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Panasonic CM1 Review: Finally, a High End Camera Inside a Smartphone

Most people are perfectly satisfied with the camera in their smartphone. But to photographers and hobbyists, even the latest iPhone doesn’t come close to emulating the capability of a full-fledged camera. Panasonic’s CM1 is the answer. What Is It? It’s a $1000 unlocked GSM Android phone with a 4.7-inch 1080p display, 2.3GHz quad-core processor, and…

This Desk Vac Proves R2-D2’s an Awesome Sidekick Even When He Sucks

There’s no reason to feel upset when you see R2-D2 forced to do menial jobs—that’s exactly what droids were built for. Believe it or not, he will thoroughly enjoy his latest role as a tiny $24 vacuum for your desk, and happily suck up your bagel and Doritos crumbs. Powered by a single USB cable,…

Mr. Robot Recap: Hacking a Prisoner Out of Jail

Last night’s Mr. Robot was intense—and arguably the most dystopian episode so far. After breaking into a world-class data center last week, Elliot’s next hacking assignment is a prison. But this time, there’s way more on the line. COMMENCE SPOILERS. Shayla’s dead. Elliot’s girlfriend was kidnapped by the incarcerated Fernando’s drug gang, only to be…

The World’s Longest Urban Gondola Is Growing Into a Huge Network 

Adding public transit in dense, complicated urban centers normally means a hugely expensive and extremely slow undertaking—just look at New York’s Second Avenue subway, which has been underway for decades. La Paz, Bolivia, has found a better way. Last year, La Paz—which sits high in the Andes, making construction even more difficult—began building cable car…

Farmers Stumbled on Genetics That Stop Chickens Loving Their Offspring

Birds have a quality known as broodiness. It means that, after they lay their eggs, they stick around and take care of those eggs. Most commercial chickens don’t have that quality. And it looks like their complete disregard for their offspring results from one genetic mutation. Broodiness, in chickens, is not a trait that farmers…

A Hidden Tesla Coil Wirelessly Powers This Lamp’s Interchangeable Bulbs

Based on a fun demo used at science centers across the country, the Arc Light features a pair of glowing LED tubes that aren’t actually connected to the lamp in any way. Instead, tucked out of sight is a compact Tesla coil that wirelessly powers the bulbs whenever they’re close enough. Designed by Vedat Ulgen,…

Review: A Lego Brickumentary Is the Lego Doc You’ve Been Waiting For

Lego has built its empire just like the interlocking bricks themselves, by connecting kids and adults, using pop-culture and mass appeal. On July 31st, A Lego Brickumentary will premiere. It’s the very first full-length documentary chronicling the powerful toy brand. The film is narrated by a minifig voiced by Jason Bateman, who maintains a lively…

Police Body Cams Are Big Business: Taser’s Profits Jump By 57 Percent

Taser International, the company best known for its namesake product, announced today that its profits were up 57 percent over the previous quarter. But it’s not because tasers are flying off the shelves. That huge bump in profits is coming from sales of body cameras to America’s police departments. As the Wall Street Journal reports,…

The World’s Biggest Free Form 3D Printer Is Being Used to Build Houses

The dream of 3D printing buildings is not a new one and, typically, it’s not a pretty one either. However, the visionaries at Branch Technology, a startup founded by architects in Chattanooga, Tennessee, want to change that—and they’ve built the world’s largest free form 3D printer to do it. The Chattanooga Chamber of Commerce flew…

Before-and-After Pics Show the Extent of Mount Baker’s Dwindling Snow

Located in the North Cascades of Washington State in the U.S., Mount Baker is one of the most heavily glaciated and snow-covered mountains in the region. But as these satellite images show, its perma-snow doesn’t look so permanent anymore. At 10,781 feet (3,286 meters), Mount Baker is the third highest mountain in Washington State and…

What It’s Like to Wear the New Converse Chuck II

The new Chuck Taylors are here. The first new design in 98 years. I’m wearing them right now. These absurdly, blindingly white objects are shoes. More precisely, they’re the much-hyped Converse Chuck IIs, which were released on Tuesday. By the end of that first day on sale, these lowtops were the last pair of size…

Seeing a M1128 Stryker fire its cannon makes my spine freeze

It’s not even the blast from the cannon of the M1128 Stryker that scares me the most (though it is a very impressive blast). It’s the fact that right after the 105mm cannon goes boom, the world around it looks post-apocalyptic. The ground shakes so hard from the gun that it looks like lost souls…

This Globe Holds Some Of The First Detailed Photographs Of Mars

How do you organize photographs of an alien world in the era before computers? By printing them out and sticking them to a globe of the planet! Mariner 6 (top two rows) and Mariner 7 (center to down right and south pole) pictures printed and assembled on a Mars globe on March 20, 1970. Image…

What Strategies Will You Use To Defeat Our Alien Overlords in XCOM 2?

When XCOM 2 comes out this fall, you won’t be defending the Earth from aliens—you’ll be fighting to take it back. The developers gave us a deep look at how two of the new classes will help you overturn the alien new world order. XCOM: Enemy Unknown brought back the classic XCOM franchise, in which…

This 360-Degree GoPro Video Is Your Only Chance To Ride American Pharaoh

Very few people will ever have the chance to ride the insanely valuable Triple Crown-winning American Pharoah. So on a recent morning workout, the racehorse’s jockey strapped a 360-degree GoPro rig to their helmet—allowing the rest of us to come as close as we’ll ever get to riding the steed. If you’ve got access to…

This Is How NASA Tests Planes for Safety

NASA has been working on ways to improve search-and-rescue after a plane crash. But how do they test it? Simple, they hoist planes 100 feet into the air and drop them… over and over again. This footage of a Cessna 172 being dropped into the dirt 100 feet below is just the latest test at…

Samsung Gets Weird With Its Latest Smartwatch Patent

Samsung has a history of making strange stuff. A smartphone with two sloping sides? What? Why? Either way, you have to appreciate, to a certain degree, Samsung’s “fuck it, let’s try it” approach when it comes to some of these ideas. And now a new smartwatch patent shows Sammy’s got even more weird stuff to…

How can we trace the changes we’ve bred into fruits and vegetables over the centuries? One way is to look to the art of the past. Vox examined how the watermelon has changed, both in color and texture, from when it was featured in 17th century Renaissance paintings.

The Killer Maid Who Fed Children With Fat Boiled Off Her Employer’s Body

When Julia Martha Thomas hired Kate Webster as a housekeeper, she didn’t realize what an unpleasant, and ultimately gruesomely fatal, decision it would be. In 1879, Julia lived alone in a small cottage outside London. She was an eccentric widow who traveled frequently and dressed well above her status as a lower middle-class lady. She…

Canon’s New Camera Sees More In the Dark Than You Ever Thought Possible

Anyone who’s ever been frustrated at the task of shooting video in low light should be poised to freak out over Canon’s weird and amazing new camera. It’s a video camera that shoots full HD color footage in almost complete darkness. The ‘multi-purpose’ camera, dubbed only MH20F-SH, has a full-frame sensor with 2.26 megapixels. The…