Latest

Microsoft Surface Pro Will Be Out in January—And Costs More Than a MacBook Air

Microsoft Surface RT didn’t quite live up to Microsoft’s promise of a true next-generation device, but you know what might? Microsoft Surface Pro. The good news: the Intel-powered ultrabookish tablet mash-up will be out in just a couple of months. The bad news? It might cost more than you want to spend. https://gizmodo.com/microsoft-surface-rt-review-this-is-technological-hear-5953866 Microsoft announced…

Xbox Live Gold is free this weekend in North America and Australia. Go game and stream movies while you can. [Xbox]

First footage of Tyreese from Walking Dead!

Last week we learned that The Wire’s Chad Coleman (Cutty!!!) would be joining The Walking Dead cast as beloved character and quality walker-slayer Tyrese. Now the first ever footage of Coleman in character has surfaced, and it looks like he’s brought along some friends. For fans of the books, you should know who that lady…

How New York Will Stop the Subway From Flooding in the Next Huge Storm

New York knew for a long time that a big storm could flood and collapse the subway system, which is exactly what happened with Sandy. Yet city officials did nothing about it. But now, after all the suffering, we’ll finally be prepared. https://gizmodo.com/sandy-could-really-flood-the-new-york-subway-system-5955689 With an estimated $50 billion lost due to Sandy—$5 billion on transportation…

Even the New York Times Had to Learn Its Way Around Twitter

Let’s give the Gray Lady a little credit for being early to the game and unafraid to mix it up with her “hip young friends.” Makes you wonder how many other hilarious early tweets there are out there. [twitter]

This Generator Steals Energy From Passing Trains

It’s estimated that in the US alone there’s over 140,000 miles of train tracks criss-crossing the country. So a team of researchers from New York’s Stony Brook University have developed a simple railside generator that’s able to convert the vibrations from a passing train into usable electricity. The most difficult part of developing the generator…

How to Recover From Your Social Media Faux Pas

Social media nightmares are on a sliding scale. Misspelling a tweet might be embarrassing, while accidentally tweeting suggestive photos of yourself is truly mortifying. It’s important to note that even as co-founder of a Small Girls PR, I am not exempt from such social media mishaps. It’s because of my own personal experience that I’ve…

Is Watching a First-Run Movie From Your Couch Worth $35,000?

We first brought word of Prima’s audacious plans to let movie buffs enjoy first-run titles from the comfort of their home theaters for $500 a flick back in 2010. But it looks like the company is finally rolling out the service, with a hardware price tag that’s risen from $20,000 to $35,000. Really sweetens the…

In (Partial) Defense of Overzealous Scientists: A Reflection on Martian Disappointments

Right before Thanksgiving, Curiosity project scientist John Grotzinger told NPR that NASA’s rover had discovered something earthshaking on the Red Planet. “This data is going to be one for the history books,” he crowed, declining to say more until results from the rover’s SAM instrument — an onboard chemistry lab designed to detect (let loose…

The amazing, super-violent Walking Dead cartoon you never knew you needed

I think The Walking Dead has improved greatly in its third season, but after watching this video, I would have zero problems in AMC dropped the show entirely as long as it replaced it with this cartoon. It’s a four-minute masterpiece of animation by 8th grader Nick Mastrangelo, featuring TWD’s Daryl Dixon (as played by…

This Future-Proofing Torture Test Puts Next-Gen Materials Through the Wringer

Our gadgets sure have it rough. Between change-filled pockets, waist-high falls onto concrete, and dunks in the toilet bowl, gadget surfaces need to be tougher and more resilient than ever. To develop the next generation of durable surfaces, materials scientists rely on specialized torture testing equipment like the Bruker Universal Mechanical Tester to put prototype…

The Scooby Doo Picture Frame Gag Gets a High-Tech Spying Twist

Are there any here among us who didn’t watch Scooby Doo as a kid, see a villain spying (with blinking eyes) behind a picture on the wall, and secretly wish we could do that? We may never be allowed to carve holes in our walls, but we can still make that dream come true. Mark…

How weather prediction models can be used to forecast flu outbreaks

The complex computer models we use to predict the weather be used to predict illness, too. According to a new paper, these models could help us know weeks in advance just how bad this flu season will be. The technique uses data taken from Google flu trends. This is near real-time data of people’s searches…

You Won’t Believe How Much Graphing Calculators Have Changed

Twenty-seven years after introducing the world’s first graphing calculator, Casio has developed its most sophisticated educational Game Boy ever. Indeed, the new Casio fx-CP400’s 320 x 528 resolution screen isn’t just color—it’s a freaking touchscreen that flips from vertical to horizontal. That’s a far cry from the drab 94 x 64 display on the the…

James McAvoy and Benedict Cumberbatch join Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere

Fantastic news! Neil Gaiman has assembled a dream cast together to create a radio play of his wonderful urban fantasy Neverwhere. This talent comes straight out of the heavens and includes Benedict Cumberbatch, James McAvoy, Anthony Stewart Head, David Harewood, Christopher Lee, and Natalie Dormer. It’s just perfect. Gaiman announced the news on his website…

That Massively Expensive 4K Sony TV Now Comes With 10 Minorly Interesting 4K Movies

You spent more than a car on your mammoth 4K Sony TV. Then, cue sad trombone, you had nothing to watch. Hearing that complaint, if you own one of these TVs, Sony will loan you a little home server loaded with 4K content for free to satisfy your couch potato needs, though it leaves something…

This Table Invisibly Guides Your Pen For Perfect Sketches

Promising to turn even the poorest of doodlers into artificial Rembrandts, researchers at Keio University have developed a desk that will automatically guide the tip of a pen to draw straight lines or perfectly round circles. It can even guide an artists’ hand through a pre-determined illustration, making the technology sound like a forger’s dream…

Harry Houdini’s incredible book about home science experiments — free online!

As any steampunk will gleefully tell you, the Victorian era was a period of incredible discovery, where scientific breakthroughs occurred at an astonishing rate. Which was the perfect environment for a book like Scientific Amusements to be published – a hodgepodge of science, illusion, party tricks, naturalism, and more under a single banner. Part of…

Etsy for iPad: The Homemade Hipster Haven Goes Tablet

Chocolates shaped like bike wheels. Artisanal pen ink. Vegan beard oil. These are just a few things you might on Etsy. Now you can browse the online market for homemade goods on your iPad. What does it do? Helps you discover, buy, and browse items for sale on Etsy. Why do we like it? We’re…

Doctor When and the Day of the Mushrooms

Here it is — the penultimate strip of our exclusive daily Mind MGMT comic strip! Can the Fingerprint really see the future? And if so, is there any way to defeat him? The greatest Mind MGMT agent of them all faces his biggest challenge when he goes up against a madman. Fear the Fingerprint! As…