Sam Biddle

Calm Down: Nobody Is Taking Over the Internet

For the next two weeks, the ITU—a United Nations agency that was formed to regulate telegraph lines in the 19th century—will try to make new rules for the Internet. This makes some people worried, but nobody should be. The entire conference is pointless. The World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT-12), which kicked off today in…

Yes, You’re Allowed to Check Your Phone During Sex

Humans are never going to stop touching each other naked, and we’re almost certainly never going to stop touching our phones. If anything, the latter is eclipsing the former. But can you do both at once? Forget what you’ve heard. Yes you can. Mid-coitus, even looking in the direction of your phone is presumed to…

Exclusive: The Final Words of a 15-Year-Old Hacker Banned from the Internet

Cosmo is a 15-year-old boy who just received the hacker equivalent of a death sentence. All of his electronics: gone. The Internet: off-limits until he’s 21. He’s completely vanished from the world he called home. I met Cosmo the God (hacker alias, of course, to go along with with the phony profile picture up top)…

Toys Injured 262,300 Kids Last Year, and Other Terrifying Toy Facts

Happy holidays, guys: last year, 13 kids died while playing with toys, and over a quarter of a million children were sent to the ER by their own toys. The biggest lesson here? Scooters are time bombs. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission has a report out on just how dangerous our tots’ toys are,…

Xbox Live Gold is free this weekend in North America and Australia. Go game and stream movies while you can. [Xbox]

Syria Just Turned off The Internet (Updated)

Lights out, rebels: it looks like the Syrian government just blacked out almost the entire country’s access to the web. This is cyber warfare. Internet-monitoring firm Renesys says “77 networks experienced an outage in Syria starting at 10:26 UTC on November 29. This represents 92% of the routed networks in the country.” That’s a big…

Revenge Porn Site Wants Your Address So Strangers Can Stalk You

HunterMoore.tv, the site that wants to do for sext revenge what YouTube did for animal videos, has a killer new feature. And by killer, I mean terrifying: the site’s (naked) victims will be put on a map. Stalker jackpot. https://gizmodo.com/heres-where-the-naked-pics-you-sexted-will-end-up-5963883 In a comment to Betabeat, Moore couldn’t sound more excited for his perverse baby’s geolocational…

Look at These Two Pilots Barely Escape Death

This is completely terrifying. These guys were probably about one second from blowing up in a jet fuel fireball, but they managed to eject with only a hair standing between them and oblivion. Barely. Photographer Erwin Fuguet Gedde captured the incredible moment at a Venezuelan air show, where the country’s air force was celebrating its…

What You Can Do With a $550 Million Powerball Jackpot

Are you going to win the $550 million pot? Statistics aside, you feel almost 100% certain that you will. Now is the time to start wrapping your brain around just how much cash that is. To be fair, you’re not getting all 550 mil—after Uncle Sam sticks his claws in your pocket, you’ll only have…

Here’s Where the Naked Pics You Sexted Will End Up

IsAnyoneUp.com had one simple, brilliantly malicious premise: submit completely naked pictures of your ex (or anyone you dislike), completely anonymously. The ultimate Internet revenge, viewed by a quarter of a million people every day. It shut down. Now it’s back. The infamous pic hub, which mixed masturbation and mass-shaming by gleaning x-rated selfies from Facebook…

Microsoft has sold 40 million copies of Windows 8 so far—faster than Windows 7 did out of the gate. [Microsoft]

The iPhone 5 Damage Report: Two Months Later

The iPhone 5 isn’t the biggest or fastest, but it’s held up to physical standards of perfection that make the immaculate womb of Mary look like amateur hour. The phone is supposed to be a consummate beauty. But after two months of constant use, it’s already showing wear and tear. Scratch-phobes, beware. https://gizmodo.com/the-iphone-5s-impossible-design-comes-at-a-very-real-pr-5949429 Below are…

Bloomberg: Apple Fires Guy Responsible for Crappy Apple Maps

The world hated his creation, and now Apple is giving him the boot: Bloomberg News reports Apple exec Richard Williamson, the name behind the ill-fated, Internet-ridiculed Apple Maps just got fired. https://gizmodo.com/apples-new-3d-maps-are-an-apocalyptic-horror-show-5944672 The canning comes just after the ouster of Scott Forstall, another high profile Apple figure whose name was unfortunately associated with many of…

Israel Fires Iron Dome’s Big Brother

The Iron Dome missile defense system is getting a lot of praise, having (ostensibly) knocked down a lot of Hamas’ rockets with remarkable accuracy. All of this unexpected action means it’s time to kickstart the bigger, badder version: David’s Sling. https://gizmodo.com/what-is-israels-iron-dome-5961836 The system, also known as “Magic Wand,” depending on translation, functions in mostly the…

Facebook Will Always Own You

Bad news: the “copyright notice” you’ve been reading (and sharing, ugh) is completely bogus and a waste of everyone’s time. Facebook owns the photos, videos, and statuses you upload, and that’s not going to change just because you say so. https://gizmodo.com/that-facebook-copyright-notice-is-worthless-5963210 But here’s something you can do that might actually make a difference. When you…

Here’s the IDF’s Social Media Chief Wearing Blackface on Facebook

You’d think someone running one of the most sophisticated social media engagements in history would know better than to be super racist on Facebook. Or, you know, at all. https://gizmodo.com/heres-the-26-year-old-snowboarder-running-israels-socia-5962492 We missed this last time we scanned Sacha Dratwa’s Facebook profile—which he’s left public through all the scrutiny. But now that Israel and Hamas finally…

New Money-Destroying Virus Attacks Iran

After the US and Israel cooked up Stuxnet—a potent cyber weapon aimed at Iran’s nuclear facilities—whenever a virus targets Iran, it could be something major. This time around, the web threat wants to erase Iranian banks. The worm, which Symantec has dubbed W32.Narilam, started creeping through Iranian financial servers over the past several days: Just…

China’s First Aircraft Carrier Claims Its First Victim (Sort Of)

Our frenemies across the Pacific are now a naval superpower, having successfully landed a Chinese jet on a Chinese aircraft carrier for the first time. And it’s lethal—the guy in charge dropped dead in the middle of it. We’re not doctors here, so we can’t exactly say the J-15 literally killed Luo Yang, President of…

Matinee-Priced Gifts for Home Theater Lovers

Do you need to spend a ton of money to enjoy the hell out of movies at home? Nope—that’s a myth. If you want to give your special person’s TV a boost, you can do it on a budget. Hey there! You might notice our gift guides look a little different this year. That’s because…

Thanksgiving Tech Support: Exactly How Much You Should Care About Everyone at Home

Your mom’s router is broken, your dad’s laptop is frozen, your aunt’s tablet is covered in bees, and they’re all looking at you, tech blog reader, to fix it before and after Turkey. Not all family is equal. Here’s how to prioritize. This is all well trod by now. You know the drill. You’ve been…