Ryan Lizza asks, “why won’t the president rein in the intelligence community?” [The New Yorker] Martin Austermuhle examines what Washington, D.C. does with the data from over 200 million license plate images snapped by plate…

Wrapping Your Mac Charger, Squirrels, And the Bad Side of Gluten Free

This was a great week of learning on Gizmodo! We discovered the right way to store your Mac charger, the wrong way to pave a Russian road, looked at why a gluten-free diet could be bad for you, and debunked nine of the internet’s most popular and fictitious “fun facts.” Let’s review. The Fascinating Story…

Twitter’s oft-rumored Nearby function, a timeline showing tweets based on your current location, has been seen in the wild, according to The Wall Street Journal. Twitter wouldn’t comment except to say they’re always testing new stuff. [WSJ via AllThingsD]

Interstellar Trailer: A Brief History of Flying

Christopher Nolan’s next epic movie is called Interstellar. It’s about space travel. It comes out a year from today. That’s everything we learned about the movie from this trailer, and we’re dying to know more. Nolan isn’t giving much away with this. A haggard Matthew McConaughey, a pickup truck, a cornfield. But the historical references…

A Closer Look at Google’s New Robot Army

We learned Saturday that Google has purchased Boston Dynamics, the lab of mad scientists behind some of the most awesomely scary robots ever seen. What exactly did Google get out of the deal? An army of jaw-droppingly capable robots that can walk, run, and climb through seemingly any terrain. Let’s meet the team. https://gizmodo.com/google-just-bought-crazy-walking-robot-maker-boston-dyn-1483235880 Atlas…

China’s Rover Has Reportedly Landed On the Moon

China’s state-run television network is reporting that the unmanned Yutu lunar rover has successfully soft-landed on the moon. The rover, which touched down a few minutes after 9PM Saturday night Beijing time, is the first object to be successfully soft-landed on the moon since 1976. https://gizmodo.com/bang-zoom-straight-to-the-moon-china-launches-its-fi-1474883623 The Chang’e-3 landing craft carried the rover to the…

Google Just Bought Crazy Walking Robot Maker Boston Dynamics

Google confirmed yesterday that it has acquired Boston Dynamics, maker of creepy walking humanoids and creepy running animal bots. Talk about a power couple. https://gizmodo.com/another-round-with-atlas-darpas-most-unsettling-humano-799804344 Google declined to tell The New York Times how much it paid for the robot engineering company. While Boston Dynamics works closely with the Pentagon to develop battlefield-ready robots, Google…

Now Available: Oppo N1 in the U.S.

The Oppo N1, a funky swivel-camera smartphone from China, hit U.S. shores this week. If you want to basically guarantee you’ll never see another person carrying your phone’s twin, this is probably the phone you want. The N1 packs a spacious 5.9 inch 1080p screen and 3610 mAh battery, but powers it with a slightly…

Our Favorite Android, iOS and Windows Phone Apps of the Week

Feel that holiday spirit in the air? It smells like pine trees and whatever toy parents are beating each other up over this year. Share the giving spirit and present your phone with some sweet new apps. Multi-Platform Updates Viber This week’s update brings the ability to make VoIP phone calls to any phone number,…

Sprint is reportedly considering making a bid on T-Mobile US. The theoretical merger between the number three and number four US carriers would probably face some stiff antitrust scrutiny from the Justice Department if an offer was made. [The Wall Street Journal]

This Friday, Walmart will slash iPhone 5C prices to just $27 with a two-year AT&T or Verizon contract. Kick in another hundred bucks, and you can jump up to an iPhone 5S. Both prices will last through December 24th. [LA Times via Business Insider]

Gifts for College Kids That Prove You’re Still Hip and With It

Choosing gifts for college students is a pain. If it’s too practical, it’ll never get used; too childish, you’ll earn yourself a hefty scoff instead of a polite “thank you.” Tread the tightrope with a useful, fun gift that isn’t too grownup, and you’ll be every millennial’s favorite Secret Santa. Here are a few suggestions…

Android Device Manager, Google’s desktop tool for finding a misplaced phone, finally has an Android app. Now you can locate your Android using your other Android. [Google Play Store via Lifehacker]

Watch a Huge, Newly Discovered Asteroid Almost Graze Earth

This beautiful tracking video shows Asteroid 2013 XY8 buzzing our planet on Tuesday night. It’s estimated to be up to 230 feet across, more than three times the size of the Chelyabinsk asteroid that caused havoc earlier this year. And we only discovered it four days ago. This could’ve gotten hairy. https://gizmodo.com/meteorite-explodes-over-russia-panic-spreads-5984476 At a little…

Outlook.com’s latest move to win over Gmail users is an easy, one-step importer that copies over your Gmail messages with labels, read status and conversation structure intact. The feature is new today, with a gradual rollout to all Outlook users. [Outlook Blog via Engadget]

Researchers Discover Huge Freshwater Reserves Under Ocean Floors

As earth’s population surges, mankind faces an increasingly limited supply of fresh water. Thankfully, Australian scientists report this week that they’ve found vast new fresh water supplies. Unfortunately, it’s in one of earth’s least accessible places: under the ocean floor. Published in this week’s Nature, the research compiles mounting evidence that fresh groundwater reserves exist…

On this day in 1972, the Apollo 17crew snapped this photograph, later dubbed “The Blue Marble.” Photographed using a 70-millimeter Hasselblad camera with an 80-millimeter Zeiss lens, and credited to all three Apollo 17 astronauts (Eugene Cernan, Ronald Evans and Jack Schmitt), this rare image of a fully-illuminated Earth has become one of the world’s…

This Infographic Shows How Crazy Holiday Toys Have Gotten in 50 Years

Philadelphia-based Abby Ryan Design came up with this fun infographic of the most popular toys from 50 years of holiday shopping. If you were a child during any of that time, you’ll doubtless recognize something. Then you’ll scratch your head in bafflement at how damned expensive today’s most-requested gifts are. This is a complaint that…