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Google Street View Now Lets You Explore Ancient Egypt

Remember the funny backpack full of cameras that Google uses to map stunning Street View imagery of mountains and canyons? Well, Google just took it to Egypt. Starting today, you will be able to explore the Pyramids of Giza, the necropolis of Saqqara, and the ancient city of Abu Mena on Street View right from…

This Prototype Building Changes Shape in the Heat

Imagine a building that expands to provide a more airy space in the warmth but contracts to reduce heating bills when it gets cold. Well, that’s almost what this prototype, called, Translated Geometries, is designed to do. A concept by Ece Tankal, Efilena Baseta and Ramin Shambayati at the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalunya…

This is why Starbucks spells your name wrong

Baristas at Starbucks are widely known for being unable to spell names correctly. Why? Who knows. But New York City-based comedian Paul Gale has a funny theory about it. (Spoiler: They’re fucking with us.) SPLOID is a new blog about awesome stuff. Join us on Facebook

Hangouts on Air Will Now Let You Cheer Or Jeer In Real-Time

You can now let your Hangouts on Air host know exactly what you feel like. A new feature called “Applause” will let Hangouts viewers give a thumbs up or thumbs down during a live video broadcast. But that’s not all. Google will also track cheers and jeers over the duration of a Hangout and will…

The Whales That Carry Worlds On Their Backs

The each species of skywhale carries a different biome on their back. For a planet to exist with variable geography, individuals of the various species must band together and fit the environments they carry together. These sculptures are the work of Ruilin Wang in his DREAMS-ark series. There are tree-covered cliffs on the humpback whale…

Make-a-Wish Helps Child Defeat Evil in His Own Sci-Fi Film

Clark Doyle, a seven-year-old with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, made his very own science fiction epic with the help of the Make-a-Wish Foundation. The above photo of awesomeness is Clark at the red carpet premiere of his film Zero Hour. Between this and the Iron Manchild, our hearts may just implode in on themselves. According to…

The Internet Is on Go-Slow Today to Support Net Neutrality

Websites including Reddit, Pornhub, Twitter and Netflix are all slowing down today in support of net neutrality. In this article, the Electronic Frontier Foundation explains why—and how you can join in. You know the net neutrality conversation is breaking new ground when even the porn sites are weighing in. And that’s just what we’re seeing—major…

The World’s Biggest Hard Drive Is Now Ten TB, Not Eight

If you thought 8 TB was plenty, think again. Western Digitaljust announced that it has added a 10 TB hard drive to its HelioSeal product line. The drive, which hermetically seals helium in order to reduce internal friction and power use, runs about 5 degrees cooler than today’s 7,200 rpm drives. Sealing air out of…

CBS is getting into the Stephen King business again. Following Under the Dome is a miniseries adaptation of the short story The Things They Left Behind, about a 9/11 survivor who finds possessions of his dead co-workers in his home.Producing is Greg Berlanti, who adds this to Arrow, The Flash, and Supergirl. [TV Line]

Google Voice Is Finally Being Integrated Into Hangouts

Google Voice isn’t quite dead (yet); it’s finally being integrated into Hangouts, because God knows Hangouts needed to be even more confusing. You can enable Voice SMS and voicemail via a popup in the conversation list, so check the app. If you still don’t see it, hang on. It’s still rolling out. [Android Police]

Report: Apple May Buy Social Network Path

Let’s face it: Apple’s not so good at social. Path, the former “private” social network with not many users sucks at social too. Now, Apple is reportedly buying Path. It all makes so much sense. The news comes via PandoDaily, which quotes an anonymous “single well-placed source inside Apple’s engineering team” as saying: “It’s almost…

Fujifilm Instax Wide 300: Bigger Instant Photos, Wider Than You Remember

With Polaroid out of the picture, Fujifilm has been making moves in recent years to own instant photography—what’s left of it anyway—with its Instax line of cameras, printers, and film. Today, it makes a play at a niche of the instant market with a larger format camera that pops out wide photos. The Instax Wide…

Fujifilm x100t: The Retro Compact Gets Some Subtle Improvements

How do you upgrade a camera that everyone already loves when you don’t really have much new technology to stuff inside? With Fujifilm’s x100t, the latest iteration of the classic-styled fixed-lens shooter, the answer is to buff out some minor flaws, add maybe a feature or two, and of course, a whole new letter: “t.”…

Apple’s New iCloud Pricing Plan Gives You a Terabyte For $20/Month

Apple just made its new iCloud pricing plans official. Here’s what extra storage in Apple’s walled garden is going to cost you. 5 GB: Free 20 GB: $1 each month 200 GB: $4 each month 500 GB: $10 each month 1 TB: $20 each month. These prices are way cheaper than Apple’s previous pricing structure.…

Plastic surgery looks really horrible in this animation (because it is)

Yikes. Here’s an animation that uses knives, botox needles and liposuction to completely makeover a woman’s body until it’s unrecognizable. It’s terrifying, to be honest. And it’s something you see a lot in celebrity culture where beautiful bodies are turned into monsters in the quest for perfection. NSFW. The video, called Supervenus by Frederic Doazan,…

How Harry Potter‘s New Artist Deals With the Fan Backlash

Harry Potter’s British publisher decided to re-issue the books with new covers, choosing Jonny Duddle from four finalists. As each of his new covers are revealed, Duddle gets a deluge of comments on Twitter, some supportive and others complaining. But he waves off the biggest complaint with some logic. For many of us, the Harry…

This is why Robin Williams was such a fantastic actor

Everyone has their own reasons for loving Robin Williams, he taught some people how to laugh, his movies defined many a childhood, he was a great guy and so on and so on. Plus, he was a fantastic actor. Tony from Every Frame a Painting explains just how great by focusing on one tiny thing:…

Sprint’s “iPhone for Life” Plan Gets You A New iPhone Every Two Years

A suspiciously well-timed announcement from Sprint could help put those big, beautiful new iPhone 6s in more pockets: Their “iPhone for Life” plan will upgrade your phone every two years, plus give you unlimited data, starting at $70 per month. And I assume this deal is valid until you no longer have a need for…

Tonight’s Jam Is John Oliver’s Sex Gecko Tribute Ballad

Quite correctly, John Oliver was devastated by the loss of Russia’s space sex geckos. So he and A Great Big World performed “Say Something” as a tribute. Complete with a sex gecko mascot.

Underground Mapping Near Stonehenge Reveals a New “Super Henge”

The mysteries of Stonehenge are revealed sometimes by unusual methods—forgetting to water its grass or whacking its stones with quartz. In this case, it just took four years of staring at the ground. A new underground survey reveals a vast complex of unknown Neolithic monuments near Stonehenge, including a huge stone “super henge.” The Stonehenge…