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Google’s never approved its apps in the way Apple does, but it’s now planning to reviewAndroid TV apps “for usability… and other quality guidelines.” Clearly, it wants its TV system to work this time round.

Google’s Image Recognition Software Can Now Describe Entire Scenes

Image recognition was already good—but it’s getting way, way better. A research collaboration between Google and Stanford University is producing software that increasingly describes the entire scene portrayed in a picture, not just individual objects. The New York Times reports that algorithms written by the team attempt to explain what’s happening in images—in language that…

The LEGO Movie 2 Will Have a Bunch of New Female Characters

There are so many reasons this is exciting: Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, who wrote and directed the first LEGO movie and are writing the second, say there will be a lot more female characters in the sequel. Speaking to BBC News, the pair said that not only do they want to do this, it’s…

Working airplane transformed into perfect loft now available on Airbnb

The latest marketing stunt from the Dutch airline KLM gives you the chance to spend a night in this airplane refurbished into a gorgeous loft. At first I thought that sleeping next to the runaway of one of the busiest airports in Europe sounded like a bad idea, but then I saw the pictures and…

Watch a Year of CO2 Swirl Around the Planet

This mesmeric animation shows how CO2 travels around the surface of our planet, pushed by winds from its sources to travel around the globe. An ultra-high-resolution computational model by NASA, the animation “illustrates differences in carbon dioxide levels in the northern and southern hemispheres and distinct swings in global carbon dioxide concentrations as the growth…

Nokia N1: A $250 Android Tablet That Looks Like an iPad Mini

Nokia may have relinquished control of the Lumia brand, but it’s far from giving up on hardware. It’s just announced the new N1: a $250 Android tablet. The 7.9-inch tablet has a frame, milled from a single lump of aluminum. Measuring 6.9 millimeters thick it weighs 318 grams. If you think it looks rather a…

There Won’t Be a CGI Phillip Seymour Hoffman in The Hunger Games

Soon after the passing of Phillip Seymour Hoffman, word came out that the final films in The Hunger Games would use a CGI duplicate to complete his performance as Plutarch. Now, director Francis Lawrence has said that they ultimately decided against it. It’s probably for the best. https://gizmodo.com/phillip-seymour-hoffman-will-be-digital-in-his-final-hu-1518414469 Speaking with the Huffington Post, Lawrence said:…

Court: Google Can Arrange Search Results Any Way It Damn Pleases

According to a new US court ruling made in San Francisco, Google can list its search results in whatever order it pleases—and it has the First Amendment behind it, too. That’s according to a hearing which saw a site called CoastNews file a lawsuit against Google, saying that it was knowingly lowering its rankings in…

Why Tamora Pierce Should Be Hollywood’s Favorite Author Right Now

On TV and in film, we’re seeing a lot of properties get developed that we never thought would have a chance. In some cases, we’re seeing single properties stretched to into whole universes. Why do this when there are two worlds, by the same author, which are perfectly suited to this kind of adaptation? Top…

BitTorrent Now Lets Anyone Release an Album as a Paid-For Bundle

Earlier this year, Thom Yorke released his new album on BitTorrrent, selling it in a package that had to be paid for. Now, BitTorrent will let any artist release an album as a paid-for bundle. Just in case you’ve missed how bundles work on BitTorrent, here’s a refresher: Basically, a bundle is really just a…

Twitter once again allows users to send URLs in direct messages. It’s been over a yearsince the network announced its backend wouldn’t allow that to happen consistently.

Who would win in a fight between superheroes and video game characters?

You have Thor, Captain America and Wolverine on one side. Master Chief, Alyx Vance from Half-Life 2, Ash Ketchum and his trusty Pokeball and a blocky guy from Minecraft. It should be no contest, outside of some fancy weapons, the superheroes should destroy any video game character… but do they? I guess the moral of…

Watching carnivorous plants eat bugs is strangely therapeutic

There is just something unexplainably awesome about carnivorous plants eating things. It’s like nature’s revenge mixed with some alien imagination, like if these plants were grown from a different planet. Watch these carnivorous plants grow and chomp at bugs in this wonderful time lapse. Chris Field, who filmed this, wrote: Over a year of effort!…

The producers of the upcoming Lego Batman movie talk shop

Phil Lord and Chris Miller were featured on the Empire Film Podcast to talk about about the Lego Movie, 22 Jump Street and future projects. Thankfully, they give us a couple nuggets of information about the new Lego Batman movie from Will Arnet’s acceptance of the role to a little insight into what the movie…

An Aluminum Rolling Pin Makes So Much Sense

“If every kitchen needs a rolling pin, then why not have it made from anodized aluminum?” So speaks Kevin Vann, one of the creators of aforementioned anodized aluminum rolling pin. And he speaks sense. Seriously, though: why has the metal rolling pin never caught on? It seems like a much better option to wood —…

This micro Lego Millennium Falcon is quite cute

dif STICK shared this (just barely) minifigure scale Millennium Falcon over on Korean Lego fan site, BrickInside and it is adorable. We are huge fans of the new MicroFighters stuff, but this model that Han can actually squeeze inside is so much better. You’re reading Leg Godt, the blog with the latest Lego news and…

FX Is Making a Television Show Out of Alan Moore’s From Hell

And the comics-domination of TV keeps on coming: FX is developing a drama series based on Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell’s graphic novel. Hey, remember when Johnny Depp starred in a film based on the same thing? (In before the comments get all over this: Yes, graphic novels and comics are not exactly the same.…

This Clever Design Could Replace Ugly QR Codes With Light

QR codes are certainly practical, but they’re also dumb and stupid and ugly and instantly ruin almost anything they’re placed on. That’s why this tech that uses simple light as a replacement for QR codes is so awesome. The idea comes from Fujistu, and it’s pretty darn simple: replace QR codes with a LED lightbulb.…

What everyday life looks like under a heat detecting camera (NSFW)

BuzzFeed recorded normal, everyday things people do with a thermal imaging camera to see what our bodies’ temperature looks like when we’re, well, doing normal, everyday things. Spoiler: it makes a lot of things look really gross, especially exercise which looks like a damn disease. Having Predator vision is sort of neat but would totally…

Paris Is Still Winning Its Battle Against Skyscrapers

Among first-world capital cities, Paris is fairly unique in its rejection of skycrapers: to date, there’s only one, the Tour Montparnasse, in the center of the city. And thanks to a politically tense vote yesterday, things are set to stay that way. The ‘Triangle Tower’ was a proposed Herzog & de Meuron project that would’ve…