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These New Glasses Could Make Augmented Reality Practical

Augmented reality is awesome, but seriously, you don’t want to wear bulky glasses that use lenses, beam splitters and reflectors that make the magic happen. A Ph.D student at UNC-Chapel Hill has developed a sleek pair of augmented reality glasses that are actually light and compact. Andrew Maimone has been working with three other researchers…

Pilot takes off from car road in the Alps to do some crazy acrobatics

I can help but to feel a mix of awe, envy, and fear as I watch Red Bull Air Force pilot Hannes Arch taking off from a road in the Austrian Alps and then perform some what-the-hell-are-you-noooooo-oh-my-god-you-got-to-be-kidding acrobatics way too close to all those amazing ridges. SPLOID is a new blog about awesome stuff. Join…

Microsoft Just Slashed $100 Off the Price of the Surface 2

Microsoft has knocked $100 off the price of its Surface 2 Windows RT tablets—making them cheaper than even the lowliest large iPad models. The price reduction means the base 32GB model now costs $350, the 64GB unit $450, and the 64GB model with LTE $580. That new pricing means the 32GB Surface 2, with a…

Let Adorable Children Teach You How to Pronounce Pterosaur Names

From the American Museum of Natural History comes this video of kids absolutely schooling us on how to pronounce the names of pterosaurs. They’re way cooler than most of us were at their age, I’m sure.

This Is Where Rosetta’s Lander May Touch Down on Its Comet

It’s not long since Rosetta reached Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, but European Space Agency scientists have already been working out where its Philae lander may be able to touch down on the piece of rock. https://gizmodo.com/rosetta-is-now-the-first-ever-satellite-to-start-orbiti-1616806835 In fact, five candidate sites have been suggested so far. Below, the ESA gives a rundown of the five sites and…

Spotify on Windows Phone is finally free, thank goodness. Windows Phone users can finally stream ad-supported music and playlists in shuffle mode. You know, just like Android and iOS users have been able to for some time now. [The Verge]

Curiosity’s Wheels Are Falling Apart (And How We Can Solve It)

There are holes in Curiosity wheels. There have always been holes — the rover landed with twelve holes deliberately machined in each wheel to aid in rover navigation. But there are new holes now: punctures, fissures, and ghastly tears. The holes in Curiosity’s wheels have become a major concern to the mission, affecting every day…

The G3 Stylus: A Lower-Spec G3, With a Stylus

The curtains are finally off the LG G3 Stylus. After sneaking the phablet into a promotional video about the G3 Beat earlier this month, LG has officially announced that the G3 Stylus will be unveiled at IFA 2014 in Berlin next month. LG is positioning the G3 Stylus head-to-head with Samsung’s Note 4, which will…

Ballmer Binged on The Good Wife to Cheer Himself on Leaving Microsoft

Between leaving Microsoft and buying the Clippers, poor old Steve Ballmer got a little bit down in the dumps. But to cheer himself up, he did what many of us would: he binge-watched TV. https://gizmodo.com/what-microsofts-new-ceo-means-for-you-1515673865 The Wall Street Journal has a wonderful feature about how Ballmer became a rookie basketball mogul. It explains how Steve…

Photographer Creates Time Lapses of Landmarks in Single Photos

Photographer Richard Silver‘s photo series Time Slice captures all the beauty of a time lapse video in a single image. From left to right, you can see a ;andmark go from morning light to evening dark. There are other versions of the same idea, but they are more artistic. Instead of circles or blurred compositions,…

A OnePlus One Just Blew Up In Its Owner’s Rear Pocket

You can now add the OnePlus One to the list of phones that have managed to explode in their owners’ pockets at some point. In a post on the company’s forum, OnePlus One owner MiYzu writes that the phone blew up as he was riding the subway. The explosion burnt the phone’s case, put a…

GoPro Finally Has a Dedicated Dog Mount

GoPros and dogs have always been a wonderful combination, but now the company has decided it’s smart business, too. The company has just launched the Fetch mount, which allows you to comfortably fasten two cameras to your canine pal. The padded harness lets you mount a GoPro on your dog’s belly and back, and is…

Dropbox on iOS just got an update: it will now search the contents of your Microsoft Word and PowerPoint documents. And it now supports large, animated GIFs, just in case you’re the kind of weirdo that uses Dropbox to hoard your kitten GIFs. [9to5 Mac]

Here’s Sin City: A Dame to Kill For Without Any Visual Effects

Sin City: A Dame to Kill For is one of those films that is nothing without its effects. Its whole style relies on visual effects added after filming took place. Which is why it has an unusually hilarious b-roll. For my money, the best part is found around the 1:05 mark in the video above,…

Could Virtual Reality Seem Real Enough To Kill You?

I will never, ever forget the first time I played F.E.A.R. Years later, the game’s dark corridors continue to haunt me and every time I think of Alma, that ghostly little girl, I feel slightly queasy. Still, I guess I’m thankful we didn’t have the Oculus Rift in those days. If you’ve ever worn a…

Fujifilm X30: Fuji’s Tiny Retro Cam Gets a Real Electronic Viewfinder

Three years ago, two Fujifilm digital compacts, the X100 and X10, helped spark a new trend in cameras by melding classic, long-retired design with new technology. Amongst the innovations on the fancy X100: A combination LCD and optical viewfinder, which gave you both a taste of the old glass-and-film rangefinder world, and the conveniences of…

California Governor Signs Smartphone Kill Switch Into Law

It’s official: every cellphone sold in California will now have to include a remote disabling option that lets you render a stolen device unusable. More importantly, this antitheft security measure will have to come enabled by default. The “kill switch” bill, which was introduced in February by State Senator Mark Leno and sponsored by San…

Here’s what famous buildings look like from day to night in one photo

In his photo series Time Sliced, photographer Richard Silver captures day fading into night. It’s a unique look at the life of building and how it changes over time as the sky darkens and lights turn on and people leave and come back again. Richard explains his Time Sliced series: The idea behind the “Time…

How To Dodge A Bullet Ant 12 Stories Up — In The Rainforest Canopy

In the final installment of Into The Amazon, LCA heads into the rainforest canopy, overloads the Schmidt Sting Pain Index, discovers a constellation of stars under her feet, then shows you how you can do all this yourself, for science! I’m suspended over a nearly twelve-story abyss, so far above the forest floor that my…

Paris is even more beautiful through the viewfinder of a vintage camera

Mathieu Maury and Antoine Pai of Maison Carnot created this video showing the sights and life of modern Paris through a Pentax 67 viewfinder and the footage is breathtaking. I feel like I’m peering into a looking glass time machine, like the stuff is happening inside the camera years ago and not around it right…