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Microsoft’s Plan to Port Android Apps to Windows Appears Delayed

In April, Microsoft excitedly announced its plans to port everything to Windows, including iOS and Android apps. Now, it looks like it may take longer than expected before you see any Android action on its operating systems. Reports by Windows Central and Verge both suggest that the plans to port Android apps to Windows face…

How did the First Crewed Orbital American Spaceflight get its Name?

When John Glenn blasted off in Friendship 7, he created history as the first American to orbit our planet. But how did his historic craft earn such an unusual name when the previous two names were decidedly more patriotic in nature? John Glenn became the first American astronaut to orbit the planet on February 20,…

This Dry Glue Only Becomes Sticky When You Crush It

Usually, dry glue is a sign that you need a new tube of adhesive. But researchers in Japan have developed a new type of glue that’s perfectly dry until you crush it—at which point it becomes super sticky. Adhesives that are solid at room temperature aren’t anything new, of course, but usually they require heat…

Your GPS Probably Overestimates Distance

Ever thought your GPS system said you’d gone further than you expected? A new study dives into the statistics behind the satellite-based positioning service—and finds that overestimates in distance are inevitable based on the way measurements are currently made. A team of researchers from the University of Salzburg in Austria have been looking at how…

These Paratroopers Look So Peaceful While They’re in the Air

Heads up! If you were anywhere near San Gregorio in Spain on November 4th, you could have seen a slew of American paratroopers emerge from the back of a C-17 Globemaster III and drift serenely down to Earth. The show was in fact part of a demonstration being carried out in Europe, know as Trident…

How a Bad Hangover Helped Discover Ibuprofen

Back in the early 1960s, Dr Stewart Adams had a bad hangover. So he did what many a confident scientist of the time might do: he took a handful of an experimental drug he was working on. It worked—and the compound went on to become known as ibuprofen. Speaking to the BBC, Dr Stewart Adams…

How Your Coffee Choice Varies With Workload

For times of relaxed work, there’ s the artisanal coffee shop across town where the flat white tastes rich and sensual. Then for deadline, there’s Nescafé. There is, of course, a transitional phase. Who of us hasn’t struggled through a cup of filter coffee that’s sat on the hotplate for somewhere between 4 and 8…

Huawei’s Researchers Can Charge a 3,000mAh Battery to 48% in 5 Minutes

Battery life is one of the biggest headaches in tech—but while capacity remains a problem, manufacturers are at least making big improvements to charge times. Like Huawei, whose new experimental set-up can take a dead battery to 48 percent change in about five minutes. The Chinese smartphone manufacturer has developed a lithium-ion battery with a…

Why Dogs Will Eat Anything But Cats Are Fussy as Hell

Anyone who’s watched a cat throwing up after munching on grass knows that our feline friends aren’t natural plant eaters. So you might be surprised to discover that these carnivorous animals share some important genes that are more typically associated with herbivores. And this might help explain why cats aren’t always easy to please when…

Apple’s First Store in Singapore is Powered by the Sun

Despite Singapore having a long and profitable relationship with the iPhone, Apple has never got around to opening a retail store there. All that’s changing with the announcement of a new store, and a network of solar panels to power it. Apple has confirmed that a new store is opening in the city, although the…

A Google Engineer Is Publicly Shaming Crappy USB-C Cables

All cables are not created equal: some will charge most efficiently, others might just fry your battery. Google Chromebook engineer and Caped Cable Crusader Benson Leung has been testing USB-C cables off Amazon, and it’s not just the no-brand products that have been failing. Leung’s campaign mostly consists of ordering USB-C cables off Amazon, testing…

ISP (Quietly) Acknowledges That BitTorrent Doesn’t Equal Piracy

It’s rare that we mention ISPs vigorously defending their customers against overstepping lawsuits, but here we are: Cox, which is being sued by a couple music producers, is going to lengths to point out that BitTorrent use does not automatically mean piracy. TorrentFreak has been documenting the case, and spotted this particular nugget in some…

So You Want To Be A Stormtrooper: It’s The Little Things In Armor

This week, we’re rocketing to the end of our build for this Stormtrooper. With all the major assembly completed, it’s now time to get the little details and fittings finished up. While we’ve been working on all the major parts independently, it’s now time to make sure that everything fits together so that as a…

This New Hadrosaur Species Is A Classic Missing Link

A new dinosaur species sheds some light on how duck-billed dinosaurs got their crests. Paleontologists say Probrachylophosaurus bergei is a missing link between two other species, and it fills in vital pieces of the story of how crests evolved. Probrachylophosaurus bergei is a hadrosaur, one of the large crested herbivores that roamed the Earth –…

Doctors Say Morcellation Can Leave Women Vulnerable to Cancer

Welcome to this week’s Reading List, your Sunday guide to some of the most interesting science and technology stories on the internet this week. This week, we’ll examine a potentially deadly medical procedure, ponder the inner workings of social networks, and more. Morcellation is a less invasive way to remove fibroids and other growths through…

This Set Of Spartan Armor Will Knock You Flat With Sheer Awesomeness

This is one thing I love about the cosplay community: the level of work and attention to detail that’s put into the costumes that they build are absolutely stunning. Case in point, here’s DeAnna Davis (known as It’s Raining Neon) as Kelly 087 from Halo 5. From her Facebook page: My Halo 5 Kelly 087…

Zen Cho’s Sorcerer To The Crown Shows What Happens When Politics And Magic Mix

In Sorcerer to the Crown, magic in England has been in decline, and the one respected Royal Society of Unnatural Philosophers is an institution tasked with overseeing magic in the nation. Zen Cho’s novel is a powerful, deliberate story of how politics and magic come together, and what consequences might lie when they do. Some…

After the terrorist attacks in Paris, CBS has changed up their schedule for Supergirl and NCIS:LA, which each featured terror-related plots. They’ll be replaced with episodes already slated for release later in their seasons.

OnePlus X Review: Great on the Outside, Just OK on the Inside

When OnePlus founder and CEO Carl Pei first showed off the new X in our Manhattan office, I was impressed. Nice glass design, kind of a hybrid iPhone/Xperia look. The textbook definition of “premium.” But it’s really what he said next that got me. Update: The OnePlus X is no longer invite-only, and you can…

Here’s The Trailer For Jongo, A Johannesburg-Set Superhero Show

This looks like a really awesome television show, recently previewed at DISCOP AFRICA 2015. Jongo is a television series set to premiere in 2016 in South Africa, following a young man who gains supernatural abilities after discovering an alien crystal. Jongo is set in Johannesburg, following Eli King after he finds a crystal left to…