Sam Biddle, Author at Gizmodo

Sorry, But Microsoft Screwing Windows Phone Fans Is the Right Thing To Do

Not a single smartphone out right now will be able to upgrade to Windows Phone 8. If you’re a recent customer, you might be frustrated. Rightfully so. But if you care about the dazzling future of Windows Phone, get over it. https://gizmodo.com/windows-phone-8-looks-great-but-it-screws-existing-use-5919915 What Microsoft is doing with Windows Phone 8 is what it has to…

Tech News Sam Biddle

Microsoft Boots Bing Maps for Nokia in Windows Phone 8

We saw this coming, and we’re glad it’s true: Windows Phone 8 will replace Bing Maps with Nokia’s stellar mapping tech. The Nokia data will be available offline—a huge perk—and include turn by turn directions, 3D, and fast transit planning. It takes a big man to admit his own son is terrible, and replace that…

Tech News Sam Biddle

Nine Things We Really, Really Want from Windows Phone 8

Windows Phone has a great premise—a set of beautiful, minimalist tiles take the place of a million apps. It’s brilliant in its simplicity. But it needs to get its shit together. Today, we could get a first look at Windows Phone 8. Here’s what it needs to deliver. Social skills WinPho’s People tile is one…

Tech News Sam Biddle

The Coast Guard Creates a Fiery Vortex in the Sky

This C-130J Super Hercules is on a regular mission over North Carolina, not escaping an alien fireball. But the 75,000 pound cargo beast is still so powerful, it warped the entire sky behind it. As The Aviationist’s David Cenciotti explains, these cloud curls are called “wingtip vortices”: Vortices form because of the difference in pressure…

Tech News Sam Biddle

Reading Rainbow Might Stop the iPad From Ruining the Brains of All Children

For a generation now creating advanced things and placed in corridors of power, LeVar Burton was a god-king: both Star Trek’s Geordi La Forge, and the guy who taught us to like books on Reading Rainbow. Now, the two Burtons are fused—and it’s pretty incredible. LeVar Burton has an app—it’s available starting today. Sure. Lots…

Tech News Sam Biddle

How to Turn a Century Old Building into Tron

Wroclaw’s Centennial Hall was built so long ago, Wroclaw wasn’t even part of Poland. But the super-minimal concrete mega-dome was ahead of its time way back in 1913, and with a little 2012 tech, it turns into a pulsating starship. Using projection mapping—a fancy term for beaming images onto buildings to create a 3D illusion—the…

Tech News Sam Biddle

What Is Microsoft Surface?

Microsoft doesn’t want to take any chances with Windows 8—if it’s going to be the best tablet OS ever, it’s going to need some serious hardware. So Microsoft is getting serious and building its own tablet. Meet Surface. The Microsoft Surface is a tablet and a PC at the same time… Microsoft’s home cooked tablet…

Tech News Sam Biddle

The Cool Ranch Doritos Taco Is Real and Headed Straight For Your Face

Governments of the world: arm all nuclear launch codes, disband your legislatures, and send your drones to the sky: Taco Bell is preparing not one but two new flavors of its diabolical Doritos Locos Tacos. This time, prepare. After depleting its 85 million strategic reserve of cheese shells and selling a staggering 100 million weaponized…

Tech News Sam Biddle

Here Is Your New Biggest (LED) TV in The World

The LC-90LE745U has a long, unmemorable name. The LC-90LE745U costs ten grand—you probably can’t afford it. The LC-90LE745U is 90-inches wide: the biggest LED LCD TV in the world, and it’s completely beautiful. The LC-90LE745U dominates your eyeballs. Debate the point of a 90-inch TV all you want. Think about the possibility that you’d have…

Television Sam Biddle

The IKEA TV Reviewed: Worse Than Assembling 100 Bookshelves at Once

Uppleva, Ikea’s magical TV-cum-entertainment center meatball, won’t be arriving in America until next year. Fortunately, we’ve got an early review from friends in Sweden. The bad news: it’s really bad. We had high hopes for the all-in-one Uppleva—after all, if there’s a company that can produce a single unit with a TV, Blu-ray player, 2.1…

Television Sam Biddle

The Air Force’s Mystery Space Weapon Lands After a Year in Orbit

The Air Force’s shadowy mini-Space Shuttle, the X-37B, spent over a year traveling around our planet. What was it down? We don’t know—it’s a secret. But now that it’s finally landed, it’s time for some questions. Despite more or less copying the design of of the Space Shuttle, the X-37 is completely robotic, guiding itself…

Space & Spaceflight Sam Biddle

The Guy Who Invented Your Facebook News Feed Just Quit Facebook

The news feed, so ubiquitous that we don’t even need to capitalize it, is an internet staple. We stare at it daily—maybe too much—and it’s a fundamental part of Facebook. Today, the brain behind the feed is leaving. Bret Taylor co-founded a small company called FriendFeed—which was absorbed by the Zuck Mothership in 2009, making…

Social Media Sam Biddle

Facebook Ruined Your Birthday

Facebook both perfected and ruined the birthday. At first, it was the greatest convenience—never forget a special day ever again! And then it stopped having any meaning. On Facebook, your birthday is automated and empty because nobody has to devote a single shred of mental energy to remembering or celebrating it. Here’s how to bring…

Social Media Sam Biddle

Will Instagram Warp Our Grandchildren’s Perception of Reality?

