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​How And Why To Take Your Smartphone Camping

No other device packs a camera, a stereo, video recording, GPS navigation and guide books into such a small, conveniently carried package. Here’s how to get the most of your smartphone in the outdoors. https://gizmodo.com/so-you-want-to-go-spearfishing-for-the-very-first-time-1609682913 Protect It: You need to plan to be exposed to weather and activities. And, if you plan to be around…

This Dreamy Drone Tour Shows the Rebirth of Downtown Los Angeles

Los Angeles’s swiftly mutating downtown is usually viewed at street level. Now, thanks to filmmaker Ian Wood, we get a top-down perspective of the city’s transformation in this gorgeous video, which he shot with a lightweight remote-controlled quadcopter and camera system. 20 stories up, there’s change afoot as well. With the stunning detail that only…

Bad News for Verizon’s Heavy Data Users: You’ll Be Throttled This Fall

If you’re clinging to your grandfathered Verizon unlimited data plan, here’s some bad news. Starting October 1, Verizon will throttle LTE speeds for heavy data users who enter high-volume areas. As GigaOm points out, this means Verizon will privilege users who pay for their data per gigabyte over their customers who use unlimited plans. And…

Google Wants to Create a Map of What a Healthy Human Body Looks Like

It’s the ultimate baseline study — an effort to collect the fullest picture of what a healthy human being should look like. The project, which is in its early stages, is being run by Andrew Conrad, a molecular biologist known for developing affordable, high-volume tests for HIV in blood-plasma donations. His team now consists of…

Project Almanac Gets Found-Footage Time Travel Right

Project Almanac is shot found-footage style, had its title changed three times and had its release date pushed back nearly a year, but don’t jump to conclusions just yet. We got the chance to see Dean Israelite’s directorial debut at Comic-Con, and while we can’t give a full review just yet, we can tell you…

Patent Trolling Is Worse Than Any Other Time in History

It’s the tech world’s version of ambulance chasing: firms that earn money by asserting patent rights against other companies, without manufacturing any useful products of their own. And, according to the latest numbers, the economic burden of patent lawsuits is now unprecedented in U.S. history. By filing one frivolous lawsuit after another, the trolls shakedown…

Your Right To Be Forgotten Beats Google’s Right to Remember

Last week, Microsoft’s Bing joined Google in acquiescing to the E.U. high court’s “right to be forgotten” ruling, which allows European citizens to petition for the removal of search results about themselves that are “inadequate…no longer relevant, or excessive.” The Court of Justice sees it as a victory for privacy protection; Google sees only censorship.…

Deals: Marvel Cinematic Universe, 75 Years of Batman, Munchkin

Six films and a Tesseract. $130 today. [ Marvel Cinematic Universe] 75 years of Batman, one hardcover book. $24 [ Batman: A Celebration of 75 Years] .gif via this infographic https://kotaku.com/how-batmans-mask-changed-over-75-years-1606053426 Announced yesterday, the Kingdom Hearts 2.5 HD Remix Limited Edition features an exclusive pin, and your preorder gets you the limited edition at no…

At Comic-Con? Put On Your Mask for the Surveillance Camera Network

In the TV series Person of Interest, an AI can access virtually every surveillance camera across New York City. So the question is: do cities really create networks of interconnected private and public security cameras? Yes, they do. Including in San Diego, right in the heart of Comic-Con. If you’re going to Comic-Con (and the…

Watch Jack Black Face Off Against Goosebumps‘ Slappy The Dummy

During the Goosebumps movie presentation at San Diego Comic-Con, Jack Black brought out the film’s real star: Slappy the Dummy. Together, they did a ventriloquist routine on stage… one that didn’t end well for Black. Once Black was swept off stage, Slappy stuck around for one final word:

21 Books That Changed Science Fiction And Fantasy Forever

Speculative fiction is the literature of change and discovery. But every now and then, a book comes along that changes the rules of science fiction and fantasy for everybody. Certain great books inspire scores of authors to create something new. Here are 21 of the most influential science fiction and fantasy books. Top image: Magrathea…

How to Keep Dozens of Tabs Open Without Exhausting Your Browser

Those who lived through the tabbed browsing revolution will remember just how convenient it felt to be able to open up three or four tabs in the background without losing focus from the current one. Now that kind of behavior is taken for granted, but if you queue up too many tabs to get around…

Never Stay In a Hotel With Crappy Wi-Fi Thanks to This Useful Site

When you’re traveling, hotel Wi-Fi might be your only source of connectivity, so when you wind up in a hotel and the internet crawwwwwls, it can be a major bummer. Thanks to sites like SpeedSpot or Hotel Wi-Fi Test, you can avoid unfortunate internet conditions. If you’re traveling to a city, simply search for each…

Here’s The First (Tiny) Look At The Vision In Avengers: Age Of Ultron

Marvel has been releasing two interconnected Avengers: Age of Ultron posters a day at Comic-Con; when the last two posters are released tomorrow, we’ll post the entire, 8-part epic picture. But today’s Quicksilver poster reveals something more — the first glimpse of the android known as The Vision! You can see him flying up top,…

A woman who tested positive for the deadly Ebola virus has escaped quarantine and is wandering in Freetown, Sierra Leone, a city of 1 million people. Over the past several weeks, deadly outbreaks of Ebola have killed many people in Sierra Leone and elsewhere in western Africa.

California pays prisoners $2 per day to fight wildfires

California uses about 4,000 inmates as firefighters to help battle the state’s brutal wildfires, paying each just $2 per day. Many are low-level offenders who work 24-hour shifts, getting incredibly little sleep. Why would California do this? Using prisoners as firefighters saves the state about $100 million per year. From KQED: The Bully Fire, which…

Creator Reveals Penny Dreadful‘s Origins And The Horrors Yet To Come

Penny Dreadful got off to a strong start in its first season, boasting a remarkably detailed world, deeply complex characters and an exciting core narrative. But to be fair, as creator John Logan pointed out at the show’s Ballroom 20 Comic-Con panel, he’s been working on this thing for 10 years. Beginning by revealing how…

The Watch That Walked On the Moon Gets an Anniversary Upgrade

Believe it or not not, the watch that Buzz Aldrin wore as he took those first steps on the moon wasn’t some custom contraption engineered by NASA to endure the vacuum of space. It was an Omega Speedmaster Chronograph, and 45 years later the watchmaker has released a commemorative follow-up called the Speedmaster Professional Apollo…

Deals: Nespresso Pixie, Stick-On Whiteboards, Galaxy Camera

The compact and excellently-reviewed Nespresso Pixie with included milk frother is down to its lowest price ever by a solid margin today one of the lowest prices we’ve seen. Deals on this don’t tend to last long, so grab yours fast. [Nespresso Pixie with Milk Frother, $194] $10, $20, or $$30 off? The nicer the…

The Amazon Fire Phone’s Headphones Are What All Cheap Earbuds Should Be

Have you ever met a pair of pack-in headphones you liked? Me neither. That is until I got the ones that came with the Fire Phone. They look a lot like Apple’s (bad) EarPods, but are better in almost every way you would want. All cheap headphones should be at least this great. Do the…