Latest

All the “don’t die on me” lines in every movie in one single video

Don’t die on me might be one of the most repeated lines in movie history, that’s why the guys at Supercutonline decided to include it in their list of cliché phrases supercuts. SPLOID is a new blog about awesome stuff. Join us on Facebook

Roller coaster ride looks like a trip out of this planet

Ignacio Ferrando got into a roller coaster with six Go Pro cameras. The cameras filmed a 360-degree view as the roller coaster zoomed through twists and loops. Then he inverted the resulting panorama into an spherical projection that makes it look as if you are leaving Earth. Or ate some mushrooms. SPLOID is a new…

Scientists have teleported quantum information between two bits of diamond located 10 feet apart. It’s a prime example of “spooky action at a distance” — and an achievement that could lead to quantum networks exponentially more powerful and secure than today’s supercomputers. Image: Artistic impression of quantum teleportation of a spin state between two distant…

How Obama’s Power Plant Regulations Will Transform Our Electric Grid

President Obama and the EPA have just taken their biggest and boldest step ever to fight climate change. The Clean Power Plan, unveiled by the EPA today, is far more important than the Keystone XL pipeline—if also far less sexy to slap on a poster. But these carbon-cutting regulations have the potential to transform energy…

Slum Life In New York City During the Nineteenth Century’s Gilded Age

Wealth flowed during the 1880s and 90s, but only to the upper echelons of society. A vast gulf opened between rich and poor, earning this era the nickname “the Gilded Age.” One immigrant photographer captured what it was like for New York’s poor during this time, and his images remain arresting today. The Danish-born carpenter…

FIFA’s New World Cup Ball Is The Fastest And Most Aeodynamic Yet

When the 2014 FIFA World Cup gets started on June 12 in Brazil, the world’s greatest soccer players will be booting around one of the most advanced balls ever created for the sport — and the science proves it. Called Brazuca, it was developed by Adidas. Here’s what makes it unique: It has six polyurethane…

A Bleak Look at the Life of Migrant Workers Building Qatar’s World Cup

Workers sleeping 12 to a room without access to clean water. Young men dying from heart attacks due to the extreme heat. One man who has been trying to leave for five years, except his passport was taken by his boss, who has disappeared. It’s the latest and most heartbreaking news on the highly controversial…

Touch ID is now going to be a lot more usable—Apple announced that in iOS 8, it works alongside third-party apps. So for example, if you wanted to log into Mint or another finance app, you just use your fingerprint, rather than having to remember a password.

iOS 8 Finally Lets You Install Any Damn Keyboard You Want

Many prayers were answered on Monday, when Apple announced that iOS 8 would support third party keyboards. That means you folks complaining that Swype doesn’t work on iPhone, don’t need to complain anymore. This, in addition to the new native keyboard functionality means that typing on iOS device just got a lot better. It is…

Apple’s HomeKit Is an iPhone-Powered Universe of Gadgets

Instead of jumping head first into the smart home market by allowing iOS users to (finally) control all of their connected appliances and devices from a single app, Apple has instead decided to tip-toe through the connected home’s front door with a new API feature called HomeKit that ensures everything can be securely connected wirelessly,…

Yep, iOS Is Getting Widgets

Apple has finally made its Notification Center functional. Now, you can include info- and function-packed widgets right in your Notifications screen. The new widget functions are part of iOS’s new, overall extensibility, but here, your apps have been molded into Notification Center-friendly form. For instance, if you have the eBay app, you’ll be able to…

iOS 8 Apps Will Finally Be Able to Work Together

Until now, Apple has had very stringent rules about how apps can run in iOS. Apps have always run in “sandboxes” so they can’t talk to each other. Apple is finally loosening this restriction so that apps can work together. In short, Apple is expanding its support of extensibility, so that apps will be able…

Plane almost lands on guy who was sunbathing on a beach in Germany

According to the German newspaper Bild, this plane nearly landed short on a beachside runway in Heligoland—an island in northern Germany—passing just a few inches over a guy who was sunbathing. The video is pretty damn impressive. Lucky guy. SPLOID is a new blog about awesome stuff. Join us on Facebook

This Gold-Plated Bike Is Real and Costs $1,000,000

Choosing the right bike can be a difficult process, but now there’s an obvious choice for those with more money than sense: this frankly insane gold-plated Salsa Mukluk, which weighs in at a startling $1,000,000. Created by the House of Solid Gold, the so-called Beverly Hills Edition of the Mukluk is embellished and encrusted with…

As rumored, Siri will be getting Shazam song recognition in Apple iOS 8, so that figuring out what you’re listening to is as easy as holding down your home button. This is faster, increasing the likelihood that the song won’t end before you figure out what it is.

You Can Finally Own ​Anime’s Biggest New Hit — And I Mean Biggest

You may have watched it already on Netflix, Cartoon Network, or online. Let me tell you that if you’ve seen the smash anime Attack on Titan, you almost certainly need to own it, and if you haven’t seen it, you’re almost certainly going to want to. Tomorrow’s your chance! • Attack on Titan: Part One…

The World’s Most Patriotic Pubic Louse Study

When we hear that the pubic louse is facing extinction due to brazilian waxing, we forget how much of a scourge it once was. During World War II, the pubic louse threatened the fate of the world. This led to an odd experiment involving construction-working conscientious objectors wearing special underwear. It was the 1940s, and…

Riding Crimea On Victory Day

An amateur filmmaker rode a motorcycle from Moscow to newly-Russian Crimea for the Victory Day parade. How has the peninsula changed since the surprisingly bloodless annexation? Here’s his perspective. While perusing Reddit the other day, I found a link to this video. Could someone really have ridden through Crimea so soon following the controversial annexation…

What Was The First Science Fiction Or Fantasy Book You Ever Read?

We endlessly debate which science fiction and fantasy books make great entry-level reads for newcomers to the genre. But what was the first book you ever read? What book brought you into science fiction and fantasy, and helped to hook you for life? Over at USA Today, they’re asking a bunch of SF authors what…

iOS Health: All the Important Data About Your Body in One Place

Apple just pulled back the curtain on a new native app called Health at WWDC. Yes, this is the same health tracking app we heard about a few months ago. And yes, you can buy a variety of compatible fitness tracking devices at the Apple Store. Health does more than count your steps, though. Health…