You know the old joke about how kids think their grandparents lived in an actual black and white world, because the only proof they have is ancient photos? Well what happens when the only photographic evidence of our lives is faux-filtered? The Atlantic Wire’s Richard Lawson is joking, yeah, but the guy makes a point!…

Tech News Sam Biddle

This $7,000 Ping Pong Table Can Withstand Nuclear Warfare

Editor’s note: Our crack reporters, Sam Biddle and Mario Aguilar, were so eager to break the news of a $7,000 ping pong table that they each wrote about it at the same time. Oops. Gizmodo presents their duplicate efforts as if the words themselves are a ball being batted back and forth across a table.…

Tech News Sam Biddle and Mario Aguilar

Former RIM CEOs Paid Millions and Millions for Ruining Company

Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie, the co-CEO bro team who oversaw the implosion of RIM and the complete descent into irrelevance of the BlackBerry, aren’t shedding any tears right now. Why? Despite career failure, they got a luxury parting package. The Wall Street Journal reports the golden parachute studded with rubies was disclosed in RIM’s…

Tech News Sam Biddle

Vizio’s Beautiful Sci-Fi Computer Fleet Lands Now for Cheapish (Updated: Hands On)

It takes a lot to make us genuinely excited about a laptop, or even worse, another desktop PC. But cheap TV king Vizio’s done just that. We loved them at CES, and now the all-in-one and superskinny laptop line’s official. The 24 and 27 inch all-in-one PCs, which borrow enough of Apple’s picture frame design…

Tech News Sam Biddle

Giant Smartphones in Skinny Jeans: A Photoshoot

Huge smartphones are, against all sanity, in—and they’re only getting bigger. And jeans are getting smaller. Can humans and the big phones of today coexist? The HTC Titan II is 5.18 inches tall, 2.78 inches wide, and sports a 4.7-inch screen. Our model, Tess: 5 feet, 8 inches tall, 25 inches wide, 107 pounds. It…

Tech News Sam Biddle

Do You Care if The Best Laptop Ever Is the Most Impossible to Repair?

At this point, we’ve gushed and slobbered about the Retina MacBook Pro enough (until we review it, that is). Today we learned that in addition to being an engineering marvel, it’s a DIY black hole. Does that matter? The Retina Pro’s unified construction not only means damage to the screen requires replacing an entire half…

Tech News Sam Biddle

Hollywood Steve Jobs Returns to Disgrace Apple’s Magic Garage

Ashton Kutcher’s cinematic opus, jOBS—yes, it’s spelled like that—is getting real. How real? People who look nothing like the characters they’re playing have entered the Jobs family home, where Apple was born. These shots from the Los Altos set show Ashton Kutcher, like a broke-ass Shaggy from Scooby Doo, doing his best to look dour.…

Tech News Sam Biddle

Sam Biddle

Sorry, But Microsoft Screwing Windows Phone Fans Is the Right Thing To Do

Microsoft Boots Bing Maps for Nokia in Windows Phone 8

Nine Things We Really, Really Want from Windows Phone 8

The Coast Guard Creates a Fiery Vortex in the Sky

Reading Rainbow Might Stop the iPad From Ruining the Brains of All Children

How to Turn a Century Old Building into Tron

What Is Microsoft Surface?

The Cool Ranch Doritos Taco Is Real and Headed Straight For Your Face

Here Is Your New Biggest (LED) TV in The World

The IKEA TV Reviewed: Worse Than Assembling 100 Bookshelves at Once

The Air Force’s Mystery Space Weapon Lands After a Year in Orbit

The Guy Who Invented Your Facebook News Feed Just Quit Facebook

Facebook Ruined Your Birthday

Will Instagram Warp Our Grandchildren’s Perception of Reality?

This $7,000 Ping Pong Table Can Withstand Nuclear Warfare

Former RIM CEOs Paid Millions and Millions for Ruining Company

Vizio’s Beautiful Sci-Fi Computer Fleet Lands Now for Cheapish (Updated: Hands On)

Giant Smartphones in Skinny Jeans: A Photoshoot

Do You Care if The Best Laptop Ever Is the Most Impossible to Repair?

Hollywood Steve Jobs Returns to Disgrace Apple’s Magic Garage

Getting Stuck Inside a Glitching Robotaxi Is a Whole New Thing to Be Scared of

Artemis 2 Live Updates: Humanity’s Epic Return to the Moon 🔴

NASA’s Artemis 2 Mission Blasts Off

Disney’s Robot Olaf Dying Is the Funniest Thing to Happen in 2026

Kia’s EV3 Is Headed to the US This Year With Up to 320 Miles of Range

This Is the Way to Lego’s April Releases

Group Pushing Age Verification Requirements for AI Turns Out to Be Sneakily Backed by OpenAI

Amazon Facilities in Bahrain Hit Again as Iran Follows Through on Threat, Report Says

Why the PS6 Handheld Will Matter More Than the PS6

DNA Study Casts Even More Doubt on Shroud of Turin’s True Origin

The Best Gadgets of March 2026

AirPods Max 2 Review: Still Ridiculously Expensive and Ridiculously Nice

DJI Osmo 360 Review: The Best 360 Camera for the DJI-Pilled

Aqara Smart Lock U400 Review: Hands-free Unlocking at Its Best

MSI Prestige 14 Flip AI+ Review: A Solid 2-in-1 Laptop With Some Glaring Flaws

Sonos Play Review: Call It a Comeback

Sonos Era 100 SL Review: The Cheapest Way Into Wired Sonos Sound

Asus ROG’s Massive Swift OLED Gaming Monitor Epitomizes Excess in the Best Way

The Ikea Varmblixt Smart Lamp Fills a Donut Hole in My Life

Nothing Headphone A vs. Headphone 1: Which Pair of ANC Wireless Headphones Wins?