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A Frog Got Too Close to a NASA Launch and, Well, This Happened

Some of you may remember the heroic death of our dearly departed Spacebat. Some of you may still be grieving. NASA, however, has moved on to a new tragedy. Its latest victim? The most powerful goddamn jumping frog the Wallops/Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport has ever seen. RIP Spacetoad. You flew too high. https://gizmodo.com/shuttle-riding-bat-dies-the-most-glorious-death-imagina-5173385 Last Friday, September…

48 Names for Things You Didn’t Know Had Names

Loving this roundup of little-known words from Mental Floss’s John Green. Tons of strange terms and designations in this collection, from the scientific to the anatomical to the socio-cultural. https://gizmodo.com/learn-odd-and-obscure-words-with-this-illustrated-alpha-5923286 Some highlights: • Petrichor – that amazing rain smell • Gam – the collective noun used to describe whales (but what do you call a…

A Battery Charger That Reports Back To Your iPhone

Most users are more than content with the red light/green light approach to battery chargers. But there’s always that select few who want to know more—a lot more—and the SkyRC NC2500 should more than satisfy their hunger for data. Not only can the SkyRC NC2500 be used to charge four AA and four AAA batteries…

One of the world’s first true robots has sold for $27,660 at auction

Its name is Cygan — and it certainly doesn’t look like much. But this robot from the 1950s was state-of-the art back in its day. It has now been sold to a U.K. buyer for much more than anticipated. Cygan was built in Italy in 1957 by designer Ing Fiorito and then brought to the…

Walmart’s Already Got Discounts on iPhone 5S and 5C

Walmart is looking to save you some money on both of the newly-introduced iPhones. It’s offering a $20 discount on the iPhone 5C, and a $10 cut on the iPhone 5S. https://gizmodo.com/iphone-5c-apples-colorful-budget-phone-is-real-1278630584 In-store preorders for the 5C, which Walmart offers starting at $80 for the 16GB model, start on Friday, with the phone arriving on…

What Apple’s 64-Bit Architecture Really Means For Your iPhone

Probably the most underrated announcement Apple made on Tuesday was its move to 64-bit architecture for the iPhone 5S. It’s an industry first, and one with major repercussions both for your phone and for the future of Apple. Here’s why it matters. https://gizmodo.com/apples-new-a7-chip-is-apples-first-64-bit-soc-1278205052 A more thorough technical explanation of 64-bit architecture follows below, but in…

11 Glittering Insects From the US Geological Survey’s Bug Collection

Insects are pretty much the raison d’etre of macro photography. And while there are plenty examples out there, this collection of hundreds of high-res creepy crawlies collected by the U.S. Geological Survey deserves some special attention. The photos come to us from the USGS Bee Inventory & Monitoring Lab—part of a government agency that collects…

Why James Spader’s “Eerily Calm” Voice Makes Him the Perfect Ultron!

That’s what Joss Whedon says, explaining why the actor was his first choice for the villain of Avengers 2. Steven Moffat says Matt Smith’s Doctor Who swansong will break your heart. J.J. Abrams gives a thumbs-up to one potential Star Trek 3 director. Jamie Foxx reveals the humanity of Amazing Spider-Man 2’s Electro. Spoilers! Top…

An Emergency Lightning Cable That’s No Bigger Than Your House Key

The makers of the ChargeCard—that wallet-friendly credit card-sized sync cable for smartphones—are back with a new product called the ChargeKey that’s instead designed to hang out on your keychain. It’s almost like a stripped down version of the ChargeCard that sheds most of the plastic so it can easily sidle up next to your keys,…

How Analogies Shape Your Thinking

You might just think of analogies as being clever constructions, put together by smart people, to help you understand complex problems—but there’s more to them than you might think. In fact, they’re a crucial part of being human; the way in which our (relatively!) simple bodies manage to understand the incredibly complex world around us;…

Broadcom’s Bringing UHD to Your Cable Box

Ultra-high definition TV is coming—sooner than you think. The industry is certainly already on board, what with the recent release of the HDMI 2.0 standard and a steadily growing stable relatively inexpensive of 4K-capable TVs. But actually getting 4K content from anything other than a local media drive is still a problem. Or it was…

This Guy Fought in WWII With a Sword and Bow

Running into battle armed with a broadsword, bow, and quiver of arrows was perfectly acceptable if you were fighting in the Hundred Years’ War or fending off some orcs on Middle Earth. But when it comes to World War II, such medieval weaponry looks like child’s play next to the technology of the time. A…

Rumor has it that the super-sized 6-inch Lumia 1520 should see an official launch announcement on September 26th. Let’s wait and see!

Leak: Next-Gen 4K Blu-Ray Discs Pack 100GB of Data

While the Blu-ray Disc Association may not have made any official noises about the existence of 4K Blu-ray discs, a leak from a disc manufacturer reveals that they’re on the way—and they pack 100GB of delicious data. TechRadar reports that disc manufacturer Singulus has stated that it will provide “the machine technology for three-layer Blu-ray…

When Did Humans Start Wearing Clothes?

Determining exactly when humans began wearing clothes is a challenge, largely because early clothes would have been things like animal hides, which degrade rapidly. Therefore, there’s very little archaeological evidence that can be used to determine the date that clothing started being worn. There have been several different theories based on what archaeologists have been…

Google+ Now Works as a Serious Photo Editor (If You Use Chrome)

Google+ is now rolling out many of the image adjustment tricks included in its Auto Awesome feature as manual tools—if you use the right browser. https://gizmodo.com/google-new-photo-features-hands-on-fun-but-unreliabl-507748875 Auto Awesome did an admirable—if unreliable—job of applying image adjustments to photographs uploaded to Google+, but clearly the idea here that a human touch may help somewhat more. So,…

The World’s Thinnest Sheet of Glass Is Just Two Atoms Thick

The world’s thinnest sheet of glass ever has been created—and it measure just two atoms in thickness. Better not chance dropping anything made out of that. Created by scientists at Cornell University, the glass is actually the result of an accident as opposed to concerted effort. While attempting to produce pure graphene, the researchers noticed…

Samsung: Our Next-Gen Phones WIll Have 64-Bit Processors, Too

Not be outdone by Apple, Samsung has swiftly reacted to the announcement of Cook & Co.’s new 64-bit A7 processor by announcing that its next slew of phones will pack similar silicon, thank you very much. https://gizmodo.com/apples-new-a7-chip-is-apples-first-64-bit-soc-1278205052 Speaking to the Korea Times, Samsung’s mobile business head JK Shin has explained that the company’s future phones…

Mark Zuckerberg on the NSA Debacle, Facebook Home, and Sucking at IPOs

Speaking at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference Mark Zuckerberg has made his feelings known about the recent NSA scandal, pointing out that the government “blew it”. In his own words: “Frankly, I think that the government blew it. They blew it on communicating the balance of what they were going for with this.” He’s rightly annoyed,…

This skyscraper can get invisible at the touch of a button

This 1,476-foot skyscraper will have an electronic cloak that will make it invisible—something completely unimaginable until now. Tower Infinity will use a clever combination of cameras and an electronic light emitting façade to project its surroundings onto itself, fading into the sky in broad daylight. Sounds like an impossible sci-fi dream? It will be very…