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The Terrifying Reaper That Shoots Hellfire from 50,000 Feet

The General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper is our military’s premiere hunter-killer platform, sniping at targets from 50,000 feet in the sky. Except instead of bullets, it shoots Hellfire missiles. And with its most recent upgrades, the MQ-9 makes other drones look about as effective as Elmer Fudd. The MQ-9 has been developed by General Atomics Aeronautical…

The dark secret of arcade crane games: 17 times out of 18, you will lose

Looking to bone up on your arcade crane game strategy? (You know the game I’m talking about — the one with the claw and the plush toys crammed all up inside it.) Well, we’ve got some sad news. It turns out strategy, at least when it comes to crane games, probably isn’t as important as…

SOL Republic Tracks Ultra Headphones Review: A Wall of Sound with No Depth

When SOL Republic launched the Tracks Ultra headphones, we took issue with the vague description of the product. And it wasn’t just a lack of specs. There was no actual qualitative description about what made the sound of the Tracks Ultra different from the headphones’ excellent previous iteration. https://gizmodo.com/sol-republic-says-its-new-headphones-are-the-best-yet-5938990 Now that we have a pair…

How to Enable Image Stabilization on the Nokia Lumia 920 (Not Really)

It seems that Nokia screwed their Lumia 920 camera demo even more than we thought. Not only they faked the video but also faked photos. https://gizmodo.com/how-could-you-screw-this-up-so-badly-nokia-5940748 Some of the images presented as taken by the Lumia 920’s new PureView camera were actually taken by a DSLR camera, as the image below shows. A DSLR on…

How Does the iPad’s Touchscreen Recognize These Trading Cards?

Not since the inclusion of stale bubble gum has there been an innovation in trading cards as awesome as what these Nuko cards are capable of. They look, feel, and flex just like regular cards, but they can be recognized by touchscreens when simply pressed against the display. The secret is a printing technique called…

Boldly settle where no settler has settled before, with Star Trek: Catan

Star Trek: Catan is basically Settlers of Catan with a thin sheen of Star Trek painted over it. Normally I’d consider that kind of pointless, but in this case, it seems like the perfect approach. In fact, it probably makes the game less pointless. Here’s why you might consider joining the Federation of Catan. Let’s…

What Is a Frontlit Display?

The new Kindle Paperwhite has a frontlit screen. We knew it probably would. But the term “frontlit” is actually a little misleading, and the simplicity of what it does belies the considerable engineering required to pull it off. So what exactly is a frontlit screen, anyway? Other than amazing. A frontlit screen is, well, lit…

Future Computers Will Not Only Be Cooled by Water, They’ll Compute With Water

Aside from a clump of dirt, water might seem like one of the least technological things to ever exist ever. But researchers have found a way to use water droplets in such a way that they can represent 0s and 1s on a logic board and help to perform computing functions. According to LiveScience, the…

Here is that Twilight footage of Bella Swan fighting a mountain lion

The Twilight saga is about to climax in a bitter battle between vampire and Volturi in Breaking Dawn: Part 2, but not before Bella fights a mountain lion. This was finally previewed in the latest trailer for the very last Twilight, the series that keeps on giving in the form of terrible CG. This aired…

Sad Diabetics Rejoice: This Tiny Chip Measures Blood Sugar Levels Through Your Tears

It’s not the first technique for measuring blood sugar levels that avoids the finger prick blood sample route, but this tiny unobtrusive chip could be the least invasive yet. It’s able to make incredibly accurate blood glucose readings from a diabetic’s tears or sweat, and then wirelessly transmit the results for easy monitoring. While this…

Henry Cavill truly is Superman. Plus everything you need to know about Doctor Who‘s dinosaur romp!

Sherlock’s main director finds Frankenstein. Emily Blunt reveals what makes her Looper character so special. Zachary Quinto raves about the Star Trek sequel. Daniel Craig has plenty more James Bond left in him. Plus Dredd, Resident Evil: Retribution, and more! Spoilers from here on out! Top image from Skyfall. Man of Steel General Zod actor…

This Is the Most Expensive Penny in the Universe

This is the most expensive penny in the Universe. It’s now on Mars, after an exciting $2.5 billion ride. Previously, the most expensive Lincoln penny in history was a 1943 copper-alloy cent that was sold for $1.7 million in a 1996 auction. That’s peanuts compared to the cost of putting this coin up there, however.…

Apple Is Mixing Up Speech Recognition and Sound Processing in the iPhone 5

Audience, the company responsible for developing the EarSmart technology which power’s Siri, has announced that Apple is “unlikely” to use the system in the next-generation iPhone. https://gizmodo.com/why-siri-will-never-officially-appear-on-the-iphone-4-5882562 Audience actually helped Apple develop part of the A5 processor, so that it could include a digital signal processor to remove background noise and secondary voices, as well…

This Book Contains Every RGB Color That Exists

In case you sometimes struggle to visualize the RGB color space on a computer, American artist Tauba Auerbach has created a handy reference guide: a cubic book that shows off all the colors in existence. Measuring 8 inches in each dimension, the book illustrates the entire three-dimensional RGB color space, with each page turn showing…

These Magnets Turn Your Fridge Into a Retro LED Display

These fridge magnets might not be high-minded or particularly useful, but they will turn your fridge into something that looks like a 1980s Casio digital watch. https://gizmodo.com/a-scrabble-magnet-set-is-your-excuse-to-spend-more-time-5884462 Each magnet is 0.75″ long, printed with florescent green ink and just begging to be used to spell out 5318008 or 0.7734 or whatever other childish calculator number…

Download Torrents Straight to Your Phone With µTorrent Android App

BitTorrent has just launched a beta version of its new µTorrent client for Android. Available now on Google Play, it lets you download, upload and search for torrents direct from your phone. This isn’t a remote app like the previous µTorrent offering, which only offered the ability to organize downloads on some remote computer. Instead,…

Fox to Offer $15 HD Movie Downloads Weeks Ahead of Blu-Ray Release

The New York Times is reporting that 20th Cenutry Fox is going to offer high-quality movie downloads weeks ahead of Blu-ray release using the DRM locker service UltraViolet. Costing around $15 a pop, it’s planning to start with the upcoming release of Prometheus. The Times reports that Fox will typically offer downloads three weeks ahead…

Is This the Least Elegant Soundbar Ever?

Sometimes, you don’t want your technology sleek, discreet and refined: you want it big, tough and purposeful instead. So if the recent glut of streamlined soundbars isn’t to your taste, how about this burly sound box instead? https://gizmodo.com/picky-panasonic-soundbar-only-streams-airplay-tunes-5897514 Proficient Audio‘s new MaxTV MT2 speaker box is designed to have a TV sat on top of…

Apple’s allegedly slashing memory orders from Samsung to make its devices less Sammy-dependant. Grudge, much? [Reuters]

The Secret Inner Workings of Google Maps

Beneath every Google map is a goldmine of data that’s hidden from the user; a series of logical statements about places and highways that help provide correct directions, can tell you when traffic’s bad, and generally makes the service so much more useful than a paper counterpart. The Atlantic’s Alexis Madrigal was lucky enough to…